Movies that are rough but have a powerful message

Abba San

Abba San

Legacy of Elijah [LoE] - Proud Grandfather
I missed it in the theaters and just saw it on Netflix - The Book of Eli. Had its share of violence and the bad guys used the f-word more than I like - but the message of the movie - the power of the Word - had me in tears at the end. And, actually, convicted me about my level of scripture memory.

There have been a number of powerful but R rated movies - that have touched me over the years. I used to have the rule - NO R RATED MOVIES - not so much anymore. Sometimes a movie with a strong message has strong content. The Mission - Schindler's List - Braveheart - The Passion of the Christ were all R rated.

The question in this thread IS NOT, "Should you see R rated movies?". The question is - what R rated movies (or even rough PG-13 movies) have you seen that God used to speak to you? Feel free to use any of the movies mentioned above.

I bring it up in this forum because this is where some of the more challenging topics appear, and we are talking about what God has to say...to you.
 
The Book of Eli was one of the best secretly Christian-themed movies in Hollywood that I've seen. Sure it has it's rough patches but wow was it powerful. xD
 
Got it on cue and looking forward to watching it! My daughter said it a must and the way she has been going I'm listening hehehe sorry she has me very proud!
 
Saw Book of Eli, but we use ClearPlay so we missed the language and any other garbage in the film.

Don't read this spoiler if you plan to see this film. You have been warned.
The book should have been much, much bigger. . .I knew a blind man that had just the gospel of John in braille and it was bigger than that book. . .

From this site http://www.braillebibles.org/kjv.htm 1foot x 1foot x 5 feet and over 65 pounds for a King James Bible.

Really annoying, because there was no way for me to even guess at the twist at the end since I know what size a braille Bible is.
The Passion was really the only one I got something out of. Schindler's list just grossed me out. . .recounts of what the Nazi's did are bad enough but watching it was terrible. I didn't finish it. Bravehart was okay in a guy movie sort of way but I didn't see much spiritual meaning in it. And I've never heard of The Mission.
 
Patriot - we kind of all felt that the size of the book thing was cheating, too.

The language was sporadic - mainly in one section - and as usual, totally unnecessary to show these were the bad guys. There wasn't much other "garbage" - even the violence was muted - in silhouette - or terribly quick - not near as bad as I had been led to believe.

The Mission is older - mid 80's - Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons - about two friends in 18th century South America and their attempt to save a tribe from being taken slaves. It's about redemption and repentance - well worth a watch.
 
Well, to each his own.....
I decided to overturn my previous decision not to watch The Book Of Eli based on this thread, and for the most part, I regret it!
As stated, everyone's welcome to their own opinion, so I'm going to rant about mine :)
The movie was very slow and drawn out, which I feel they tried to supplement with unnecessary over-the-top violence and gore. I don't have a problem overlooking some violence or profanity(though maybe I/christians should), but when blood goes spraying and splattering, and body parts are being separated, and arrows are shot through ..., I think it's unnecessary and no story-line warrents sitting through that. I certainly would never let my child watch it. Aside from that, the 'twist' makes everything else that happened prior absolute absurdity. A little grade-school level cryptology (haven't figured out how to do the spoiler thing yet!)would render the bad guys dillema resolute. Any 'christian' theme I think is negated by the post-apocalyptic state of the world as portrayed. And if I really wanted to nit-pick, I was bothered by the fact that he stated he had KJV, but went on to quote verses from NKJV.
Perhaps my critique/rant was about as over-the-top as parts of that movie, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it :)

As far as the original topic, I'm not sure off the top of my head what movies would fall under that classification, I haven't seen any of the other ones mentioned except Passion, which in this case, though a little gorey, it was at least factual and the only contradiction I can think of to my previous anti-gore(no pun intended!) statement, though there would still be some discretion with showing it to younger children.

As far as the 'no R rated movies' standard, obviously I don't subscribe to that. Ratings are so unpredictable. So many movies are over-rated, while others buy their way into an under-rating.

I certainly would be interested though, in hearing about more inspiring movies, R-rated or not, unless that's better suited for another thread/forum.
 
I certainly would be interested though, in hearing about more inspiring movies, R-rated or not, unless that's better suited for another thread/forum.
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I wouldn't consider it stealing the thread if you listed other movies that God used to speak to you. I'll go ahead and name two - Bruce Almighty and the sequel Evan Almighty. I enjoyed the movies, in general, and both had God moments for me. In fact, there are clips that I could use to make a point in a Sunday morning message.

As far as the 'no R rated movies' standard, obviously I don't subscribe to that. Ratings are so unpredictable. So many movies are over-rated, while others buy their way into an under-rating.
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Isn't that the truth. I've seen PG-13 movies that should have been 'R' for the profanity and nudity - but they don't because they are trying to reach the high-school age kids.

One reason I raised the question about 'R' rated movies that God can use is that so many of the 'God' movies are such pablum that I don't enjoy them. Extremely clear God message - but so predictable and so unrealistic. Everything that could be wrong is wrong (finances, health, relationships, life) - finally someone prays and everything - EVERYTHING - works out just fine. That is just not the way the Christian life works.
 
'Lean on Me' and 'Heat' are two great movies I think Christians can benefit from. 'Lean on Me' for obvious reasons, and 'Heat' because good and evil is far more complex than we sometimes think. In this movie, the traditional bad guys are really the ones who cared for each other, while the traditional good guys.. not so much. And, the movie has the best action sequence to date.
 
Schindler's List has always personified what makes R rated content sometimes necessary and unfortunately what makes R rated content UNNECESSARY. The below is only a tiny spoiler IMO.

It's as if Spielberg decided since we've got nudity in the movie already lets throw nudity in the sex scenes too. To be clear it was necessary to show what kind of man Schindler was, having affairs and such, but it's got a little immoral fan service in them. On the other hand you take something away from the reality of the Jewish prisoners' plight if you don't show how demeaned they were with nudity and violence. Sometimes it is necessary to shock if there is a point to it.

Basically I don't believe the horror of the holocaust can be completely impressed upon people in a G rated way, you should be a little shocked/offended, you should feel something, but that shouldn't give you carte blanche to use the same explicitness for everything else in the movie.
 
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Basically I don't believe the horror of the holocaust can be completely impressed upon people in a G rated way, you should be a little shocked/offended, you should feel something, but that shouldn't give you carte blanche to use the same explicitness for everything else in the movie.
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Good point, Gerbil. I think it is similar to the Passion - some people complained that it was too rough. The fact is - it was probably not rough enough - but all they could do on film.
 
Gerbil, that's exactly how I felt about Schindler's List too... And the sad reality is that the careful deletion of about 30 seconds would probably fix it right up. The majority of the movie was uncomfortable but a needed discomfort.

I would also stand behind We Were Soldiers Once, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down... As an important disturbance to help us realize what our freedom costs.

One that hit me heavily that I wouldn't recommend to many was District 9. It was tough to watch and I almost left the theater, but in watching aliens suffer, it should open your eyes to the real suffering of refugees around the world. It also makes you think seriously about Christ's second coming and the transformation disciples go through.
 
If it takes some profanity to get hollywood to produce it- so be it.

That something as profound as a blind man being led across the entire stretch of the united states by God to preserve His word, is a movie worth watching. That fact that it made it out of hollywood, a place where everyone's moral compass is on a permanent vacation is in-itself, an act of God.

my two cents.
 
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