Films with a Message

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A Couple to get the ball rolling

Gattaca: Contra Eugenics / Genetic Engineering

I Robot: Contra the Utilitarian Ethic of "“The Greatest Good”
 
Movie
“Its A Wonderful Life”

Message
Pro-life - Every Life Matters

Evidence for:
People forget this film is about Suicide and is dark at times.
Film illustrates a regular Joe has impacted the lives of his friends, family and townfolk postively of just about every person he knows.
 
I thought Signs had quite a message. About God and the future etc.
 
“Waking Ned Devine” an Irish comedy which proves you can’t take it with you.
 
“Diary of a Country Priest”
  • Fantastic french movie,1950 or so. About a preist. A little sad, but very interesting. Not fun for kids, a little too complex.
“The Miracle Maker”
  • Crazy Russian-animated claymation version of the Gospels. Try to get over the claymation thing, and you will see this is a REALLY beautiful film. Ok for kids too.
The following films REALLY require you to THINK and use that “Catholic imagination.” There are no easy answers and not all the characters are paragons of morality: sorta like the Old Testament. Also, they are for adults.

“The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly”
  • The Ugly is humanity in general. The movie is about the ingratitude of the free gift of grace that is given to us, and our perverse desire to “get back” at the Person who gave us that freedom. This movie is SERIOUSLY overlooked in the “spiritual film” department. It is not just a simple western movie.
“Solaris”
  • I haven’t seen the old Russian version, but the new one is really quite good if you can get over the two naked scenes, which are brief and not shamefully done. The movie is about:
    the pain of loss.
    the idea of encountering God through other people.
    the way our conception of someone can trap us in the past.
    the way that encountering the past head on can lead us to freedom in the future.
    the idea of forgiving, and how failure to forgive is the essence of being haunted.
“The Good Girl”
  • Making the right choice when everything seems meaningless. The ease with which we are pulled along very dark roads.
“Barcelona”
  • Not all that glitters is gold. Very funny, if you have a certain very dry sense of humor.
“The Last Days of Disco”
  • People trying to navigate the Babylon of late 70s disco club culture. By the same guy as Barcelona.
 
Lord of the Rings

So many messages

Frodo is an image of Vocation - that stepping off into the unknown: “I will take the ring to Mordor, though I do not know the way”

The importance of Friendship

Providence

The “compare and contrast” between King Theoden and Denethor the Steward of Gondor.

When we first meet them both have lost their Son and are in the thrall of evil - but whereas Theoden has a change of heart and meets the challenge ahead with renewed hope, Denethor despairs. Both end up dying but whereas Denthor dies by his own hand, Theoden dies in battle: “I go now to my Fathers in whose great company I shall not now feel ashamed…”
 
“Contact” (with Jodie Foster): science, testimony, belief, and faith.
 
The Vatican has a pretty good list: usccb.org/fb/vaticanfilms.htm.

I would recommend anything by Robert Bresson and especially Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors : Blue, White, Red (three separate films) and his Decalogue (a 10-part series from Polish TV). I use these and the Vatican list for a Philosophy in Film series (among others) I have been running for the last several years.

David
 
Interesting List… Which Just Jogged my memory…

First 10 mins of Kubrik’s Space Odyssey 2001: - a possible vision of The Fall of Man
 
“Contact”? No way, that was made by a blatant and aggressive atheist, Carl Sagan.
 
bengeorge said:
“Contact”? No way, that was made by a blatant and aggressive atheist, Carl Sagan.
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I take it you haven’t seen the movie.:cool:
 
bengeorge said:
“Contact”? No way, that was made by a blatant and aggressive atheist, Carl Sagan.
Click to expand...

Agreed the movie was bunk as was Sagan now Science provides us paradise? Don’t thnk so.
 
Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgement, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.”
Some of the Pharisees who were with him heard this and said to him, "Surely we are not also blind, are we?"Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you are saying, ‘We see,’ so your sin remains.”

We will recognise the Lord as the one who cannot be ‘seen’: The work of art that cannot be severed to extract a ‘message’. He remains the whole Christ or no Christ at all. Mulholland Drive.
 
Well, there is a difference between films that deliberately send a message and those that can be interpreted in many ways. The first kind are called propaganda and ought to be labeled as such, especially politically motivated ones. I believe it was Louis B. Meyer who said “If you want to send a message use Western Union.” Mainstream films ought to entertain first and make us think second. Those that don’t are usually only popular with those who also believe the message the filmmaker was trying to make.
 
I can’t remember the name of the movie (it was like October Sky or somthing like that), but it was about this kid that lived in a poor coal-mining town when Sputnik went up. He wanted more than anything to build rockets, but because of his dad working at the mine, the labour dispute, etc, etc.

Very moving. Important messages about family, ambition, the value of education, etc.
 
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Maccabees:
Agreed the movie was bunk as was Sagan now Science provides us paradise? Don’t thnk so.
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Why did you think that science provided Paradise, in “Contact”?
 
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Della:
… and those that can be interpreted in many ways.
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I couldn’t tell if you were referring here to the movie I mentioned?
Mainstream films ought to entertain first and make us think second.
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I agree with this. Though I would say that this should be the rule with all films. And I would alter your phrase a little: …films ought to entertain first and make us believe second, or indeed both should happen at one and the same time. This seems to be the response Jesus ellicited from people: Belief first, thinking second (if at all…).
 
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Ahimsa:
Why did you think that science provided Paradise, in “Contact”?
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She ends up in Paradise right?
How did she get there. Science.
No God in her paradise nor does the mystery of death get her there.
Thus my conclusion the film was so convuluted 500 people could watch the movie and tell you 500 differnet things on what the movie mean.
Sorry not a big fan of the movie.
 
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