KIRSTEN ASKS:
I wonder why I cannot think of any movies with stories from the Torah, Quran, or other holy texts. Are there any in the works?
THE RELIGION GUY ANSWERS:
There’s considerable mystery about Hollywood and “holy movies.” Why are they often amateurish or offer ham-handed derision toward beliefs and believers? Why do few high-quality movies respect religion despite the large potential audience? Showbiz wised up a bit when Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” (2004) scored $370 million in U.S. box office and became history’s most profitable film with an R rating (due to violence).
Kirsten posted this question early in 2014, which turns out to offer notable features with religious aspects. On her specific point, studios know the U.S. audience has far more Christians than Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus, and that factor affects releases globally. Note that any movie drawn from the Jewish Torah equally appeals to Christians, since their Bible begins with the same five “Old Testament” books.
With the Quran, there’s a huge problem because the sanctity of the Prophet Muhammad’s person forbids any visual depictions of him. For Islam, that’s blasphemy, a capital crime in some lands (Pakistan’s notoriously broad law covers “visual representation”) and can involve the danger of riots and vigilante murders.
The Guy knows of only one major feature based on the Quran: “Mohammed: Messenger of God,” titled “The Message: The Story of Islam” in video release. The Arabic version appeared in 1976, followed by an English version with a different cast in 1977. The director was Muslim and funding came mostly from Muslim regimes in Libya, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia.
The production scrupulously avoided showing the Prophet, nor was his voice ever heard, and the script extended the same prohibitions to his immediate family and key successors. This necessitated an awkward plot built around the Prophet’s Uncle Hamza, played by Anthony Quinn. Despite such caution, the movie provoked agitation across the Muslim world.
The worst episode erupted in Washington, D.C. Muslims from a breakaway Hanafi sect mistakenly supposed the movie had visuals of Muhammad. Hoping somehow to halt theatrical release, these assailants seized a Jewish office, a Muslim mosque, and a D.C. government building, captured more than 100 hostages, killed one victim, stabbed or shot many others, and terrorized the nation’s capital for 38 hours before surrendering. The movie became a flop, and further commercial films from the Quran seem unlikely.
The Torah has inspired a big-budget release timed for the upcoming Jewish and Christian holidays: “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” directed by Ridley Scott with Christian Bale as Moses. Can this possibly rival Charlton Heston in “The Ten Commandments,” winner of the Best Picture Oscar for 1956, which ranks sixth in all-time U.S. box office?
The Torah was also more or less the source for 2014’s “Noah,” with Russell Crowe in the title role ($101 million in ticket sales according to www.boxofficemojo.com, the source for ticket data below). But the tale has such a twisted conception of the biblical hero and of the hero’s God that it doesn’t really fit the “holy movie” genre.
The year brings two notable New Testament films. “Mary, Mother of Christ,” starring Israeli teen Odeya Rush with Oscar winner Ben Kingsley as Herod, is also scheduled for holiday release. “Son of God” ($60 million) is a reverential version of Jesus’ life taken from a cable TV series. Producer Mark Burnett is the television titan of the “Survivor” series and other hits.
Looking beyond scriptural epics, 2014 produced:
— “Heaven Is For Real” ($91 million box office vs. $12 million production cost) with Greg Kinnear, which conveys a non-fiction best-seller about young Colton Burpo’s account of near-death experiences in heaven.
–“God’s Not Dead” ($61 million box office vs. a $2 million budget) portrays a college freshman who seeks to prove God exists after a philosophy professor warns that he’ll flunk unless he embraces atheism. (Guys, campus secularism is surely on the march but are things really that oppressive?)
— “Left Behind” ($13.5 million), with Oscar winner Nicholas Cage, stems from a popular novel that fictionalizes Dispensationalist theology, which mingles the Bible’s prophetic and apocalyptic writings with 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. Devotees expect a future “Rapture” in which God instantaneously sweeps all true Christians into heaven while non-believers are, yes, left behind. The U.S. Catholic film office notes this Protestant variant is “at odds with church teaching.” (A 2001 version with Kirk Cameron earned a disappointing $4 million.)
— “The Good Lie,” which opened last month on the same day as “Left Behind,” has won critics’ praise and features Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon. But distribution is very spotty, with a paltry $2.2 million box-office. This is not a thoroughly religious film but has appealing characters who are committed Christians.
— Other Christian-y productions of 2014 made little impact, including: “Believe Me,” “Christian Mingle,” “Holy Ghost,” “The Identical,” “Persecuted,” “The Remaining,” and “The Song.”
Apart from Bible stories and fictional plots, big profits can flow when Hollywood portrays real-life believers with natural authenticity. Such was “The Blind Side (2009, $256 million box office, Best Actress Oscar for Sandra Bullock), about a devout Tennessee family helping a homeless teen. “Amazing Grace” (2007, $21 million) dramatizes William Wilberforce’s campaign that ended Britain’s slave trade. The exceptional “Chariots of Fire” ($59 million, Best Picture Oscar for 1981) tells of Scotland’s Eric Liddell, an Olympic track star who boycotted Sunday competition on biblical grounds. Liddell later became a missionary martyr in China. Speaking of Olympic track stars, it’ll be interesting to see how Louis Zamperini’s Christian conversion is handled in “Unbroken,” based on the huge-selling biography and opening Christmas Day.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In