Review of God's Not Dead (2014) by Anon Y — 05 Oct 2014

Well produced. Well acted. Great cinematography.

Alas, these otherwise decent to good actors have to work with such poor material. The situations are absurd. The relationships are ... bizarre. The dialogue is a mix of reasonable to abysmal and sometimes borders on what can only be called cultish. In the end, it is a film of imagined persecution that appears, as far as one can tell, to really be masquerading as a propaganda film. Not a propaganda film for the general audience, but specifically for a certain segment of Christendom that relishes an imagined America where they are in the minority and persecuted, which couldn't be further from the truth. Christians are the vast majority in society in the USA, but you can't tell from this film.

Examples:

. Film: Brave young Christian stoicically navigates the waters of a university where only an extreme minority of people follow his faith.

. Reality: 80%+ of those folks in his class would be Christians, of various levels of devoutness.

. Film: A hostile, abusive university professor forces everyone to proclaim that God is Dead and if they do not... academic DOOM!

. Reality: Even a tenured professor could not be this belligerent and hostile and ... unacademic.

. Film: If the protagonist does not pass this class... that's it! He's doomed.

. Reality: Did any of these filmmakers go to college? This forced dramatization is comical. A failed elective, as anyone who has attended university, is simply not that dreadful.

. Film: Lots of back and forth stating this and that about science, logic, ethics and philosophy.

. Reality: The arguments, points, and discussion show a severe lack of understanding of science (examples include the Big Bang, Evolution, morality and simple logic) though there are instances where they ALMOST show they "get it" suggesting perhaps the filmmakers understand the science, but specifically twisted the arguments to fit their objectives. I.e., The science is incorrect. The argument that morality is sophomoric and an example of a long ago dismissed argument. Etc. Etc.

. Film: Uncaring boyfriends who treat their girlfriends like chattel.

. Reality: People treat people poorly all the time, but these relationships as portrayed just aren't believable.

. Film: Girl of Muslim family caught being interested and moved by Christian pop-preachers.

. Reality: This is actually believable (though the portrayal again is very sophomoric) considering so many children of zealously religious families often rebel by experimenting with opposing faiths. But... the filmmakers of course only parade the "brave young Christian wannabe" and make her into a martyr figure.

. Film: All the Atheists or non-Christians are pretty universally portrayed as deeply troubled, damaged, hateful, or just terrible people. All the Christians are pretty universally protrayed as smart, if a bit milquetoasty, and humble. To be far, the Christians are occassinally portayed as overly smug and sometimes creepy.

. Reality: Atheists and non-Christians are jerks or not. The same is true for Christians. The movie portrays folks as starkly black and white.

. Film: The film ends with a listing of legal cases where Christians were restricted in their speech at campuses.

. Reality: Many campuses and schools overstep their bounds in attempting to maintain order. This is true for people of all faiths. The list for the freedom for non-Christian speech and expression is infinity longer. Christians simply are not experiencing suppression in the USA, quite the contrary, Christians have a priviledged, enabled status. Again... disengenous on the part of the filmmakers.

One can go on and on. The film is simply dreadful, though entertaining from a propaganda film perspective. Because, that is the intention. Or seems to be the intention: Appeal to young born again Christians and fill their hearts with persecuted righteousness, which is unfortunate... because it is dishonest.

This would have been so much more interesting is it were about a young man struggling to retain his faith after being newly exposed to so many more ideas and worldviews... as so many people experience when leaving their families and joining the larger world for the first time, whether it be college, the workforce, or the military.

Anyway... PASS on this film unless you are really curious about modern disingenuous propaganda filmmaking and what the religious right is paying top dollar to produce in order to advance their ends. It will either leave you with a disturbingly chill down your spine, or fill you with amusement at the audacity of the thing. Disappointing.