Difference between revisions of "Atheism movies"

Revision as of 21:39, 9 December 2012

Mainstream Hollywood films that support atheism? Movies about atheism?

Originally from atheism movies on RRS.

Atheist movie list on Amazon

The Wizard of Oz - The classic Wizard of Oz is a tremendously pro-Atheist movie.  Wandering people with no brain, courage, home or heart seek out heaven at the Emerald City.  When God is revealed to be nothing more than a man behind the curtain people are granted their brain, heart, home and courage because they didn't need religion but got it when they lost their superstition.

Inherit the Wind - A school teacher gets arrested, and must stand trail for teaching the theory of evolution in school.

Contact: Jodie Foster plays an agnostic atheist scientist looking for signs of alien life.  The religious counterpart is viewed as anti-science because of ideology.

Straw Dogs (the remake) - An open Atheist and his wife from L.A. move to a small southern town in the bible belt and face harassment.

Monty Python's Life of Brian - which parodies the birth of Christianity.

300 - a freethinking theme in: "This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a world brighter than anything we can imagine..." Retelling the ancient Battle of Thermopylae, it depicts the titanic clash in which King Leonidas (Gerard Butler) and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) and his massive Persian army.

The God Who Wasn't There

A documentary by Brian Flemming about the lack of evidence for Jesus Christ. In the movie you learn about the long gap between when Jesus lived and when he was written about. The movie was distributed for free in a Blasphemy Challenge that asked users to commit an unforgivable sin in exchange.

Religulous - Bill Maher incurs the wrath of multiple religious zealots of myriad faiths in Religulous, a snarky but unexpectedly powerful documentary. Maher bluntly disputes the value of religion in a world made increasingly dangerous, on the one hand, by fanaticism of all kinds and the human race's environmental self-destructiveness on the other. No one is immune from Maher's dogged questions about the illogic and negative fallout of doctrines that advocate violence or shun scientific evidence or marginalize minorities or punish anyone who disagrees with any religion's extreme tenets. Maher takes his inquiries to the Vatican; to small, evangelical Christian churches; to Jerusalem; to Amsterdam (where elements of an increasingly vocal Muslim community have shown violence toward critics); to a large, African-American church in a big city; and to several bizarre theme parks celebrating creationism and the life of Jesus. Wherever he goes, Maher seeks to demonstrate that many of the world's major religions are rife with hypocrisy, completely self-referential, and destructive to the collective good. The fast-moving, globe-trotting film is full of highlights, including a great scene where Maher, in disguise, argues for the core beliefs of Scientology to a bemused crowd at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park. There's also a wonderful moment where Maher, just having been thrown out of the Vatican, gets a terrific interview with a maverick priest. Raised Catholic but in reality half-Jewish, Maher also spends time with his mother and sister trying to reconcile the role of religion in his childhood. Everything is really leading toward Maher's major point that atheists and agnostics are in a sizable minority but are afraid to speak out in these days of zealotry. If that minority stays in the background, Maher says, we may very well be heading toward catastrophe. --Tom Keogh

Planet of the Apes (The original) - Turns the scopes monkey trial upside down, and explores the relationship between man and ape in a very dark and twisted way. Makes subtle references to religion and evolution. A bewildered astronaut (Charlton Heston) crash-lands on a strange planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport.

Serenity - based on the Firefly TV series.  I wouldn't say it's pro-atheist, but it definitely paints a universe in which religion has changed, and to a large degree, been marginalized.  The main hero is an ex-Christian who has become self reliant and now opposes the oppressive "thought police" style government.  His non-Christian status is not thrown at you all the time, but you can't watch the movie or the series without noticing it.

Red State

Three teenaged boys are lured to the town of Cooper’s Dell with the promise of a party. But instead of enjoying the night of their dreams, the teens are plunged into the nightmarish world of Pastor Abin Cooper and the Five Points Trinity, a fundamentalist group with a stockpile of weaponry and a deadly moral agenda. When word of the teens’ disappearance reaches the authorities, a military task force is mobilized. With Cooper’s Dell teetering between salvation and damnation, the ATF braces for a furious gun battle with Cooper and his heavily armed followers in this fever-pitched action thriller from writer-director Kevin Smith.</p>

Blade Runner

The replicants come to earth to seek out their creator.

The Crucible

The Salem witch hunts are given a new and nasty perspective when a vengeful teenage girl uses superstition and repression to her advantage, creating a killing machine that becomes a force unto itself. Pulsating with seductive energy, this provocative drama is as visually arresting as it is intellectually engrossing. Arthur Miller based his classic 1953 play on the actual Salem witch trials of 1692, creating what has since become a durable fixture of school drama courses. It may look like a historical drama, but Miller also meant the work as a parable for the misery created by the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings of the 1950s. This searing version of his drama delves into matters of conscience with concise accuracy and emotional honesty. Three passionate cheers for Miller, director Nicholas Hytner, and costars Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. --Rochelle O'Gorman

The Magdalene Sisters - based upon the real story of women who were enslaved by the Catholic church in the late 20th century.  It reveals that only the power of the church was able to keep these women enslaved and for the community to accept it. A movie guaranteed to make the blood boil, The Magdalene Sisters gives a lacerating account of life inside a Magdalene Laundry, one of the dismal asylums for "wayward women" run by the Catholic Church in Ireland. Director Peter Mullan, inspired by a TV documentary on the same subject, follows the miserable fates of three young women who are institutionalized in the 1960s for flimsy reasons; their lives are at the mercy of sadistic nuns (Geraldine McEwan is superb as the head of the place). The film sounds tortuous, but its rich sense of outrage and excellent performances--Nora-Jane Noone is a real discovery--make it consistently gripping. The movie won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival and went on to become a box-office hit in Ireland, where the Magdalene system was still a fresh memory. It had been abolished only in 1996. --Robert Horton

Deliver us From Evil – A documentary about a pedophile priest from California.

Elmer Gantry -- Tells the story of a fast talking salesman turned into a con man preacher.

Altered States

description needed

2001 A Space Odyssey

Heart of the Beholder

The Handmaid's Tale – Following a war where WMD have rendered most women sterile, the USA has become the theistic Republic of Gilead. The few women believed to be fertile are forced into sexual slavery for the nation's elite in an attempt to restart the population.

The Truman Show – The director will go to any length, including impersonating god to keep the protagonist in the dark over what is really going on.

The Wicker Man – A police officer goes to a remote island to investigate a case of a missing girl. When he gets there he finds that the island has reinvented an ancient religion. Do not get the Nick Cage version. Watch the 1973 version starring Christopher Lee.

The Invention of Lying

staring Ricky Gervais was a good comedy and highlights the stupidity and gullibility of unquestioning masses.

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-War on science (BBC horizon)

-Chocolat

-Dogma - pokes fun at religion 

-Dirty Pictures

- Richard Dawkins "The Root of Evil" 

    - "The Enemies of Reason"

Agora

Moolaade

The stoning of Soraya M

Creation (that Charles Darwin movie)

8: the Mormon Proposition

A Jihad for Love

For the Bible tells me so

Marjoe

Constantine's Sword

The Sivas Massacre

Generation Jihad

-Amen (2002)

-Priest (1995)

-The Name of the Rose (1986)

-Wise Blood (1979)

-The Most Hated Family in America (2008) [Really hard to sit through]

-The Magdalene Sisters (2002)

-BBC Panorama: British Schools, Islamic Rules

-BBC: Vatican, The hidden world

Judgment Day: Intelligent design on trial]] (Nova documentary)

'Through the wormhole' first episode, 'Is there a God' Other episodes are also very interesting.

'Penn & Teller - Bullshit' S1 E1 - Talking to the dead, S1 E8 - Creationism, S2 E6 - The Bible, S3 E6 - Holier than thou, S3 E12 - Signs from heaven, S5 E5 - Exorcism, S7 E2 - Astrology, S7 E10 - The Vatican.

-Ken Miller on Intelligent Design

-Sam Harris - Believing the unbelievable

-Any of the Intelligence Squared Debates on the subject

"The four horsemen" - discussion between the four most prominent atheists of the moment: Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris