I've seen some fictional Christian plays and watched some fictional Christian films in my time and they have all been bad. Last night I watched "The Grace Card". It had reasonable reviews, good production, reasonably good acting but the script... We (my wife who has a greater sympathetic tolerance to these things and I) couldn't bear to watch the end to see how even more cheesy things could get. The script was awful.
There were at least two problems with the script. Firstly, the inability to let the actors just silently act something out, without giving an extended dialogue including theological motivations for their actions. Secondly, and for me more striking, the Xn characters don't even remotely correlate with people I've met in real life. They are pious and serene beyond belief. Sure they'll often have some flaw to overcome but it's usually something others don't consider a flaw and by the end of the story you know how they're going to overcome it. Currently I have my fingers crossed for “Blue like Jazz” if that fails then I will only ever watch historically based films like Shadow Lands (CS Lewis), Amazing Grace, Luther, Romero and Molokai (these last two are brilliant). These films are often directed by non Xns who insist on catching the humanity of the people rather than the idealised theology of the people. Not only much more real but much much more compelling.
There were at least two problems with the script. Firstly, the inability to let the actors just silently act something out, without giving an extended dialogue including theological motivations for their actions. Secondly, and for me more striking, the Xn characters don't even remotely correlate with people I've met in real life. They are pious and serene beyond belief. Sure they'll often have some flaw to overcome but it's usually something others don't consider a flaw and by the end of the story you know how they're going to overcome it. Currently I have my fingers crossed for “Blue like Jazz” if that fails then I will only ever watch historically based films like Shadow Lands (CS Lewis), Amazing Grace, Luther, Romero and Molokai (these last two are brilliant). These films are often directed by non Xns who insist on catching the humanity of the people rather than the idealised theology of the people. Not only much more real but much much more compelling.
4 comments:
Agreed. It's a long time since I've watched anything on a screen which was overtly Christian. VeggieTales was fun if I recall correctly.
Have you seen any plays in Perth by or with Jess Messenger? She has had some great reviews and an award or two, and I think tries to tread the line of including Christian or moral content without getting too cheesy. I'm not a big fan of the acting world so I really don't know much about it, but she's a friend so I thought I'd mention (:
Hey Greg, Haven't seen anything by Jess Messenger but haven't really gone out to anything cultural since having kids. Veggie Tales on the other hand, despite my initial reservations, is probably some of the greatest overtly Christian art produced in the last 20 years... Sadly.
Hey there just because a few people may not be writing the strongest scripts let's not judge all Christians who write scripts...I write scripts and I feel that God has given me the passion and drive to do this and the story content may not have vulgar language or lewd sexual actions but the stories I am creating are unique and have all the action men need in a movie and all the emotion a woman needs to see. I have many things thru the years including working at a Police Department and can draw on my own experiences and what I have seen and heard thru the years to make a good movie that will draw most people in...The script I am writing now is based around a Civil War legend but I am wrapping it around young characters that are interesting as well as a twilight zone twist at the end....Please don't think that God can't put a good idea in his people's head and bring it to a feature film...He might just prove you wrong :)
L Nicosia,
All the best with your project. I'd love to be proven wrong.
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