Bible movies

[creativemechanic]

In many Bible movies there are sublte additions or subtractions to the story. Some totally fly off the rails eg The Noah movies with Russel Crowe in which he fought rock monsters and tried to murder his family- those are obviously inappropriate.

 

What interests me is those which while they dont go so far off add little non scriptural details to flesh out the story.

As a writer i can understand it to an extent- The bible tells us exactly what God knows we need to know and leaves out the unnecessary details, however when adapting this into a full length movie it'd be difficult as the lack of dialogue in certain areas of scripture would make it really short. But i'm not too keen on adding the details. Eg the Prince of egypt is pretty respectful of the Scripture ,  and basically does tell the story of Moses at least imo but it takes out or changes certain details.

 

1. Moses was adopted my Pharoah wife not daughter, thus he has a storng relationship with the Pharoah he opposed to free the Egyptians, making the conflict alot more personal and dramatic.
2. In this movie Moses accidentally kills the Egyptian, in the Bible, he cold bloodily murders him. How do you explain that to the kids that their hero is a unrepentant murderer who never gets punished for it in a cartoon.
3. Moses is alot younger when he meets Pharoah, (20s-30s) as opposed to 80 in the Bible. Probably because they thought an old man wouldnt be a relatable hero i guess.
4. Aaron does very little in this movie as opposed to him being Moses' representative to Pharaoh.

 

My question is should we as Christians be offended by movies like this or should we see it as just a movie and acknowledge the changes as not being true

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest shiloh357]

Some are worse than others.   Even the old 1950s and 1960s epic films like the Ten Commandments veered off the biblical path.    But I think there is a difference between embellishing for creative license and doing what we saw in Noah and the most recent movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings.

 

It is one thing for a movie to "fill in the blanks."   What I mean is that if we have a movie about the birth of Jesus where there is a lot of missing information in the biblical narrative and the person writing the screen play tries to speculatively fill in that information without changing the story line or altering what information the Bible gives, that is basically understandable.  For example, we are not privy the conversations that must have taken place between Mary and her parents and Mary and Joseph after she announced she was pregnant.  If the writers tries to give an idea about what that might have looked like, it doesn't change the story.   That, I think is permissible and does no violence to Scripture.

 

Movies like Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, were an assault on the Bible and were really about diminishing God.  In Noah, God hates humanity.  The Exodus movie, God is 10 year old brat that drinks tea.   There are other glaring problems with those movies but what is particularly offensive about them is the God of the Bible is portrayed.   No such movie is made about ANY other deity or religious text.  It seems that the world spends it time and treasure to single out the Bible for special condemnation.

 

As long as the information the Bible offers isn't altered, I see no reason why add minor speculative additions for creative license just to suggest what may have happened behind the scenes would be harmful.

[OneLight]

Hollywood will always be Hollywood. I'm not discouraged by their action. Rather, I feel sorry for them as they take a creative license while trying to make His history more attractive. At any point, many who will not read the bible will see the movie, where the thought begins. It is our responsibility to correct the errors Hollywood presents.

[Guest shiloh357]

What I am saddened the most by, is the lack of discernment and the utter disregard by the Christian community for the dangers that modern biblical movies really do present.   

 

When Noah came out it was embraced by a significant number in the Christian community on the grounds that it will start a dialogue and it didn't.  Many people, even some in the Christian community do not have a solid biblical foundation, and most do not even see the Bible a relevant.  Movies that are hostile to the biblical accounts that  they are based on, have more influence than a pastor or a church or Bible teacher, these days.  We are in a sight and sound generation, a social media and technology driven culture and movies, particularly movies that reinforce  what people already feel about the Bible will hold sway over sound doctrines, unfortunately.   Before long, movies will be made about Jesus that will make the "Last Temptation of Christ"   look like nothing.  How long before a movie is made portraying Jesus as a Muslim an espousing Muslim teachings?

 

We live in a day and age where the Bible is viewed by many as irrelevant and outdated.  It is seen as archaic book with a bunch of archaic rules and was written by ignorant people who didn't know anything about science and didn't know how the world worked.  They view the Bible as being good or a particular period of time, but not really something that speaks to us today.   To think that a biblically based movie is going to suddenly awaken a renewed interest in biblical matters especially when the movie goes out of its way to destroy the biblical narrative,  is just not realistic.

[OneLight]

The fact that Christians could not respond properly is a reflection on the Body. We are commanded to be ready to give an answer for our faith.

[wingnut-]

Hollywood never gets anything right.  Are there any movies based on historical events that they do not twist and distort the facts in?  I don't bother with movies anymore, and I didn't bother to see either of these two movies because I knew they would not do the movies properly.  Maybe the real question is, why do believers support anything that comes out of Hollywood anymore?

[Guest shiloh357]

The answer to that question is that believers are under the impression that it opens up dialogue about the Bible.  But it really doesn't, at least not to degree they act like it will.

 

In addition many Christians are not committed to either the inerrancy or authority of Scripture, so these kinds of movies are just seen as just another "interpretation" of the Bible.

[Guest LadyC]

just wondering how anyone thinks a two hour movie could be made from any biblical account without adding something to it... it's not like the bible goes into a great deal of detail or character development for supporting characters. literary license is critical for making any biblical fiction, movie or book,.

[Guest shiloh357]

When we talk about adding to it, we talking about altering the story line given by the biblical narrative.   Filling in the blanks with speculations on conversations that might have taken place within the context of the biblical narratives and stuff would not be a problem.  But adding to the story in a way that actually changes the story would be what was problematic and that goes beyond simple creative license.

[Guest LadyC]

by the way, i'm not saying hollywood doesn't butcher movies. but they're good entertainment, and i believe they COULD open up dialogue with unbelievers IF christians would approach it differently. i know many will disagree with me here, and have made their objections known every time this subject comes up and i indicate i do go see the movies. 

 

the reason they don't open up dialogue, I think, is because christians start bashing the movies right at the starting gate before anyone even sees them. christians bash it based on what somebody they don't know says about it. what somebody who may have seen it or may just be repeating yet another person who did. unbelievers don't want to talk to believers about the points of the movie to see what's incorrect because they're just hearing christians parrot someone else. 

 

as someone who loves books and movies, if i want a review of something, or want to know what is or isn't accurate about something, i am going to go ask those questions from someone who has first-hand knowledge... i.e. someone who has seen or read what i'm asking about. 

 

IMO, if christians would actually take the time to a) know their bible and b) watch the fictional account and c) be willing to actually answer questions, then maybe those questions would get asked.