I'm going to see this movie on Tuesday or Wednesday with a couple of friends. They just opened a new IMAX theater on Preston Highway in Louisville!!!
Posted on 12/01/2007 2:06:52 PM PST by ChessExpert
Anti-Christian Crusade - Beowulf is the latest installment in Hollywood’s attempt to reconfigure history
By now, the oft-recurring negative portrayals of Christianity in major Hollywood movies have become hackneyed and predictable. The recent rendition of Beowulf only reinforced this trend. The same subtle depictions and motifs present in movies from decades past were once again present, a favorite being the attempt to try to depict pagans as “open-minded” and “free-spirited” peoples, or, quite anachronistically, as medieval counterparts to the modern, secular, liberal. The idea being that pagan peoples — unencumbered by the suffocating forces of Christianity — were/are happy, passionate folk, able to live life to the fullest.
(Excerpt) Read more at article.nationalreview.com ...
It’s hype in the case of Beowulf - which has two typical throwaway lines in the whole move disparaging Christianity. Overall, an exellent and well done treatment of the old story.
It’s not hype in the case of The Golden Compass. The author, an avowed atheist, wrote the trilogy of books with the overt purpose to “kill” the Christian God, which he achieves in the third book. He hated Narnia and LOTR for their Christian elements, and wrote his to oppose that. There are plenty of online articles about this. Just do some basic research.
It’s strange seeing the number of Freepers who see nothing wrong with the popular media disparaging Christianity.
It’s as if they’ve surrendered, like the battle was too much and they adopted the attitude of “Oh well, so they slur God and Christians...that doesn’t bother me any,” rather than fighting for our common culture and beliefs, which were, to this point at least, Christian.
As for me, I wouldn’t go see The Golden Compass, whose author is a virulent anti-Christian, if they gave me $1,000.00.
Ed
Well of course it does!! How do I know this? Because the National Review said so. And soon, if not already, O'Loud Mouth will have a say on it. From what I remember of the time in history in northern Europe, there was quite a bit back and forth of the Christian faith with established pagan religions. Does the author not think the pagan leaders had no disdain toward Christianity? What does the author think Beowulf supposed to be? A remade story of Christmas?!?
“I think the author has a point. It is subtle, but it is just one more example of the mindset of Hollywood;i.e. if you want a character who is a coward or a hypocrite, make sure he professes Christianity.”
Well, if all that is true, then Hollywood went way over my head. I checked the subliminal conspiracy theories at the door, mostly ate popcorn, and dug the 3-D.
I saw a Danish version last year and they had an Irish priest in it.
and I believe the poet was Christian as well
but that Hollywood is hostile to Christianity is a given
and extremely self serving.....and hypocritical
I'm going to see this movie on Tuesday or Wednesday with a couple of friends. They just opened a new IMAX theater on Preston Highway in Louisville!!!
Actually....anti-Christian bigotry in Hollywood and television and advertising is so common, it’s just assumed it normal and that everyone feels that way.
Just read any of Patricia Heaton’s interviews about this.
and remember how Gibson was attacked over The Passion....that really got them going
I would love to see the light shine on these Christian haters in the media and entertainment...they deserve it but they hide behind their own accusations
You found the original Beowulf enjoyable for the same reasons I did. The recent film has somethings to recommend it (graphics mostly), but is a far cry from the spirit of the OE original.
I had to read in OE The Wanderer, the Battle of Maldon, the Seafarer, Othere and Wulfstan, Stoey of Caedmon, etc. You know, the basic texts in the old Bright’s Old English Grammar and Reader. I have forgotten so much! I still have about 750 vocab index cards around here somewhere. I think I still have a photocopy of Barney’s Word-Hoard too. Ah, those were the days.
The review claims that the film is consistent with the story. Even apart from the casting of the mother, I can’t agree. There has always been a tendency in Hollywood to romanticize the Vikings and this is more of the same. Chalk off part of this to ignorance. They know a little about Christianity but very little about paganism of any sort. so they make things up. The only half-way knowledgeable depiction of pagan religion was in the miniseries “Rome.” The thing to remember is that many of the gods were “ demanding”, to say the least. Even the good ones were as inplacable as the taxman. As for the orgies, are the real ones ever such fun? The hangovers alone are enough to make one embrace sobriety.
>> People of faith need to vote for values and vote with their pocketbooks.
And they need to stop voting for liberals.
It is clear from this poem that the author was Christian, but a Christian (possibly a monk) who was working with a mythic story derived from northern Europe while it was still pagan.
Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. Needless to say, he was a huge fan of Beowolf. He was also a faithful Christian who influenced C.S. Lewis to convert to Christianity.
Tolkien delivered a famous lecture on this poem. He published the lecture in the essay "Beowulf: The Monster and the Critics". In the essay he says:
It is the strength of the northern mythological imagination that it faced this problem [of horrors], put the monsters in the centre, gave them victory but no honour, and found a potent but terrible solution in naked will and courage.
In other words, in Germanic mythology, evil conquers good in the final battle for the world; nevertheless the good fights on to the end even though the good warriors know before hand that they will be defeated. This is a rather stern philosophy of life, but at the same time one with a great deal of dignity.
This is why some, like Tolkien and Lewis, found more satisfaction in Germanic mythology than the classical mythology of ancient Greece and Rome. Add the Resurrection, and for some this can provide a path to, that is a preparation for, Christianity.
It’s strange seeing the number of Freepers who see nothing wrong with the popular media disparaging Christianity.
You know, there is nothing I admire about Islam.
Except that their people have the courage and passion to protect their faith. I dont agree with their methods but it would be nice if some Christians developed courage and protected what they believe.
I took Francis P. Magoun’s course. He hadn’t yet published his normalized version of the OE texts, with glossary. So I also had a huge box full of flash cards that I wrote out, with all the OE words on them in normalized orthography.
BINGO!
As an aside, in highschool, I always wondered (outloud) why Beowulf kept going back to the meadhall after his pals kept getting eaten every night.
Of course, my instructor was not amused.
I got the idea from the movie that Christianity saved them from the dark forces of demons.
Not that I really believe in either - but lean towards Christianity as the far better of the two.
Well, maybe sometimes the popular media ISN'T disparaging Christianity - despite some inflammatory rhetoric by a reporter. Often the allegations of anti-something are not true (yes, often they are, but apparently nobody who has actually seen this movie agrees with the lead story).
One thing I despise about Islam is that their people is that their people are so easily whipped into a frenzy to "protect their faith" when there is no, or trivial, transgression.
Right now, a huge number of Muslims are screaming for the death of some lady because her students named a teddy bear "Mohammed" - and you respect them for "protecting their faith".
In contrast, a thousand-year-old poem has vague muddled references to both Christianity and paganism, a reasonable retelling of it reflects that, and you're torqued?
Get a sense of perspective.
But it was not a bad tale and did show consequences of not keeping one's oath.
The old monster movies could be just as scary without being so totally graphically appalling.
But hey, that's just me. My better half(a very respectable lady) loved it.
This is getting ridiculous to the extreme.
I assume the author is being sarcastic, as if to say the nonbeliever is really hampered by a lack of religion and Hollywood is misrepresenting the truth.
They attacked one movie recently for the singular reason that is was penned by a Atheist.
I've had it with this culture war crap....Enough already! Don't we have more substantive things to discuss?
If you don't like the product, don't buy it.
I totally agree with you on that. We defend our faith like we decide whether to watch House or Scrubs on TV, like it really doesn’t mean what it actually means.
Ed
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.