Saw that one coming...(the usual movie rant)...

[onager]

Channel-surfing last week, I came across a movie set in a high school and one character...the protagonist, it turned out...was saying: "There is no god. God is just an idea people thought up a long time ago to get control over other people."

He's being confronted by a girl in a Jesus T-shirt waving a Bible, so it looked promising for about, oh, 30 seconds.

Then it dawned on me--this was the beginning of the movie. And according to the Eighth Commandment Of Screenwriting 101, Thy main character shall not be the same person at the end of the movie as he was...In The Beginning.

The movie was One Last Thing..., and you can probably guess what happens at the end of the movie. But I won't spoil it in case you haven't seen it.

Well, it ALWAYS happens this way, doesn't it? Saved was a pretty good flick until the last minute or so, when out of nowhere the protagonist suddenly declared, "There has to be SOMETHING out there..." (And would you care to explain that? No, they never bother. It's All A Great Mystery.)

Most people point to Contact as an example of a movie with a non-believing protagonist. But it's worth remembering that she was an atheist in Carl Sagan's novel. But the movie-makers wimped out and made her an agnostic.

I can only think of 2 movies with sympathetic atheist characters. Maybe 1.5. Oddly enough, both are fact-based movies set in Ireland. The Magdalene Sisters gets the 0.5 because in the Special Features, one of the real women in the movie is interviewed. She makes it very clear that she lost all use for religion thanks to her abuse, and never set foot in a church again for the rest of her life. But I don't remember if that was made clear in the movie itself.

The other one, well worth watching if you haven't seen it, is A Love Divided. True story of an Irish mother who signed a "ne temere" pledge to raise her kids as Catholics, then changed her mind when her oldest daughter started school.

The village pub-keeper in the story is a full-bore, no-apologies, unrepentant atheist. He's even presented as a hero of the Irish Revolution. At one point, someone mentions that he is one of the few men in the village who fought for his country. He responds with something like: "And I didn't fight for my country so you could tear it apart with your religious nonsense."

He gets severely beaten by a mob of believers.

According to people who lived in the village at the time (the 1950's), the story was presented pretty accurately in the movie.

Anyone else got any sympathetic movie atheists? I'm sure I forgot a bunch.

[Pale Blue Dot]

1. One of the summer blockbusters was the same way (SPOILER ALERT)

in I Am Legend, Will Smith's character starts out as an atheist in part because he believes, quite rationally I might add, that no "loving" God would wipe out almost the entire human population and turn the rest into zombie vampires. However, he has a mysterious conversion at the end, and the movie closes with a shot of a church.

I wanted to hurl my popcorn at the screen.

[onager]

4. I wondered about that one, too.

I was sitting there at the end going: "WTF? Where did THAT come from?"

Warpy mentioned Chocolate. I was bracing myself for the Miracle Conversion at the end of that movie. But as I remember, it happily never happened. I haven't seen that movie in a while, but I recall it being one of the most affirmative portrayals of non-believers I've ever seen.

For some insane reason, I was up at 7 AM this morning watching one of the finest examples of Bible-thumping, flag-waving jingoism in American cinema history: Sergeant York. (Here in Egypt I get Turner Classic Movies, which showed it.)

It's hard to believe a director as good as Howard Hawks actually shot that Miracle Conversion scene. York found religion after he was literally struck by lightning. (The real Sgt. Alvin York had a more prosaic explanation for getting converted--his wife made him join the church. No lightning bolts necessary.)

Some of the flag-waving is excusable, in the context of the time it was made--1941. Hitler and his stooges were trampling Europe and Checkbook Isolationism was rampant in the U.S. The year before, the Selective Service Act had only passed Congress by one vote and FDR spent a lot of political capital making that happen.

Nice irony--one of the characters in the movie is Tennessee Rep. Cordell Hull (played by Charles Trowbridge). In 1941, the real Cordell Hull was FDR's Secretary of State. He spent much of the year in peace negotiations with the Japanese, concluding those negotiations rather suddenly on December 7.

[and-justice-for-all]

7. Yes, I agree...I could of hurled too. nt

[TZ]

2. In the Valley of Elah

The main character is a Bible thumping father of a Iraq war veteran who goes missing and is found murdered.
Charlize Theron's character of the Police Detective is clearly an atheist, and is indeed sympathetic. In fact the main character (Tommy Lee Jones) tells her child a Bible story (although he does not ever use the word God) and she takes him to task for it.
It was an interesting conversation. And you can tell that despite all, he respects her, even though he probably regards her as a "godless heathen".
I highly recommend this movie for ALL progressives. Its probably the most powerful critique of the Iraq war I have ever seen...It's really funny to see the reviews on Yahoo...All the bad reviews were red state types....

[and-justice-for-all]

8. I will have to watch that...thanks!

[YankeyMCC]

10. Thx

I took your advice and rented this tonight and just finished watching. It was very good, a very insightful and 'human' look and critique of the war that really could apply to war in general.

[cynatnite]

23. It was an excellent movie...

Had me reaching for the kleenex box more than once. His best work ever.

[Warpy]

3. Chocolate

She finds love but not religion.

[ozone_man]

5. Golden Compass.

That is a very recent one. Philip Pullman, in his own words, is out to kill God with his Dark Materials series. I finished the series a few weeks ago and loved it. The movie was pretty decent, but I would read the first book before seeing it.

During the past Summer there was the intense Sci-Fi movie Sunshine. Eye candy for the atheist space Sci-Fi enthusiast.

Recently, There Will Be Blood stars Daniel Day Lewis as the atheist oil man and his run-ins with an evangelist played by Paul Dano. I recommend it highly. Not a chic flick by any means. Also up for eight Academy awards (Sunday). Last time to see it on the big screen.

The original Wicker Man (1973) with Christopher Lee, was a pagan masterpiece, but it's so anti-Christian, that there is much for the atheist to identify with. Best during the holidays though, especially Easter or Spring Equinox. ;)

[John Gauger]

6. I loved the Wicker Man.

I think it was only anti-christian if you are a follower of christian morality. I am not, so I don't find foreskins or snake ejaculate offensive.

[and-justice-for-all]

9. Yes, Golden Compass rocked and it will get better...

when the release the other books onto the big screen.

Sunshine was so good, I watched it 3 times. Brilliant flick, evil fundi in that movie.

[moggie]

12. I thought they'd abandoned the project?

Last I heard, they'd decided not to make any more His Dark Materials films, because of disappointing box office for the first one.

[and-justice-for-all]

13. Ah crap! I hope they will be doing the rest. nt

[salvorhardin]

14. Kind of funny too

From what I understand the movie is doing phenomenally well overseas. Something like almost 4 times what the total US sales have been (which was about $70 million IIRC). Yet the studio says they're basing their decisions on whether or not to make the other books into films on the US sales.

As for myself, I'm ambivalent. I didn't think The Golden Compass was a very good film and it suffered from not just the studio's butchering of the story (by taking the anti-religious sentiments out) but also trying to cram a very long and complex book into just one film. As a result the pacing was frenetic. Still, the visual effects were brilliant. I can only hope that the film spurred a number of people into actually picking up the book who might not have done so before, but as cinema I ultimately think it's a failed project.

[SidDithers]

17. Haven't seen the movie, but all the pub caused me to get the books...

I've just started into the 3rd book, and am quite enjoying them.

Happily, my 10 year-old daugther is also reading them :)

And, after the stink raised by our local catholic school board taking the books off the shelves, I bought an extra set an donated them to my daughter's public school library.

Sid

[YankeyMCC]

11. There Will Be Blood

was fantastic.

[Rob H.]

15. Nicholas Angel, the main character in the comedy 'Hot Fuzz', is agnostic

and doesn't get converted in the end. It's also a hilarious movie in its own right.

[SidDithers]

18. Getting shot by the local priest might turn you off religion a bit...

:)

Sid

[funflower]

16. Dumbledore was an atheist. n/t

[ozone_man]

19. Ian McKellan.

He certainly is an atheist. And he played Gandalph in Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, that one was a Christian allegory, but what a great wizard he was.

And the voice of lorek Byrnison in Golden Compass. Armored bears don't have to pass through the underworld, no spirit form, only material. When they die, that's it. How cool is that? :)

[PassingFair]

20. The Contender.

Voosh! What a MOVIE!

L-O-V-E-D IT!

[onager]

21. That was an atheist Republican!

Meaning it bordered on sciene fiction/fantasy...

Just kidding. I liked that movie, too. Especially Phillip Baker Hall as the father, talking about how he had fought for years to keep Jesus out of the public schools.

[PassingFair]

22. Wasn't Jeff Bridges AMAZING in that movie?

Such a STRANGE portrayal of a President.

All of the performances were so SURPRISING,
I was really caught off guard.