Evangelical Movies and Culture

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/march-web-only/do-you-believe-in-confirmation-bias.html?start=1

Good article on Christian movies and the echo chamber surrounding them. Not sure I agree fully with his point on confirmation bias contained in the movies but I do agree that Christian movies should be judged and critiqued in the same way that other films are critiqued. The author seems to have a problem with setting up 'bad guys' (Atheist professors, Humanist scholars) by giving them lame arguments for Evangelical heroes to shoot down. True, some of the dialogue and situations that evolve are too clean and straightforward presenting a obvious moral dilemma with an easy moral solution. The same could be said of cruel Japanese and German soldiers in World War II epics who abuse prisoners of war. Most war is hell though and showing soldiers as ruthless and unfeeling is often the truth in the context of battle and survival. It isn't important to show the human side or 'balance' the narrative when making a point about either politics, religion, or war. Platoon focused on only the atrocities committed by the Americans and left the viewer with a sense that Americans were battling each other more than the North Vietnamese or the Vietcong. Critics said it was a brilliant film. It was a brilliant film, but it was decidedly unfair and presented the staff sergeant (Tom Berenger) as a cruel and dominating force being unleashed on peasants in South Vietnam. That was certainly true some of the time and in some of the country. That's what movies do, they pick sides. The fact that a movie has a Christian world view means that it intends to show a particular viewpoint and try to convince viewers that salvation is for everyone. These movies end on a hopeful note that can be summed up almost universally as, fight the good fight of faith and righteousness will triumph.