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Film Forum: Good, Bad, and Ugly Christians in the Movies: Readers and film critics remember the best and worst portrayals of Christians on the big screen (Jeffrey Overstreet, 06/12/2003, Christianity Today)

When we watch old-fashioned westerns today, it is almost a sure thing that we will comment on the unfortunate, naïve caricatures of Native Americans. Similarly, we often fuss and flinch over movies just a few decades old that portray women in the confines of stereotypes, brainless beauties who exist only to serve men as objects of affection, damsels in distress, trophies for heroes, or as a mindless Mom.

But Christians are often shocked and dismayed over the stereotype that won't go away: the villainous, judgmental, legalistic Christian determined to spoil the party.

One particular instance of a film's portrayal of Christians—from 1960—has recently made the news. Inherit the Wind recounts the story of the 1925 Scopes Trial and was recently shown in a sophomore biology class at Shawnee Mission East, a Kansas City high school. When parents learned that the school was showing what they argue is a flawed and anti-Christian film, they went to the school board. The matter is now in the hands of a school district special committee.

The church is frequently portrayed on the big screen in an unflattering light. God, on the other hand, usually gets a positive (if shallow) portrayal. And angels needn't worry about their reputation either: in It's a Wonderful Life they're shown as kind and helpful, if a bit sentimental, and in Wings of Desire they're powerful messengers of comfort and pilgrims haunted by questions about spiritual mysteries and death. But why does the cliche of the scowling, ranting Christian continue?

In hopes of offering some consolation for persecuted Christians of the silver screen, I asked Film Forum readers to dig up some examples of Christians portrayed properly. The result was rather surprising. So many names were suggested that they overwhelmed the mentions of unflattering portrayals. It's enough to make me wonder if the days of the stereotype are numbered—or if the stereotypes were ever enough to merit complaint in the first place. [...]

Our favorite portrayals of Christians in the movies are . . .

Here are a few omissions: Lillies of the Field; Andrei Rublev; The Song of Bernadette; and The Passion of Joan of Arc. And one that was apparently a TV-movie, so more understandable: Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace.

Meanwhile, I think they're just wrong that The Exorcist is a negative portrayal of Christians or of Christianity. Folks tend to focus on the gore and horror, but the story is terrific. If I recall correctly, Father Damian has lost his faith in God following the painful death of his mother. Called in to investigate the claims of a child's possession he's necessarily skeptical. But in confronting the fact of evil he realizes that he's placed himself in the awkward position of believing in Evil/Satan but not in Good/God (a position many found themselves sharing on 9-11). His faith restored he is able to vanquish the demon though at the cost of his own life. M. Night Shyamalan uses a similar story arc in his vastly underrated film, Unbreakable. Similarly, I wonder if they didn't miss the point of The Big Kahuna, in which it is Danny DeVito's character who is revealed to be truly Christian, rather than Peter Facinelli.

Two other good films from the list that folks may have missed are The Third Miracle and The Apostle.

And, finally, even more than most, two great films are straight retellings of the story of Christ: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Cool Hand Luke.


N.B. Another finally, since what happened in Eden is so central to Judeo-Christianity, no film list would be complete without Darren Aronofsky's Pi, one of the best cinematic depictions of the ideas that inform the Fall. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 13, 2003 12:33 AM