A recent piece by Terry Mattingly, who writes a syndicated “On Religion” column, had this provocative title that most people would agree with; Christian movies can be awfully cheesy. It dovetails well with my previous piece about the movie Unbroken, and how that was not the movie I or many Christians would have made. Mattingly points out that Louis Zamperini’s struggle after he returned from the war and subsequent conversion is every bit the dramatic story his wartime service was, but Angelie Jolie wanted to tell a “universal story” of faith and forgiveness that could be understood by all. What exactly about the gospel is difficult for people to understand?
But as I asked previously, where are the Christian directors with the chops to get such a job? Mattingly confirms what pretty much anyone knows to be the case. Here is an excerpt from his column:
In our “Crossroads” [a radio program] conversation, Wilken asked a totally logical question: Could anyone have made a movie that was faithful to the whole story? That would, of course, have meant including the Graham crusade and – in a scene that simply screams cinema – Zamperini’s stunning trip to a Japanese prison to share his Christian testimony and to forgive his prison guards in face-to-face meetings.
I asked him to name a Christian director, today, who could have handled that story. Let’s just say that the list is very, very, very short.
Christians complain that Hollywood often doesn’t treat them fairly or accurately, but it is hard to expect otherwise when the entertainment industry is filled with pagans and heathens (are those politically incorrect terms?) who don’t know the first thing about historic, orthodox Christian faith. If Christians want this to change, and we should, then we need to encourage our young people with a love of stories and film to make careers alongside all those pagans and heathens in Hollywood. Until then tone deaf will often be the best we can get.
Recent Comments