I’m starting a list of movies (I’m not against also including books, but I was starting with movies) whose theme is redemption — and I’m asking you to play along on the home game. You can add via the “comments” feature of the blog, or just email me directly at garrisonstuber at garriber dot org, and I’ll update the list as they come in. I have seen a lot of movies (though I think both my brothers have me long since beat), but if you want to include a description of the film, too, that would be cool.
I have long held that the difference between Mel Gibson’s Passion
So Schindler’s List
I haven’t seen it in many moons (though now it’s in my Netflix Queue), but I’m going to put Babette’s Feast
How about you? What’s your favourite movie with redemption as its theme?
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Linda writes:
“Favorite movie: “King Lear
Movie I would most like to watch again through the lens of redemption: Blade Runner
There are some interesting scenes where redemption is refused (Sauron in TLotR
“Wings of Desire” and “Made in Heaven” are two that come to mind. Or maybe it’s just that I feel a sense of redemption when I view them.
“The Spitfire Grill” is one of my favorite redemption movies.
“The Passion”? Otherwise known as “Mad Max Goes to Jerusalem.”
Is redemption a lessening of shame and guilt, a relearning of belief in something greater than one’s self, an ability to relearn love and trust? Or all of the above? If it is to relearn love and trust, “Sleepless in Seattle” contains redemption.
In “Pay it Forward” almost everyone experiences some kind of redemption. In “The English Patient” the hostile visitor does and perhaps the patient does I am not completely sure about that. The nurse learns the redemption of hope which can be a powerful redemption indeed.
so heres what I am thinking, on several levels, every movie I watch has to have a shred of redemption in it or I wont like it. My current favorites are Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, faults with both notwithstanding.
I love to see broken people groping their way toward community, it makes me feel like I am part of a bigger redemptive process than just my own personal salvation process.
As far as the Passion goes, it was a familiar story told through an unfamiliar lens. I keep wondering if he (Mel) read the whole thing. It reminds me of the scene in the church in Harold and Maude, when Maude looks quizzically at the crucifix hanging and wryly comments “Didnt they read the end of that story?”
If Passion is supposed to make up for Bird on a Wire, Gibson would have had to flog Caviezel a LOT more. I think the Gospel story *is* about redemption . . . I just don’t think Gibson came close to catching that. (I think he came a lot closer in Braveheart . . . but I might be thinking of Rob Roy). Did you see the French version of Les Miserables done in 1995 by Claude Lelouch? (I rented it from either the Mobile or Cuba’s little video store). It has one of the best betrayal scenes on film.
Tom says the Passion was Gibson’s attempt to redeem himself for making Bird on a Wire. I thought the Passion was well made and incredibly moving, but perhaps did not go into enough background detail for a non-christian to understand it as being about redemption.
My favorite redemption story is Les Miserables, but I hate the Claire Danes/Liam Neeson movie version because Hugo would retch in his grave at the changes they made. Redemption and Shawshank Redemption should be on the list, if only for their titles. The last Rocky movie should count because of the theme of the movie and because it at least partly redeemed the second, third, fourth, (was there a fifth?) Rocky movies. Tom says he can make a case for the Rocky about the Soviet fighter – my guess is that is a comedic redemption choice.