Recently, Hollywood has begun congratulating itself on tackling "tough issues" in its films. Movies like Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana delve into politics, while Crash and Brokeback Mountain focus on racism and homosexuality, respectively. These films try to provide a nuanced, if not unbiased, dramatic representation of today's controversies.
Still, Hollywood has struggled to address one of the world's most divisive issues: religion. Starting with Dogma in 1999 and continuing with films like 2004's Saved! and Screen Door Jesus, the winner of the 2003 Hampton Film Festival, movies have turned to humor to lighten the blow of the heavy subject.
Screen Door Jesus, which opened in Cary last week, is the latest attempt. Set in a small town in East Texas, coincidentally named Bethlehem, the story center's on Mother Harper's screen door, which she believes has been blessed with the image of Jesus. Writer and director Kirk Davis uses a multi-thread plot, familiar from films like Crash and Magnolia, to provide what he called a "God's eye view of the struggle of the town as a whole."
The mindset and inner struggles of the deeply religious South is a familiar subject to Davis. Raised in the Church of Christ in Tennessee, he said he once wanted to be a preacher but now considers himself "more spiritual than religious."
Davis said he understands the quick comparison of his film to previous religiously themed movies. He called Saved! (a film about a fundamentalist Christian high school) "What Screen Door Jesus could have been like if it had a linear plot or was strictly a comedy." However, he also noted that "the Christians [in Saved!] are obviously more objects of fun than real people."
"[I] tried to address all of the different aspects of religion as a human phenomenon-that it is very human to try to search for answers," he said.
A common theme through many of these films is the search for truth and not the truth itself. Dogma, from Clerks director Kevin Smith, focused on the Catholic Church and one woman's struggle to maintain her faith while being judged harshly by it. Because it featured a 13th apostle, rollerskating demons and monsters made from feces, many people missed Dogma's deeper themes.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, politically and tonally, is Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Chronicling Jesus' last days, death and resurrection, it was mostly praised by religious groups but also faced criticism from those who found it gruesomely violent. Davis, however, offers another voice. "[It's] not as Biblical as most people think," he said. "It didn't have enough of the message of Jesus to get his feeling across."
Most recently, television has taken up the controversial subject. This new focus may be a reaction to the perceived increase in the role of religion in politics, said James Thrall, Mellon fellow in the University Writing Program, who specializes in religion in media.
The TV series The Book of David, a suburban soap opera focusing on a preacher and his dysfunctional family, was cancelled after only seven episodes amid uproar from the American Family Association, a group known for its protestation of works it perceives as anti-religious.
"People were upset because they thought the series was like Desperate Housewives but happening to a preacher," Thrall said. "They missed the honest concern for the Christian perspective on society."
This month, HBO premiered a new series entitled Big Love, which focuses on a Mormon polygamist and the difficulties he faces maintaining not one but three families. This show, too, provoked anger from the religious community, this time from the Mormon Church, which banned polygamy in 1890.
Whether these works' focus on religion is a reaction to the current state of America and its politics or not, religion is once again being dealt with by the arts in a serious manner.
And religion will likely remain an issue for years to come. For example, 2006 will see the release of Nativity, a film that will focus on the birth of Jesus and re-examine the Christian faith. If successful, it will, in Thrall's words, "illuminate the human condition as it tries to reconcile religion and society."
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