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"God's Not Dead"

#22
Kawai-chang said:
Seems to me that if you wanted to get your message out to more people, you'd make a movie people would be interested in watching, and enjoyed watching, so they'd recommend it.
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Someone should have mentioned that to the makers of "Atlas Shrugged" Parts I and II.

How II got made after the crapfest that was I, has got to be based purely on idealogy.

Generally, movies that are trying to promote an AGENDA are rarely good.

Even Avatar suffered from that, and that was huge-budget James Cameron!
 
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#24
It had Kevin Sorbo in it. What else did you need to know.

The ads made it clear that it was a blatant attempt to perpetuate the false narrative in the US that somehow Christians are "under attack" by what they call academic elites. They've been playing this card since the days of the Roman Empire. There is a sect of Christians that feel like they have to be the underdog in some kind of struggle to give their belief system validation.
 
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#25
socialleper said:
It had Kevin Sorbo in it. What else did you need to know.

The ads made it clear that it was a blatant attempt to perpetuate the false narrative in the US that somehow Christians are "under attack" by what they call academic elites. They've been playing this card since the days of the Roman Empire. There is a sect of Christians that feel like they have to be the underdog in some kind of struggle to give their belief system validation.
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They're under attack?

Try being a 51 year old rocker/ex hippie living in a corporate world! All the other ex-hippies are nuts, and the "regular folks" don't cotton to us to begin with!
 
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#26
mellowinman said:
They're under attack?

Try being a 51 year old rocker/ex hippie living in a corporate world! All the other ex-hippies are nuts, and the "regular folks" don't cotton to us to begin with!
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Or being a metal head in a world that thinks Lorde is "rock" and that real instruments make music sound old (according to my 16 year old.)
MTV and the Academy Awards don't even have metal categories any more. Weak.
 
#27
line6man said:
Not to discuss religion here, but as a general rule of thumb, Christian movies are almost always awful. I've seen bad atheist movies, too, but Christian movies win it on cheesiness.
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You are right about that. I know Christians in the industry who say the same thing. They are trying to make a difference. In the past a lot of the Christian movies have been made by amateurs with a minuscule budgets, Bad acting, cliche scripts etc. A lot of those movies "preach to the choir." If their intention is to spread the gospel they are not very effective.
I enjoyed parts of this movie but then I am a christian. The whole thing about the student winning the argument with the professor didn't interest me that much. Yes we all like to be right and I think some of us christians found some sort of satisfaction in that but really what was the point of that?
I found the student's relationship with his girlfriend more interesting. I also liked the subplot of the journalist with cancer. I am the type of person who would rather let my actions speak than my words. I believe that "love conquers all things."
Has anyone seen "Blue Like Jazz?" That is a more interesting movie set in a college environment.
Some people are not going to enjoy anything that promotes or evens seems to promote christianity and I understand that. Others may enjoy well thought out movies that bring up a lot of questions and try and avoid stereotypes and cliches no matter where they stand on the subject.
I know we shouldn't go too deep in religion here and I apologize if I have stretched the rules.
We can talk about this more in the lobby if you want. There are threads there called "The atheist players club" and "Jesus Freak" We have some lively discussions there if you want to join us.
 
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#29
Regarding the film's main conflict it's safe to say I don't have a dog in the fight so to me the issue was just that it was a terrible film. That said, I actually stayed awake to the end unlike Pompeii where I drifted off after deciding that I didn't like any of the characters and was just rooting for the volcano to kill everybody.
 
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#33
Jared Lash said:
Regarding the film's main conflict it's safe to say I don't have a dog in the fight so to me the issue was just that it was a terrible film. That said, I actually stayed awake to the end unlike Pompeii where I drifted off after deciding that I didn't like any of the characters and was just rooting for the volcano to kill everybody.
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I didn't see Pompeii. Did the volcano win?
 
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#34
I was thinking about this concept of "Christian" movies, and I remembered one I saw that was a fairly decent film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1833056/

I am not religious, so I don't want to be hit over the head with religious themes, unless it's a Bible Pic (Ten Commandments, etc,) or a film that is largely ABOUT a religious theme.

This was very "family-oriented," and was pretty clear in its "morals" message, but the acting was decent; direction pretty competent, and an interesting script. Also, it involved chess, and that is always a plus for me.

I don't think that you CAN'T make a good, or even great film with an agenda; I just think that more often or not, you WON'T.
 
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#35
socialleper said:
The ads made it clear that it was a blatant attempt to perpetuate the false narrative in the US that somehow Christians are "under attack" by what they call academic elites.
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It's not just Christians, to be fair. There's a general mistrust of academics both here in the UK and in the US from significant numbers of people, who seem to feel as if academics pose them some sort of threat.

I saw a Facebook post a while back where someone urged others to give no credence to a particular website, because she felt the content was in some way untrustworthy as it was "nearly all written by college professors". That's just one example, but I'm sure many of us know people who have similar views. It even sounds like the portrayal of the professor character in this move might be trying to appeal to similar negative percetions (I can't be sure about that - I haven't seen it).
 
#36
BassyBill said:
It's not just Christians, to be fair. There's a general mistrust of academics both here in the UK and in the US from significant numbers of people, who seem to feel as if academics pose them some sort of threat.

I saw a Facebook post a while back where someone urged others to give no credence to a particular website, because she felt the content was in some way untrustworthy as it was "nearly all written by college professors". That's just one example, but I'm sure many of us know people who have similar views. It even sounds like the portrayal of the professor character in this move might be trying to appeal to similar negative percetions (I can't be sure about that - I haven't seen it).
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Well no wonder, we have seen your posts here and we know what college professors are like you radical you. ;) Okay, just in case anyone takes me seriously (no comments please :roflmao:). I have a lot of respect for BassyBill. We don't always agree on things but isn't that what keeps things interesting around here.
 
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#37
ErebusBass said:
I didn't see Pompeii. Did the volcano win?
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Apparently. I was still too groggy and perplexed by my wife waking me up to tell that it was time to go to sleep to ask for a full recap.

mellowinman said:
I don't think that you CAN'T make a good, or even great film with an agenda; I just think that more often or not, you WON'T.
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Just to generalize I personally think the issue with any film that pushes an agenda is that it puts it at odds with one of the primary the goals of most artistic endeavors which is to generate thought in the mind of the viewer. And again, not speaking of this particular film but spelling out a particular philosophy and then creating a medium to espouse that view as the only correct and virtuous one isn't art, it's propaganda. Propaganda answers questions explicitly. Art (IMO) raises them.

It's why as someone on the outside looking in (from both sides represented in "God's Not Dead" I didn't enjoy this particular film but thought "Calvary" was a fantastic film. Also why I enjoyed reading the Confessions of St. Augustine when it was on the reading list in one of my college courses.

BassyBill said:
It's not just Christians, to be fair. There's a general mistrust of academics both here in the UK and in the US from significant numbers of people, who seem to feel as if academics pose them some sort of threat.

I saw a Facebook post a while back where someone urged others to give no credence to a particular website, because she felt the content was in some way untrustworthy as it was "nearly all written by college professors". That's just one example, but I'm sure many of us know people who have similar views. It even sounds like the portrayal of the professor character in this move might be trying to appeal to similar negative percetions (I can't be sure about that - I haven't seen it).
Click to expand...

I think anyone who has seen their profession portrayed in movies and TV (whether doctors, teachers, pilots, police officers, programmers, etc) are often frustrated at how inaccurate the view of them is, even when it's a positive spin. Definitely the case for college professors. And increasingly the portrayal is of snobbish intellectuals in their ivory towers sneering down on "regular folk." It does a disservice to kids and their perception of education.
 
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#38
Jared Lash said:
Apparently. I was still too groggy and perplexed by my wife waking me up to tell that it was time to go to sleep to ask for a full recap.



Just to generalize I personally think the issue with any film that pushes an agenda is that it puts it at odds with one of the primary the goals of most artistic endeavors which is to generate thought in the mind of the viewer. And again, not speaking of this particular film but spelling out a particular philosophy and then creating a medium to espouse that view as the only correct and virtuous one isn't art, it's propaganda. Propaganda answers questions explicitly. Art (IMO) raises them.

It's why as someone on the outside looking in (from both sides represented in "God's Not Dead" I didn't enjoy this particular film but thought "Calvary" was a fantastic film. Also why I enjoyed reading the Confessions of St. Augustine when it was on the reading list in one of my college courses.



I think anyone who has seen their profession portrayed in movies and TV (whether doctors, teachers, pilots, police officers, programmers, etc) are often frustrated at how inaccurate the view of them is, even when it's a positive spin. Definitely the case for college professors. And increasingly the portrayal is of snobbish intellectuals in their ivory towers sneering down on "regular folk." It does a disservice to kids and their perception of education.
Click to expand...

I love the scene in "The Full Monty" where they are watching "Flashdance," and just incredulous about the welding skills being depicted.
 

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