[Editor’s note: This post originally came out in 2009, so it is not about new or new-ish movies. Nevertheless, the movies are still available to watch, and so there is value in hearing the author’s thoughts about them and being able to consider whether to watch them.]
I am not a big movie man. Most of what Hollywood places either on television or on the big screen is not worth a dime in my estimation. Most of it is full of ungodliness, immorality, violence, hatred, liberalism, and is anti-Christ. However, from time to time Hollywood will produce some good films that I believe are worth mentioning for Christians to see though I don’t advocate wasting your money on movies. Wait till they come out on DVD and watch them for $1 from your supermarket instead of the outrageous prices at movie outlets.
Yet this week I saw two films that I thought were decent though not perfect. The first film I watched was the 2003 film, Luther starring Joseph Fiennes as Martin Luther. The film focuses on the crisis point in Luther’s life when he nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg. The movie portrays the struggles of Luther as he began to see just how far adrift the Roman Catholic Church had become and how the Church needed a mighty reformation.
Overall Luther was quite a clean movie despite a few violent scenes and some crude language (although using KJV type references). Fiennes portrays Luther well. My main problem with the film is that the issue of salvation by faith in Christ is sadly missing. The film makes the watcher believe that the Reformation launched by Luther was over the Catholic practice of indulgences. While that is partly true, the film fails to portray Luther’s personal struggle over salvation and fails to show that Luther was as much hated by Catholic clergy for his teaching against indulgences as his teaching on justification by faith. The movie does a good job of showing Luther’s love for the Bible and his boldness in translating the New Testament into German. If the movie had portrayed Luther’s passion for justification by faith as well as they focused on his preaching against indulgences, the movie would have been much more of a success.
The next film I saw was the Disney release of A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carey as Scrooge. The film was an incredible film made from computers that was a masterpiece to behold. The technology films have today is incredible. Most people know the story by Dickens, so I won’t spend time going over the story itself, but I will point out a few things. First, the movie is dark, so beware of taking children. We took our children and they were scared several times in the film. I would not take our children again. Second, the movie is clean. No cussing and no violence. The movie stays true to Dickens’ story although it spends too much time on scenes of Scrooge running around especially in the ghost of Christmas future. Third, the redemption of Scrooge always is a wonder to watch, but sadly this film doesn’t do as well as others before it of portraying Scrooge’s transformation from the visit by the ghosts. In fact, in the end I didn’t know why Scrooge had changed at all as it seemed he had simply had a dramatic dream more than visits from spirits to change his life. Greed is shown for what it is and stays true to both Dickens and Scripture. I enjoyed this film more than Luther I guess simply because I am a kid at heart.
I, by no means, am a film critic and I don’t watch many films. I do believe that Hollywood is full of sin and needs our prayers and for salvation to come to Hollywood. It is amazing to me that Hollywood can put out filth and then put out great films such as A Christmas Carol and A Christmas Carol will outsell nearly all the R-rated films that Hollywood will put out this year yet Hollywood will continue to put out garbage. No doubt, Satan controls much of Hollywood and his sinfulness is seen on most of the films that come out today.
[Link to original post and comments at Roy Ingle’s website.]
