Do Heathens and Catholics Make Better Christian Films Than Evangelicals

Inside Catholic over at their blog had a interesting piece at I Found the Film Article!. It is an interesting piece.

Though I must say Robert Duvall (I think he was raised Christian Scientist ) did one of the best Christian films I have ever seen that being THE APOSTLE.

Anyway a good post and of course what this comes down too is a "Sacramental" outlook.

Film excels at metaphor — forging a connection between dissimilar objects or themes. It doesn't fare as well with text messaging. Show, don't tell, is the rule of cinema. Christians, however, can't seem to resist the prospect of using film as a high-tech flannel board. The result is more akin to propaganda than art, and propaganda has a nasty habit of hardening hearts....
Christian filmmakers seem to dislike mystery. Rather than using Jesus's construct, "The kingdom of God is like ...," their films often proclaim, "The kingdom of God is." Nothing is left to the imagination. Audiences are not allowed to make their own connections; they are told what to think....


On Catholics
Three tenets of Catholicism informed their craft and equipped them to excel. First, an intuitive understanding of iconography gave them a strong foundation for crafting visual images. Next, they seemed to grasp the incarnational function of art, which allowed them to give tangible form to intangible concepts. Finally, their understanding of the sacramental nature of life helped them relate divine patterns through everyday minutiae. For these reasons, even lapsed Catholic filmmakers, such as Brian De Palma or Federico Fellini, tend to be better equipped to focus on religious themes than practicing evangelicals. This isn't to say that non-Catholic Christian filmmakers are at a complete disadvantage when creating cinema. But the Protestant evangelical emphasis on the primacy of "word" has not allowed us to fully realize our ability to translate the image of God (imago Dei) into moving pictures.

Now a couple of caveats here. We have gone through a couple of decades where Catholic ID and indeed mystery seemed to be real down. So I do wonder for Catholics of that generation is there going to be a drought.

Further more Evangelicals are finding a place in the film world. A world that was a tad hostile to them in the past. SO that plays a role too. Anyway interesting article.