I used to watch Star Wars as a kid, and cheer for the Storm Troopers. Why? Because untrained “Rebel” soldiers could kill dozens without breaking a sweat, kill dozens of these ‘elite’ ‘well-trained’ soldiers. In this movie, I have an even better excuse. What possesses James Cameron? The ’spirit of the tree’ maybe.

All in all, I don’t think I’d see this movie without earplugs (that way I can get the only good part: the visuals, and ignore the bad: all the audio).

E.S.

Being “preachy” in a film, I think, is something to be avoided at all costs. You run the risk, however, of being too vague; of having your audience miss the point or drawing the wrong conclusion. But that’s the nature of the beast. And that’s where the paydirt is at. You release attempts to control the audience and instead invite them to discover the truths on their own terms. And when they get it, they own it.

“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter” Proverbs 25:2

We treat our audiences like the royalty they truly are when we don’t get too preachy in our stories and trust what’s in God and in them to come through.

Great insights.

When you make a movie, you should always have a message that you want to get across the screen.

Was Avatar preachy? Yes. Does that mean I’ll never watch it again? No.

Was Fireproof preachy? Yes. And you can be sure I’ll watch it again.

Everyone wants to be right. Only a few of us are. We should be careful, and pray about how we write in the message’s we want to portray. Nobody wants to get beat up in a movie theater by someone’s legalistic finger pointing views on the screen.

And that applies to everyone. Christians, and Hollywood.

Inspirational films are sometimes the best way to get across good messages. When people see examples of happy, kind, christian families, they start to wonder. “What do they have that I don’t?”

In the movie “The Blindside”, even Sandra Bullock (the star of the film)was ministered to by the real life story of Leanne Touhy.

God bless all of you, I am glad I found this site, because I am very interested in the movie making process and I still have a lot to learn about christian film making.

- Loser Buddy

- Loser Buddy

Without even watching it myself, I started explaining to him the world-views, biases, and “issues” a lot of producers like to slip “unnoticed” into their films. After reading your review and putting two and two together, I see that Avatar has a very negative spiritual impact. Although it sounds very “spiritual”, the main story line can spiral – especially youth – into a spiritual journey that ends nowhere near the Christian’s destination. I could be wrong, but from your review it sounds like this film gets into the realms of spiritualism.

Also if I may throw my opinion out for Alex, it’s this. You basically have to know who you’re preaching to. With Fireproof, it was focused (whether intentionally or not) towards the Christian audience; those who knew that stuff already but needed encouragement in the time of need. Every time I watch it, their statements really hit home and leaves me with such an inspiration to do what’s right. For someone coming right off the streets of Hollywood, it would be quite different. Since they’re coming from a completely different world-view, they would laugh at the “counsel” Caleb was receiving, and in the end probably still opt for Terrel’s point of view; simply because it leaves people with the least “guilt”.

I believe that every film is a “preachy” film; even the shoot-it-up sex and violence shows. Even if they were made for pure entertainment – even the producers had no intention of getting anything across (which is extremely rare) except for sensual entertainment, they still convey a message of lawlessness that is too loud to ignore. To me, making films that portray Christian values yet without being “preachy” means creating exciting stories that capture people’s attention while upholding strong Christian values at the same time. I believe there is a place for films such as Fireproof for encouraging fellow Christians (and also leading people to Christ), and there is also a place for films which are more geared towards the larger public audience while at the same time not violating any of God’s principles. People will see a difference in these films, and as they come to realize the motivation behind creating these films, they’ll be drawn to understanding more and more of what Christians are all about; who we are and why we’re here.

And since that is the entire purpose of what we do, it is a must that we understand the best strategies in reaching out to the public audience! So if I could hear your answer to that last question also Isaac, that would be great!

God bless!

Thanks