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 ...
Hold it right there!! The story of Beowulf is essentially a pre-Christian story, so calling it “anti-Christian” doesn’t make sense here.
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(never saw it)
If it’s a pre-Christian Hollywood movie, then it probably doesn’t accurately reflect the superstitious, 100% illiterate, barbaric, human sacrifice, cannabalistic, brutal, murdering, robbing, alcoholic, drug using warlike Pagan cultures of the day.
Christianity is the only light to the world. Without Christianity this world would probably have never seen the renaissance. EVER! It would be a cold dark place.
Hollywood does the same thing to conservatives and Republicans...did anyone notice that when Bill Clinton was president, we had films like “Air Force One” and “Independence Day”...where the president was heroic? Up until that point, (and since Bush took office) the president is either stupid, inept, or a traitor. I thought my husband was just being paranoid when he mentioned this to me, but....
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Communist propaganda.
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.
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How about V for Vendetta.
Likely that is because Tolkien was probably the leading scholar of Beowulf in the early mid 20th century.
Well if they make a Gilgamesh movie that referenced either Judaism or Christianity in any way it would certainly be anachronistic. I do not remember any religious protests against any strictly pagan movies from a theological viewpoint (sex and violence is another matter, of course.)
As an English teacher who actually teaches Beowulf, I actually liked the 3D; the story...if not compared to the original epic...was not bad. Beowulf is an epic hero, and the one portrayed in the movie is more of a tragic hero who must deal heroically with the consequences of his own actions. Beowulf is NOT a pre-Christian story, however. It has elements of both pagan and Christian in it. The difference is that in the original epic poem, Beowulf pays allegiance to God as well as the pagan view of fate.
That being said...I stand by my original statement that Christianity is treated differently than in the original poem i.e. real men aren’t Christians
Does it mean we shouldn’t go see it? No....but it’s good to be aware
It would be even especially nice IMO if Christians were to actually take the time to read the Bible.
My sense is that very few actually do so.
I’ve read “Beowulf, the Monster, and the Critics,” and have his co-edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with E. V. Gordon. The former is a good correction of some of the sillier theories about the poem. But I wouldn’t say Tolkien was a leading Beowulf scholar, as such. He knew his stuff, and his languages, but he spent too much time writing other things—the history of Middle Earth, The Silmarilion, The Lord of the Rings, and so on. It left him less time for scholarship.
An old English scholar who was a friend of mine once complained that Tolkien would have been a good Anglo-Saxon scholar if he had spent more time on it instead of writing those silly novels(!)
Personally, I think he made the right decision. He was an accomplished linguist, and he used his knowledge to create great fictional writings as well as popular essays.
Beowulf is a dark story, boring to read but one of the basics for a long, long, time. Most (under 40) whom I've talked to didn't even know the story, didn't link it to the Thirteenth Warrior or any other film or book (I liked "Grendel") but were hyped on the special effects.
For crying out loud, let people see the films and make up their own minds! Christians don't need to force their individual interpretation on other Christians or other believers - that has been tried in the past with poor results.
It is also precisely what we blame islam for, only without the beheadings and such...
Hear Hear.....that is more or less how it sounds to me and you are right about Christian elements in Beowulf.
This smaller version from a few years ago too had anti-Christian elements which I had the chance to discuss with the writers on the film’s message board.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0402057/
They actually owned up to the fact that it was a direct personal result of several of the folks involved in the film being non-Christian or hostile and the different writers ended up sparring amongst themselves between anti-Christians and Christians.
It’s sad it’s come to this where folks feel compelled to force their own peculiar social engineering into everything.
The old Hollywood bosses would have never tolerated such disrespect.
If anybody here had actually seen the movie, it would been obvious that the first half was pre-Christian and the last half was post-Christian.
The last half had crucifixes, crosses, churches etc. that were totally devoid from the first half.
In fact near the end, Beowulf at one point says that the arrival of Christianity has 'left us without heroes'.
One of the writers is Neil Gaiman....a talented but very very liberal British Jewish and now Scientologist writer who loves putting homosexuality themes into much of his work.
Gaiman is a leftist writer’s leftist writer.....
The other writer is some guy named Avary whose claim to fame is about doing Tarantino stuff before Tarantino did.
In any event given writers like these and the climate they flourish in, is it any doubt that so many movies get in their digs at Christianity.
*Gaiman got in some hot water a few years ago for bashing Islam....some good in everyone I guess
It doesn't bother me. No movie, book or TV show can affect my faith. I'm not that weak. God is not that weak, either.
God is God. God does not require that I protect Him against slurs. I would be an idiot if I thought I could protect God. If I could, God wouldn't be what He is. He does not need my help.
The gods of some faiths are weak and human-like, needing constant defense. People following those gods spend their entire lives overwrought, threatening to kill everyone who insults their god.
Christians should take care not to be those people, removing divinity from God and replacing Him with an insecure shadow of what He is.
This screed is about as ridiculous as someone claiming making a movie about Greek mythology would be "anti-Christian."
Um-- wasn't the pillaging in connection to them feeling invaded by a group of Christians?
You mean freedom and civilization aren't just parts of the natural environment? Something liberals pluck from the trees like low hanging fruit?
One of the most appalling films in the history of cinema.
It would be even especially nice IMO if Christians were to actually take the time to read the Bible.
Perhaps, but once they do they close into enclaves that ignore the world
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