I’m the guy whose post on the movie Noah went viral, and angered the Hollywood heavyweights and their bullying religious sycophants. Because I uncovered the true subversive meaning of the movie. In this presentation, I explain what subversion is in storytelling, and how it can be used for good or evil. In fact, I show how God uses subversion in his storytelling. And if you get the full version, you will see my explanation of the movie Noah, complete with film clips. Good and bad examples.
This is a shortened version. Get the full version here, complete with lots of film clips.
I taught at one of Summit’s institutes on worldviews. They’re fabulous.
Have you noticed how young Bernie Sanders’s supporters are? These are our future leaders and they don’t know enough about history or economics to know that socialism is a failure.
Can I make a strong suggestion? Send every 16-to-21-year-old you know and love to Summit Ministries this summer. Summit’s focus is preparing godly leaders who stay strong in their faith and take a stand for what is right and true. For more than 50 years families have trusted Summit. Their graduates are leaders in every facet of society.
The Summit course is 12 days long and features personal contact with top thought leaders in economics, biblical worldview, philosophy, and social issues. Courses are available all summer long in Colorado, Tennessee, and California.
Now is the time to invest in preparing mature, thoughtful, focused, alert young leaders. Summit is key. That’s why I’m honored to be on their board of reference for this outstanding organization and encourage you to reserve a spot for this summer.
Click here to watch the Summit experience video and see first-hand what life is like at a Summit Student Conference. Another bonus for you and your student is that all registrations received on our website www.summit.org before 5 p.m. Mountain Time on March 31st will receive a $200 early bird discount.
And thanks to Summit donors who want to see every seat filled, we’ve reduced our Tennessee and California registration fees by ANOTHER $200.
Every worldview is a story that has a narrative of Creation, Fall and Redemption.
Every movie has a worldview.
I explain the components of a worldview and how they are incarnated within a story in movies.
This will help you understand the underlying meaning of movies.
Get the full version of this lecture, complete with film clips here.
I explain 8 elements of story incarnation, and how movies incarnate truth, meaning and worldview, through their protagonist, antagonist, drama, theme, love interest, reflection, and others.
Get the full version of this lecture, complete with film clips here.
A detective thriller about a Roman Tribune charged with the task of finding the body of Jesus Christ in order to stop an uprising after he is declared risen from the dead.
Not Your Father’s “Christian Movie”
Most “Christian movies,” especially ones about Jesus or the New Testament are cheap looking, cheesy, and quite honestly, tired and redundant.
I don’t even care to see them, and I’m a Christian.
Risen is NOT one of them.
It is NOT a “Christian movie,” filled with mediocre or bad performances of poor preachy writing and directing.
The Hero of the story is an unbeliever. But this is NOT the fake, stilted Kendrick brother’s version of an unbeliever.
Sorry for all those, “NOTs.” It’s just that there is so much baggage with the genre of Christian movies and Bible movies like this, that you have to realize just how different this movie really is.
Oh, and one more NOT. It is NOT another abominable subversion of the Biblical narrative and God like Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Now for what Risen IS.
Risen is an honest and truthful portrayal of a skeptical mind approaching the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And it is a fantastic story. It is an authentic fresh take on the Gospel from the unique perspective of an unbeliever.
Great writing, unpredictable story, strong acting, truthful and honest portrayal. Riveting drama.
To be honest, Risen is a Christian apologist’s dream come true. It is a narrative that dramatically and existentially incarnates the historical issues surrounding the resurrection of Christ in a much better way for today’s world than the logocentric “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” ever could (That’s not a knock on McDowell. It was good in its day). Of course, using the word “apologetics” in relation to a movie is dangerous, because of all the prejudice in the public against such an agenda. But so what. Atheists and other close-minded Bible haters and Christian bashers will still hate it, no matter how good the movie actually is.
As a Hollywood screenwriter and best-selling novelist, I explore the power of storytelling in movies and in the Bible. I reveal the elements of worldview, and how storytelling incarnates meaning and worldview. I explain the nature of subversion, and how narratives compete and win in the culture wars of both movies and the Bible. I examine the Bible as a model for analyzing how sex, violence and profanity may be used in movies and storytelling. I look at four differences between exposing sin and exploiting sin. I describe the 9 basic elements of story structure used in movies and the Bible to communicate redemption. I describe the genre of horror and explain the 4 ways that horror is used redemptively in the Bible and in movies.
I think you will love these Powerpoint presentations with film clips!
Based on the true story of the special investigative reporting team of the Boston Globe that, in 2002, exposed the massive systemic cover up by the Roman Catholic Church of its pedophile epidemic among priests.
This story works like one of those old journalist procedural movies like All the President’s Men. While it’s a well told story, it’s basically a bunch of reporters running around asking questions to people and trying to get documents. I’m not saying it’s boring. It isn’t. It’s quite interesting. But certainly not worthy of a “best film” Oscar nomination. This one may be there for it’s political agenda against the Roman Catholic Church.
And I’m not saying that the Roman Church doesn’t deserve the condemnation. It clearly does. But when it comes to Oscars, a movie is more than an agenda. It’s the acting, the visual, the action, the immersive experience of the senses. This is something you see with The Revenant, but not with Spotlight.
Spotlight is good, but not great. Its agenda is important, but its artistic movie merits are not.
That said, this is truly one of those issues of corruption that is so disturbing, you cannot deny that it undermines the authority and credibility of the offending institution.
