A list of the 50 Most Important Religion Films of All Time is now online at Film Snobbery, which is paying tribute to "the union of the sacred and cinematic" in celebration of Epiphany (Jan. 6), the final day of the Christmas holiday season.
Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ is not the #1 film on the list. Instead, that position belongs to Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments, in which Charlton Heston (above) turns down Anne Baxter so he can go flush the waters of the Red Sea.
Rounding out Film Snobbery's top 10 religion movies are Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964), Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof (1971), The Passion of the Christ (2004), Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), D.W. Griffith’s Intolerance (1916), Fred Zinnemann’s The Nun’s Story (1959), William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) and Kevin Smith’s Dogma (1999).
All of the aforementioned films have a Judeo-Christian — mostly Christian — theme, which says something about both those responsible for selecting the films and the movies they've been exposed to.
Among Film Snobbery's top ten religion (though definitely not religious) movies, three curious choices immediately stand out: The Exorcist, about a demon-possessed pre-teen (Linda Blair, right) who vomits green bile and (by way of Mercedes McCambridge's voice) says stuff like "Let Jesus fuck you, let Jesus fuck you. Let him fuck you" while masturbating with a cross; Life of Brian, a satire on the life of Jesus whose grand finale offers the martyr/faux Savior Brian (Graham Chapman) and his fellow crucified pals singing "Look on the Bright Side of Life"; and Dogma, in which the hero is an abortion clinic worker (Linda Fiorentino) fighting two renegade angels (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) intent on negating the existence of humankind so they can reenter Heaven.
In some quarters, Friedkin, Smith, and the Monty Python troupe were lambasted for their "sacrilegious" efforts, but they're lucky that their movies took on Christianity, not Islam. Else, things could have gotten much, much worse.
I should add that Film Snobbery praises DeMille's The Ten Commandments for its "wild mix of special effects, sex appeal, an all-star ensemble and even a wicked dance number around the Golden Calf," noting that more than a half-century after its premiere, "the film still resonates as brilliantly over-the-top entertainment."
I fully agree with the above statement, though I'm willing to bet that more people became atheists after watching The Ten Commandments and DeMille's other biblical epics (e.g., a 1923 version of The Ten Commandments, The Sign of the Cross, Samson and Delilah) than after watching The Exorcist, Life of Brian, or Dogma. After all, DeMille was a master at making religion and spirituality seem as phony as his film's sets.
Thank you so much for having this site. It's hard to find good wholesome sites on the internet and this was such a joy to literally stumble upon. God bless!