Religous Movie Mondays

This weekend Mrs Titan and I watched a duo of religious movies that had almost nothing to do with each other and weren't really all that religious.

Luther

This five year old movie stars Ralph Fiennes as Martin Luther, the founder of the Reformation. I vaguely remembered the story from tenth grade history, and the movie seemed fairly historically accurate. It was great to see Rome in the Middle Ages, as a place where you could pay for your salvation, and the salvation of loved ones with cash. I have no idea how accurate those scenes were, but it seems like there would have been rebelling priests before Luther if it were as bad as all that. But, I guess he just had the courage and/or naivete to stand up to the church.

I think the think that struck me the most was all the violence in the wake of the Reformation. I don't remember the story being so violent in history class. It makes sense though. I really enjoyed the acting, although some of the characters were hard to understand, because they were German actors speaking in English. I will also say that after the 95 Theses were nailed to the door (about 45 minutes in) the movie slowed down and could get a little boring. Overall it was not a bad film, and quite an interesting historical piece. Check it out!

The Protocols of Zion

Shortly after 9/11 America and the world saw a rise in anti-Semitism. Marc Levin decided to investigate the reasons, and made a documentary of his discoveries. One of the most important documents leading to modern anti-Semitism is The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forged document which purports to be the minutes of a meeting of all the top Jews in the world discussing how they plan to take over the world. It has been proven a fraudulent document published in Russia in the early 1900s to stir up hatred of Jews.

Levin finds that many people in the US still publish, read, and believe in the Protocols. These people are able to see "proof" of this hateful document in all kinds of world and business events. They are deluded and filled with hate. Over the course of the film Levin visits a New York newsstand, a mosque, rabbis, the headquarters of a white power organization, the premier of The Passion of the Christ, a prison, a white power broadcaster, an evangelical church, and even a Palestinian rally.

People are surprisingly open with him, telling him they hate him and his people. It's a scary thing, and he had to be quite brave to go to these places and admit to being a Jew. The prisoners and the evangelicals actually seemed to be the most educated of the people he meets. They make the most sense when it comes to their beliefs and they tended to be the most open to him and what he had to say.

I wish the movie was a little more structured, as it wasn't always easy to follow and assumed a pretty broad knowledge of history and religion going into the film. What I ultimately came away with is that the world is a scary place. Hate is easy to breed and propagate and people will grasp onto anything, including a hundred year old piece of debunked propaganda just to validate that hate. It is scary what some people believe and that they will ignore facts placed before them for a foundation of hate. I think this is a movie that every American should see, so we can truly understand the state of our country and the world.