Spring 2022 16 The ‘God’s Not Dead’ Syndrome What Christian Movies Are and What They Should be By Ben Hiett I’ve always been a sucker for Christian motifs in movies. I remember my mind being absolutely blown by Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” because of the overt parallels between Clark Kent and Jesus, minus the excessive punching. More recently, a friend of mine introduced me to M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,” now one of my all-time favorite films because of its themes of faith lost and faith regained. All that to say, I’m a big fan of stories that speak to my beliefs and values as a Christian. What I’m not as much a fan of is “Christian movies.” You know the ones: the “God’s not Dead” tetralogy (yes, there are four now), the Kendrick brothers’ classics like “Fireproof” or “Courageous,” the “Left Behind” series and its infamous reboot starring Nicholas Cage, and so on. Despite the diversity within the “Christian movie” genre, all these films share a well-meaning intention to promote Christian beliefs, a goal that I am certainly not opposed to. However, in my experience, the ways they promote these ideas often feels forced, preachy and disingenuous. Throughout high school, I often wondered why these films didn’t resonate with me. Was I not Christian enough? Were my expectations for what a movie should be simply misguided? Over the years, I’ve pondered these questions, and as I prepare to leave college life behind, I’ve decided to finally resolve my inner turmoil by putting my thoughts to words. To start, could we simply acknowledge the utter strangeness of sectioning off an entire group of movies based solely on their underlying worldview? No other group of movies is categorized in this way. The “Star Wars” series is called a “sci-fi space opera,” not “a vaguely Buddhist monomyth,” and “The Dark Knight” is labeled a “superhero drama” rather than “a utilitarian moral dilemma with streaks of Kantian ethics.” And yet Christians have fenced off an entire genre of cinema in an attempt to create a safe space of entertainment within the supposedly depraved world of Hollywood. I have a hard time buying the story that the modern blockbuster industry is keen on corrupting the youth. A survey of any of the last decades’ highest-grossing films, such as the MCU blockbusters, demonstrates that what actually sells is stories of inspirational heroes risking their lives for the greater good, of star-crossed lovers that overcome all odds just to be together, or, at worst, of empathetic villains warped and twisted by the broken world we live in. Relatability, not depravity, is what grips audiences’ attention. What purpose, then, do Christian movies serve, if not to be bastions of wholesome content? One answer might be cinematic evangelism, the use of movies as a means of sharing the gospel with unbelievers. “God’s Not Dead” was marketed as the Christian apologetic against the messaging of mainstream culture and, for better or worse, became a tentpole of the Christian movie industry. Unfortunately, many Christian movies, desiring to be clear presentations of orthodox beliefs, end up being heavy-handed in presenting these ideas. Sean O’Connor, assistant professor of Broadcasting, Digital Media and Journalism at Cedarville, noted that Christian filmmakers sometimes treat their characters as nothing more than mouthpieces for their own views. “The tendency is for Christian films to sound more like sermons than stories,” he said. “It’s very easy to make a movie where your characters are just talking out the plot and not actually conveying the message of the film through their actions and decisions.” A common side effect of this approach is an overreliance on micdrop moments, where characters spout off crowd-pleasing one-liners meant to emotionally resonate with the audience. Such moments are a staple of cinema and have resulted in some truly iconic moments (see: “I am Iron Man”). However, such moments can also reek of a “preaching-to-the-choir” mentality to anyone not already on board with the movie’s message. For instance, in “God’s Not Dead,” Josh Wheton’s final confrontation with Professor Radisson is framed as a triumph in apologetics, but his combative, accusatory tone and use of Radisson’s tragic past as a rhetorical device make this moment ring hollow to me. I’ll let Sam Allberry have the final word on this issue: “People are not saved by mic-drop moments; they only have their beliefs confirmed by mic-drop moments.” What if part of the issue with movies like “God’s Not Dead” is that they fundamentally misunderstand the purpose of movies in the first place? I’m not claiming that all movies must serve one purpose. Art can serve a multitude of functions depending on the artist’s intentions. But movies are unified in their desire to tell some sort of story. As screenwriter Robert McKee famously said, “Story is a metaphor for life.” In every story, there is some sort of vision of what life is like or ought to be like. Some might call this vision “a truth claim,” others “a worldview,” but regardless, stories are a universal way that we humans communicate our vision for life, be it good or bad, real or hoped-for. What if, in our urgent race to defend our worldview, we Christians get so caught up in our own specific agenda that we forget what living life is actually like? Sure, having your Christian protagonist rhetorically decimate his atheist antagonist’s credibility has the potential to feel
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=