Change Your Image
hellman-1
Reviews
Frontline: The Jesus Factor (2004)
A must see!
This is a must see documentary. It examines the role played by the Evangelical Christian Movement in recent presidential elections. Viewer comments on the PBS web site are almost uniformly positive, both from the right and the left, leading me to believe that Front Line made an objective presentation. Watching this will thrill you, but whether it is a positive or negative thrill will depend on your politics.
The film starts with the 1988 presidential primary, where George H. W. Bush came in third in the Iowa caucuses, after Bob Dole and televangelist Pat Robertson. But, after the Bush campaign recruited the born-again George W. Bush to tell the Evangelical community that his father was a good Christian, things changed -- dramatically.
The Day After Trinity (1981)
It changed my life
I first saw this documentary in 1981 and I am not exaggerating when I say it changed my life. A few years later I took an 18 month unpaid leave from my professorship to work as a full-time volunteer trying to defuse the nuclear threat. While many factors contributed to that decision, "The Day After Trinity" certainly was one of them.
The thing that impressed me most about this film was that it showed me how we can fool ourselves as to our motivation. We think we base our decisions on a rational foundation, but this film helped me to see places in my own past where I had made major decisions and not been totally honest about some of my motivation. We have socially acceptable and socially unacceptable reasons for doing things and hide the socially unacceptable ones even from our own consciousness. But they are at work in the unconscious, where they can take over and do great harm. Watching this film made me vow to do my utmost never to do that again. (It's not as easy as it might sound!) It is not light fare, but definitely worth watching. Aside from what a viewer can learn from it, the film is very well done, with much high drama.
Le dîner de cons (1998)
Funny, witty, and with a point
The Dinner Game is one of my favorite comedies. With one hilarious turn of events after another, you'll think it can't go on getting funnier ... but it does. In addition to the humor, it makes a really good point about human relations and the way that what goes around, comes around.
While this isn't totally slapstick, it has elements so, if you're turned off by that genre you may want to look elsewhere.
Also keep in mind that it's in French with subtitles in case that's a problem for you. Othewise rent it or buy it. You'll be glad you did.
This last line is added so IMDb will post it. They require 10 lines and I've said all I really needed to. Hoping they'll eliminate that requirement.
Martin
Jesus' Son (1999)
A great film with real depth.
There was only one other review of this film when I wrote this and it deserved more than that, so here I am. I'll refer you to that review for much more detail, but I wanted to second the motion that this film deserves wider recognition.
It's a bit "arty" but in an unpretentious kind of way, with some good laughs as well as some deep ideas. It's also not a bad film to watch with your teenagers (if they'll do something like that!) as a surreptitious way to get them to "just say no" to drugs. It paints what looks like a realistic portrait of life on drugs.
I wanted to stop here, but IMDb is telling me I need 10 lines before they'll accept a review, which I hope they'll change. So what to add? Great acting and some great one-liners.