catapult magazine

Does anybody know anything about this? JaBird perhaps. It’s about a Christian High School complete with Jesus freaks and your average angst-ridden, misunderstood artsy type. At first it looks like a cheesy high school movie, but I’m not too sure. I guess it could have a good influence or a negative influence, but I’d be surprised if it had no influence at all. Is this coming out because of the Passion. Is the “Christian Film” going to be the next genre?
The aesthetic implications are frightening.
Here’s a link to the trailor:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/saved/

Wait! “The Passion” wasn’t the first Christian movie at the box office. Let’s bow our heads and take moment to remember “Left Behind” with Kirk Cameron …

whoa . . . that looks totally bizarre. looks like Jesus is starting to gain on the Beatles’ popularity.

It’s described on its website as “sweetly subversive.” I’m not entirely sure this isn’t meant to mock? I wonder what the end “moral of the story” will be? As the website says, the outcasts will learn what it REALLY means to “be saved.”

Well Annie, if you can go back to Kirk Cameron in Left Behind. I’m going to go back to Christopher Walken in the Prophecy.

Got me there. Never saw it. Not that I saw “Left Behind.” But what girl who grew up in the 1980s doesn’t have Kirk Cameron antennae? Okay, I don’t have those, either.

Yes the exclamation point is intentional.

This film was produced by Michael Stipe and philosophically derived from a book (I believe is called) Atheism: A Case Against God. Do not be deceived into thinking that this film is pro-Christian, pro-God, or pro-Faith of any sorts.

To be honest, very few films have pissed me off as much as this one did. Not because it is anti-christian…I can deal with and accept that. But because it makes all christians out to be a bunch of loser hypocrites who knowingly backstab whoever they can to become the “best” christian on the block. It makes the christian look norrow minded, unintelligent and evil whilst making the non-christian the true, everyday “hero”. Again, anti christian is ok. I can watch a movie that struggles and counters the existence of God…I have learned a thing or two from films that deny the existence of God. But, to just steamroll out and promote such a manifesto is extremely difficult, especially when I felt like the film was treating me (the viewer) as an incompetent non-thinker who had to be told what to believe (by the film) because I was too ignorant and gullible to figure it out myself.

I believe that the intention of the film was to steer the viewer into assuming that all christians are nothing more than a bunch of helpless idiots who cannot deal with the struggles in their lives and so deny them under the guise of of christendom. When pressed to the extreme, these “people” will crack (just as Judas) and deny their Savior (since obviously he doesn’t exist) and their supposed faith will be proven as nothing more than escapism. It’s effect on the movie viewing public will be interesting after the impact that The Passion has had.

I am sure that there will be a good thread about this film once it is released and much discussion over it’s subject matter.

One more thing…

This film has been complete for some time now, and release dates have been pushed around a bit. Usually, this means a studio doesn’t know what to do with the fim and/or they are looking for the least embarrasing time to release it so it might just “go away”.

So they wait for the Passion to break all sorts of records before they start showing the trailer? What kind of sense is that? I wonder if I’ll see the trailer for it as preshow to the passion when I go tomorrow.

In all fairness, the current date was established before the Passion broke. When MGM picked up the film they jockeyed around a couple dates before landing on this one (04/23/04), which is still going to be a limited release. There is no telling if they will be going wide with the film. They might just do a limited release to appease the contract and then send it straight to video.

I think they are counting on the Mandy Moore and Michael Stipe fans to make it worth their while theatrically and possibly recoup some of their investment.

hi, i’m new, and i’m just jumping right in… :)

i haven’t seen the film yet, but don’t you think some of the criticism of/poking fun at christians is deserved, jabirdV? i mean, unfortunately, the way evangelicals often come across is exactly the way they’re portrayed in the trailer—self-righteous, moralizing, and, yes, hypocritical, anti-intelligent backstabbers. tragic though it is, most communities of evangelicals don’t reflect the highly thoughtful, compassionate standards embodied at *catapult. personally, i hope this film can be a much-needed skewer for a lot of christians; i hope we will be able to accept the criticism gracefully and ask ourselves if maybe, just maybe, “saved” gets a few of our terrible characteristics right.

-kate