With the caveat that this blog’s title is hyperbolic and that not every Christian will feel comfortable watching every movie on this list, it’s hard to downplay the importance of film as an artistic medium. Film has an intense power to make us think about truth and values. Here are ten films that any Christian wanting to be challenged to reflect upon their faith or find a jumping off point for a conversation with a non-Christian friend ought to watch.
1. Amadeus
Amadeus is a fictionalized account of the death of 18th century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It centers on the character of rival composer Antonio Salieri, whose jealousy of Mozart sends him down a path of revenge–not just against the composer but also against the God who blessed him with the talent that Salieri feels that should have been his. The turning point in the film is Salieri’s prayer to God:
“From now on we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind I will block You, I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on Earth as far as I am able. I will ruin Your incarnation. “
Amadeus raises questions about our expectations of God and what happens when they aren’t fulfilled, as well as the excuses we make to justify harboring hatred in our hearts.
The Director’s Cut adds material that better explains holes in the theatrical version, but is overall a lesser film. Watch the theatrical version if you can find it.
Get Amadeus on Amazon.
2. Night of the Hunter
Pray you don’t catch these hands.
Night of the Hunter has one of the most disturbing villains in the history of film. Harry Powell is a self-appointed itinerant preacher roaming from town to town murdering widows. When he winds up in jail for car theft and meets a bank robber about to be hanged, he gets the idea that the man’s two children know where the money was hid and hatches a plan to marry his widow and find the loot. When his new wife becomes wise, he kills her and corners the children. They barely get away and take a boat down river. The last half of the film focuses on the two children trying to hide out from Powell.
When they are taken in by Rachel Cooper, a widow who both talks and walks the Christian faith, the film heads for a climax between the murderous preacher and the tough but loving foster mother. Charles Laughton directs this movie as if it were a German expressionist fever dream, and the details really stick with you. The scene of Powell waiting in Rachel’s garden for the perfect moment to strike like the serpent of Eden while she sits with a rifle guarding the children and the two sing the harmonies for “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in a movie, and it offers a perfect contrast between the fake and real Christians.
I discussed this film on a podcast episode with Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Bridget Nelson which can be heard here.
You can click here to get Night of the Hunter on Amazon.
3. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Batman V Superman got a lot more grief than it deserved. It portrayed a Batman that’s very familiar to readers of Frank Miller’s iconic series The Dark Knight Returns and it told a very old story in a brand new way.
At its core, Batman V Superman is about humans feeling like God has abandoned us; that since the divine has no skin in the game and can’t possibly sympathize with our pain, we’d be better off if God just died. Superman is the movie’s stand-in for God and is compared to the deity on numerous occasions by both Batman and antagonist Lex Luthor.
The turning point in the film is Batman’s realization that Superman is, in the words of director Zack Snyder, “an alien, but . . . he’s more human than [Batman.] He’s sort of embraced all the good parts of the human race, and so Batman’s able to sort of see, in a lot of ways, a thing that he is not.”
The obvious model for Superman here is Christ–the God who became a man and suffered on our behalf, who reminds us that God is not so distant as He might at times seem.
I discussed this film on a podcast episode which can be heard here.
You can click here to get Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice on Amazon.
4. A Face in the Crowd
A Face in the Crowd is a story about a common criminal (played by Andy Griffith) who makes his way up the rungs of the celebrity ladder by packaging folksy, homespun wisdom for mass media consumption. Before long he’s advising politicians and mocking the stupidity of the millions of viewers who hang on his every word.
Griffith is tremendous in this role. Rumor has it that he would smash up chairs before takes to ratchet up his intensity. Watching his performance, it’s not hard to believe.
What makes this film significant for Christians is its warnings about false messiahs in celebrity culture, politics, and advertising–a danger which we are unfortunately no less susceptible to than our non-Christian counterparts.
Get A Face in the Crowd on Amazon.
5. Les Miserables
While there have been countless adaptations of Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel, the 1998 film with Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, and Uma Thurman is probably my favorite. Its primary importance for Christians, apart from being a beautiful and well-crafted story, is its musings on law and grace.
The conclusion, which I won’t spoil here, brings mercy and punishment together in a way that serves as a pointer to their union on the cross.
Click here to get Les Miserables on Amazon.
6. Becket
Becket is a film about the relationship between King Henry II and his friend Thomas Becket. Henry, knowing Becket as the facilitator of his debaucherous whims, appoints him the archbishop of Canterbury in hopes of having a lackey in the position who won’t oppose him. Unfortunately for Henry, Becket has a religious awakening once he’s ordained.
Becket is about standing your ground and doing the right thing instead of the easy thing. But it’s not just a moral tale; it’s also a really excellent movie. It’s hard to take your eyes off the main actors. Peter O’Toole’s King Henry II is bombastic and Shakespearean. In contrast, Richard Burton plays Thomas Becket as lowkey–hiding just under the surface his pathos and pain as a subjugated Saxon forced to cater to a cruel Norman king.
Click here to get Becket on Amazon.
7. Focus
After Larry Newman (played by William H. Macy) gets glasses that make him appear Jewish, his life in 1940s Brooklyn changes for the worse as he loses his job and is targeted by an anti-semitic neighborhood group. First incensed at the notion that he would be treated as a Jew by his colleagues and neighbors, a new friendship with a Jewish store owner brings him around to refusing to reject the label of “Jew” when it’s applied to him.
Of course the Christian faith and Bible have a great deal to say about identifying with the oppressed and bullied. Leviticus 19:34 commanded the Israelite to love the stranger as they loved themselves. Jesus, though being God in nature, took on the form of a subjugated Jew in Roman-occupied Palestine and told His followers that anyone who helped someone who was hungry, naked, a stranger, or in prison would be treated as if they had helped the Lord Himself. Focus illustrates this principle of identifying with the downtrodden powerfully.
Click here to get Focus on Amazon.
8. Crimes and Misdemeanors
This Woody Allen film follows two characters: one a wealthy ophthalmologist portrayed by Martin Landau and the other an independent filmmaker portrayed by Allen. Both have to decide how much guilt they can live with: Allen in his decision to make a film for money that compromises his values and Landau in his decision to kill his mistress so he can continue to live a comfortable life in polite society. I won’t spoil the ending, but the film is a great conversation starter as it brings together questions of guilt, judgment, and whether right or wrong means anything if there is no God.
I discussed this film on a podcast episode with Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Bridget Nelson which can be heard here.
You can click here to get Crimes and Misdemeanors on Amazon.
9. The Mission
The Mission takes place in Spanish and Portugese occupied South America in the 1750s. Robert De Niro plays a slaver who kills his brother after catching him in an affair with his wife. The Jesuit priest played by Jeremy Irons is tasked with bringing De Niro through his penance.
After coming to terms with his guilt and accepting God’s forgiveness, the former manstealer becomes a contrite priest serving the natives he once kidnapped and forced into slavery. When the church caves to political pressure and abandons the mission to the greed of the European colonists, the two priests decide to stay back with the Guarani Christians–De Niro as a soldier repelling Spanish-Portugese forces and Irons as the leader of a non-violent resistance movement. This examination of what it means to live as a Christian in dire times will stick with you, as will the compelling score by Ennio Morricone.
I discussed this film on a podcast episode which can be heard here.
You can click here to get The Mission on Amazon.
10. Silence
Martin Scorsese’s Silence was a long time coming. The director had been wanting to adapt Shusaku Endo’s novel about Jesuit missionaries suffering under Japanese persecution for over two decades.
Visually the film is absolutely arresting. Scorsese manages to capture the feeling of wide open space where the comforting voice of God is nowhere to be heard. By the end of the film, he’s not only managed to make tangible those feelings we have when God appears to have nothing to say in our suffering, but also to ask what it means to take Christ’s suffering into ourselves. You may or may not like the answers Silence provides, but it’s worth thinking about the questions.
I discussed this film on a podcast episode with Christian apologist Lenny Esposito which can be heard here.
You can click here to get Silence on Amazon.