Three Reasons Why You Should Not See the Christploitation Film "Left Behind"

Checking the Gate Podcast

As most people do, I receive a lot of spam in my email. One day, while attempting to clean out my inbox, I ran across this advertisement from New Release Tuesday, a Christian music website. As soon as I saw this it made me very angry. There is a lot a bad sentiment implied here; it is also misleading, and exploitative. A little harsh, you say? I shall explain why I think this is an exploitative film and why you should not go see Left Behind with Nicolas Cage. First, I shall describe the bad sentiment behind this ad.

There has been a long history of bad blood between Hollywood and conservative Christians. Robert K. Johnston gives a very good account of this in his book Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. It begins, strangely enough, with Cecil B. DeMille. Today, DeMille’s movie The Ten Commandments (1956) is generally held in high regard as the ultimate example of what a religious movie should be. It details the life of Moses, from growing up in the Egyptian royal house to leading the Israelites triumphantly into the Promised Land. It depicts God as a real entity and Moses coming to trust in the Lord after wrestling with Modern philosophical concerns about him. ABC still broadcasts the film on television every Easter (or Passover, depending on your point of view), and has done so for so long it has become an unbreakable tradition. Despite the fact that nearly the entire first half of the movie has no basis in the Biblical story, or that—in an opening sequence often deleted for time on television—DeMille comes out from behind the curtain to say this movie is an explicit metaphor of the Cold War,here and here), taking the book of Revelation at face value can lead one to get lost trying to find meaning in the dreamlike, apocalyptic imagery of the tome and lose the real meaning behind it. Left Behind is an example of this, using the end of the world as the McGuffin for an action movie instead of offering hope to those who follow Jesus that are facing insurmountable persecution. A nice, short read which can help all people discover the long held, orthodox interpretation of both Genesis and Revelation is book The Beginning and the End by Michael W. Paul.

So whether you are hoping to see Left Behind because you are looking for a good action movie, or because you are looking for a faith based movie which displays orthodox Christian theology, then Left Behind will disappoint you on both accounts. As New York film reviewer Susan Granger says, “Faith-driven audiences deserve better.”[13]

Does this mean we should avoid all Christploitation movies because we deserve to see better? By all means, no! Not all of these movies are as terrible as Left Behind. I personally liked God’s Not Dead. Kevin Sorbo is compelling as the atheist philosophy professor who demands that his students likewise deny God’s existence. The ensuing classroom debate harkens back to the drama in Inherit the Wind. Even though the rest of the acting is wooden (sorry Dean Cain), and there are too many plot threads trying to prove too many preachy points, this movie is pretty good overall.

That does not mean that Christian moviegoers should blindly throw their money at terrible movies solely because they are faith based. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for. If we keep paying for garbage, the movie industry will keep serving up garbage. But is Left Behind really that bad? The ad above claims that Fandango fans gave it four stars, and the audience score on Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 65% approval rating. A closer examination of the reviews on both websites belies these apparently favorable indicators. For every five-star rating with a simple “I liked it” review, there are several one-star diatribes describing every inferior aspect of the movie. In the end, the answer to the question just posed is: yes, Left Behind really is that bad.

So if you are a Christian and a fan of the movies, do not feel compelled to fall into the old way of thinking, the “us versus them” attitude conservatives copped towards Hollywood for so much of the twentieth century. Please do not drag your friends to Left Behind just to feed a desire to see more faith based movies in the theater. Do your research, look at the reviews, and spend your money on quality. If Left Behind fails to meet expectations (which I say it has, both in quality and financially) it does not mean the end of the world. The end of the world will come at a time no one expects and in a way no one can predict, just as Jesus said in Matthew 24. In the meantime, Christploitation films are, for the foreseeable future, going to keep premiering at the cineplex. Just because one falters, it will not dissuade any other movie producers from making money in the genre. That is my prediction.

Works Cited

Bennett, Cory. "Christian films find fans at multiplex." Akron Beacon Journal 3 May 2012: F21-F22. Newspaper.

Christian Movies at the Box Office. n.d. website. 27 Oct 2014. .

Flesher, Paul V.M. and Robert Torry. Film & Religion: An Introduction. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2007.

Johnston, Robert K. Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.

Left Behind - Rotten Tomatoes. n.d. website. 27 Oct 2014. .

Riley, Robin. Film, Faith, and Cultural Conflict: The Case of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003.

[1] Flesher, Paul V.M. and Robert Torry. Film & Religion: An Introduction. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2007. Pg. 72

[2] Johnston, Robert K. Reel Spirituality: Theology and Film in Dialogue. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006. Pg. 44

[3] Johnston , pg. 46

[4] Johnston, pg. 45

[5] Riley, Robin. Film, Faith, and Cultural Conflict: The Case of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003

[6] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=christian.htm

[7] www.wikipedia.com

[8] Bennett, Cory. "Christian films find fans at multiplex." Akron Beacon Journal 3 May 2012: F21-F22. Newspaper. Pg. F21

[9] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=christian.htm

[10] http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=christian.htm

[11] Bennett, pg. F21

[12] http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/left_behind_2014/?search=left%20b

[13] http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/left_behind_2014/?search=left%20b