Please forgive the intrusion of a music guy into the film forum -- I'll be plenty happy if someone can just point me to another thread on this. Here's the story: I am teaching a class on American culture at a Chinese university. I'm doing a short unit on religion, and I'd love to find a film or two that portrays religion in American life in a realistic and accessible way. I considered something like "Saved," but decided that as a satire, it might be confusing to people who aren't already familiar with the stuff it's parodying. I also considered documentaries like "Jesus Camp" but again, this presents a kind of extreme and esoteric side of religion in the US. What I'm really looking for is a movie (documentary or not) that delves into the way that religion(s) influence people's lives in the US.

The Apostle is an excellent film about a specific brand of American Christianity. It is a tough film to screen in the classroom context, but that is what first comes to mind.

Hollywood seems to think that only southerners are religious. That said:

Tender Mercies
The Third Miracle (not southern!)
Awake My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp (documentary)
Places in the Heart
The Chosen (Orthodox/Reform Judaism in mid-20th c. USA)
The Preacher's Wife (Denzel Washington remake of The Bishop's Wife)
Lilies of the Field

A few more:

Hell House
Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple
Angels in America
Blood of Jesus
Black Robe
Holy Ghost People

Much that has been mentioned as been some sort of minority or extreme aspect of American religion. What that says to me is that there is a great diversity of religion in America. Films show more of the fringe and dysfunctional than the role religion plays everyday - a bit of the man bites dog theory.

I'll add:
Witness and the doc on the Amish forgiving the killer of their children
Brooklyn Bridge TV series if it's available - the post war Jewish experience

A Time for Burning

Do you want films that are about religion in America, or that simply portray it through one or more characters?

Say Amen, Somebody
A River Runs Through It

Not high art, but the way that Keep the Faith portrays people of different religions getting along together has a decidedly "American" feel to it. Perhaps not quite the angle you were looking for, but hey!

Matt

Let the Church Say Amen
Malcolm X
Saint Ralph

and...

Left Behind

Technically, that's religion in Canadian life

I would add the films Moonstruck and Changing Lanes... neither of which has religion as central to the story, but its presence is deeply felt. Also... Dead Man Walking.

"Do you want films that are about religion in America, or that simply portray it through one or more characters?"

Either, really.



That's the kind of thing I'm looking for, actually. Despite the fact that there are a lot of interesting ones, I don't want to show a documentary about cults or fundies, because a lot of my students think just adhering to a religion is weird enough. I'm looking for a film about "regular" people -- my students are very interested in common, everyday life in the US -- and the way faith/religion affects their lives.

Thanks, everyone, for your great ideas.

An older film that I've found interesting and enlightening is You Can't Take it With You, directed by Frank Capra. Again, the presence of religion is deeply felt in the way the family lives their life and in the prayers that bookend the film.

You may want to try out The Second Chance too, a decent portrayal of the two different worlds in America as well as the religious response to those worlds.

Yeah, it is tough to find films that foot that bill because movies about religion in America are either too sacchrine and neutralized in an effort to meet popular appeal, thus not really being about religion at all, or are specific and documentarian in their aims. There are so many more options in international cinema that manage to be about religion and are good stories at the same time.

oo! oo! Just thought of another one!

Junebug.

Yes, it's Southern, but it's one of the few that portrays the religous beliefs as fully integrated in the lives of the fallible characters, and this distinction is wonderfully presented.

Also, a well-crafted documentary is probably the most honest you may get for such a topic. And the docs of Steve James, particularly Hoop Dreams will do, esp in showing the power of the church in inner-city life. Altho I suspect fans of Stevie will now come out of the woodworks...

Lastly, and this is tricky, but I suspect that a film like Gods & Generals has its merits, but only taken in small doses.

You can add Tyler Perry's The Family That Preys

This topic has been moved to the better-suited "Film Awards, Festivals, and Lists" forum...