One Bold List
The Arts & Faith community's Spiritually Significant Films includes many that are difficult to watch. While it's hardly a list of "Christian films," they all bring something to the table—and to the discussion.
by Jeffrey Overstreet | posted 11/21/2005
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Many Christians become enthusiastic about movies only when they carry a blatant religious message. And yet the big screens are almost always filled with stories that reflect spiritual truths, offer glimmers of God's glory, champion justice, portray the wages of sin, and appeal to our desire for a savior.
More and more Christians are discovering those ever-present films that raise important questions and reflect the world's brokenness, needs, and desire for beauty, justice, hope, and healing. They're finding that the cinema is a place full of provocation to contemplation and dialogue about spiritual matters.
If you're interested in seeing more than just the occasional "blatantly religious" film—whether it's "Christian movies" like Left Behind and Hangman's Curse, or mainstream flicks like The Passion of The Christ, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, and the much-anticipated Narnia films—then have we got a list for you.
The Arts & Faith online community—which includes a wide variety of Christians, including many professional critics, including Peter T. Chattaway and Ron Reed of Christianity Today Movies—recently posted its annual list of Spiritually Significant Films, 100 movies representing the wide world of filmmaking, in works domestic and foreign, contemporary and classic, narrative and documentary, traditional and experimental.
The list includes a few popular titles, but it also demonstrates that these voters are true cinephiles, eagerly exploring the entire territory of filmmaking. They watch films repeatedly, comparing and contrasting the filmmakers' techniques, vision, perspective, failures, and accomplishments.
The result is a list that others can use as a map to significant landmarks in the vast country of cinematic expression. Some titles are inspiring and beautiful, others are troubling paths into the underworld of sin and darkness. But all of them challenge us to consider new perspectives on timeless truths. All of them ask us to wrestle with the artists' perspectives and examine their ideas about spirituality. Many echo, and some challenge, Christian ideas.
But these are in no way the Top 100 "Christian films." Better to say they are films that Christians, attending to their individual consciences and proceeding with caution and discernment, would do well to encounter, meditate upon, and discuss.
In a prime example of the list's unconventional integrity, this year's Top 100 finds a film by the Dardennes Brothers at the top: Rosetta, an award-winning international favorite, is relatively unknown to the common American moviegoer. Other films by the Dardennes, The Son and La Promesse, show up on the list as well. All three are characterized by striking realism and a focus on action rather than dialogue, mere representation rather than storytelling that interprets the events for you. They'll challenge you to consider choices and consequences. They're not "feel-good" films by any means, but they nourish those who are willing to pay attention and think them through.
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