Bruce Almighty - your opinion on the film?

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Well, I watched it again recently, and I was wandering whether you think its right or correct. In the sense that I feel the film makes Bruce use powers in the way that go against what is said in the bible, and what is morally right and wrong. E.g Used for sexual desire, materialism, revenge, for personal advantages.

I guess I have noticed some of these differences since having studied and changed my beliefs.

I am curious as to whether you guys as Catholic parents let your kids watch it, or whether I am taking it far too seriously 😉
 
I think you’re taking it too seriously. It’s only a movie - and a stupid one at that. It isn’t meant to teach us any truths about God or morality or the bible. It is only meant to be funny and entertaining.

Letting your children watch it would depend on how old they are, only because of the mild sexual scene. If they are 12 and over, I don’t see a problem whatsoever.
 
It’s disgustingly blasphemous (anything that mocks God and his powers is) and it’s full of filth. I would never watch it again (watched before I became a Christian) or EVER let my kids watch such garbage. :mad:
 
I don’t think you’re taking it too seriously. My mom let me watch that often as a kid and now that I have taken my own path into my faith (since she didn’t properly bring me up in it, unfortunately), I see all the problems in it. I think I might still enjoy it, although I haven’t seen it in years, but when I think back I don’t enjoy the way it portrayed God receiving prayers, etc. The movie made it seem like God isn’t all-knowing and gets prayers like mail. Maybe I’m just forgetting he didn’t give Bruce the power of being all-knowing?

Anyway, I wouldn’t let my kids watch it for fear of them getting a flawed view of God. But of course, they’ll be much better catechized than I was.
 
Haven’t watched Bruce, but we’ve watched Evan Almighty as a family and thoroughly enjoyed the movie and its message.
 
I don’t think it’s something that you should let children watch but that’s not always a bad thing. I wouldn’t let kids watch Passion of the Christ either even though it’s an excellent film.

That said, I actually found a decent message from Bruce Almighty.Despite Bruce using God’s powers for petty purposes, he actually realizes that there’s more to being God than those powers (Spoiler Hint: Look what he gets in his e-mail ;)).
 
Bruce Almighty was directed by a Christian director, Tom Shadyac. If you google, you can find interviews with this director.

I remember reading interviews back when the movie was released. The director explained how hard it is for Christians to make a movie about God in Hollywood. It never gets a chance. There’s no money, and no one will invest in it because they know it will bomb and lose money.

Remember, Mel Gibson sunk his own money into The Passion of the Christ.

Bruce Almighty is not meant to be a film about Jesus with a target audience of evangelical Christians. Instead, it is meant to show a decided Christian-God-centered point of view to unbelievers and non-Christians.

This may not sound like much, but it truly is a lot in Hollywood, as many movies have an utterly anti-God-centered point of view.

Also, the movie was meant to demonstrate the redemptive nature of God. Again, this is not a normal movie message about God from Hollywood.

Again, to those who are traditional, conservative Christians, the movie is very low on theology and even offensive. But traditional, conservative Christians are not the target audience of Bruce Almighty. They don’t NEED to learn about God’s love because they already know about Him. The target audience for Bruce Almighty was typical American movie-goers.

To those who are godless and possily hostile toward Christianity, Bruce Almighty was a way of easing them into beginning to think seriously about Jesus Christ.

Sometimes you have to take small steps. You can’t just plunge in and hit hard, not in this day and age.

There was a time when almost all the movies coming out of Hollywood had a Judeo-Christian, God-centered point of view. But that was then. This is now. We can’t go back in time.

Many theologians are saying that the United States is no longer a Christian nation, but a neo-pagan nation. We are in enemy territory right now, and we have to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves in our approach to those who are unbelievers or worse, hostile to Christians.

Much of Hollywood and much of the United States is in total spiritual darkness. Bruce Almighty is a candle, not a spotlight or a floodlight, but a tiny candle of God’s light and love in the midst of this awful darkness.
 
PatriceA said:
Haven’t watched Bruce, but we’ve watched Evan Almighty as a family and thoroughly enjoyed the movie and its message.
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Greetings PatriceA and to Poetpeace,

If I had to choose between the two, I would choose Evan Almighty. That movie is a much better movie for children to watch than the Bruce Almighty movie. There are moments in Bruce Almighty that are highly blasphemous.

I was watching the deleted scenes in the Bruce Almighty movie and was heartened to see that a particular scene did not make the movie, it was when Bruce was done answering all the prayer mails to everyone and he stood up and said, “It is right to give me thanks and praise.” If you pay attention at Mass, then you will realize where that line came from. I am glad that scene never made the movie.

The comedy is good I will have to say, but I found some parts of it very crude for example the anal buttdwellig monkey.

I will say Morgan Freeman as God was a good pick. Morgan played it well.

If you are sure of your faith, then go ahead if you dare… I will never watch the movie again, but I sure will watch Evan Almighty when and if I get the chance to again.

God bless.
Anathama Sit
 
When I first saw Bruce Almighty I thought it was funny in parts but also irreverant.

When I first saw Evan Almightly, I really enjoyed it.

Now I would say both are greatly blasphemous and not appropriate period- for men, women, or children of any age.

Yes, both are better than 99% of other movies out there. But that doesn’t mean they are good, it just means everything else is even worse.

One set of movies I’ve been thinking on lately is the Star Wars trilogy. A lot of Catholics have problems with Harry Potter, and for good reason I think. However, while I’ve heard occasional philosophical complaints about “the force”, I’ve never really heard anyone be that strongly against Star Wars.

Then I remembered the Episode I “virgin birth”. So the Star Wars trilogy is about a “chosen one” born of a virgin, although they come up with naturalisitic reasons for the virgin birth. The chosen one grows up to be a whiney boy, then a whiney young man, then a mass murderer, but in the end he says he’s sorry and everything right in the universe.

If that’s not blasphemy what is?

Pax.
 
It’s not a film I’d let my kids watch (my eldest is only 7), but overall I quite enjoyed it and don’t find it particularly blasphemous. When Bruce uses God’s powers for the wrong reasons, there are consequences to his actions. The bad choices Bruce has made in his life, and in using the powers, are revealed through their outcomes. The overall message is one of selfless love (towards Grace/Aniston) and charity towards neighbours, even those we dislike (personified by Evan/Carell). And Morgon Freeman brings real class, compasion, and a touch of humour to the role of God. Some people object to God being portrayed on film in any such manner, and I can respect their attitudes, but I think the film does a pretty good job of presenting a loving God deeply interested in each and every one of us.
 
It was b-e-a-utiful

I actually don’t think it was blasphemous or irreverent at all. I thought it had some good Christian messages, and here’s some

1. Prayer to God and every cloud having a silver lining. First off, I thought it was hilarious how they showed this regular man deal with prayers going through his mind. The concept of him turning prayers into files, post-its, and e-mail (called Yahweh! instead of Yahoo!) was a stroke of genius. Anyway, it showed that just because you ask God for something, doesn’t mean you’ll get it, deserve it, or need it. God told Bruce that if you want a miracle, you can be the miracle, in the sense that you should help others. One kid prayed to Bruce to help him get stronger or something similar to that and Bruce said yes. In a deleted scene, God shows Bruce that as a consequence, the kid becomes the school bully, with God saying that the boy was going to be a great poet one day, but because he became the bully, he will try to become a boxer, get on drugs, then work in a liquor store. There is also a deleted scene in which a woman asks Bruce to help her with finances. He says yes, and the woman has an accident in a grocery store and sues. God explains that she would have to call her estranged sister for help and that would have gotten the two of them back together if he denied her prayer.

2. Free will. God tells Bruce that he cannot mess with free will. Bruce nevertheless tried to force a woman to love him, but is unable to. He asks God how can he make someone love him without affecting free will, and He replies, “welcome to my world”. I thought that was very interesting.

3. God’s image. If we are made in God’s image, and if humour and happiness are positive, than one can assume that if we are made in God’s image, God must have happiness and a sense of humour as well. The God in the movie is also shown to be very calm and easy-going, which I think can be an accurate description of God if He is a loving God. It’s hard to imagine someone being filled with love without being happy
 
What an outstanding review!!! This movie Reminded me of Oh God with George Burns.
Gift_from_God said:
It was b-e-a-utiful

I actually don’t think it was blasphemous or irreverent at all. I thought it had some good Christian messages, and here’s some

1. Prayer to God and every cloud having a silver lining. First off, I thought it was hilarious how they showed this regular man deal with prayers going through his mind. The concept of him turning prayers into files, post-its, and e-mail (called Yahweh! instead of Yahoo!) was a stroke of genius. Anyway, it showed that just because you ask God for something, doesn’t mean you’ll get it, deserve it, or need it. God told Bruce that if you want a miracle, you can be the miracle, in the sense that you should help others. One kid prayed to Bruce to help him get stronger or something similar to that and Bruce said yes. In a deleted scene, God shows Bruce that as a consequence, the kid becomes the school bully, with God saying that the boy was going to be a great poet one day, but because he became the bully, he will try to become a boxer, get on drugs, then work in a liquor store. There is also a deleted scene in which a woman asks Bruce to help her with finances. He says yes, and the woman has an accident in a grocery store and sues. God explains that she would have to call her estranged sister for help and that would have gotten the two of them back together if he denied her prayer.

2. Free will. God tells Bruce that he cannot mess with free will. Bruce nevertheless tried to force a woman to love him, but is unable to. He asks God how can he make someone love him without affecting free will, and He replies, “welcome to my world”. I thought that was very interesting.

3. God’s image. If we are made in God’s image, and if humour and happiness are positive, than one can assume that if we are made in God’s image, God must have happiness and a sense of humour as well. The God in the movie is also shown to be very calm and easy-going, which I think can be an accurate description of God if He is a loving God. It’s hard to imagine someone being filled with love without being happy
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I think it’s a good Fictional movie that could make you think about some of the things we try to place on God as humans… and it’s funny 🙂 it’s not a theology film though that is trying to say this is Truth with a capital T to be at odds with our Faith or the Bible. It’s just a movie about our human condition…

Joe
 
I did find some scenes funny, others - rather wrong.

In the argument that Christian films are hard to produce - I totally agree. My mother especially gets “bored” of them and changes channel if any films that have mention of God or Christ in it.

I did like the film “Book Of Eli” - essentially a man lead by God to preserve his word (the only bible left in a post-apocalyptic world) and spread Christianity in the post-apocalyptic world - but its done in a kick-*** way too 😉 My mother just said: “Oh it was ruined by the fact God came into the equation.”

I thought it was rather wonderful.
 
digging up this very old thread as I suddenly thought of the movie after my colleague was mentioned about another movie with Morgan Freeman.

I did not ‘read’ so deep into this movie, and contrary to what many here feel, this movie did refresh my memory (long story here) that god actually exists.
Although it took me several more years before I eventually stepped back into the church again, but I can say this movie did make my conversations with my wife a little easier, as I told her I truly believe god exists. She is a protestant, and at that point in time, she would consider me as a non-believer.
 
yoshiki said:
digging up this very old thread as I suddenly thought of the movie after my colleague was mentioned about another movie with Morgan Freeman.

I did not ‘read’ so deep into this movie, and contrary to what many here feel, this movie did refresh my memory (long story here) that god actually exists.
Although it took me several more years before I eventually stepped back into the church again, but I can say this movie did make my conversations with my wife a little easier, as I told her I truly believe god exists. She is a protestant, and at that point in time, she would consider me as a non-believer.
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Our forum “ethics” are not to bring up these old “dead” threads, so the mods will likely lock this one. 😦
 
TheRealJuliane said:
Our forum “ethics” are not to bring up these old “dead” threads, so the mods will likely lock this one. 😦
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Well, it will be a pity then. I think it is better to reply in an old thread rather than creating a new 1, saves people from repeating the same old thing and saves some bandwidth in the server as well, not to forget less mess in the forum.

God bless.
 
yoshiki said:
Well, it will be a pity then. I think it is better to reply in an old thread rather than creating a new 1, saves people from repeating the same old thing and saves some bandwidth in the server as well, not to forget less mess in the forum.

God bless.
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Not on this forum. Because we deal with individual problems, there are really never 2 of the same experiences, and many threads that are brought up from the archives include forum members who have violated the rules and been banned, etc. in addition to the OP who has sometimes never returned.

That is what the mods have requested, that if we have a problem to discuss, we go ahead and start a new thread. If you would like to suggest a change, go to the “Suggestion Box” and start a new thread! 😃

I know it’s not what other forums do, but in this one, we’re not just talking about car mods or computer fixes, but real, human problems that do have almost unlimited variations. So if you tag your post onto someone else’s thread, it’s the same as starting a new one anyway. 🤷
 
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