On Fireproof and Christ-centric Movies in General

I recently caught the surprise mini-hit Fireproof. It's a good step for Christian filmmaking, but not a particularly good movie.

Cards on the table, I consider myself a citizen of Jesusland, so while I certainly agree with much of the sentiment and theology espoused in the film, the cold-blooded moviegoer in me wasn't keen on the flat writing, overlong runtime and robotic acting (though props to Kirk Cameron, who's the only one to inflate his character with a modicum of charisma).

The Gospel message is explicit and many of the challenges that besiege marriage these days are touched upon (my personal favorite is Cameron's character decision to get rid of his porn-addled computer, which appeared to be a circa 1994 IBM desktop; oh the debacuhery you could store on that 3 GB hard-drive!) but in the end Fireproof just felt like a combination of an infomerical for The Love Dare and one of those small group Bible study DVDs.

I'm authentically pleased the film did good business and if it even helped one person stumble upon a lifestyle and belief system I put a great deal of stock into, then that's just bananas, but I have to be honest with mysef: if this movie wasn't pro-Christian and, say, had been produced by the North American chapter of the Zoroastrians, I'd no doubt lay into it.  All thing being equal, Fireproof just isn't that great.

And, alas, it follows an unsightly parade of mediocre or below-mediocre Christian movies (the Left Behind movies, The Genius Club).  Once in a while you get something like Passion of the Christ (which has its moments but is largely overrated as a prosteltyization tool) or the Narnia films or, my current favorite Christ-focused movie, Ving Rhames's Saving God, but until our cinematic brethren are able to raise their game, I fear that the Holy genre will remain niche and, worse, not taken seriously.

Comments

[LarryK]

Dave - Don't you think the problem is that religious movies tend to be too, well, preachy? Anything that is one-dimensional and focused on delivering a message will probably get annoying. There are a multitude of examples of this coming from the Left, and any "counterculture" emphasizing religious, conservative or libertarian themes shouldn't make the same mistake.

One religious movie that featured fully developed characters and real depth was The Apostle, by Robert Duvall. That's not a bad model to emulate going forward...

[Dave]

I totally agree, though I suppose "preachiness" is sort of inherent in a Christian movie that doesn't shy away from tackling the Gospel.

Maybe preachy is the wrong word, though. No one likes being "preached" to, be it about religion, politics, global warning, how much America sucks, etc. The last thing a Christian film should be is condescending.

Good Christian movies, in my humble opinion, should find a way to fuse their message with an approach that discards an overly "preachy" tone, which will alienate viewers. That's a stylistic choice and goes to the "fully developed characters and real depth" you mentioned in your comment.

But the balance is tricky--you don't want to dilute the Christian aspects to the point they become an unrecognizable mash-up of weaksauce relativism.

[Wry Mouth]

Came over here from Infinite Monkeys to see what was what... this, the first post I read, gripped me. I am a musician and teacher at a non-religious private school (math) and something of a fan of films and books and such.

The first Narnia film was far better than the second, but I fear the second is going to mark the trend-line, degenerating the fine books into blow-em-up free-for-alls... eek.

All I want in a film (or, for me personally, a science-fiction book) is that Christianity and/or Christ be present, and accurately depicted.

Chariots of Fire came out when I was in college.
Narnia: LWATW
The television series, Firefly, has an interesting preacher character -- tangentially related.

Even more tangentially related, Joss Whedon and the creator of Babylon 5 (name escapes me) are both to my knowledge unapologetic atheists, and yet their work offers some very nice and sympathetic portrayals of religious cultures, without overt irony.

But, overall? I hear "Christian film" and walk the other way. But not so much with "Christian fiction" of the type Lewis, Tolien, Chesterton, Sayers and their ilk wrote. So, if books can be developed, we can hope that eventually a body of solid Christian films will emerge.

[Dan]

I'm not a big fan of "christian movies", but I do think the director who did Fireproof, Alex Kendrick has done a commendable job of seeking to get the message of the gospel out while demonstrating the transforming power of the gospel in the lives of ordinary people. I haven't seen Fireproof yet, but have seen two of Kendrick's earlier works. His first movie, Flywheel was made on a $20,000 budget! It's objective was to be a evangelistic tool to reach the neighboring communities of their local church. So when you compare a "christian move" with a typical Hollywood movie, you are not really comparing apples to apples. "The average cost to make and market a major MPAA member company film was $106.6 million in 2007." (Motion picture Association of America) Do we want Hollywood to make christian movies? When Hollywood's tries to portray a Christian theme they almost always miss the point (1 Cor. 2:14) while some Christan movies are sickly saccharine or preachy. I don't think it is fair to write off all "christian movies" as lacking entertainment value. Kendrick's second effort, Facing the Giants, was a nice balance of entertainment while showing in a concrete way how the gospel impacts peoples lives.
One of my favorite movies is Chariots of Fire, where Christan character is portrayed in a strong manly fashion, a few other good efforts are The Hiding Place (1975), Martin Luther (1953) The Inn of the Sixth Happiness(1958). I guess the problem is that good Christian movies are few and far in between. I commend Kendrick for seeking to do what he can, to use the means at his disposal to get the gospel out before a perishing world. Was it not the Apostle Paul who said, "I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some." I think Kendrick's films strike a nice balance between, entertainment, encouragement, evangelism, and Christan hope. Here is a little article about Kendrick's making of his second movie, Facing the Giants. http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=287
Dan