Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Hollywood and the Bible...It is a strange marriage

In the next few weeks we will have the opportunity to see at least three movies with biblical themes.


"Son of God" has been out a couple of weeks, earning at least $45 million dollars. It was actually already seen on the History Channel last year and this was a part of that original series. I spent hours reviewing the whole series on godsfavoritepodcast.com. You can hear my comments about the movie in the sections where we deal with the life of Jesus. In one of those podcasts we actually say: "You know, they could make a movie out of this part alone." ...and they did.


What is of interest to me is how they marketed it. They did not use the traditional movie approach. They went directly to churches. They encouraged churches to "buy out" movie theaters. This approach seems to have worked well enough. Mark Burnett made another $45 million dollars on something people could have watched on tv for free.


It is intriguing that there is a sub set of Christians who will support almost any movie about Jesus. The response to "The Passion of the Christ" was even more rabid ten years ago. To not see the movie was almost "un-Christian." Robert Parham writes a great editorial on this at ethicsdaily.com.


It will be fun to watch what happens with the next two movies as well. "God is not dead" is almost a remake of the Scopes Monkey Trial, only this time the question is the existence of God and the setting is a secular college campus. Having taught philosophy at a community college, I am intrigued to see how the whole scenario plays out. I am also interested to see how Duck Dynasty star Willie Robertson fits in the picture.


The movie I am most anxious to watch is "Noah." The lead character is portrayed by George Clooney. It has a stellar cast and a huge special effects budget. Like the epic "The Ten Commandments" which came before, it promises to be epic.


Read the fine print before you go. My paraphrase of the television commercial is this: "Though we have taken great liberty with the biblical text, we think we have captured the spirit of the story." This really is nothing new. Watch "The Ten Commandments" again; this time with a bible in one hand and a remote in the other. Hollywood has always taken liberties. Even "The Passion of the Christ" was a much more Catholic rendering of the story than most viewers realized.


My curiosity is the way in which "Noah" is laid out. Will the movie reflect current thoughts on life and death, responsibility to one's neighbor, and even global warming and climate change or will it reflect ancient Jewish thought and theology? I am willing to invest a few bucks and catch a matinee. Unfortunately, unlike watching from home, I will be unable to throw my pillow at the screen when they same something really stupid.

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