Movies with action scenes in churches

[LiquidMan]

The title is pretty much self explanatory. How are we to view action scenes in movies (shootouts, brawls, and the likes) set in cathedrals, churches, or other forms of “holy ground”?
Are they sacrilegious or no different from other locations?

 

[doomguy93]

Depends on the director/screenwriter’s intent. In The Killer, which has a prominent church shootout sequence that immediately came to mind when I read your title, John Woo (who is Catholic) used the setting to emphasize that anyone is welcome in God’s house if they’re seeking repentance and penance. There’s even white doves.

 

[MikeWest]

The title is pretty much self explanatory. How are we to view action scenes in movies (shootouts, brawls, and the likes) set in cathedrals, churches, or other forms of “holy ground”?
Are they sacrilegious or no different from other locations?

I’ve seen almost NO white doves.
They are few and far between.

I would never go see a movie that contains an “action scene” in any
religious house of worship (Mosque, synagogue, church, etc.)

99% of the time its just more blasphemy by the atheist/agnostic Hollywood
movie industry.

 

[Tim_D]

I’ve seen almost NO white doves.
They are few and far between.

I would never go see a movie that contains an “action scene” in any
religious house of worship (Mosque, synagogue, church, etc.)

99% of the time its just more blasphemy by the atheist/agnostic Hollywood
movie industry.

Then you’re missing out on one of my favorite movies of all time, Richard Lester’s The Three/Four Musketeers; D’Artagnan vs. the Comte de Rochefort

youtube.com/watch?v=tE3TbBwSVe8

 

[doomguy93]

I’ve seen almost NO white doves.
They are few and far between.

I would never go see a movie that contains an “action scene” in any
religious house of worship (Mosque, synagogue, church, etc.)

99% of the time its just more blasphemy by the atheist/agnostic Hollywood
movie industry.

The white doves are a prominent motif in The Killer, and in Woo’s Hollywood-period film Face/Off. So…yeah, they’re there. The Killer especially has Christian themes such as redemption and brotherhood. I agree that a typical Hollywood production would just use a church shootout as an excuse to be blasphemous (and they have). They would never touch a mosque or synagogue though.

 

[Casilda]

I think church sanctuaries have a limited purpose; mass or Divine liturgy, baptisms, marriages and the like. Nothing else should be done in the hallowed space.

I hope they did not use a real church in Sophia Loren’s WWII genre movie, The Two Women (La Ciociara). Mother and daughter were assaulted when they thought they were safe.

 

[7_Sorrows]

I think church sanctuaries have a limited purpose; mass or Divine liturgy, baptisms, marriages and the like. Nothing else should be done in the hallowed space.

I hope they did not use a real church in Sophia Loren’s WWII genre movie, The Two Women (La Ciociara). Mother and daughter were assaulted when they thought they were safe.

yes sometimes they build sets rather than film inside a real church.

 

[Lea101]

I know usually it’s done in a set, but I feel uncomfortable when I see stuff like that, especially if the scene is totally unnecessary and the church serves as a “pretty backdrop”

 

[LiquidMan]

Depends on the director/screenwriter’s intent. In The Killer, which has a prominent church shootout sequence that immediately came to mind when I read your title, John Woo (who is Catholic) used the setting to emphasize that anyone is welcome in God’s house if they’re seeking repentance and penance. There’s even white doves.

Yes, I was thinking mostly about either John Woo productions or other works who pay homage to “The Killer”.
Thanks for clarification.

 

[LiquidMan]

I’ve seen almost NO white doves.
They are few and far between.

I would never go see a movie that contains an “action scene” in any
religious house of worship (Mosque, synagogue, church, etc.)

99% of the time its just more blasphemy by the atheist/agnostic Hollywood
movie industry.

Sorry if I ask, but how can an atheist director, or just a person who does not believe in Christianity, have a blasphemous intent in filming those church-set scenes, if they don’t believe it is sacred? Besides, why should they want to purposefully anger Christians?

 

[Lea101]

Sorry if I ask, but how can an atheist director, or just a person who does not believe in Christianity, have a blasphemous intent in filming those church-set scenes, if they don’t believe it is sacred? Besides, why should they want to purposefully anger Christians?

Not to say that all of the non religious directors/etc want to anger Christians but there are plenty of people in the media that hate religion because it gets in their way of their progressive ideals, and would seek to discredit it/portray it negatively so that they could influence others to not take the religion seriously. Don’t know if this can be applied in this context (action scenes) but there are people in the media who want to anger certain groups of people!

 

[LiquidMan]

Not to say that all of the non religious directors/etc want to anger Christians but there are plenty of people in the media that hate religion because it gets in their way of their progressive ideals, and would seek to discredit it/portray it negatively so that they could influence others to not take the religion seriously. Don’t know if this can be applied in this context (action scenes) but there are people in the media who want to anger certain groups of people!

Indeed there are, but I don’t think they would do so through an action scene: churches, after all, hold a social meaning AND are pretty to look at. That alone, I think, is enough.

 

[Viki63]

I saw a rather cool movie recently with several scenes in churches.

The main character’s father is a preacher in a Western town, and there are several scenes in the church, one with the father preaching, one where the son is sitting alone in a pew and his father comes in & there’s a touching reconciliation. Of course that’s what kind of scenes should be done in churches, not gunfights.

“Forsaken,” with Kiefer and Donald Sutherland, playing father and son.

.

 

[BoomBoomMancini]

Sometimes a movie is just a movie, guys.

 

[Mary_Gail_36]

I think church sanctuaries have a limited purpose; mass or Divine liturgy, baptisms, marriages and the like. Nothing else should be done in the hallowed space.

I hope they did not use a real church in Sophia Loren’s WWII genre movie, The Two Women (La Ciociara). Mother and daughter were assaulted when they thought they were safe.

I think it was a real Church (not certain) but if it was in such ruins after the war or after an earthquake, it probably wasn’t used as a Church anymore, and the Blessed Sacrament not present.

That was a terribly devastating scene in such a sad film.