list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Priest on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Priest/91288/default.aspx Title: Priest
Year: 1994
Director: Antonia Bird
Plot: A priest is torn between church dogma and his personal beliefs in this British drama. Father Greg (Linus Roache) is a Catholic priest who tends to a parish in Liverpool. Like his superior, Father Matthew (Tom Wilkinson), Father Greg is not dealing well with his vow of celibacy. While Matthew has been discreetly having an affair with his housekeeper, Greg is homosexual, and he occasionally slips out to gay clubs for anonymous encounters with strangers. One night, Father Greg meets a man named Graham (Robert Carlyle) at the bar; when he bumps into him on the street a few days later, he realizes that he's falling in love with him. As Father Greg struggles with his sexual and spiritual identity, he hears a confession from 14-year-old Lisa Unsworth (Christine Tremarco), who tells him that her father has been molesting her. Mr. Unsworth (Robert Pugh) confirms his daughter's allegation during confession, and he tells the priest that he will not stop his incestuous behavior. Should Father Greg violate the seal of the confessional to save Lisa from further abuse? Priest, which opened in America on Good Friday, generated considerable controversy, both with Catholic organizations (who denounced the picture) and the MPAA (the film had to be re-edited to gain an R rating for U.S. release). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 3
Number of Lists: 6
Number of blog posts: 2
Number of discussion threads: 1
SpoutRating: 2
]]>Sat, 22 Aug 2009 22:25:58 GMTPriest1994Antonia BirdA priest is torn between church dogma and his personal beliefs in this British drama. Father Greg (<a href="/players/P___150862/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Linus Roache</a>) is a Catholic priest who tends to a parish in Liverpool. Like his superior, Father Matthew (<a href="/players/P____76333/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Tom Wilkinson</a>), Father Greg is not dealing well with his vow of celibacy. While Matthew has been discreetly having an affair with his housekeeper, Greg is homosexual, and he occasionally slips out to gay clubs for anonymous encounters with strangers. One night, Father Greg meets a man named Graham (<a href="/players/P____11052/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Robert Carlyle</a>) at the bar; when he bumps into him on the street a few days later, he realizes that he's falling in love with him. As Father Greg struggles with his sexual and spiritual identity, he hears a confession from 14-year-old Lisa Unsworth (Christine Tremarco), who tells him that her father has been molesting her. Mr. Unsworth (Robert Pugh) confirms his daughter's allegation during confession, and he tells the priest that he will not stop his incestuous behavior. Should Father Greg violate the seal of the confessional to save Lisa from further abuse? Priest, which opened in America on Good Friday, generated considerable controversy, both with Catholic organizations (who denounced the picture) and the MPAA (the film had to be re-edited to gain an R rating for U.S. release). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide3Slightly Tagged (1-5)6212http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t03126gyhgf.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/Priest/91288/default.aspxFilm http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/6/19/31428.aspx Post By: SpoutBlog
Post To: SpoutBlog on spout.com
Post Date: 6/19/2008 3:00:57 PM
Body: This week we have two big-time offenders: Mike Myers’ The Love Guru, which has brought concern from Hindus, because the comedy seems to be making fun of the Hindu religion; and Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons, the “sequel” to The Da Vinci Code, adapted from Dan Brown’s bestseller. Earlier this week, the Vatican banned the latter production from all Catholic churches in Rome. The following statement from Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, was a favorite quote from the story: “Usually we read the script but in this case it wasn’t necessary. Just the name Dan Brown was enough.” Of course, these days, religious organizations taking offense to a movie seems so commonplace that news like this is hardly even considered bad buzz. Neither The Love Guru nor Angels & Demons will be too aversely affected by the protests or boycotts. Both films will merely be added to the following list of major offenders (in alphabetical order so as not to offend anyone who thinks one is more offensive than another), as almost a genre cataloging than an inventory of condemned. Brokeback Mountain - Because of its promotion of “the homosexual lifestyle,” many right-wing Christian groups protested Ang Lee’s film. Most famously, it was pulled last-minute from a multiplex owned by Mormon businessman and Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, though his motivation was not necessarily claimed to be religion-based. Despite there being hundreds of gay films throughout the years, because of its popularity, this one was the worst offender. The Da Vinci Code - I already mentioned this above and in a recent post on movies that overcame bad buzz, so I’ll make it short: banned, boycotted and protested throughout the world due to its blasphemous (and fictional) allegations that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child together. The Devils - Many of the following films were banned in Italy, but with Ken Russell’s blasphemous adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s “The Devils of Loudon,” there was also threat that stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave would be arrested if they entered the country. The most offensive scene, labeled “the rape of Christ,” depicted a mock exorcism involving fully nude nuns masturbating with a large crucifix. The scene was removed prior to the film’s release, but there were plenty of other controversial sequences that led to protest. A very low-quality DVD of the film was released a few years ago with the “rape of Christ” scene put back in. Dogma - I understand how comedy can be seen as offensive, especially in the case of stereotypical caricatures like the one in The Love Guru. But Kevin Smith’s religious satire is so silly and all over the place that I can’t imagine that viewers would take its contents seriously. Yet enough protests required the film to be disowned by Miramax/Disney and then eventually be released (courtesy of Lionsgate) with a disclaimer stating that it is merely “a work of comedic fantasy.” Hail Mary - Jean-Luc Godard’s modern retelling of the Nativity was criticized by none other than Pope John Paul II, himself. He was quoted as saying that it “deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers.” But even better was the response from another man who took offense to the film and decided to throw a shaving cream pie in Godard’s face at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. Also this is probably one of the rare circumstances in which the filmmaker is the one trying to prevent Italian distribution and is actually unable to do so. The Last Temptation of Christ - Like Dogma, Martin Scorsese’s film came with a disclaimer that noted it is not based on the gospels and is a work of fiction. But like the case against The Da Vinci Code, the idea or depiction of Jesus and Mary Magdalene getting it on is never forgivable. Life of Brian - I can’t believe that anyone actually took offense to the joke about the three wise men initially approaching the wrong stable, but apparently that was one of the many blasphemous scenes in this Monty Python satire of the life of Jesus. Also: how could anyone be upset about the crucifix scene? Eric Idle’s song is just too catchy to mind its offensiveness. The Message (aka Mohammad, Messenger of God) - Much of the protests against this epic movie, about the founding of Islam, came mostly because of pre-release assumptions. For instance, some groups thought Anthony Quinn was starring as Mohammad (or Muhammad), a problem both because the prophet is not permitted to be represented in human form in any medium and because Quinn is Mexican-American, not Arab (as noted yesterday, all it takes is facial hair to change that). Other preproduction rumors were that Peter O’Toole and Charlton Heston were up for the part of Mohammad. Of course, the prophet is never seen, and Quinn merely portrays his uncle, Hamza. Unfortunate, nobody told certain extremists, even when the film came out, and apparently many cinemas received phone calls with death threats. Also, a tragic hostage situation in Washington D.C. began the day The Message opened, leading to the death of a police officer and the non-fatal shooting of future-mayor Marion Barry. One of the demands of the hostage-takers was for The Message not be released. The Passion of the Christ - A rare modern film about Jesus that didn’t seem to offend any Christians. Actually, of course it offended some groups, but their protests were clearly overshadowed by the protests from Jewish groups, who took offense to the movie’s apparent placing of blame for Jesus’ death on the Jews. Considering Mel Gibson’s later controversy involving his drunken, anti-semitic outbursts, the offense definitely seems to have more merit than initially recognized. Priest - Five years before Miramax/Disney was forced to disown Dogma because of Catholic protestors, the Weinsteins distributed this “blatantly anti-Catholic” film about a homosexual priest. Of course, it was mainly criticized by people who hadn’t seen it, such as New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who likened the film to graffiti found on bathroom walls. Rosemary’s Baby - There’s now a whole slew (I guess a whole subgenre) of horror films dealing with the occult, Satanism and the Antichrist, but this was the hit that pretty much started it all. And because of the parallels between Rosemary and the Virgin Mary, it’s possibly the most offensive to Catholics. Even the media used it against its director, Roman Polanski, when his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered a year after its release; prior to revelation that Tate and the rest were killed by the Manson “family,” reporters speculated that it was the result of the Polanskis’ alleged satanism and some even claimed the tragedy was deserved. September Dawn - Until last year, Jon Voight’ most offensive movie was probably Karate Dog, but in 2007 he starred in this alleged anti-Mormon propaganda (called such before the Church of Latter-Day Saints viewed it, of course), which portrays an historical incident in which a Mormon militia massacred a wagon train of emigrants. The greatest offense is apparently the claim that Mormon leader Brigham Young (played by Terrence Stamp) was directly involved. Another criticism was that Hollywood made the film to somehow affect Mitt Romney’s campaign for President. Submission - Theo van Gogh’s ten-minute film criticizes the treatment of women in Islam and was apparently offensive enough that it led to the filmmaker’s assassination at the hands of a Dutch Muslim ma The Triumph of the Will - While Leni Reifenstahl’s propaganda film is well-regarded and highly respected today by film critics, scholars and historians, many Jewish groups see its celebration as being “morally insensitive.” Viridiana - Luis Bunuel made plenty of movies that mocked the Church, but this 1961 Palme D’or-winner was perhaps the most publicly protested by the Vatican and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who had it banned in Spain until after his death. Bunuel’s excellent plea of ignorance: “I didn’t deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am.” Originally posted on:SpoutBlog
]]>Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:00:57 GMTSpoutBlogSpoutBlog on spout.com6/19/2008 3:00:57 PMThis week we have two big-time offenders: Mike Myers’ The Love Guru, which has brought concern from Hindus, because the comedy seems to be making fun of the Hindu religion; and Ron Howard’s Angels & Demons, the “sequel” to The Da Vinci Code, adapted from Dan Brown’s bestseller. Earlier this week, the Vatican banned the latter production from all Catholic churches in Rome. The following statement from Father Marco Fibbi, spokesman for the diocese of Rome, was a favorite quote from the story: “Usually we read the script but in this case it wasn’t necessary. Just the name Dan Brown was enough.” Of course, these days, religious organizations taking offense to a movie seems so commonplace that news like this is hardly even considered bad buzz. Neither The Love Guru nor Angels & Demons will be too aversely affected by the protests or boycotts. Both films will merely be added to the following list of major offenders (in alphabetical order so as not to offend anyone who thinks one is more offensive than another), as almost a genre cataloging than an inventory of condemned. Brokeback Mountain - Because of its promotion of “the homosexual lifestyle,” many right-wing Christian groups protested Ang Lee’s film. Most famously, it was pulled last-minute from a multiplex owned by Mormon businessman and Utah Jazz owner Larry H. Miller, though his motivation was not necessarily claimed to be religion-based. Despite there being hundreds of gay films throughout the years, because of its popularity, this one was the worst offender. The Da Vinci Code - I already mentioned this above and in a recent post on movies that overcame bad buzz, so I’ll make it short: banned, boycotted and protested throughout the world due to its blasphemous (and fictional) allegations that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child together. The Devils - Many of the following films were banned in Italy, but with Ken Russell’s blasphemous adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s “The Devils of Loudon,” there was also threat that stars Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave would be arrested if they entered the country. The most offensive scene, labeled “the rape of Christ,” depicted a mock exorcism involving fully nude nuns masturbating with a large crucifix. The scene was removed prior to the film’s release, but there were plenty of other controversial sequences that led to protest. A very low-quality DVD of the film was released a few years ago with the “rape of Christ” scene put back in. Dogma - I understand how comedy can be seen as offensive, especially in the case of stereotypical caricatures like the one in The Love Guru. But Kevin Smith’s religious satire is so silly and all over the place that I can’t imagine that viewers would take its contents seriously. Yet enough protests required the film to be disowned by Miramax/Disney and then eventually be released (courtesy of Lionsgate) with a disclaimer stating that it is merely “a work of comedic fantasy.” Hail Mary - Jean-Luc Godard’s modern retelling of the Nativity was criticized by none other than Pope John Paul II, himself. He was quoted as saying that it “deeply wounds the religious sentiments of believers.” But even better was the response from another man who took offense to the film and decided to throw a shaving cream pie in Godard’s face at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival. Also this is probably one of the rare circumstances in which the filmmaker is the one trying to prevent Italian distribution and is actually unable to do so. The Last Temptation of Christ - Like Dogma, Martin Scorsese’s film came with a disclaimer that noted it is not based on the gospels and is a work of fiction. But like the case against The Da Vinci Code, the idea or depiction of Jesus and Mary Magdalene getting it on is never forgivable. Life of Brian - I can’t believe that anyone actually took offense to the joke about the three wise men initially approaching the wrong stable, but apparently that was one of the many blasphemous scenes in this Monty Python satire of the life of Jesus. Also: how could anyone be upset about the crucifix scene? Eric Idle’s song is just too catchy to mind its offensiveness. The Message (aka Mohammad, Messenger of God) - Much of the protests against this epic movie, about the founding of Islam, came mostly because of pre-release assumptions. For instance, some groups thought Anthony Quinn was starring as Mohammad (or Muhammad), a problem both because the prophet is not permitted to be represented in human form in any medium and because Quinn is Mexican-American, not Arab (as noted yesterday, all it takes is facial hair to change that). Other preproduction rumors were that Peter O’Toole and Charlton Heston were up for the part of Mohammad. Of course, the prophet is never seen, and Quinn merely portrays his uncle, Hamza. Unfortunate, nobody told certain extremists, even when the film came out, and apparently many cinemas received phone calls with death threats. Also, a tragic hostage situation in Washington D.C. began the day The Message opened, leading to the death of a police officer and the non-fatal shooting of future-mayor Marion Barry. One of the demands of the hostage-takers was for The Message not be released. The Passion of the Christ - A rare modern film about Jesus that didn’t seem to offend any Christians. Actually, of course it offended some groups, but their protests were clearly overshadowed by the protests from Jewish groups, who took offense to the movie’s apparent placing of blame for Jesus’ death on the Jews. Considering Mel Gibson’s later controversy involving his drunken, anti-semitic outbursts, the offense definitely seems to have more merit than initially recognized. Priest - Five years before Miramax/Disney was forced to disown Dogma because of Catholic protestors, the Weinsteins distributed this “blatantly anti-Catholic” film about a homosexual priest. Of course, it was mainly criticized by people who hadn’t seen it, such as New York Cardinal John J. O’Connor, who likened the film to graffiti found on bathroom walls. Rosemary’s Baby - There’s now a whole slew (I guess a whole subgenre) of horror films dealing with the occult, Satanism and the Antichrist, but this was the hit that pretty much started it all. And because of the parallels between Rosemary and the Virgin Mary, it’s possibly the most offensive to Catholics. Even the media used it against its director, Roman Polanski, when his wife, Sharon Tate, was murdered a year after its release; prior to revelation that Tate and the rest were killed by the Manson “family,” reporters speculated that it was the result of the Polanskis’ alleged satanism and some even claimed the tragedy was deserved. September Dawn - Until last year, Jon Voight’ most offensive movie was probably Karate Dog, but in 2007 he starred in this alleged anti-Mormon propaganda (called such before the Church of Latter-Day Saints viewed it, of course), which portrays an historical incident in which a Mormon militia massacred a wagon train of emigrants. The greatest offense is apparently the claim that Mormon leader Brigham Young (played by Terrence Stamp) was directly involved. Another criticism was that Hollywood made the film to somehow affect Mitt Romney’s campaign for President. Submission - Theo van Gogh’s ten-minute film criticizes the treatment of women in Islam and was apparently offensive enough that it led to the filmmaker’s assassination at the hands of a Dutch Muslim ma The Triumph of the Will - While Leni Reifenstahl’s propaganda film is well-regarded and highly respected today by film critics, scholars and historians, many Jewish groups see its celebration as being “morally insensitive.” Viridiana - Luis Bunuel made plenty of movies that mocked the Church, but this 1961 Palme D’or-winner was perhaps the most publicly protested by the Vatican and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who had it banned in Spain until after his death. Bunuel’s excellent plea of ignorance: “I didn’t deliberately set out to be blasphemous, but then Pope John XXIII is a better judge of such things than I am.” Originally posted on:SpoutBlog http://www.spout.com/blogs/lopezdash/archive/2007/12/10/22694.aspx Post By: lopezdash
Post To: The Movie Blog
Post Date: 12/10/2007 1:02:19 PM
Body: From the Entertainment and Culture blog over at New York Magazine comes a list of THE TEN MOST ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVIES OF ALL TIME. What a title, eh? 10. Carrie (1976) After the titular protagonist gets her first period at school, her crazy, devoutly Christian mother locks her in a closet and tells her to pray, explaining that only sinners menstruate (Wikipedia says this is false). Luckily, Carrie has telekinetic powers, which she uses to toss her mom across a room, electrocute her principal, and burn down her high school's gymnasium, killing hundreds of students. Parents, take note.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJe0iVo8y3A 9. Priest (1995) Antonia Bird's film — which caused a flash of protest when Miramax released it — follows Linus Roache's gay priest as he struggles against his vow of celibacy, and his inability to help a young girl who confesses that her father is abusing her. Perhaps better described as anti-celibacy than anti-Christian, the film ends with a moment of grace that casts the film's view of faith in a somewhat gentler light, but it's hard to overstate how violently some religious viewers responded to the image of a Catholic priest doing it with Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVNbV1zPDU 8. Footloose (1984) Despite its canonical status as an eighties classic, we’re willing to bet that if an original script like Footloose — in which fun-loving teen Kevin Bacon arrives in a small town where preacher John Lithgow has banned rock music and dancing — landed on a Hollywood exec’s desk today, they’d be too afraid to produce it, lest it offend some key demographic. It’s Lithgow’s villain who really makes the movie: Soft-spoken and patronizing when he’s not spitting out the fire and brimstone ("He’s testing us!!"), his performance is a bone-chilling portrait of smug self-righteousness and could easily blend in among any number of Sunday-morning-TV preachers. The only thing missing is a bad hairpiece. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH2t6T7rhCU 7. Dogma (1999) Sure, not all of the jokes were funny. Also, its plot is almost as incomprehensible as the Bible's. Even so, you've got to admire Kevin Smith for having the nerve to cast George Carlin as a cardinal (who tries to make Catholicism more accessible by replacing the crucifix with a statue of Jesus giving a thumbs-up), Chris Rock as the thirteenth apostle (who was omitted from the Bible for being black), and Alanis Morrisette as God (this really pissed off Christians, since her second album had just come out and it was a total stinker). Plus, he got Disney to pay for it!Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3zEraHgfO4 6. Jesus Camp (2006) Documentary filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing probably never set out to make Evangelical Christians look crazy, but when they showed up at the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a children's Bible camp in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and set up their cameras, that's exactly what happened. The home-schooled little rascals roll around on the floor speaking in tongues, take strategic pointers from radical Islam, and bless a cardboard cutout of President Bush (see above). Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard even shows up to decry the horrors of homosexuality, presumably in between visits to his gay, meth-dealing masseur.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CgvgjfwyPs 5. The Name of the Rose (1986) True, the heroes of Umberto Eco's religio-literary mystery are themselves monks — played by Sean Connery and Christian Slater in the movie version — but that doesn't stop this thriller, set in a medieval abbey where the faithful are dying in pursuit of a long-lost and forbidden copy of Aristotle's Poetics, from being one of cinema's most damning looks at religious superstition. Not the least because,besides the two leads, practically every monk in this film (1) is hideous-looking and (2) dies a horrible, excruciating death. It's as if H.R. Giger and Dario Argento collaborated on the film version of God Is Not Great. Don't miss the scene where Ron Perlman eats a rat.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc-_hkLBVnc 4. The Magdalene Sisters (2002) There have been plenty of movies in recent years about priestly abuse — God only knows why — but few are more single-minded in their condemnation than Peter Mullan's harrowing look at three unfortunate young Irish Catholic women who wind up under the custody of a Magdalene convent for wayward girls in the sixties. Between the beatings and rapes they're subjected to at the hands of sadistic nuns and lewd priests, and the brutality of the ostensibly God-fearing society outside the convent walls, Mullan's film plays at times like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS remade in monastic disguise. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJYiJQ-jbkM 3. The Boys of St. Vincent (1993) This four-hour Canadian telefilm is a difficult, complex portrait of a Catholic orphanage ruled over by a pedophilic priest (Henry Czerny, in a role that launched him into a career of playing creepy bastards). But the film isn't anti-Christian because it's yet another movie about a priest who can't keep his hands off the flock; it's anti-Christian because its primary theme is the creeping danger of Catholicism's emphasis on submission of the self to those above you on the pecking order, whether that's a priest, a Church administrator, or God Himself. 2. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) The blasphemous Life of Brian would have been the obvious choice here, but that one just gently chides the Jesus myth, whereas the Pythons' final film actually eviscerates the pettiness of religion in everyday life, never more effectively than in the hilarious musical number "Every Sperm Is Sacred," sung by a miserably poor and overpopulated Catholic household while their preening, repressed Protestant neighbors look on in pity. ("When Martin Luther nailed his protest up to the church door in 1517, he may not have realized the full significance of what he was doing, but 400 years later, thanks to him, my dear … I can go down the road any time I want and walk into Harry's and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, 'Harry, I think I'll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant!'")Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8 1. The Canterbury Tales (1972) Although he made what many still consider to be the quintessential Jesus movie (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964), Italian Marxist homosexual poet Pier Paolo Pasolini was no fan of religious dogma, and his sex-drenched, free-form adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's poem constantly thumbs its nose at the falsely pious. But Pasolini saves the big one for the end: The film ends with a shocking and hilarious vision of Hell in which Satan cracks open his butt cheeks and shits out streams of screaming friars. In close-up. Repeatedly. Sadly, we were unable to find this clip on YouTube, but then we realized we could put it up ourselves. Enjoy, because it won't last long.
]]>Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:02:19 GMTlopezdashThe Movie Blog12/10/2007 1:02:19 PMFrom the Entertainment and Culture blog over at New York Magazine comes a list of THE TEN MOST ANTI-CHRISTIAN MOVIES OF ALL TIME. What a title, eh? 10. Carrie (1976) After the titular protagonist gets her first period at school, her crazy, devoutly Christian mother locks her in a closet and tells her to pray, explaining that only sinners menstruate (Wikipedia says this is false). Luckily, Carrie has telekinetic powers, which she uses to toss her mom across a room, electrocute her principal, and burn down her high school&#39;s gymnasium, killing hundreds of students. Parents, take note.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJe0iVo8y3A 9. Priest (1995) Antonia Bird&#39;s film &mdash; which caused a flash of protest when Miramax released it &mdash; follows Linus Roache&#39;s gay priest as he struggles against his vow of celibacy, and his inability to help a young girl who confesses that her father is abusing her. Perhaps better described as anti-celibacy than anti-Christian, the film ends with a moment of grace that casts the film&#39;s view of faith in a somewhat gentler light, but it&#39;s hard to overstate how violently some religious viewers responded to the image of a Catholic priest doing it with Trainspotting&#39;s Robert Carlyle.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHVNbV1zPDU 8. Footloose (1984) Despite its canonical status as an eighties classic, we&rsquo;re willing to bet that if an original script like Footloose &mdash; in which fun-loving teen Kevin Bacon arrives in a small town where preacher John Lithgow has banned rock music and dancing &mdash; landed on a Hollywood exec&rsquo;s desk today, they&rsquo;d be too afraid to produce it, lest it offend some key demographic. It&rsquo;s Lithgow&rsquo;s villain who really makes the movie: Soft-spoken and patronizing when he&rsquo;s not spitting out the fire and brimstone (&quot;He&rsquo;s testing us!!&quot;), his performance is a bone-chilling portrait of smug self-righteousness and could easily blend in among any number of Sunday-morning-TV preachers. The only thing missing is a bad hairpiece. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lH2t6T7rhCU 7. Dogma (1999) Sure, not all of the jokes were funny. Also, its plot is almost as incomprehensible as the Bible&#39;s. Even so, you&#39;ve got to admire Kevin Smith for having the nerve to cast George Carlin as a cardinal (who tries to make Catholicism more accessible by replacing the crucifix with a statue of Jesus giving a thumbs-up), Chris Rock as the thirteenth apostle (who was omitted from the Bible for being black), and Alanis Morrisette as God (this really pissed off Christians, since her second album had just come out and it was a total stinker). Plus, he got Disney to pay for it!Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3zEraHgfO4 6. Jesus Camp (2006) Documentary filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing probably never set out to make Evangelical Christians look crazy, but when they showed up at the Kids on Fire School of Ministry, a children&#39;s Bible camp in Devils Lake, North Dakota, and set up their cameras, that&#39;s exactly what happened. The home-schooled little rascals roll around on the floor speaking in tongues, take strategic pointers from radical Islam, and bless a cardboard cutout of President Bush (see above). Disgraced pastor Ted Haggard even shows up to decry the horrors of homosexuality, presumably in between visits to his gay, meth-dealing masseur.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CgvgjfwyPs 5. The Name of the Rose (1986) True, the heroes of Umberto Eco&#39;s religio-literary mystery are themselves monks &mdash; played by Sean Connery and Christian Slater in the movie version &mdash; but that doesn&#39;t stop this thriller, set in a medieval abbey where the faithful are dying in pursuit of a long-lost and forbidden copy of Aristotle&#39;s Poetics, from being one of cinema&#39;s most damning looks at religious superstition. Not the least because,besides the two leads, practically every monk in this film (1) is hideous-looking and (2) dies a horrible, excruciating death. It&#39;s as if H.R. Giger and Dario Argento collaborated on the film version of God Is Not Great. Don&#39;t miss the scene where Ron Perlman eats a rat.Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sc-_hkLBVnc 4. The Magdalene Sisters (2002) There have been plenty of movies in recent years about priestly abuse &mdash; God only knows why &mdash; but few are more single-minded in their condemnation than Peter Mullan&#39;s harrowing look at three unfortunate young Irish Catholic women who wind up under the custody of a Magdalene convent for wayward girls in the sixties. Between the beatings and rapes they&#39;re subjected to at the hands of sadistic nuns and lewd priests, and the brutality of the ostensibly God-fearing society outside the convent walls, Mullan&#39;s film plays at times like Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS remade in monastic disguise. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJYiJQ-jbkM 3. The Boys of St. Vincent (1993) This four-hour Canadian telefilm is a difficult, complex portrait of a Catholic orphanage ruled over by a pedophilic priest (Henry Czerny, in a role that launched him into a career of playing creepy bastards). But the film isn&#39;t anti-Christian because it&#39;s yet another movie about a priest who can&#39;t keep his hands off the flock; it&#39;s anti-Christian because its primary theme is the creeping danger of Catholicism&#39;s emphasis on submission of the self to those above you on the pecking order, whether that&#39;s a priest, a Church administrator, or God Himself. 2. Monty Python&#39;s The Meaning of Life (1983) The blasphemous Life of Brian would have been the obvious choice here, but that one just gently chides the Jesus myth, whereas the Pythons&#39; final film actually eviscerates the pettiness of religion in everyday life, never more effectively than in the hilarious musical number &quot;Every Sperm Is Sacred,&quot; sung by a miserably poor and overpopulated Catholic household while their preening, repressed Protestant neighbors look on in pity. (&quot;When Martin Luther nailed his protest up to the church door in 1517, he may not have realized the full significance of what he was doing, but 400 years later, thanks to him, my dear &hellip; I can go down the road any time I want and walk into Harry&#39;s and hold my head up high and say in a loud, steady voice, &#39;Harry, I think I&#39;ll have a French Tickler, for I am a Protestant!&#39;&quot;)Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0kJHQpvgB8 1. The Canterbury Tales (1972) Although he made what many still consider to be the quintessential Jesus movie (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, 1964), Italian Marxist homosexual poet Pier Paolo Pasolini was no fan of religious dogma, and his sex-drenched, free-form adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer&#39;s poem constantly thumbs its nose at the falsely pious. But Pasolini saves the big one for the end: The film ends with a shocking and hilarious vision of Hell in which Satan cracks open his butt cheeks and shits out streams of screaming friars. In close-up. Repeatedly. Sadly, we were unable to find this clip on YouTube, but then we realized we could put it up ourselves. Enjoy, because it won&#39;t last long. http://www.spout.com/groups/Filmspotting/Antonia_Bird_Re_Top_5_Movies_Directed_By_Women/304/10537/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Dana_K
Post To: Filmspotting
Post Date: 6/9/2007 4:18:05 PM
Body: i was starting to post "You left out Antonia Bird" but then I checked back and saw you hadn't! However, I haven't seen your nominee Ravenous (and am unlikely to, for genre reasons, sorry). But I would offer both Bird's Priest and especially Face as really top notch. Dana
]]>Sat, 09 Jun 2007 20:18:05 GMTDana_KFilmspotting6/9/2007 4:18:05 PMi was starting to post "You left out Antonia Bird" but then I checked back and saw you hadn&#39;t! However, I haven&#39;t seen your nominee Ravenous (and am unlikely to, for genre reasons, sorry). But I would offer both Bird&#39;s Priest and especially Face as really top notch. Dana http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/religion/MemberTagFilms.aspxreligion
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