Comments on: Christian Films Suck (Not)

By: Angela Walker

Angela Walker — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:53:21 +0000

Well, it’s October 17th. Happy birthday to Bobby Downes, founder of ChristianCinema.com. Since it’s the 17th, the contest comes to an end, but the discussion shouldn’t stop. Keep your thoughts coming!

And, congratulations to Christopher Ouellette, for listing the largest number of non-sucky Christian films (27)! Christopher will be receiving a DVD Player and my favorite non-sucky Christian films:
Mercy Streets
The Second Chance
Another Perfect Stranger
Beyond the Gates

Congratulations Christopher & thanks everyone for contributing!

This is an important dialogue - let’s keep it going!

By: Carol Dawson

Carol Dawson — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 03:35:42 +0000

Hands down, Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings are two of the best Christian film series. Why? In part because they are very well done, but also because they have mass appeal and are thought-provoking, which isn’t always a criteria for popular movies.

PS Happy Birthday!

By: Leslie I T Assih

Leslie I T Assih — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 09:43:06 +0000

Read Luke 16: 19-31 to understand the concept behind ‘A Christmas Carol’ and there is no necromancy in the film (or story) as Mr. Scrooge does not go to summon the dead. I would go as far as to say that it was stating the obvious without being obvious. I hope this helps:-)

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 13:26:44 +0000

Leslie, I do not understand you list but I would really like to.
I have not seen “It’s A wonderful Life”, The Ten Commandments has moses explain that God is the thing in every man that makes them want to be good. A Christmas Carol (I have not read the book, but every movie I have seen) always turns out to be “Christmas is about family and presents” and that redemption is brought about by Necromancy. A lot of Christians are very into this one, but I don’t understand.

By: Leslie I T Assih

Leslie I T Assih — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:27:14 +0000

I have one more list:
1. Prince of Egypt
2. It’s A Wonderful Life
3. A Christmas Carol
4. Ben Hur
5. The Ten Commandments
6. Invisible Enemies (I liked the concept)
7. Something to Sing About
8. Rocky Balboa

By: Kevin J waldroup

Kevin J waldroup — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 21:09:54 +0000

1 Facing The Giants

2 Something To Sing About

3 One Night With The King

4 The Ultimate Gift

5 The Climb

6 The Passion Of The Christ

7 Mercy Streets

8 Midnight Clear

9 Amazing Grace

10 The Second Chance

By: Leslie I T Assih

Leslie I T Assih — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 09:12:35 +0000

David cooly accepted. It’s all good Christopher. There are many things that should never even have been thought about and then done but they have and that is just part of life and we as Christians are not exempt from that. One final point I would like to make. Christians are not perfect even though we serve a very perfect God; we are in transition and growth all the time and therefore we make mistakes in most things that we do before we get to improve what we begin to know we have been called to do. We are still human beings with a fallen nature that’s why God made provision for that - repentance and confession of sins. Hope, is the divine element that helps us know that we can expect to get better because of the promises of God made and completed in His Word through Jesus Christ. The Church that I currently attend is amazing and I love the pastor very much but I remember when he started preaching - and we all used to cringe!!! Today he is something else. People just love his messages and his bible knowledge and life applications are simply mind-blowingly amazing but there was a lot of years for that to happen and I am glad to have seen that. People come to the Church and within 2 - 3 months its like they have been Christians for years and have been walking with God like forever! God is faithful and I am just one of many persons/people who will see the day when the top 5 films every month will be made by believers or have biblical values embedded in it which will be critcal and commercial successes as well as lead (or point/ignite/influence) people to a life with God going into eternity. That’s me done with this detraction/distraction on this subject matter and now back to that list?:-)

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 02:00:52 +0000

Leslie, I apologize. I think my meaning was not explicitly clear in my message. I was not suggesting that you required the name of Jesus to be mentioned in a film, I was just attempting to draw some general parallels in the way some folks consider films to be Christian with the music industry. I couldn’t agree more with your statement about it being early to judge the Christian film industry, and while I didn’t state it that was part of the point I was attempting to make by the parallels with Christian music - that just as CCM has come a long ways, so have films and so will films.
I still think there is the issue that many Christian films shouldn’t have been made. It begins at the concept level, and this is probably the largest failing. Not the special effects or the acting, but the scripting - many of the stories just don’t exist. They are film that feels disjointed.

By: Leslie I T Assih

Leslie I T Assih — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:03:37 +0000

Guys you have taken this subject out of context (as well as my statements). That is not what this particular forum is about. If Christopher is bothered about the state of Christian film-making then this is not the subject or the question being dealt with. And besides whether we like it or not we are part of this thing. Besides I think we can all agree that we know that there is much work to be done where Christian film makers are concerned - but there is advancement going on. And yes I do know the difference between a good film and bad film - I went to film & TV school in the UK. And please I never said that “Christian Films” must have or contain the Name Jesus in it to certify it as one. This is just not that subject matter at hand. If it was I would let you know what my aspect of films made believers should be based on which is the standpoint that I have begun to work with - A Kingdom Of God/Heaven perspective in light of eternity and I do not have the time to even go there. Besides it is still very early days to conclude that Christians are bad film-makers. The games have just begun where we are concerned. Pursue - Overtake - Recover All. The first shall be the last and last shall be the first. Don’t be too quick to write believers off where the film industry is concerned as none of us has seen the end of it all yet.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 22:04:05 +0000

1) I in no way discount the message of Christ affecting some one else. There may be a man who talks to a friend and the friend gets saved. That does not mean that the man is a great evangelist or an exquisite speaker or even interesting. The man may be confusing and not very thoughtful. Still God honored his word going forth and the friend got Saved.

If you watch a poorly done film and grow closer to God, that is more important than art… but put that story on a testimony page. The move may still be poorly done. I was saved, and my early discipleship was brought to me inpart by dc Talk first album and the Newsboys Boys will be Boyz album (before Steve Taylor started writing there songs) Both bands have expressed embarrassment over those albums. They are not that good. Still they helped me. I put them in my testimony, but when some one asks me what the greatest albums are I’m not bringing those up.

I would prefer people to watch/listen to bad art that promotes Christianity and Christian Ideas than good art that denies it. Still lets not lie to ourselves or our neighbor about what we are watching.

2) When I say “Would it be a good movie if it didn’t have the Christian Message” I was just pointing out that if we are talking about good movies we need to look at the quality of the movie, if we are talking about good christian movies we need to look at the message AND the quality of the movie. They are separate things and both need to be considered. I am personally thrilled when I see both, and if you go back to my list of good christian films, they are explicitly christian.

3) Budget - I hate hearing that christian can’t do good films because we don’t have the budget of Hollywood. First of all JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis and General Lew Wallace wrote such compelling stories that Hollywood came to them. Johny Cash, Marria Von trap and Eric Little lead such fascinating lives that hollywood wanted to make films about them (though the first two got a bit watered down.)

Secondly some of my favorite films have low budgets. They were made by people who were making art not product. Star-wars (1&2)had one of the biggest budget of all time and access to some amazing technology. Lucas can’t write of direct. Those movies are among the worst films despite there dazzling budgets. There are many bad christian films that do the same thing, brag about there effects budget, then, like Lucas they rely on that instead of instead of story telling.

Yes some times the budget fixes things (Transformers is a lame movie with such great effect you don’t care how lame it is)
but look at films like Napoline Dynamite. There was no budget there and the film is alot of fun. Christian films like Extreme Days and Chillicothe are also low budget but they do very well with what they have.

Even Christian Films that are picked up by major studios like the Exorcism of Emily Rose. It had a small effects budget Expertly when you compare it to the other major release in that category. Still it relied not on the effects but on story acting and directing. The film is much better than bigger budget films.

If Time Changers had a Billion Dollar Budget, it would still be a lame story. It would still have it’s facts wrong. It would still be a bad film. Where Mercy Streets seems to have set out to make a fun b film about crime. It had good actors who obviously had fun with the parts. It’s enjoyable to watch and had a great message despite it having a smaller budget than Time changers or anything Tarantino get to do.

All in all I think to judge Christian Films you need to look at three things:

1) What makes it Christian - I used the criteria that it was made by Christians or the source material was from a Christian

2) Is the message correct

3) Is the film any good

I think you need all three and most these movies just focus a lot on #1-2 to make you forget about # 3

(and frankly for my own personal viewing for entertainment, I only look at #2&3 but must have both to bother with it.)