Friday, February 15, 2008

Five for Friday: Spiritual Films

Last Friday I listed five spiritually rich written works of fiction. This week I share five movies I find spiritually substantive.

In no particular order:

1. Magnolia
Actually, this one is at #1 for a reason.

2. The Passion of the Christ
Duh.

3. Punch-Drunk Love
Like Magnolia, also by Paul Thomas Anderson and also deeply affecting (to me, anyway).

4. Hotel Rwanda

5. Changing Lanes
Gonna throw this one in, because it's a recent movie that's underseen and underrated and was therefore too quickly forgotten. It's got Ben Affleck and Samuel Jackson, but don't hold that against it.

Could also have thrown in Amistad, Les Miserables, About a Boy, Life is Beautiful, and The Truman Show. That last one in particular is one of my favorite movies ever, and the final scene with Truman reaching the end of the "world" and stepping through always gets me.

7 comments:

Vitamin Z said...

3:10 to Yuma? Basically this is the Christian doctrine of sanctification on screen. Amazing. One of my all time favorite movies now. I put a review on my blog if interested...

I think the other movies you listed are great.

Unknown said...

You and I must have similar tastes in movies ... #1 and #3 are two of my favorite movies ever.

Anonymous said...

Loved Magnolia, PT Anderson has a great depth in him.

Just saw Punch-Drunk Love. I had to be missing something. When it was over I was just thinking 'huh?'. Please, what was I missing?

No Lord of the Rings Triology, the first Matrix, Spitfire Grill .... yeah, lots of great movies touching on these themes.

Jared said...

cavman, here's my review of Punch-Drunk Love from a few years ago:
http://www.thinklings.org/index.php?p=397&more=1&c=1

I know it's a difficult film. But it really resonated with me.

dle said...

Babette's Feast
The Mission
Chariots of Fire
Les Mis
Schindler's List

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link to your prior review of P-DL. I saw it recently while suffering from that nasty cold & a sinus infection. I wasn't sure if I had missed anything.
Guess I just thought it ended "abruptly". As I think about it, Magnolia also ended similarly: the cop finds love, but it stops there, you don't see that relationship develop. PT may have trouble writing about happiness :-)

But he's got a knack for understanding the fallen condition of this world.

Vitamin Z said...

Dude! I forgot the amazing gospel centered movie - To End All Wars

Got to see that one.

z