Hollywood (Holy Wood) is named after the True Cross and it has been a true cross for religious believers for the last few decades. If we appear in a film, we are more likely to be killing someone that not. The entire industry has been infected by Steinbeck’s Disease*, a malady where prostitutes are more likely to have hearts of gold than pastors. Is it any wonder that a segment of the Christian population puts up with bad film making and theology just to see a movie that affirms what they do? Let’s be clear: not many people are seeing War Room compared to most Hollywood hits, but it is a money maker. The film cost almost nothing to make and will show a cool profit for Sony and company.
War Room is a badly written, shoddily crafted infomercial for prayer with dubious theology, but I wish I could love it because I love the people it intends to portray. Worse than the shoddy film War Room is Hollywood’s history of ignoring African-Americans in films, giving women no lines that are not about relationships with men, and pretending film goers older than thirty-five do not exist. Ignoring Christians and other religious people is also not great.
War Room is as badly made as Cinderella II, but Disney had no excuse of incompetence in making Cinderella II: an artistic and commercial travesty. The brothers probably cannot make a better film, Disney could.
I get it: you are a business not a public service project, but you are also influencing people. There are agendas, sometimes competing agendas, but films that are outside elite opinion rarely get made even if a great many people will like those films. Don’t pretend that R-rated films are so profitable that you must make more of them, because we know they are not.
Here are five things I hope you learn from War Room.
Grownups like to go the movies if you give them something to see.
I am a fifty-two year old . . . an oldster by theater going standards . . . and there is rarely anything in the multiplex that is made for my demographic. I am lucky that I like cartoons and super hero films because otherwise I would be out of luck. I know you think we will not go to the theater, but doesn’t War Room prove that we will?
Most positive reviews of War Room concede it isn’t that great, praising it with faint damns. They give it the “most improved” award in the list of films the untrained brothers have produced. You know what that means on your kid’s soccer team. Now imagine you gave a film that was faith based and geared to grownups to a good director, producer, and film crew.
Stop wasting money when you make films.
War Room is badly made, but not that much worse than most films Hollywood make given it cost three million. How much of a one hundred million dollars is wasting on things having little to do with making a good movie? Stop paying actors boatloads. The acting in War Room goes from dreadful to really good. Imagine signing a cast that was really good and paying them good wages instead of paying bloated salaries to “safe” actors.
You can beat the brothers at their game if you hire writers and tell stories that resonate with Christians. Otherwise, you leave the field to people who have a message (“prayer works!”).
Stop making “faith based” films and go ahead and make films for Christians and people who like Christians.
We all know that when Narnia was being made Hollywood kept trying to downplay the Christianity in CS Lewis (!) and “broaden the market.” Do you mean from the two billion people globally that are Christian? Do you mean from the seventy-percent of Americans that are Christian? Unbroken is the sad result of playing down a man’s devout Christianity in order to sell exactly zero more tickets than if you had just told the tale.
One thing I hear from War Room fans is that it does not water down the Christian message. This is true. I think it is a theological train wreck, but it does encourage prayer, talks about Jesus without shame, and shows the good side (that is real) of Christian life. Why make a film for Christians that soft sells Christianity? You are leaving the market to hacks.
Avoid “Christian films.” First, get a good story written by a good writer who happens to be Christian. Second, tell the story well. Third, don’t try to make the film “less Christian” in telling the story. We need good films by Christians not “Christian films.” War Room noticed that many Christians are not Anglo. This was a very, very good thing about War Room.
Note: Christians are of all races and will go see a film about a different race.
Don’t assume Christian filmgoers are stupid.
The movie has received criticism from evangelical magazines such as Christianity Today. Many evangelicals are concerned about the “genie Jesus” they fear is being portrayed over the body of work from these filmmakers. I don’t know anybody who thinks the films are particularly well made, just that they have no other choice in the theater. Christians like watching films and this is the best they are given if they wish to go see a film that relates to an important part of their life
Don’t be afraid of controversy. War Room made money even if most Christians did not go and many of us (maybe most of us) find the theology offensive. Note: there are so many Christians that it did not matter. Imagine telling a positive story about Roman Catholics who practice their faith. Envision a film about an Arab Orthodox family who loves church. These are all out there and all would hit a niche.
There are millions of Christians waiting for a film made at Notebook level quality that seamlessly tells the story of people who are Christian. There are millions of us and no one film will please us all. Start taking some creative risks.
Christians went to see a R-rated film shot with subtitles, after all. Passion of the Christ, flaws and all, was a very well made movie. We went to it even though it was a difficult film. We are not all in the camp that thinks Michael Landon Jr. is edgy.
You don’t have to curse, have car chases, or show vice to make money. Happy endings are not always cheesy.
Plenty of Americans cringe when someone says the Lord’s name in vain. That may not be you, but notice you could make films that do not hurt our ears. Nobody ever went to a film because it cursed God as far as I know.
As for car chases, give it a rest. I like a good car chase in a film, but I am sated for a lifetime. Violence is part of story telling, but we have enough options there. Many of us, as many as forty-percent of us, still think Christian values are good. Why not give us a voice?
Frank Capra shows a film can have a happy ending without causing sugar shock. Even War Room knew enough to tone down the happy-piety. We are a religion of the Cross and not of “there-there” after all, but we also think history ends in Paradise. We are hard headed and soft-hearted: rational about the evil in the world, but also believing God is in charge and all is (in the end) right with the world.
Look: you could sit and roll your eyes at War Room and leave money on the table for religious hustlers making product you know is bad. Here is better business alternative: take a cue from the brilliant Netflix/DreamWorks redo of Veggie Tales*** and tell stories for Christians with Hollywood panache. Bottom line: give brilliant people like Doug TenNapel the freedom to tell the stories they like, even if they offend you. You owe Hollywood as much.
It is God’s rood, Holy Rood, after all.
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*One of my favorite writers has a blind spot toward religion. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression and I talked to them and to their friends. They are nowhere to be found in a Steinbeck novel where the good religious are theologically adrift and most religious are crazy and intolerant.
** Bias alert: I was one of many Christians consulted by DreamWorks on the theology in Veggie Tales and a man I greatly admire, Doug TenNapel, is on the project. Give him ten million dollars and he will make you money and a film we can all be proud of.
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