TITLE: Podcasts and Christian filmmaking AUTHOR: Joe Johnson DATE: 11:05:00 AM ----- BODY:
Melissa and I receive a fair bit of email from listeners to our podcast (Watching The Directors). Some of the best, comes from fellow podcasters including Jesse over at Filmed But Not Forgotten. We also received a note from the folks over at The Studio Upstairs. I've only listened to a single episode, but deeply enjoyed it - perhaps because they're making the podcast I'd make if we weren't already doing our format.

Kathy asked an interesting question: "When it comes to Christian film, is the mainstream movie-going audience afraid of the message or the messenger?" This was pursued in greater depth with an interview with film critic and DVD editor Wade Major from Boxoffice Magazine. Kathy and Chris are Evangelical Christians (Major is a member of the LDS Church). The discussion moved toward Kathy's original question and provoked some interesting answers.

One of my favorite films - from a purely devotional level - is Time Changer. It tells the tale of a nineteenth-century seminary professor who travels forward to contemporary Los Angeles and pursues a question: does removing Christ from our imperative toward good behavior neuter Christianity? The film is reasonably well-acted, well-shot composed and generally free from some of the more embarrassing elements of amateur indie filmmaking. But I'm never sure how to recommend that film to non-Christians, or even Christians who (like me) have a tendency to be critical of the use of film or the arts for apparently propagandistic purposes.

That's why so many of us die for unintentional Christian films. Wade Major pointed out the unconscious parallelism between E.T. and the outline of Jesus' life. I hadn't thought of E.T. that way, though I would make the same argument for Bryan Singer's Superman Returns. Of course, I have long defended the religious message embedded in Joe Versus the Volcano. It is arguably a contemporary parallel to Bunyan's A Pilgrim's Progress. It is, at least, a statement of the common grace and Providence of God to the spiritual pilgrim.

Chris and Wade also talked at length mentioning the presence of Christian characters, including Robert Duvall's Sonny from The Apostle. "Sonny" introduces the catch to the deal that happens when we want Christianity to enter the mainstream: we may get a real portrait. To this day, I'm not sure how I feel about The Apostle. I, like most Christians, wanted Sonny to be more morally pure - like the way Christians were portrayed in the 1950's. But Sonny, like many of us, is a portrait of Luther's simul justus et peccator - "simultaneously saint/justified and sinner."

When looking for the Christian character in contemporary film, we at least have some solid portraits. Perhaps the most unlikely - and most powerful - was X-Men 2's Nightcrawler. But he isn't alone. Here's a short list of other significant Christian characters that have appeared recently:
These last two may be a bit more controversial...

Admittedly, my list dries up rather quickly, but there are signs that well-written and performed Christian characters are welcome in theaters. The rules are the same that apply to all characters and films: (to steal from sports commentator Jim Rome) "Have a take and don't suck."

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