Movies that are of interest to atheists?

[vixengrl]

I'm mulling this over because I just saw Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal, which had a heavily existentialist theme regarding the condition of man, and had one character, Jons, who seemed to pretty clearly be an atheist voice.

The main character is the knight, Block, who seems to represent the intellectual in search of God. He is playing chess with Death, wagering that so long as he resists, he survives, and if he wins, he is off the hook for dying. At the same time, however, he yearns to have knowledge of God so that the things he has seen, having been a Crusader for many years, are not shown to be meaningless. While he does not want to die before he makes his way home, he also wants to obtain this understanding. The character of Squire Jons, however, is more of a man of action. He is cynical, however, he also has a code of morality of his own. It is he who realizes that he and the knight are returning to a country in the grips of a plague (he confronts reality directly). He rescues a mute girl from the rapist/thief, Raval, who in better times was the cleric who convinced Block to go on the Crusade. He also saves the actor, Jof (or Joseph, who has a wife Mia/Mary and a toddler son, Mikael) who is being bullied by Raval in a later scene.

Whether the movie was intended to be a good atheist allegory or not, the messages that Death doesn't necessarily bring knowledge, that organized religion could be capricious and even evil (the treatment of the supposed witch, Tyan, who is just a harmless girl, that is tortured and killed for "relations with the devil" is one example, that the most wretched character was a seminarian, is another), that every one dies, but that what matters is what you do in the here and now, not the afterlife, all make this a fascinating movie to view from an atheist perspective.

I wonder if anyone else has favorite movies that explore religion and irreligion in this way--or can just recommend movies that might be more interesting to view through the atheist p.o.v.

[laconicsax]

1. Some movies I've enjoyed include

Planet of the Apes (the real one): A big part of the conflict is religious--dogma vs reality.
Chocolat: Vianne as the atheist who pwns the mayor/church.
Saved: The main character goes from being a True Christian^TM to learning that it's a bunch of bullshit. The ending's disappointing in a predictable way but it's still a good anti-fundy movie.

The TV series Stargate SG-1 is also good. I liked it before I was an atheist and like it more now that I am. It has one or two pro-Christianity lines spread out over 10 seasons, but a big part of the show is about exposing false gods and liberating people from religion--especially the last two seasons.

[phantom power]

2. I liked "Signs" -- if you pretend the ending didn't happen.

[laconicsax]

13. That movie was in trouble way before the ending.

[onager]

3. Couple more...

The Rapture - Though written and directed by a "secular Jew," this fascinating flick poses a very atheistic question: even if a god exists, is it worth worshipping if it can separate us from our loved ones for eternity? You'll be thinking about this one for a long time after you watch. Stars David Duchovny (before The X-Files)and Mimi Rogers. Eye-catching imagery includes a young woman with the entire Apocalypse tattooed on her back. Only the ultra low budget hampers it slightly - they could only afford ONE Horseman of the Apocalypse. :-)

Wise Blood - "I'm gonna start me a new church. Where the blind don't see, the crippled don't walk, and what's dead stays that way." John Huston struggled for years to film the Flannery O'Connor novel about one man's attempt to escape his Fundamentalist upbringing. Perfect cast includes Brad Dourif as the creepy, doomed protagonist, and Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty as phony street preachers.

"I'm a preacher."
"What denomination?"
"Church of Christ Without Christ."
"Is that Protestant?"

:rofl:

The Devils - Ken Russell's OTT 1971 adaptation of the Aldous Huxley non-fiction book, The Devils of Loudon. Set in France when it was dominated by Cardinal Richeliu and the Church WAS the State. Try to find an uncut version, but it won't be easy - censors find this one just as offensive today as they did 40 years ago. Movie fans have been demanding a good uncut DVD version for a long time, with no luck. With Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave.

The Witchfinder General, aka Conqueror Worm - more church-vs-state hijinks, this time in Cromwellian England. VERY loosely based on the true story of a real "witchfinder," Matthew Hopkins. Vincent Price dropped his usual scenery-chewing, ham-and-cheese horror mugging to play it straight here. VERY straight. Not one supernatural thing happens, but this is definitely a horror movie - the horror being what ordinary humans are capable of. Don't expect a happy ending.

[Heddi]

7. Wise Blood is the best movie, and an even better book

The movie is very true to the book. I love the preacher's daughter, Sabbath Lily Hawkes, trying to get fresh with Haze...

"My name is Sabbath," she said. "Sabbath Lily Hawks. My mother named me that just after I was born because I was born on the Sabbath and then she turned over in her bed and died and I never seen her."

"Unh," Haze said. His jaw tightened and he entrenched himself behind it and drove on. He had not wanted any company. His sense of pleasure in the car and in the afternoon was gone.

"Him and her wasn't married," she continued, "and that makes me a bastard, but I can't help it. It was what he done to me and not what I done to myself."

"A bastard?" he murmured. He couldn't see how a preacher who had blinded himself for Jeuss could have a bastard. He turned his head and looked at her with interest for the first time.

She nodded and the corners of her mouth turned up. "A real bastard," she said, catching his elbow, "and do you know what? A bastard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven!" she said.

Haze was driving his car toward the ditch while he stared at her. "How could you be....," he started and saw the red embankment in front of him and pulled the car back on the road.

"Do you read the papers?" she asked.
"No," he said.
"Well, there's this woman in it named Mary Brittle that tells you what to do when you don't know. I wrote her a letter and ast her what I was to do."

"How could you be a bastard when he blinded him...," he started again.

"I says, 'Dear Mary, I am a bastard and a bastard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven as we all know, but I have this personality that makes boys follow me. Do you think I should neck or not? I shall not enter the kingdom of heaven anyawy so I don't see what difference it makes.'"

"Listen here," Haze said, "if he blinded himself, how..."

"Then she answered my letter in the paper. She said, 'Dear Sabbath, light necking is acceptable, but I think your real problem is one of adjustment to the modern world. Perhaps you ought to re-examine your religious values to see if they meet your needs in Life. A religious experience can be a beautiful addition to living if you put it in the proper perspective and do not let it warf you. Read some books on Ethical Culture.'"

"You couldn't be a bastard," Haze said, getting very pale. "You must be mixed up. Your daddy blinded himself."

"Then I wrote her another letter," she said, scratching his ankle with the toe of her sneaker, and smiling, "I says, 'Dear Mary. What I really want to know is should I go the whole hog or not? That's my real problem. I'm adjusted okay to the modern world.'"

"Your daddy blinded himself," Haze repeated

"He wasn't always as good as he is now," she said. "She never answered my second letter."

Haw haw haw

[Deep13]

4. Troy

King Priam is faced with a series of choices. On the one hand is his son Hector who represents the voice of reason. On the other is the priest. Priam keeps taking the advice of the priest and gets screwed every time.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Achilles is dismissive of god-worship and superstition. His view is a grim nihilism.

One safe way for a film maker to be openly hostile toward religion is to pick an extinct religion for that purpose.

[Sin]

5. Watched one as of late.

Called "Franklyn" main char is an atheist don't want to give to much away for it but hes also crazy, Lot cool ideas and scenes in it. Like a weird world thats a steam punk, polytheistic, theocracy.

[onager]

6. Here's a big list for you...

Of on-topic movies, documentaries and upcoming film projects. Googling "atheist movies" turned up a lot of hits...surprisingly!

http://www.atheistempire.com/entertainment/movies.php#ath

I thought of a couple more flicks:

The Children of Huang Shi - 2008, directed by Roger Spottiswoode. True story of a British journalist and a nurse who saved Chinese orphans during the Japanese invasion of China. Knowing nothing of the story, I expected a tear-jerking Xian missionary angle to pop up. Not so. The HEROES include an opium dealer and a cheerfully atheistic Chinese Communist guerilla leader - who graduated from West Point!!!

And how did I manage to forget...

The Wicker Man - the 1973 original, not the godless-awful Nic Cage remake. This movie is so good that one of its major points is often overlooked: the Fundamentalist Xian Sgt. Howie prays, the Fundamentalist Pagans burn people at the stake to revive their crops...and NONE OF THAT STUFF WORKS! A great message from screenwriter (and atheist) Anthony Shaffer. He also wrote the evergreen stage thriller Sleuth, and his brother Peter Shaffer wrote Equus.

[and-justice-for-all]

8. Contact and There Will Be Blood...

the end of "There Will Be Blood" is great.

[Jokerman]

9. "The Man from Earth"

Definitely not one for the action flick crowd. Mostly a bunch of academics sitting around talking, but the conversation and the secrets revealed about one man's past are fascinating. The plot twists are sure to piss off most xians.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0756683/

[phantom power]

10. City of Ember

An underground city is dying. A bunch of woo-woo grownups sit around waiting for "the builders" to come back and fix it. A couple of kids decide to actually figure out what the hell is going on, and escape from the city.

[Warpy]

11. The Second Coming

A video store clerk gets a revelation he's the second coming of Jesus Christ and is able to perform enough miracles to prove it. Lots of diddling around with writing the Third Testament, after which it's discovered the human race doesn't need a new book, it needs to grow up past fairy tales.

It's a gritty, working class film that's not easy to watch, but the message is a provocative one.

[moggie]

12. Persepolis

Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical animated film about a young Iranian girl experiencing the revolution, the war, and repressive theocracy. Sent by her parents (for her own protection) to Europe, she learns the benefits of secular freedom (and suffers for a while under some unpleasant nuns, to underline that Muslim clerics aren't the only bad guys), which makes life all the harder when she returns to Iran. God makes a few personal appearances, but is mostly present by proxy, in the form of the fierce, bearded men who make life misery (particularly for women). Thanks to the feisty lead character and her warm family, it's funny and touching, but it's also depressing. In the "making of" documentary on the DVD, Satrapi says something like "it needed to be animated, because a live-action film would just have been an ethnic story of God ruling over some distant country. Animation makes it universal, and dictatorships can happen anywhere".

[onager]

16. Good call on that one! Thanks.

I've been meaning to see "Persepolis" for some time. After seeing your post, I found it on cable and DVR'd it.

Just finished watching and it was great. Now I think I'll get the DVD to see the "making of" feature.

Satrapi's treatment of God reminded me of another former Muslim/current atheist - whose name I have of course forgotten.

He said that after a long inner struggle over becoming an atheist, one night he had a dream. He was in a garden with an old man, who he immediately recognized as his concept of Allah. He told the old man: "I don't need you any more. You have to leave now, and never come back." He woke up with all the struggles resolved.

It struck me as interesting that Satrapi dealt with her concept of God in much the same way.

[rrneck]

14. I got a charge out of

Dogma



Of course, I like movies that have cars flying through the air. :evilgrin:

[PassingFair]

15. "The Contender"

Fabulous political movie.
I'm not normally a huge fan of Joan Allen,
but she is PERFECT in this role, as are
Gary Oldman and Jeff Bridges (as President!)...

A definite MUST SEE for all atheists.