Category Archives: Religious Theme

2010, Based on true facts, French, Military, Occasional gore, Quiet, Religious Theme, Slow, Suspense, Terrorist Attack, Unusual

Of Gods and Men (2010)

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From NetFlix:

Awarded Grand Prix honors at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, this compelling historical drama relates the ordeal of seven French Trappist monks in the mountains of Algeria who are taken captive by Islamic fundamentalists. Before the monks’ abduction, they have ample reason to believe they may be in danger, but their assumption that there can and must be common ground between Islam and Christianity leads them to remain at the monastery.

Quiet, beautifully photographed, possibly inspiring (depending on your point of view), this film is an unusual gem. It is based on a true story which you will find in the Wikipedia article.

Notable throughout is the chanting of the monks. In fact the only other music that I can recall is Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake overture played on a tape recorder in an unforgettable dinner scene.

Among other things the film is a study in the characters of each of the monks, each of whom must decide whether to flee from death by terrorists or to stay at the monastery and accept his fate. In this respect there is a constant atmosphere of menace at war with the peace and quiet.

Kathy and I debated afterward about whether their decision to stay really did any good for anyone or had any meaning at all.

Normally I don’t like to include spoilers, but here I make an exception for a good reason. Do not avoid this film because you expect to see violence brought against the monks. You never see this violence explicitly. (However, you do witness a Croatian worker having his throat slit.) Rather that final violence is implied in the perfect photographic ending.

French with subtitles.

2006, Biographical, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Feel Good Not For Children, Redemption, Religious Theme, Slavery, True Story, Underdogs win

Amazing Grace (2006)

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From NetFlix:

Based on actual events, this historical drama from acclaimed director Michael Apted tells the story of William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd), an 18th-century English politician who fought for the abolition of slavery. Despite staunch opposition, Wilberforce waged an aggressive campaign using boycotts, petitions and slogans to bring the British slave trade to a decisive end. Albert Finney, Michael Gambon and Rufus Sewell co-star.

Worthwhile but not maudlin feel-good films can be hard to discover. “Amzing Grace” is such a jewel.

For an historical reality check please read the Wikipedia article.

England, through the efforts of Wilberforce, abolished the slave trade in 1807, a half-century before the American Civil War. Stay for the final credits which add that Wilberforce and William Pitt are buried side by side in Westminster Abbey.

Although it is eventually a feel-good film, you will be subjected to unsettling descriptions of the treatment of slaves.

In the film I saw many familiar British actors whose names I have never known. To give some of them credit, you will see:

  • Benedict Cumberbatch was William Pitt. He is currently the Masterpiece Mystery Sherlock Holmes.
  • Michael Gambon was Lord Charles Fox. He was Dumbledore in “Harry Potter”.
  • Rufus Sewell was Thomas Clarkson. He was Alexander Hamilton in “John Adams”.
  • Ciarán Hinds was the evil Lord Tarleton. He was Gaius Julius Cesar in “Rome”.
  • Toby Jones was the cretinous Duke of Clarence. He was Karl Rove in “W”
  • Nicholas Farrell was Henry Thornton. I will always remember him as the young runner Aubrey Montague in “Chariots of Fire”. His screen credits roll on for pages.
  • Albert Finney was John Newton and IS British acting.

DO NOT MISS THIS FILM !!!!

1986, Dark, Drama, Explicit sex, Gloomy, Grim, Mystery Film, Nudity, Religious Theme, Suspense, Torture, Violent

The Name of the Rose (1986)

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From NetFlix:

In this adaptation of Umberto Eco’s best-selling novel, 14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and his young novice (Christian Slater) arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church’s authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence — which is considerable

Umberto Eco wrote his first novel The Name of the Rose in 1980. Eco is a well-known modern scholar.

Jean-Jaques Annaud, the director, has assembled a cast of the most unusual, distorted, exaggerated, cretinous faces I have ever seen. These faces are perfectly in tune with the dark, forbidding atmosphere of the Benedictine monastery in northern Italy. To keep all the characters straight, try reading the Wikipedia article on the film. Besides Sean Connery and Christian Slater, Ron Perlman as Salvatore is particularly memorable. Salvatore is the retarded hunchback whose garbled speech is a mixture of several languages. Whoever restructured and tonsured all those heads was a genius in the art of actor makeup.

Thanks to my Italian teacher ,Vincenzo Santone, for recommending this film. Of course, Vincenzo would like me to read the original Italian version, which is a challenge. Because I have not read the book, I do not know if it is so condemning of the Catholic church of the early 14th century as is the film. Certainly the film makes the church hierarchy into a pack of sadistic, ignorant, self-indulgent, greedy, superstitious cretins. Naturally, the Inquisition is cast as the fundamentalist, intolerant Taliban of the 14th century.

Here is one film that I could not stop watching.

2009, Could Be Sad, Drama, Gay theme, Hebrew, Nudity, Religious Theme, Sex Scenes

Eyes Wide Open (2009)

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From NetFlix:

Married Jerusalem butcher Aaron (Zohar Strauss) takes pity on homeless student Ezri (Ran Danker) and hires him to work in his shop. But when romantic sparks fly between the unlikely pair, Aaron’s wife, Rivkeh (Tinkerbell), becomes increasingly suspicious. The stern Orthodox community disapproves, and a menacing group of “modesty guards” monitors Aaron’s every move in this tragic drama, an official selection at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

Who knew that Israel had “Thought Police” ? Let us assume that this quiet, sad, well-acted Israeli film truthfully portrays life among the conservative Jews. What we see, besides an obsessive religious observance, is neighbor spying on neighbor with often violent results. There are two parallel developments. On the one hand a young woman, betrothed by arrangement, is having an affair with a different young man. Eventually the neighbor Vigilantes of Righteousness confront and threaten the young man. The butcher ironically is part of this gang at the same time as in the second parallel stream he is having a homosexual affair with his assistant in his butcher shop, which affair has come under the Thought Police radar. Eventually the affair catches up with the pair. I will spoil no further.

In Hebrew with subtitles.

Sad revelation about conservative Israeli life.

2001, Could be boring, Cynical, Drama, Love Story, Mediocre, Military, Religious Theme, War

Sword of Honor (2001)

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From NetFlix:

Daniel Craig stars as Guy Crouchback, a soldier whose desire to prove his worth to his ex-wife leads him into a life of unrealized military ambitions in this miniseries based on the darkly comic novels of Evelyn Waugh. While Guy’s timorous and largely undeserving cohorts climb through the ranks, he continuously falls short of his goals despite his earnest intentions, doomed to suffer the humiliation and discouragement of his misfortunes.

Daniel Craig is more reflective and less a man of action in this two-disk British series. Evelyn Waugh must have intended to write a satire because instead of seeing some stark war film my impression was that of seeing British tongue-in-cheek military personnel often doing their best to avoid action. Do not expect up-to-date digital effects.

Throughout the two disks one constant theme is Guy Crouchback’s Catholic religion which causes him to regard forever his divorced wife as his one and only wife despite her other marriages.

Give this production a B, there are better British war films to watch.

2005, Detective, Explicit sex, Explicit sexual discussion, German, Nudity, Religious Theme, Serial Killer

Antibodies (2005)

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From NetFlix:

After confessed killer Gabriel Engel (André Hennicke) is captured, small-town cop Michael Martens (Wotan Wilke Möhring) interrogates him, hoping a journey into the madman’s twisted mind will give clues to an unsolved murder committed in the same heinous manner as Gabriel’s crimes. Gabriel claims to know the killer’s identity but turns the investigation into a psychological game, leaving Michael questioning his own sanity in this German thriller.

This German film is easily one of the best serial killer films I have seen. There are two themes intimately related: On the one hand there is the usual tug of war between a jailed serial killer (think “Hannibal Lector”) and a rural policeman with whom the killer is willing to converse. On the other hand the policeman is a decent, religious man at odds with his father-in-law. In jousting with the killer the policeman struggles to remain non-cynical and to believe is the possibility of good and innocence.

Finally the plot drives toward an unexpected twist at which I will not even hint. However, I was disappointed in a part of that very ending which seemed a bit contrived. Opinions ?

Please ignore the very opening of the film. It is sensationalistic and gory and need not even be watched to enjoy the rest of the film.

1999, Conspiracy, Crime, Drama, Lawyers, Made For TV, Redemption, Religious Theme

The Confession (1999)

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From NetFlix:

Two 2004 Oscar nominees, Ben Kingsley and Alec Baldwin, are featured in this made-for-TV legal drama. A New York lawyer (Baldwin) with his eyes on the D.A.’s office has a crisis of conscience when he must defend a man (Kingsley) who killed three hospital workers who ignored his dying son. Problem is, the defendant actually wants to be convicted. Based on the novel Fertig by Sol Yurick.

Most often Ben Kingsley plays a sinister role. What a surprise, then, to see him as a devout Jew saying his prayers, observing the Sabbath. In much of the film Kingsley talks about his relationship with God. In this respect you might see the film as a bit preachy. There is even more of this sentiment throughout the film, for example, at trial and in private conversations.

Amy Irving (Emily Sloan in 9 episodes of “Alias”) does a wonderful job as the unhappy wife of Ben Kingsley. I just could not accept the affair between her character and that of Alex Baldwin. Let me know if you think otherwise.

Richard Jenkins (the dead father in “Six Feet Under”) get to play a crook as does Jay O. Sanders (“Revolutionary Road”).

Good over evil after a bit of soul searching.

2001, Could Be Hard To Watch, Crime, Detective, Drama, Religious Theme, Suspense, Violent

Frailty (2001)

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From NetFlix:

Director Bill Paxton’s gripping thriller has evil at its core — and a family in the crossfire. FBI agent Wesley Doyle (Powers Boothe) is trying to track down “God’s Hand,” a notorious murderer who’s resurfaced years after terrorizing a Texas town. The Meeks family — Fenton, Adam and their dad — gets involved when past and present converge and a long-tormented conscience is assuaged. Levi Kreis and Matthew McConaughey co-star.

Because I couldn’t stop watching, I knew I had stumbled on an excellent, suspenseful, psychological thriller and mystery with wonderful plot turns. More I will not say. But if you get confused, you can always read the Wikipedia article. The marvel in the film is that most of the film action takes place at a natural easily explained level of understanding. That, in part, is what makes watching this film so difficult. Indeed there is violence and killing. But the film is too intelligent to engage in explicit gore.

Matthew McConaughey, for once, is not a glamour boy. He, and all the actors, play their parts to perfection.

Toward the end of the film the film offers a new perspective. If anyone watches this film, please let me know how you reacted to this change.

2004, Drama, Mystery Film, Redemption, Religious Theme, Suspense, Unusual

The Reckoning (2004)

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From NetFlix:

A priest (Paul Bettany) on the run gets mixed up with a band of wandering thespians in this tale of salvation based on the book Morality Play by Barry Unsworth. In a tiny village, the group comes upon a woman who’s been charged with murder and sentenced to death. The actors put on a production based on the crime and soon realize that the townsfolk know the woman isn’t guilty.

Consistent, well-acted, unusual, original, suspenseful are all adjectives that describe this worthwhile fim. Essentially it is a mystery story plus a quest for justice. I can only assume that the 1300s in England were exactly this grubby. Among the actors Gina McKee was Irene in the PBS production of “The Forsyte Saga”. Willem Dafoe is of course a well-established actor.

If I can’t stop watching a film, that’s a good sign. Highly recommended!

2008, Drama, Feel Good Not For Children, Imperfect, Redemption, Religious Theme, Revenge, Suspense, Violent

Gran Torino (2008)

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From NetFlix:

Curmudgeonly Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood, who also directs) must confront his Hmong immigrant neighbors — and his own long-held prejudices — when the family’s teenage son, Thao (Bee Vang), tries to steal Walt’s beloved 1972 Gran Torino. Walt soon assumes the unlikely role of guardian angel to young Thao and his sister Sue (Ahney Her), both of whom are vulnerable to local gang influences.

“Gran Torino” tells a good story with bad guys and good guys as black and white as a cowboy movie (after all, it’s Clint Eastwood). But Walt’s personality isn’t so clear cut and to his credit is able to grow and change. Enjoy the story even if you have to sometimes suspend disbelief. What’s wrong with the Lone Ranger arriving just in time to save the day ?

As for the acting, I sadly give it a B. Thao sometimes just reads his lines. His sister is a much better actor (N.B. it is no longer politically correct to use the word “actress”).

And the more I think about it, Walt’s final solution was just about perfect. Have fun!