Movies That You Found Offensive

What gives you that impression?

I, too, found "Funny Games" offensive in the spirit of an interesting "student film". But interesting films all the same!

Well, there's this...



And when we take that stand, we may never know the ripple effect and the lives impacted by those who are watching. As William J. Federer has stated, “Whoever controls the media and education, controls the country.” It is evident that Pure Flix through this movie is trying to influence both.


and this...



This movie seemed to me as a means to start these conversations that Shane was talking about. I have already seen conversations brewing on the movie's Twitter and Facebook pages. "I really hope this movie can start a dialog. I don't think the movie is going to answer everyone's questions... I don't think any movie can do that, but I hope it can start a healthy respectful conversation. It's a topic people try to avoid, it can be uncomfortable but it doesn't have to be," Harper says.


and this...


Hartline: Yet the film offers hope and a chance of redemption to all of those in the movie, even those who have little use for faith. Was this intentional, or just part of the Christian message?

Solomon and Konzelman: Redemption is possible until the last moment of existence. That sometimes gets lost, even among people of faith. It’s like St. Augustine said: Anyone can, if they wish, become a friend of Jesus this very minute. And that means any minute, including the last one. Especially the last one. Heaven is full of deathbed conversions.



This last bit is telling, as from a secular perspective, Professor McAtheist just dies in the street. From the religious perspective, however, he enters into the kingdom of heaven! Hallelujah!



The psychology of the true-believer is not well-adapted for effective persuasive work. "Look, we're right, right? I mean we're obviously right, so let's just stand up and tell the truth and anyone of goodwill will just agree with us!" That they're not well-equipped to make a persuasive movie for secularists, however, does not mean that they're not really trying. In their minds, they probably feel that they were being generous to the other side.


A film that is really in the middle on this question would anger both camps or wind up being so ambiguous as to allow people to arrive at their own conclusions. Contact (1997) was interesting to me because it was a sort of secular apologia for faith. No one believes Dr. Arroway but Pastor Matthew McConaughey. She is mocked for lacking evidence for the witness she brings back to the people from the big spinny-machine. It's really rather touching that none other than Carl Sagan (who was rather hostile to religion) penned this story! Quite an olive branch, IMO! And yet a religious friend who watched the movie was deeply troubled by it, as he was troubled at the suggestion that alien life would mean that the Christian worldview is incomplete or even incorrect. From Sagan's point of view, he was playing nice (and I think he was!). From my friend's point of view, however, his view of the world was being denied--that's all he could see in the moment. We see the world in different ways. And the hilarity of Pure Flix is the ineptitude of the sales pitch, their failure of seeing what would be persuasive to anyone who isn't already a believer.

But tolerance does not require accepting people who actively vilify you.
And I won't tolerate that, that's my point. Religion is fine as long as you don't spill it on other people. I don't and shouldn't have to "tolerate" that.
Accepting abuse from another group is not appreciating diversity.

Let me clarify, what in the film leads you to believe that?

There are millions of Christians who believe that you're going to hell if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Do you feel that this vilifies you? If so, in what sense will you not tolerate these people?

I interact with people everyday who actively vilify me (demographically). We all do; someone somewhere hates you for being part of some demographic segment. I still count on these people to stop at a red light and count me correct change and not poison my food and provide me medical care and so on. In what sense should I not "accept" them? I accept their service, their conversation, their right to do their thing, and so on. How would I, could I, or should I not accept them?

Well, everyone is allowed to advertise. Write your book. Make your movie. Do your thing. Maybe even politely ask me if I am interested in your worldview in polite conversation, but do NOT harass me about it after I decline your worldview.

Sure, but that's not what tolerance is, either. Tolerance is the bare minimum to keep us out of The Purge and in society.

The climax of the film is that the chief antagonist is welcomed into the bosom of Abraham. The professor is saved. Redeemed, in heaven, life eternal. He is not sir, a dead parrot!



And the professor is only bitter because he is wounded. He has a deep wound. He is not essentially bad or wrong, but merely misled by personal pain brought on by the contingencies of temporal existence.


You see the cartoon villain killed in a gutter in a rainstorm, but they see a savior born in a manger who died on a cross--the cross being the ultimate redemptive act in history. You don't see the world in the same way they do.

What makes you think they find it to be persuasive to non-believers rather than affirmation to the already converted audience? What in the film seems to be built on reaching out to others rather than maintaining them as "others" to be defended against and, best case scenario, converted upon death?

Use the film as evidence and not quotes from the huxters themselves. Huxters lie. It's kind of their thing they do to get money from the rubes.

Because I am not so jaded as to think that people are not in earnest when they say that they're really trying to reach out and make a difference, as evidenced from the sources I've already posted.


Because I know these people. I know how they think. I know how they feel. I know how they talk. I've been to their churches. I have worshipped with them. I have done Bible studies with them. I have had private conversations with them. I have heard them tell me, for example, in perfect love, that I was "not really a Christian" for not subscribing to their particular faith tradition.

For them, converted upon death is as good as it gets for some really hard cases (and the professor is a hard case, but even he is redeemed).



See the film The Guilty for a similar view of law enforcement from the view of the modern political "faithful" -


For a Christian you are NOT good enough as you are. That's the point. you NEED to be saved. That's the whole deal. The more you reject it, the harder the case you are, the more frustrating you are. Yes, you are wrong in their view. Deal with it. If you can't, then you cannot, in principle, accept the very existence of religion.

Gads! You are jaded. I shall pray over you when you are struck by a car in the rain, brother!!!

Same here. I don't get offended by most autistic portrayals since the efforts are usually earnest and there tends to be at least a few truthful aspects to the character. I actually got a little upset when people in a comment section were trashing I Am Sam since that movie really touched me.

But Music looks like such a disaster on every single level it actually does have the potential to offend me. And that fascinates me.

I couldn't watch Irezumi (1982). I shut off the movie fairly early, cause I found the whole thing deeply uncomfortable. Never went back to it.

Well, I think Dakota Fanning has put it best (both from IMDb trivia):

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A serbian film is appalling, not for the disgusting sex scenes, but for the sheer try-hard look-at-me edgy cringe.

Ghost in the shell. If you want to mutilate yourself, that's fine, but you don't have to be such a pretentious retard about it.

Hi Tramuzgan. Good to meet you. It is a bizarre film to say the least. lol

Once Upon a Time in America and 13th.

Freddy Got Fingered, Happiness, and A Serbian Film are awesome.

I'm not offended that the scene exists, but at the throwaway "all's well that ends well" way that the film deals with it. The scene could've been powerful in a film that knew how to handle it.

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My curiosity really mostly stems from the fact that I grew up with Sia ever since Some People Have Real Problems, which is still one of my favorite albums. It just seems so wild that she tried to make a pro-autism movie, like I was almost supposed to listen to her music.