While the last decade has witnessed
an undeniable resurgence, on television (Touched by an Angel), in
literature (the Left Behind series) and in pop music (Lifehouse, Creed,
Jars of Clay), of works conveying religious (or, more specifically, Christian)
themes, faith-based movies have experienced a somewhat tougher go of it.
Despite a few successes — 1999’s The Omega Code reaped $12 million
at the domestic box — there has remained an undeniable schism between secular
and non-secular movie culture, with those films perceived as evangelical
remaining the almost exclusive domain of independent production companies
reliant on the financial contributions of wealthy benefactors. (Not helping
matters has been the generally poor quality of the films themselves.)
With the exception of Holocaust-set
pictures and horror films that employ the Catholic Church as a background
for demonology, religion per se has largely ceased to exist in mainstream
movies — and it’s something even Drabinsky sees as a worrisome conundrum.
“When issues stop being debated, discussed and analyzed from a religious perspective,”
he says, “higher levels of intolerance are there.”
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/52/film-foundas.php
