God's Not Dead

Not so much a meme as a copypasta.

EDIT: Obligatory page topper edit.

edited 30th Mar '14 5:58:29 PM by DirectorCannon

I only saw the trailer, but it looks like the only thing that would be needed to make it into a Chick Tract would be either an American that has never heard of Christianity, the Devil making inept plans, or God laughing as he damns someone to Hell (that last one is why I give Chick Tracts a 30% chance of being written by an antitheist).

edited 30th Mar '14 10:17:51 PM by BigMadDraco

Jack Chick's "terrifying vision of the future". 1984 it ain't.

Does the film have that endlessly irritating "cold is just the absence of heat" bullshit supposedly from Einstein?

EDIT: I thought I might as well watch the trailer. Dear Lord. Reminds me of Rick Perry's campaign ads.

edited 31st Mar '14 7:23:52 AM by Achaemenid

The Cinema Snob did a midnight review of the film over on That Guy With The Glasses. It's a pretty long one.

I did hear that this was basically "Chick Tracts: The Movie", only without the overt supernatural elements. Who, exactly is the intended audience of these types of movies? Nonbelievers aren't going to be converted, and may only go to see it out of morbid curiosity or to make fun of it. If it's for believers, then what's the intent?

And of course, according to plot summaries I've read, it turns out that the atheist philosophy professor isn't really an atheist, he's just angry at God because somebody close to him died. Is that what the filmmakers are trying to say? That there's really no such thing as a person who has considered Christianity but genuinely rejected it? Is that how they see the world?

There are people that genuinely think atheists are just out to spite God since his existence is so glaringly obvious that there's no other way to not be a believer.

I assume the intended audience is believers. It's supposed to reinforce their world view that all other types of people are godless heathens that must be saved at any cost.

^^Chick tracks are hilarious to read and kind of amazing in their own right, this movie sounds just frustrating and offensive.

I also like how in the trailer Kevin Sorbo's character quotes the "sound and fury" bit from Mac Beth, considering that monologue comes during the character's Villainous Breakdown. It could be a bit of clever Foreshadowing, since that's what Mac Beth says after he learns his wife died.

It's also glaringly obvious that the filmmakers never read Nietzsche, since they have no idea what he meant when he said, "God is dead".

Anyway, the film is also presenting three very different ideas as though they were the same: 1) God is Dead, 2) God doesn't exist, 3) I hate God. It should be obvious that asking an atheist "Why do you hate God?" is a bit like asking a Lord Of The Rings fan, "Why do you hate the Dark Lord Sauron?"

edited 31st Mar '14 7:58:30 AM by Lawyerdude

I don't imagine it cost all that much to make. It'll make back it's budget on DVD, I suspect.

A lot of films like this are made with bulk sales to churches in mind more than anything else (Churches buy stacks and distribute them after the sermons/events). Any sort of controversy is just publicity for them.

I've also seen films like this being sold to churches for upwards of a thousand dollars per copy under the guise of "helping the creators better spread the word of god." They pay a ludicrous amount of money and send out invitations to everyone they know and have a sort of "movie night" event.

Brad Jones mentioned that churches were busing people in to see the film. Wow, a thousand bucks a copy? Color me impressed.

Actually with these sort of movies, it makes me wonder if the makers are "true believers", or if they're opportunists exploiting a niche market. Or it could be both, I suppose. After all, these aren't exactly SAG-eligible movies, right? They can pay actors next to nothing, except for one or two minor celebrity actors who probably want to buy a nice Persian rug or something, and it's all profit.

Though one wonders why anyone with even a jot of name recognition would want to appear in this turkey. I mean, not even Nic Cage's career is that teflon.

Money, Dear Boy?

Doing this film for money seems like it would have a good chance of permanently prejudicing one's ability to earn more of it.

Meh. I don't think it's going to do to Kevin Sorbo or Dean Cain what Showgirls did to Elizabeth Berkeley. It's going to be in theatres, go to DVD and be promptly forgotten about.

I have fond memories of Berkley's role in THAT film.

Don't we all. I kept watching hoping that somebody would give her a shot of insulin, since she seemed to be experiencing seizures.

I wonder if this movie would make a good drinking game. Like take a drink every time somebody says "God" or "Jesus". Or just drink until the movie gets good.

In addition to the potential profits, there's a fairly big push for every Christian being an apologist — especially in fundamentalist Christianity. While educating people about their faith is a worthwhile goal, a lot of times churches and organizations tend to draw on the "for Dummies" version of apologetics rather than, y'know, drawing on the 2000-odd years of material already available. Probably because the latter requires months, years, or decades of study and the former requires watching a movie.

You'll see a similar divide when dealing with creation vs evolution (I bring this up as an example, not to start a debate). Out of curiosity I browsed the Creation Museum website and they actually have a fairly extensive list of arguments not to use against evolution, and explain why not to use them. But you'll still see people make those arguments because learning is hard and regurgitating a soundbite is easy.

So basically, this movie was made for profit but probably also to be an educational tool. It just fails at that by trying to address subject matter that really can't be crammed into an hour and a half and cutting a lot of corners in favor of making people feel smart.

It does promise to show us the scientific evidence for God's existence. Can't wait to hear what that might be.

Tractum Ex Culo, one suspects.

Wow. It's like they haven't even read their own Divine Literature or anything.

Oh who am I kidding, with these kinds of Christians. They only read the Bible in order to find quotes to take out of context to condemn someone. Then again, I guess that's not much different from what I'm doing here... *sigh* Don't judge, don't judge, don't judge...

And this is why I consider myself a dystheist.

So is this a poorly done comedy or a poorly done serious film? The premise to me sounds like some goofy feel-good comedy.

THAT I would watch. Maybe

I'm pretty sure it's intended to be a serious film, but there will be plenty of people who will see it as an unintentional comedy.

Funny thing is, they could have just as easily made a movie about a student reconciling his faith while being around an Intellectual Snobbery Environment (which is a thing in University's.) The whole Evil Atheist Professor who's going to fail you for believing in God? Seriously?