"LEFT
BEHIND"
----Film Review----
(such an appropriate title, but not for the reasons the fans of the best selling novel and movie would expect)
****Warning….if you're VERY Christian and easily offended by words written otherwise……delete now****
Predictably, I had a 'hell' of a time making it through this film, but
it wasn't due to the expected bad acting & dialogue or even that the
VERY Christian TV couple of Kirk Cameron and his wife were in it.
(if anything, they would attract me to it 'cause I grew up with Kirk's 'Growing
Pains' and his wife is a Babe)
Therefore, why on earth (or 'heaven') would I desire to give this VERY Christian film from the VERY Christian production company, "Cloud 10 Prods", the Gong Show boot?
Uh……consider who's writing this review.
Now, for those of you familiar with my stance on religion, you should
know that my intentions of this review are NOT to bash Christianity (I'll
leave that to my website…….j/k!).
Then again, I'm not going to approach this like I generally would other
films…..
Because it simply isn't.
This movie could have easily limited itself to the ABC Monday Night of the Week, but they instead chose to put it on Video for all to see, over and over again.
Therefore, so shall I.
Question is, where do I start?
As I watched this film I realized I would have to take notes throughout in order to acklowledge everything that was….uh…..questionable. And truth is, I found far too many things, and that's a problem since film reviews are usually limited for space. Therefore, I've decided to narrow it down to 2 aspects:
1. A few words that I feel describe it.
2. A few quotes and scenes from the film accompanied by my responses.
I'll begin with a few words that I feel sum up the message within this film:
1. Fear
2. Threat
3. Selfishness & Patronization
4. Cruel
5. Punishment (from an 'all-loving God')
6. Contradictions
Normally I would give reasons for the above words, but I REALLY don't want to spend pages on this stuff, so if you REALLY wanna know………ask me.
Now let's move onto the nutshell of this film and its various quotes/scenes/my responses.
The story is simple……'Judgement Day'.
Apparently (some) of those who believe the bible agree that 'believers'
or non-sinners(?) will be 'saved' while the others will be punished or 'left
behind'.
Therefore, this film depicted what Cloud 10 Prods (and the Cameron family)
feel will happen 'when that day comes'…..the saving of believers will
involve them disappearing (literally) and going to heaven. Everyone else
will be 'left behind'.
They also apparently feel that soldiers, animals, some believers and all children will be 'left behind'….and that offended me:
1. There was footage of soldiers from other countries still alive. I guess their killing of people kept them from being saved, despite that their intentions may have been in support of their god in a 'holy war'.
2.Animals: I guess they don't matter no matter how much we love them.
3. If you're going to suggest that not all believers will be 'saved', you had damn better explain WHY. Afterall, the film went out of its way to suggest that those wearing a crucifix would be saved. In other words, we now know for CERTAIN that all types of criminals DON'T wear them.
4. As for the children, so much for the theory that some people are 'born evil'.
Makes ya wonder WHO decides what is considered a 'sin'
What's that? God you say?
Uh…..Whose god?
Time for some scenes and quotes……
1. A local (apparently fraudulent) Reverand 'realizes' what has happened to everyone and pleads on hands & knees for forgiveness. Well, uh, nothing happens…..he doesn't disappear, but he IS consoled by a friend (who's having an affair).
****My response: Makes we wonder why in hell a priest accompanies a death row inmate on his way down the 'Green Mile'. Kinda pointless, eh?
2. The daughter of one of the main characters is bummed over her Mother and Bro checking out and decides to read the bible her Mother gave her. Inside her Mother wrote:
"God loves you"
****Uh…….APPARENTLY NOT.
3. One main character is a pilot who has been having an affair (so he's bad). His daughter was left behind but his wife and son bought a farm in heaven. Anyway, his depression leads him to watching home movies. He also views a video, left by some pastor, who claims to have the religious answers to what has happened. Now, obviously this film is very fictional, but in the event that it happens, most people (using logic) would conclude that these happenings possibly came from a disease, epidemic, freak accident….hell even aliens.
Well, for some reason, this dude decides to completely believe the video, which suggests 'god'.
In fact, the pappa gets so wrapped up in his being reborn that the scriptwriter gave him some heavenly quotes:
"I'm a different person now. I should have listened to my (VERY religious) wife."
"Its not about us. Its something bigger."
****(uh, if it wasn't about 'us', then why are 'us' disappearing?…….contradiction?)
"We were given a gift and we blew it"
****(uh…..then why worry about it now? Tooooo late….game over)
And now for the last quote which comes from our beloved though fraudulent Reverand:
4. "You can feel god tugging at your heart"
****(Uh…..Rev buddy….its called
FEAR
Also, why WOULD god be 'tugging at your heart' AFTER Judgement
Day????
Hasn't he made his decision by this point?
And if you wanna argue about the seven year itch that supposedly
follows
J-Day, then I could simply ask....
"Then what was the urgency in accepting god BEFORE the itch????
Apparently he's gonna give us non-believers some more time.")
So, how did it end?
Well, it was a stretch, but Kirk FINALLY decided to accept and believe in god…..and probably will now torture us with more films from "Cloud 10".
(….and that isn't a
'sin'??????)
*********
"A Few Thoughts From My
Friends"