First he ruined rock and roll, now he’s out to ruin movies too. His names is Jesus Christ and after a successful career as a carpenter he’s now out to change the world by taking over Hollywood. Don’t worry, it’ll never work.
Religiously themed movies have been bigger than ever recently, with micro-budgeted films like Tyler Perry’s The Family that Preys and Kirk Cameron’s Fireproof making significant box office inroads. Anti-religion films are doing pretty well too. Bill Maher’s documentary Religulous opened this past weekend in only 500 theaters and still managed to break into the top ten. The difference between Religulous and those other films though, aside from it actually being good, is that Bill Maher’s box office numbers are real, while Tyler Perry and Kirk Cameron’s are inflated by a fervent religious support system.
By beating people’s brains to death with overbearing religious themes in their movies, people like Perry and Cameron have earned the gratitude of America’s churches. In response, those churches urge their follows to go out and see their films, in some cases dedicating whole sermons to them or even using donations to buy out auditoriums for their congregation. That’s right, church donations spent on movie tickets instead of, you know, feeding the poor or buying bling for some deserving televanglist. Who needs an advertising campaign when you’re on the side of God? People tend to do what he tells them and lately, he’s been telling them to give their money to Kirk Cameron.
Cameron and Perry aren’t the only ones waving around Jesus’s cross for profit. Earlier this year Ben Stein’s propaganda flick Expelled rolled out and earned a substantial amount of cash, by labeling Creationists as martyrs being discriminated against by evil scientists.
It’s not just religion that’s been used as a free advertising conduit either. Message movies of all types have become the norm. Make a movie about something with obsessively devoted followers, and they’ll show up not only to praise it but to viciously attack and label anyone who doesn’t like it. Michael Moore did it with Fahrenheit 9/11 and Al Gore with An Inconvenient Truth. This past weekend, An American Carol made solid money in spite of a limited marketing campaign and awful reviews, by styling itself as the conservative answer to Hollywood and calling anyone who thought it was bad an America hating liberal. If you’re a good American who hates violent, bloodthirsty commies, you have to see this film! I wonder if we’re allowed to bring guns in?
There’s nothing wrong with knowing your audience and giving them what they want. For the most part, that’s what movies like these have done. It’s only a problem when either their filmmakers or their fans declare what they’re doing some sort of counter-revolution as, well, just about everyone involved in any of these movies has. Tyler Perry fans scream about his positive impact as a role model, while Perry himself talks about his disdain for Hollywood. Ben Stein declares victory over those pesky scientists and their vicious agenda of stating facts. Fireproof fans in comments sections across the internet boldly predict a world where Kirk Cameron has taken over Los Angeles and kicked out the whores and prostitutes of Hollywood’s celebrity, to replace them with wholesome, whitewashed films about how much Jesus loves you so goddammit you’d better do exactly what he wants if you don’t want a smack. It’s not realistic.
The truth about what Cameron, Perry, and others have done is this: They’ve found a bunch of sheep, and they are exploiting them. Tyler Perry doesn’t have to make good films, because as long as he throws in the correct Christian ideology his followers will show up to see them. Kirk Cameron doesn’t need a real budget or even decent actors to make his movies, because his audiences are primarily in it for his ego-stroking, everything we already believe is correct message. What I’m getting at here is that they’re preaching to the choir, not firing the opening shots in a cultural takeover. To do that, they’d have to bring in people from outside their little flock and, that’s not what they’re up to.
That’s something which Religulous and all of these other films do have in common. While Religulous doesn’t have an established mechanism of free advertising in the form of churches or America's political parties, it too is preaching to the converted. Bill Maher’s film makes its case well, but it’s only making it to those who already agree with his point of view. Those who don’t, will never buy a ticket. There’s nothing wrong with finding a niche and catering to it, but to change the world you need to reach people outside your group. Maher’s movie attempts to achieve that not by banking big box office and glutting up theaters with similar movies espousing his pre-approved message, but by crafting a documentary which encourages those who do see his film to think for themselves, stand up, and then make their own opinions heard. Maybe he has a chance. His message movie competitors on the other hand, haven’t crafted films which encourage people to form their own opinions and act, at least not within the context of their reels. Meanwhile external attempts at action committees are little more than viral marketing, primarily focused on proselytizing people into seeing their films, and cashing in. And why not? It’s the Hollywood thing to do.
