Best Movies About Religion?

It doesn't matter if it's against it, or for it - just something great, and hopefully something with truth. I'd rather have a movie that stressed why "We don't know" instead of zealousness.

There are quite a few, but my favorite is Elmer Gantry. It shows what happens when your faith is tested. Most go with their intuition and disregard any kind of philosophy, except the believer of course who burns.

I do remember a great exchange between Spencer Tracy and Frederich March in "Inherent The Wind".

Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957)
Sokurov's Faust (2011)

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I'm not sure what you mean by this.

Elmer Gantry would be near the top of my list. A Man For All Seasons is probably my favorite. I don't have a lot I love. Hoping to discover a whole bunch this coming year. You can see my viewing schedule in the link in my signature. If you see anything that you think I would like suggest them to me in that thread.

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Little Buddha (1993)
It has a story that takes place in modern times, but in addition gives a history on the life of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) and tells how Buddhism began.

One of my favorite movies/documentary involving religion is Religulous with Bill Maher. While Maher can be a little biased with his viewpoint, I like that it touches base into all religions and doesn't focus on just one.

Priest (1994)
About a man's struggle between his calling to the Priesthood and his closeted homosexuality.

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Controversial and highly speculative retelling of the gospels and crucifixion of Christ that takes the story in an unorthodox direction.

The DaVinci Code (2006)
A mystery thriller that also engages in controversial religious speculation on the legacy of Christ, the early church and the religious illuminati. (Also see Angels & Demons - neither movie is as good as the books by Dan Brown.)

Besides Elmer Gantry, The Nun's Story with Audrey Hepburn's best performance and a great cast is terrific.

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Dead Man Walking (1995)

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I love Jesus of Montreal too.

I started watching movies regularly this year, so none of my recommendations are "classics," I'm sure. All of my reviews are on my website, and my scores are out of 5.

Woodlawn - This movie was, exceptional. It focuses on an American Football player who pushes through pain. It was more of a movie with God elements than all about God. It has a light Catholic slant. Score: 5 Star

Do You Believe? - This was a collection of stories about different characters that overlap. It was quite good. Score: 4 Star

Exodus: Gods and Kings - This one has Christian Bale as Noah (Quick! To the Bat-Ark!). This movie was plagued with bad press. In Egypt, it was banned because it wasn't historically accurate for them. "We didn't enslave the Jews!" Several groups of Christians boycotted the film, crying, "It's not biblically correct!" For me, it was just a Ridley Scott action movie loosely based on the Bible. Score: 4 Star

The War Room - This movie is about prayer. The denomination is Christian. It raised some controversy because some people felt it promoted "Genie Jesus," who you can pray to for anything. I rather liked it. Score: 3.5 Star

The Letters - It's the story of Mother Teresa. It has a strong Catholic slant (because she was Catholic). It was all right, not stellar. It did scratch the itch of who Mother Teresa "was." Score: 3 Star

Once I Was a Beehive - This has a strong Mormon slant. It's kind a movie that says, "We're Mormon, but we're good people, too!" Score: 3 Star

Old Fashioned - A bible-based romance. It had very little of the actual Bible, but it showed a clean courtship. To me, it felt a little, well, old-fashioned. Score: 2 Star

Freetown - This movie was based on a Mormon mission. I was very unimpressed with this one. Score: 2 Star

And that's not even talking about the movie David and Goliath. This is the worst movie I've ever seen. Not because it wasn't biblically accurate, but the film quality was horrible in every way.

If you message me, I can provide links to all these reviews. I just didn't want to get into trouble for posting a bunch of links

Enjoy!

--Matt

Ben-Hur
The Ten Commandments
Stalker
Andrei Rublev

To a certain degree Blade Runner

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Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

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Best movies about religion - they could be pro/anti-deity, organized religion, ignosticism, atheist, etc..

I'm glad you mentioned "A Man For All Seasons" - I have it, but the "Old English" puts me off, but I'll try again in the near future.

EDIT: Also, it could be allegorical - I can't think of an example at the moment... Or a springboard like in "A Clockwork Orange" when he's being "reformed" and how the Church of England was against the idea of scientific conditioning.

For the documentary countdown, I'd recommend Jesus Camp.

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Religulous
Jesus Camp

Deliver Us From Evil and Alex Gibneys' Mea Maxima Culpa too then. The latter is the only Gibney i haven't watched because the former was so tough to sit through.

Ordet by Dreyer, this is an amazing film !



And also : Dies Irae, The Passion Of Joan Of Arc

Diary Of A Country Priest, by Robert Bresson. This is an adaptation of the novel of Bernanos which was very Catholic.



All the films of Robert Bresson are religious in a certain degree. We can quote The Trial Of Joan Of Arc.

... And Maurice Pialat made another adaptation of Bernanos : Under The Sun Of Satan (Palme d'Or 1987), with Gérard Depardieu and Sandrine Bonnaire. Pialat was a great director but this is not my favorite (I have to see it again).



The Nun by Jacques Rivette but I find it very very very very very (x 100) boring. A remake was made in 2013 by Guillaume Nicloux. It's not very good but it's not boring like the film of Rivette.

The Devils by Ken Russell, it was subversive in the 70's.



Giordano Bruno,about the conflits between philosophy and religion.

The Magdalene Sisters, about the awful Magdalene asylums, a powerful film.

The Message, a film about Mohamet.



Films on Jesus : The Gospel According To St. Matthew by Pasolini, Jesus Of Nazareth by Zefirelli. The last is a film for the TV, it's very classic and it's a kind of catalog of famous stars but I liked it. The music of Maurice Jarre is pretty nice

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I liked a Nun's Story with audrey hepburn. I had no idea how extreme convents were

Just a quick correction - Christian Bale played Moses. Exodus: Gods and Kings was another take on "The Ten Commandments" as Moses led the Jews out of Egypt.

Russel Crow played Noah in "Noah" (2014 - haven't seen it).