What is a Christian movie?
Editorial by Larry Amon, President of CWA.
Bella, The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything, and Me & You, Us, Forever. Are any of these Christian movies? This week I got an email from Focus on The Family about the movie Bella (currently in theaters). The email mentioned how the movie elevated the teachings of Christ. But nowhere on their website could I find any mention of Jesus. The film company, Metanoia, says it wants to make films with a meaningful difference, (metanoia is Greek for repentance or changing one’s mind) but does that mean they are making Christian films? From just what they say on their website, I think the answer is no. The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything movie is scheduled to release January 11th and is being put out by the new Big Idea which is run by Classic Media. The film was written by Phil Vischer several years ago. He’s a Christian who started the original Big Idea and created Veggietales. Phil says the movie is not a Bible story but that it is profoundly Christian. I haven’t seen the film so I can’t comment too much on it. However, if this film or any film has Christian morals as its base and even if the author is Christian, but the movie never mentions Jesus or God directly, I’m not sure it would qualify as a Christian movie. Me & You, Us, Forever is due out Feb 15, 2008. It’s a love story, not a Bible story. But the film’s website says the movie is about the story of a 47 year old Christian man. This leads me to believe there will be at least some mention of Christ. Is this a Christian movie? It’s hard to say without having seen it, but I have hope. I have to say overall that I am most concerned with Bella. The movie may have been produced by Christians or maybe not. I don’t know. But just because a movie is family friendly or is a nice movie that’s about Christian principles, I don’t think you can say it’s a Christian movie. Just look at the band Creed. This was a band that many thought of as a Christian band. The lead singer Scott Stapp said that it was not Christian. They may have made songs about spirituality, but he said whenever they were asked if Creed was a Christian band, they always said no. Stapp says he was glad no one asked about his beliefs while he was in the band because he was a struggling Christian at the time. So I think we need to be careful as to what we label Christian. As for the other two films, I plan to see them both. Actually, I may even watch Bella at some point but I won’t expect it to be a Christian film. I really liked The Ultimate Gift but I wouldn’t say it was a Christian film either. The Pirates movie I’m most looking forward too see because I know it will be funny, it will have a good message, and I know a Christian wrote it. After I see it, I will re-evaluate whether I think it is a Christian movie. Regardless, I very much respect Phil Vischer and the work that he does.
