Saturday, March 29, 2008

Inspiring Movies

There are lots of these. A few come to mind right away like Narnia, and Lord of the Rings. 

Lord of the Rings would require your children to be old enough not to be too afraid to sleep after seeing it. If they can realize that it is fantasy with a true and everlasting message, then they are old enough. I am thinking roughly 10 or so with adults present.
Star Wars is similar but probably younger children could watch it with adults present to explain and comfort when necessary. Actually Star Wars is much tamer than Lord of the Rings. The creatures in Lord of the Rings look like they walked straight out of the pit of hell. I have not noticed any dolls made of them!


Amazing Grace is a movie based on the actual life of William Wilberforce who spent his life trying to abolish the slave trade in England. The song, "Amazing Grace" was written by John Newton, who WAS a slave trader and upon conversion to Christianity the whole rest of his life he felt the burden of the many lives whose death he was responsible for.

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New Star Trek

Inspiring Movies

Let's simplify things.

Two basic kinds of movies. Yes I know there are more but I am talking about adult, non-cartoon, dramatic movies. There are great fantasy movies too. Movies that entertain. Movies that make you laugh.

There are documentaries and "pretend documentaries" like Michael Moore's which are actually political statement movies. Documentaries reveal interesting facts. Let's pretend documentaries are movies which attempt to move you to the point of view of the author regardless of truth. It is the author's or director's perception of truth that is important. "Don't confuse us with the real facts! My mind is made up" movies.

But here we are talking about movies that EITHER INSPIRE or DESPIRE you! Never heard of 'despire'? Don't feel bad because I just made it up.

Inspiring movies move you toward greatness. Despiring movies move you toward desperation! They do the opposite of inspiring you. I am sure you can think of a whole host of movies which show the lowest of the human condition, that make you feel cynical and hopeless. It is not my purpose to even mention them because they have already received more credit than their due.

Here we intend to point out movies that raise the bar of human compassion and inspiration. Movies that raise the bar not lower it. Movies which may not have been thought of by the Hollywood elite as particularly good in some cases but nevertheless move you to positive action not negative desperation.

The Passion of the Christ is obviously one of these. I have a DVD which outlines some of the amazing acts that Mel Gibson's movie led individuals to do. Did you hear about the man who murdered his wife, but was let go with no proof that he did it.

Later, in prison for another act, he saw "Passion of the Christ and confessed to the warden that he had also murdered his wife. Asked to explain how he fooled the crime investigators, he told them that he watched CSI all the time!

It is not my purpose to cast aspersions toward CSI. I enjoy the show except for the bloody dramatizations of how someone was murdered!

I hope that you some of you who read this will catch the vision and email me at cgpedley@gmail.com and ask to make a contribution or suggestion about movies that YOU found inspiring!

Cut!