A study done by the Christian Film & Television Commission showed that movies with strong moral content averaged more than six times more money than movies with strong immoral or anti-religious content. This study seems vindicated by blockbuster hits like C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. All these works were the artistic creations of men of deep Christian faith.
Many other movies could be cited to demonstrate the appeal of religious or moral values. The Gladiator is a story that presents its characters’ religions seriously and shows the heroic pursuit of virtues like duty, fidelity, and courage, even in tragic circumstances. Changing Lanes explores the positive (one could say redemptive) aspects of suffering in the story of two men having a very bad day. The Truman Show is an illustration of Plato’s allegory of the cave. And the movie Signs explores the nature of providence. One could list many other more recent movies. Why such popularity in a culture that is increasingly secular and hostile to many of these moral values?
Perhaps people are moved by strong moral content in films because they are moved by the beauty of moral goodness. Such goodness and beauty is also truth, for nothing false could possess such harmony and splendor. Beauty connects us with reality. In a world where knowledge is power, art gives us an alternative mode of knowing reality, one that is in touch with specifically human values and human significance. It was despair at the secular notion of truth that led C.S. Lewis to say that “nearly all that I loved I believed imaginary; nearly all that I believed to be real I thought grim and meaningless.”
At a time when reason is both idol and suspect, it is the advantage of art to operate at a deeper level than reason. If reason is the head, then art speaks to the heart. “The heart has reasons that reason knows not” Pascal said. Reason easily strays from the truth, but the heart is not so easily led astray.
What other movies are beautiful in their religious or moral truths?
from Noetic Muse
