Hollywood Worldviews: Watching Films with Wisdom and Discernment

The author Brian Godawa is a prolific Christian movie maker, reviewer, screen writer and author. If one would expect someone to have the situational background to write on a Christian worldview analysis of films, then Godawa would be it. Making this even better is the fact that Godawa has good theology driving his worldview. He's also influenced by Van Til's Presuppositional apologetics (another major plus!). I've been wanting to read this book for a long time and was glad that I was finally able to order it and sit down and read it. The book defends the idea that film in of itself is not sinful--and that is just the preface. Conscious of the fact that film consists of visual imagery, the dramatic and a story, the author demonstrates that Scripture uses or record people using imagery, the dramatic and stories properly. The rest of the book is divided into three parts, or more appropriately as Godawa calls it, "act." In Act 1, Godawa focuses on story telling, which consists of three chapters. The first chapter is about the issue of sex, violence and profanity. This chapter is one that a Christian might want to read carefully and perhaps revisit even after a first reading of the book. It is something to chew on even if not every Christian will find themselves in agreement with the author. Chapter three focuses on movies with redemption which obviously is a big theological Christian motif since God has established the greatest act of redemption. I've thoroughly enjoyed Act 2 of the book, which focuses on three worldviews that's the undercurrent of many contemporary movies: existentialism, postmodernism and other worldviews, including Eastern mysticism. Act 3 focuses on movies protrayal of the spiritual with a chapter each on Jesus, Christianity, faith and spiritual warfare. What I like alot about this book is that many movies are brought up as examples of the worldviews subtle message in films. There are many insights, analysis and observations from various movies throughout the book. You will find yourself seeing movies you seen before in new light and also be curious about the story lines of other movies you have not seen before (and of course, some movies which I will not see as a result of this book's analysis). All in all, these example should stir a Christian to be careful with discerning and watching movies with Godly wisdom--and while watching out for swearing, needless violence and sexual sins are important, we as believers must also watch out for the IDEAS that film impart to us. I highly recommend this book as a great introduction.

Brian Godawa tackles the issue of how to watch movies and be a discerning Christian at the same time. He believes extremes are wrong, whether it's the belief of being able to watch any and every movie that comes out (and not have it affect you) or being a Christian prude and declare that all movies are evil. He does an admirable job disecting movies--many of which were released in the past decade--and explaining the message that the producers are trying to convey. I esepcially appreciated the different charts that he laid out, including p. 37 and a comparison of The Matrix, Christianity, and Greek religion. Very helpful.I found myself agreeing with Godawa in many places, including his analysis of various films. At other places, I found myself disagreeing out loud. Besides disagreeing with his analysis of certain films, let me give one example where I did not click with Godawa. In the appendix, much space was used to show how the Bible has sex, violence, and profanity, thus almost making it seem that watching practically any movie would be A-OK. He tempers this, especially in the last few pages, but I still think it's apples and oranges if we were to say that we can watch whatever we want because such issues are dealt with in the Bible. In a way Godawa acknowledges this and says that "a sense of balance is what a Christian needs...Christians tend to be either cultural gluttons or cultural anorexics. It seems we either avoid all movies or watch too many of them." I agree with him that, if we pick our movies wisely, there is much to gain. I found it interesting, though, that many of the movies talked about in the book are probably those movies I myself would avoid, either because they were lame (as many movie critics would attest) or are so morally objectionable that I would have to ask, Can you really get anything good out of a dumpster full of garbage?Two other criticisms are the inclusion of "director's cut" notes throughout the book, which in reality was multiple promotions of his web site. Several times I wished that Godawa would have further expanded on a particular topic in his book rather than ask us to go to his site. Isn't this why we buy a particular book? Couldn't he have expanded it to include the issues his sites had, including unpublished chapters? I appreciate the fact that he had other information available, but I didn't look up one reference. Finally, how could a book like this not include an index, especially one that would have incorporated the different movies talked about in the book. Since he talked about a movie more than once, I found myself thumbing backward to see what else he had said about that particular film. Not being able to look in an index was extremely frustrating. It might have also been a benefit for the reader if Godawa provided his personal ratings of the books he reviewed, perhaps giving us an idea of movies that he feels we should or should not see. These ideas would have given Hollywood Worldviews a more complete feel.My criticisms aside, I still feel that this is worthy of a look by the discerning Christian moviegoer.

This is a really great book that is a must-have in your library, especially if you are wanting to know about the worldviews in movies. In this book, Brian really goes into detail about the different worldviews (biblical, humanistic, neo-paganisic, etc) and how they are portrayed in movies. He also goes into detail about how the themes, concepts, and ideas found in movies are also in the Bible, and covers how they are used for very different reasons.This is a resource needed in your library to help you gain clearer insight into what worldview is portrayed, and how to understand the agenda in Hollywood. I always knew that a creator's worldview is portrayed in their works, but I wanted a more deeper understanding of how they are portrayed. This book helped immensely, especially in helping understanding the worldview in the media I watch. Not just movies either. But also Anime, Video Games, Comics/Manga, etc.I could go into more detail, but I will keep this spoiler-free. You'll have to buy Hollywood Worldviews to really dig in. It will be worth the investment.

I wish I'd read this book sooner. There's a lot of stuff written out there about movies, music and pop culture generally, from a Christian perspective, but i find that too much of is ranty or frustratingly shallow. This book is written by an insider, a screenwriter with a proven track record, who brings a wealth of industry know-how to bear on what is arguably the most powerful medium around today.After working through the basic worldview concepts (anyone familiar with Schaeffer or the work of L'Abri will recognise the approach), Godawa then examines a variety of different prevailing outlooks with plenty of cinematic examples. I often found myself re-evaluating familiar and favourite films because of a different angle or insight. His big thing is getting people to avoid the miserable extremes of what he calls cultural anorexia and cultural gluttony. So for example, there are constructive but realistic comments here on the issue of sex and violence on screen - which should be seen in a rather different light once compared with the explicit nature of much of scripture!A hugely rewarding read for anyone who loves films as works of art in themselves, as well as for the insight they give into prevailing trends in our culture.

very good

Yes, worth the read, and also, for referencing back to.