Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2014 June 23

= June 23 =

Examples of biblical movies with a Jewish or anti-Christian bias?
Are there examples of biblical movies with a Jewish or anti-Christian bias, or just something that does not give Christianity the upper hand in biblical interpretation? Movies that include the New Testament or movies that treat the "Old Testament" as predicting or foreshadowing events of the "New Testament" are typically biased towards Christianity. Are there biblical movies that do not have the assumption of the Christian biblical canon(s)? 140.254.226.182 (talk) 14:21, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * The Story of Ruth comes to mind. Also, most any movie about Samson. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 15:43, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * What about Book of Ruth (2009) or Book of Esther (2013)? Do they fit? 140.254.226.182 (talk) 16:05, 23 June 2014 (UTC)


 * There's actually multiple questions here. You're really asking whether there are movies that either:
 * have a Jewish bias,
 * have an anti-Christian bias,
 * do not carry a Christian bias.
 * These are distinct concepts. Movies with a Jewish bias may or may not be open to Christian biases (because it's possible to do a movie about the Tanakh/Old Testament that both audiences could get plenty out of, especially since the first Christians were also Jews), and may or may not carry an anti-Christian bias (although since the movie would very likely try to make it to at least discount DVD bins in America, and would be dealing with subject matter from centuries before Jesus was born, it's highly unlikely).  Movies with an anti-Christian bias would almost always not carry a Christian bias, but there could be sectarian biases (for example, a movie with a Jehovah's Witness bias could include stuff that gives the finger to more mainstream Christian beliefs, but you could only find those for sale at JW bookstores and websites).
 * That said, any Biblical movie you're going to find in America (especially Ohio) is probably not going to have an actual anti-Christian bias. I've heard that the recent Noah flick borders on being a Jewish Midrash (so it could qualify as "having a Jewish bias"), but not a single person can give me any explanation as to how it contradicts Christian belief beyond "that's not how I imagined it in Sunday School when I was four."
 * The 2009 movie The Book of Ruth: Journey of Faith was made by the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and both that and the 2013 movie Book of Esther was distributed by Pure Flix Entertainment. While TBN's very existence tends to offend my sensibilities as a Christian, I cannot deny that they are doing what they believe serves Christ (maybe Chri$t on the side, but they're at least nominally Christian).  And while I personally think Pure Flix insults Christian theology with utter pablum too watered down to even qualify as "spiritual milk", I have to begrudgingly admit that they're Christian.
 * To teach a man to fish here, look up the article on the films. If we don't have an article on the movie or its distributors, writers, or directors, it's probably from a small Christian company.  If the writer, director, and producer aren't all Jewish, it's probably going to have been made with the intention of getting some Sunday School audiences involved; and (if the movie is sold at all in America) it's safe to assume that the movie isn't going to carry an anti-Christian bias (for the same reasons you're not going to see many movies with an anti-Islamic bias go anywhere near Saudi Arabia or Malaysia).  Ian.thomson (talk) 16:50, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Okay. So, are there movies that do not favor the Christian interpretation of the Bible worldwide? 140.254.136.160 (talk) 17:12, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Which Bible? ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 17:14, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Any Bible that a Christian would accept as true, authoritative, inerrant, infallible, or inspired. I can't provide a specific answer, because the Bible version may vary across denominations. 140.254.136.160 (talk) 17:40, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * There's more than one Christian version. And to complicate matters, Jews call the Old Testament "The Bible". ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:30, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Given the charge that it was blasphemous, I suspect Jesus Christ Superstar would qualify. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 18:34, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * In fact pretty much any film that strict religionists label "blasphemous" should qualify. Such as the George Burns Oh God films. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 12:16, 24 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Monty Python's Life of Brian attracted a lot of negative (but still worth its weight in gold) publicity from religionists. --   Jack of Oz   [pleasantries]  20:14, 26 June 2014 (UTC)


 * I find those charges against Jesus Christ Superstar very strange. I strikes me as an honest and very mainstream exploration of fairly standard Christian grapplings with the Gospel narrative and faith, dressed up as 1970s counter-culture. 86.129.13.205 (talk) 21:16, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Yeah, Noah actually does favor the Ethiopian Church's canon a touch more than the the Lutheran, come to think of it.
 * I can't recall any OT film that qualifies (especially since I consider Messianic Judaism to overlap with Christianity), but going New Testament, The Messiah (2007 film) presents Jesus from Islam's point of view. Ian.thomson (talk) 17:22, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * So there's the question of the story (is it in the domain of Christianity or Judaism) and there's the perspective on the story. I can't say I've seen any movie about a Jewish story that was anti-Christian, and you didn't ask for Christian stories biased against Judaism. The Ten Commandments (1956 film) is one of the better known titles that applies to both, but was also praised by both. As noted above, Noah (2014 film) has been somewhat controversial because it received so much press implying it would be the familiar Christian version of the story, but Aronofsky specifically said he pulled from multiple sources and modeled it after other versions more heavily (I think there was a quote like "it's the lest biblical movie ever made" or something, in response to probes on the issue). The area that's left is anti-Christian Christian stories. Though people will disagree whether many of these are anti-Christian, I think most come by way of satire/parody, like Monty Python's Life of Brian, Dogma (film). Then there are those that tell versions of biblical stories in serious ways that upset Christians (I'm thinking in particular of Last Temptation of Christ (film) and, to a lesser extent Jesus of Nazareth (miniseries)). You may want to peruse Category:Films about religion, Category:Films based on the Bible, List of films based on the Bible, Category:Films critical of religion, and/or Category:Religious comedy films. --&mdash;  Rhododendrites talk  |  17:29, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Yeah, you're not far off about disagreements over the "anti-" bit: my mom, a Baptist minister's daughter, quite enjoyed Dogma; and I was able to get more than one teen and twenty something to have a higher view of Christian belief (though not churches) thanks to that movie. I've also cited Monty Python in discussions on Roman Judean politics.  That said, I do have to disagree on the "first few books," remark, as the Tanakh covers more than half of the Christian Bible. Ian.thomson (talk) 17:46, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Ack. Brain failure. You're certainly correct. Thanks. Removed it from my previous post. --&mdash;  Rhododendrites talk  |  18:53, 23 June 2014 (UTC)