Bray-Missionaries.org: Movie Review

Today, books and motion pictures not only critique the culture but often form the culture. This is especially true for teenagers and young people. They go to the movies for entertainment, but frequently come out brainwashed with lots of ungodly ideas that pervert the truth more than help it. From time to time, Brother Bray will review recent films, especially as they impact Christianity, missions and morality. As always, all opinions are those of the author and do not represent any particular church or mission organization.

EXORCIST THE BEGINNING stars Stellan Skarsgard as the priest featured in the 1973 horror classic, portrayed here long before his Georgetown battle with demon possessed Linda Blair. Set in Kenya, the film touches on profound issues of mankind’s fall from grace into original sin. It made me think about the mysteries of evil, just as any missionary visit to Africa does. However, I think most viewers will miss the subtle theological elements of film. Like most of these cheap special effects flicks, it is designed to shock and entertain. It actually fails to help us understand the true horror of Satan’s workings in our lives. This film has very limited value. Rated R for lots of grisly scenes and strong sexual references, I cannot recommend it. (WTB, 10/04)

WOMAN, THOU ART LOOSED. Kimberly Elise plays an abused teenager who learns about the healing power of forgiveness through the ministry of evangelist and pastor T.D. Jakes. It is exciting to see a Christian film so realistically dealing with the ugly, destructive power of sin and offering redemption in Christ so clearly. This film has a well-earned R rating and is suitable for adults only. Pray that it will be used to really get through to secular and Christian audiences with the Gospel. (WTB, 10/04)

FARHENHEIT 9/11. This so called "documentary" by Michael Moore, should make us cry out in prayer for President Bush. It certainly sent us to our knees in prayer after we saw it. The film makes one wince in pain for the President as Moore cobbles together a series of off-camera, out of context quotes and footage. The film is designed to not only make the President look like a fool, but also a liar. And in so doing, the film makes every patriotic American (and every Christian) supporter of George W. Bush look like a fool as well. It is a very sophisticated piece of propaganda, probably the most sophisticated political tract since the Nazi documentaries of Paul Goebbels prior to World War II. While some of the so called "facts" in the movie might have been true when taken in context, the film becomes a patchwork of lies when they are presented out of context in this way. I give Michael Moore credit for being a great liar, but those who are looking for truth about our present distress will not find it here. (Rated R, 122 minutes, WTB, July 21, 2004)

SAVED!, starring Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin. Directed by Brian Dannelly, 110 minutes.

TOLERANCE IS NOT THE ESSENCE OF CHRISTIANITY – LOVE IS
Power of the Mass Media to Influence and Corrupt

By Dr. Ted Baehr

HOLLYWOOD, CA (ANS) -- After slamming Christians, knocking the head off a poster of Jesus, and reducing God to a distant cosmic watchmaker in his movie SAVED!, director Brian Dannelly said that, while the movie attacked fundamentalism, it promoted true Christianity, which is tolerance.

Balderdash!

This worship at the altar of tolerance is what killed the mainline churches and has reduced them to apostasy. Having served on the board of the National Council of Churches Broadcast Film Division, I watched the confused bureaucrats buy into this hogwash.

For those who don’t understand, the best talk I’ve heard on this subject is by the late agnostic Steve Allen, who said if God spoke to you in a burning bush and told you to have no other gods, you would be an idiot to be tolerant of other gods. Intolerance would be demanded by God’s command to you.

Not only is the Old Testament filled with God’s commands not to tolerate other tribal groups who worship false gods, and, in fact, to destroy anyone and level anything that worships these false gods, or witchcraft, or other religions, but the New Testament is just as forthright. In the New Testament, God tells us not to tolerate Jezebel or the Nicolaitans, or any of the false gods and false spirits that other people worship. In fact, Jesus says in Rev. 22:15 that people who do so will not get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, if we really love our neighbor, we will try to rescue everyone and anyone from the worship of false gods, because we love them enough not to want to have them to stew in the juice of their own sins.

Thus, while we are called to love our neighbor, we are also called not to tolerate his false religion or sin. In fact, we’re called to be highly intolerant and let them know the Truth that will set him free. Christians who think otherwise are apostate, defectors of their faith. Like a chicken with its head cut off, they may run around the church for awhile, but they are already dead because they have been cut off from the Head, who is Jesus Christ.

BEYOND BORDERS, starring Angelina Jolie. This film strikes out in too many ways for me to recommend it to anyone except as a study of how Hollywood can get it all wrong. Usually, I would not bother to even review a romantic soap opera like this, but almost daily when it first came out, people would walk up to me and say I had to go see it. The reason is, I guess, is that it portrays war, famine and the fight to improve the conditions of suffering people in developing countries. Angelina Jolie is active as an ambassador for the United Nations Commission of Refugees, and she has generated a lot of favorable publicity for the cause while promoting this film. Unfortunately the movie does not realistically tell the story of how humanitarian relief work is done – or what motivates most of the people who are really involved in it or give to help the suffering. After a few heart-touching scenes of Ethiopian famine victims at the beginning of the film, it generates into an unbelievable story of an adulteress socialite who betrays her husband and family to follow an angry "Doctors Without Borders" style social activist. The doctor himself runs guns and kills Khmer Rouge in order to save the children he is vaccinating in Cambodia. I think the director was trying to make a "Dr. Zhivago" style epic but I am embarrassed that he choose to associate it with the cause of the poor. The film fails almost anyway you measure it. Save your money and time – stay home and read a good book. (Rated R, 127 minutes)

CITY OF GOD. This violent, unbelievably realistic movie is shot in the streets of Rio where we are involved in helped children caught up in this same sordid street life. It is a portrait of an inner-city mission field similar to that in a number of countries where we are assisting child rescue efforts. The film is shot in Portuguese with English subtitles. Although it is R-rated for violence, I think it gives such a glimpse of suffering and need that it would be acceptable for mature young people and teens. Rated R, 130 minutes. (Updated 3/28/04, WTB)

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND stars Jim Carrey is an entertaining science fiction film that interestingly deals with some very basic spiritual issues. It shows how psychotherapy fails, even when combined with a technology that at first appears to successfully eliminate memories of emotions. While portrayed as a delightful story of how love triumphs over all, it also shows how stubbornly resistant sinful wills can be to the best efforts of the smugly optimistic psychologist and his staff. In the end, he cannot control his own technology, misguided ethics, or the sexually abusive behavior of the clinic’s staff. Iniquity is not erased, but comes back to destroy his own marriage and career. (Reviewed by Brother Bray, Rated R, 108 minutes.)

LOST IN TRANSLATION, starring Bill Murray. The only reason I’m listing this 2004 Academy Award Winner is because I know a number of my regular readers are going to see it. Frankly, I can’t recommend it except for one thing, it does capture the "free-floating" feeling of being caught between time zones and cultures. It does reproduce the sad, secular materialism of Tokyo today. A haunting film, it still disappoints. It is as spiritually barren as the city and Christ-less lifestyles it portrays. Rated R, 105 minutes. (Updated 3/18/04, WTB)

MASTER AND COMMANDER: The Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe **** (Out of five). For Christians, this 2004 Academy Award Winner may be the best picture of the year. It is rich in religious and Christian reference, giving the perceptive viewer lots and lots to think about. The film works on many levels, but I found it a fascinating study of authority and it’s proper usage. (Women, if you ever want to see an incredible study of men and their world, you’ll never get a better chance than right here!) But the film is also about God as our Master and Commander, who owns us and directs us. I enjoyed this film so much on the spiritual and religious levels, that -- just like “The Passion of The Christ” -- I am going to obtain a copy for my personal library and view it many times. If you want to learn more about the religious symbolism in this film, I suggest that you read Phyllis Tickle’s “Beliefnet” review of the film (http://www.beliefnet.com/story/story_13996.html). By the way, try to see this film on the big screen while it is still in general distribution. The photography is fabulous. (Updated 3/18/04, WTB)

THE SCARLET LETTER, starring Demi Moore, Gary Oldman, and Robert Duval. In this 1995 remake of Nathaniel Hawthorn’s great classic about the dangers of religious hypocrisy, director Roland Jaffe has wasted his considerable talents turning out a profoundly anti-Christian and anti-missionary film. Hollywood reviewers awarded this failed epic a well-deserved “R” rating for excessive violence and gratuitous sex. Jaffe, who brought us THE MISSION and THE KILLING FIELDS, has shown considerable cross-cultural and moral sensitivity in the past. However, in this cheap soup opera version of a great book, I think he too often ends up speaking for the Devil. As the movie concludes, the child narrator sums up the premise of the film with a question, “Who is to say what is a sin in God’s eyes?” For Jaffe and his writers, the answer is obviously not to be found in the Bible, the church, or Godly people who strive to fulfill the commands of the Lord. In what should have been a soul-searching critique of what happens when good people make bad choices, this film concludes that there are no good choices to be made! There is nothing edifying here. Better to read the book and forget this film. (WTB, July 21, 2004)

BLOSSOMS IN THE DUST, (1938) starring Greer Garson. This is a tear-jerking drama of a widowed socialite who champions the needs of abandoned orphans in an era when "illegitimate" orphans were often branded for life. The film covers a long list of prejudices and practices that still haunt ministries to children around the world. As missionary servants to children’s charities, Ivy and I felt this is a "must-see" for anyone who loves children and wants to support missions to little ones like World Children’s Fund, World Vision or local group homes for children. (Reviewed by Brother Bray, unrated)