Jesus has always been big at the box office (by way of example, one need only look at the earnings of the #1 grossing Indie film of all time... Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ). However, Hollywood and organized religion have never had an easy relationship. Films touch the things that matter most to people – identity, death, meaning, the sacred – and when they do it wrong, people show up. Sometimes with signs. Sometimes with bomb threats.
With Christ-centric sequels from both Scorcese and Gibson in the near future (not to mention the slew of other Biblical films released each year), the explosive adoption of orthodox Christianity by young men, the controversies can only increase from here. The way popular culture embeds or distorts religious symbolism is a perennial source of friction – but few cases have generated the kind of sustained organized protest that the films below did. Here’s a look at some of the most memorable.
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’s novel imagined Jesus experiencing human doubt, fear, and desire – including a dream sequence in which he lives an ordinary life with Mary Magdalene. The response was immediate and intense. The American Family Association organized a boycott. Universal Studios received death threats. In France, a theater showing the film was firebombed, injuring thirteen people. In Greece and other Orthodox Christian countries, the film was banned outright. Mother Teresa publicly condemned it. Scorsese and lead actor Willem Dafoe required security details. The irony is that the novel and the film are deeply reverent, exploring Jesus’s humanity as itself a theological statement.
Life of Brian (1979)
Monty Python’s satire of messianic movements caused extraordinary uproar despite the Pythons’ explicit statement that the film was not about Jesus but about people who follow messiahs uncritically. Several U.K. local councils banned it. Norway banned it entirely; a fact the film's marketing team in Sweden exploited to great effect (“So funny it was banned in Norway”). John Cleese and Michael Palin debated two bishops on live television. The film was eventually named the greatest British comedy of all time by Channel 4.
The Da Vinci Code (2006)
Dan Brown’s novel was already a flashpoint before Ron Howard’s film arrived, but the movie sent Catholic protests worldwide. The Vatican called for a boycott. Several countries banned or restricted screenings. Protestors in Thailand dressed as monks held vigils outside cinemas. The film grossed over $750 million globally, making it one of the most financially successful protests in cinematic history. The film’s central claim – that Catholic allegory and symbolism have been embedded in popular culture in ways most audiences miss – has a legitimate scholarly dimension, whatever one thinks of Brown’s particular version of it.
Dogma (1999)
Kevin Smith’s theological comedy provoked protests from the Catholic League even before anyone had seen it. The Catholic League’s president received the script before release and launched a campaign; Smith received so many death threats that Miramax briefly considered not releasing the film. It was eventually released to strong box office numbers. Smith, himself a Catholic, has said the film was written out of genuine faith and intended as a love letter to Catholicism’s willingness to update its doctrines.
The Siege (1998) and The Love Guru (2008)
Religious protests aren’t exclusively Christian. The Siege, which depicted Muslim-American communities as terror suspects, prompted protests from Muslim-American civil rights groups who argued the film would inflame prejudice. The Love Guru, Mike Myers’s comedy set in the world of a Hindu guru, was condemned by Hindu leaders who called it sacrilegious and objected to its treatment of sacred symbols as punchlines. Both cases point to a question worth asking: what institutions like the Olympics reveal about the line between religious history and cultural spectacle applies equally to Hollywood – once something sacred becomes entertainment, who gets to say when it goes too far?
Do you think religious groups have the right, or the responsibility, to protest films that offend their beliefs? And is there a line between legitimate criticism and censorship?
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