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God's Not Dead, 2014
So you admit you killed those ducks!
College freshman Josh (Shane Harper) arrives to college only to run up against a philosophy professor, Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) who insists that all of his students agree that "God is dead". When Josh refuses, Radisson challenges him to prove his faith in a series of three lectures. As Josh goes through this experience, we see how issues of faith impact many other people, including Radisson's wife, a liberal blogger, an Islamic student, a Chinese exchange student, and a wealthy man whose mother has dementia.
There are a lot of ways that this film is underwhelming and kind of dumb. Obviously the worst aspect of it is that it's preachy in a way that is lacking any subtlety.
I think that there's, frustratingly, a neat story that could be told with this premise, even leaning heavily on the point of view of someone with strong religious beliefs. The problem with Radisson isn't that he's an atheist---the problem with Radisson is that he's a terrible teacher. Teaching isn't about making people parrot your beliefs, and it certainly isn't about humiliating the people over whom you have power. Anyone who steps over that line deserves to be vilified. (Recently a student settled with her school system after she was harassed for not saying the pledge of allegiance, was then ~*~conveniently~*~ given an assignment to write out the pledge, and then He required that Oliver and her classmates write out the Pledge of Allegiance, and when Oliver refused, he told her: “What you’ve done is leave me no option but to give you a zero, and you can have all the beliefs and resentment and animosity that you want.".) Believer or non-believer, no one has the right to make people make personal declarations. (Gosh, these Christians sure do take exception at the idea of someone taking away choices about your personal life! *cough* *cough*)
But the movie can't help but center this as a question of belief, not just awful practices. Thus we end up with a "jury trial" of someone "proving" the existence of god. To me, faith isn't about proof, it's about belief. And the idea of proving the existence of a god is just silly. Josh's elaborate powerpoints and his ultimate conclusion that "science proves the existence of god!" also feel wrong-headed.
The film also can't help but show faith as the answer to everyone's problems: it empowers the Chinese student to become a believer; it allows a woman to leave her abusive husband; it brings acceptance to a woman who is dying; it literally makes a car start. A woman who has dementia becomes magically lucid just long enough to eloquently explain why her son should believe.
Plot stuff aside, there's some fiddly garbage going on. Sometimes the movie looks pretty good, but other times it's like there was a less well funded B-crew. For example, the scene where the blogger confronts the Robertsons looks particularly bad. Also: the prominent featuring of non-actors like the Robertsons (two different cameos--TWO!) and the Newboys does the film no favors. The writing of some of the characters is just really awful, the blogger being the main example, but also the really thin characterization of the oppressed Islamic student who . . . is oppressed and supposed to practice Islam and that's all we learn about her. I had to laugh at the line "What happened here tonight is cause for celebration", delivered by a character just moments after he watched a man get mowed down and die in the street. (Sidenote: I had to love that he took one look at the man and said "His ribs are shattered and his lungs are filling with blood." It's truly amazing that he can make such a diagnosis barely having looked at the guy!).
I'm sure that for the intended audience, this was a very affirming story about the power of faith. For everyone else, kind of a slog. At least the theme song is kind of catchy? (Though my students LOVE that song, so I'm a bit worn out on it.)
Infamy:
1/2
God's Not Dead, 2014
So you admit you killed those ducks!
College freshman Josh (Shane Harper) arrives to college only to run up against a philosophy professor, Radisson (Kevin Sorbo) who insists that all of his students agree that "God is dead". When Josh refuses, Radisson challenges him to prove his faith in a series of three lectures. As Josh goes through this experience, we see how issues of faith impact many other people, including Radisson's wife, a liberal blogger, an Islamic student, a Chinese exchange student, and a wealthy man whose mother has dementia.
There are a lot of ways that this film is underwhelming and kind of dumb. Obviously the worst aspect of it is that it's preachy in a way that is lacking any subtlety.
I think that there's, frustratingly, a neat story that could be told with this premise, even leaning heavily on the point of view of someone with strong religious beliefs. The problem with Radisson isn't that he's an atheist---the problem with Radisson is that he's a terrible teacher. Teaching isn't about making people parrot your beliefs, and it certainly isn't about humiliating the people over whom you have power. Anyone who steps over that line deserves to be vilified. (Recently a student settled with her school system after she was harassed for not saying the pledge of allegiance, was then ~*~conveniently~*~ given an assignment to write out the pledge, and then He required that Oliver and her classmates write out the Pledge of Allegiance, and when Oliver refused, he told her: “What you’ve done is leave me no option but to give you a zero, and you can have all the beliefs and resentment and animosity that you want.".) Believer or non-believer, no one has the right to make people make personal declarations. (Gosh, these Christians sure do take exception at the idea of someone taking away choices about your personal life! *cough* *cough*)
But the movie can't help but center this as a question of belief, not just awful practices. Thus we end up with a "jury trial" of someone "proving" the existence of god. To me, faith isn't about proof, it's about belief. And the idea of proving the existence of a god is just silly. Josh's elaborate powerpoints and his ultimate conclusion that "science proves the existence of god!" also feel wrong-headed.
The film also can't help but show faith as the answer to everyone's problems: it empowers the Chinese student to become a believer; it allows a woman to leave her abusive husband; it brings acceptance to a woman who is dying; it literally makes a car start. A woman who has dementia becomes magically lucid just long enough to eloquently explain why her son should believe.
Plot stuff aside, there's some fiddly garbage going on. Sometimes the movie looks pretty good, but other times it's like there was a less well funded B-crew. For example, the scene where the blogger confronts the Robertsons looks particularly bad. Also: the prominent featuring of non-actors like the Robertsons (two different cameos--TWO!) and the Newboys does the film no favors. The writing of some of the characters is just really awful, the blogger being the main example, but also the really thin characterization of the oppressed Islamic student who . . . is oppressed and supposed to practice Islam and that's all we learn about her. I had to laugh at the line "What happened here tonight is cause for celebration", delivered by a character just moments after he watched a man get mowed down and die in the street. (Sidenote: I had to love that he took one look at the man and said "His ribs are shattered and his lungs are filling with blood." It's truly amazing that he can make such a diagnosis barely having looked at the guy!).
I'm sure that for the intended audience, this was a very affirming story about the power of faith. For everyone else, kind of a slog. At least the theme song is kind of catchy? (Though my students LOVE that song, so I'm a bit worn out on it.)
Infamy:
1/2