Do atheist and agnostic filmmakers make the best religious movies?

[rug]

By Steven D. Greydanus
Crux contributor | October 17, 2014

Ridley Scott’s “Kingdom of Heaven” (newly available in a 10-year anniversary Blu-ray) be the atheist director’s most sustained effort at an even-handed treatment of religion — but Scott is far from the only nonbelieving filmmaker to take an interest in thoughtfully exploring religious themes. On the contrary, many of the best cinematic treatments of religious themes come from filmmakers who are nonbelievers, agnostics, even atheists.

Possibly the most noteworthy dramatic examination of the Christian ideal in at least the last quarter century is Xavier Beauvois’ “Of Gods and Men” (2010), a fact-based drama starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale as two of a number of Trappist monks of Tibhirine, Algeria, who were murdered in 1996 in the Algerian civil war after years of living in harmony with their Muslim neighbors.

Beauvois is an atheist, but his depiction of the Trappists is an extraordinary homage to the beauty of lived Christian faith at its most winsome: a portrait of life in community and sacrificial service to neighbor; of incarnational and Eucharistic spirituality and the daily rhythms of liturgical and personal prayer; of the dance of faith and doubt and the struggle of discerning God’s will.

For a film even arguably rivaling Beauvois’ rich portrayal of Catholic spirituality and social conscience, one must go back nearly 30 years to Roland Joffé’s 18th-century drama “The Mission” (1986), starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons. (“A wobbly agnostic” is how Joffé has described himself.)

http://www.cruxnow.com/life/2014/10/17/do-atheist-and-agnostic-filmmakers-make-the-best-religious-movies/

[CJCRANE]

1. On a side note...

I find it interesting that christian monks' and nuns' routine of prayers at various times of the day is similar to the muslim tradition of set prayer times.

IMO there is more that is similar between religions than is different. A visiting Martian would see them all as iterations of the same thing.

[rug]

2. Absolutely. And the daily life in a Buddhist monastery is very similar to a Trappist monastery.

[cbayer]

7. Jews as well.

They pray at specific times of day following specific rituals.

[okasha]

16. As do Native Americans.

[cbayer]

17. I like these cross-religion, cross-cultural similarities.

Makes you wonder.

[AtheistCrusader]

18. Religions evolve.

Unsurprising that they might have a common ancestor.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I couldn't say for sure, but

movies that have a clearly religious or sectarian agenda tend not to be very good, like the latest "Left Behind" movie, which got terrible reviews. Maybe directors who don't have such an agenda can concentrate more on the artistic aspects of the story instead of emphasizing whatever doctrine they want to promote at the expense of quality.

Interestingly, one of the finest composers of music for the church in the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams, was said to have been an agnostic.

[rug]

4. Requiem, by Frederick Delius, an atheist, is a good example.

Written for the dead of the Great War.

[cbayer]

6. I agree about the agenda, but if it's just telling a story, I have

loved some religiously themed movies.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. "The Last Temptation of Christ" was a very good movie.

But it was also controversial. The fundies hated it and picketed theatres where it was showing.

[cbayer]

9. Yes, I really like that one.

Also the Passion of Joan of Arc, Brother Sun and Sister Moon, The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur

Then there is always Life of Brian!

[Bluenorthwest]

5. Yes, absolutely. It is extremely difficult for filmmakers of faith to make good films about faith.

Easier for them to make almost any sort of film. The reasons are complicated but they are associated with current rhetoric which confuses belief and actions. 'People of faith' tend to want to make films about God, which can not be done. The others know that the people are the story, and that you photograph the air by shooting trees in the wind, not the air itself....
The Mission is one of my favorite films of all time.

[Jim__]

10. That ("Of Gods and Men") looks like it could be an interesting movie.

(Subtitled) Eight French Christian monks live in harmony with their Muslim brothers in a monastery perched in the mountains of North Africa in the 1990s. When a crew of foreign workers is massacred by an Islamic fundamentalist group, fear sweeps though the region. The army offers them protection, but the monks refuse. Should they leave? Despite the growing menace in their midst, they slowly realize that they have no choice but to stay… come what may. This film is loosely based on the life of the Cistercian monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, from 1993 until their kidnapping in 1996.

I don't have any opinion on the question in the OP. I'd have to watch a lot of religious movies to form one.

[rug]

13. It does. I hadn't heard of it before.

I thought it was the Algerian War but that was 30 years earlier.

[Fumesucker]

11. I can't see a bunch of fundie literalists making say Life of Brian

[Maedhros]

12. Martin Scorsese is a reasonably devout Catholic.

"The Last Temptation of Christ" is, IMO, the pinnacle of religious-themed film.

[rug]

14. Kazantzakis was a nonbeliever.

[Maedhros]

15. Ah, yes. But he wrote a novel, rather than made a film. [n/t]