Hot Sundance Trend: Religious Fundamentalists!
The sign-bearing loons at the Westboro Baptist Church have threatened to show up at Sundance to protest Kevin Smith's horror flick Red State -- and Smith, having survived similar picketing of Dogma, plans to bring a posse carrying amusing counter-protest placards -- but they won't be the only Bible-thumpers at Park City this year. Scary religious fundamentalists turn up in lots of this year's cinematic offerings.
Besides the Phelps-ish clan at the center of Red State, there's also:
· Patrick Wilson's domineering evangelical in The Ledge;
· Eddie Marsan's liturgically abusive spouse in Tyrannosaur;
· John Hawkes' skeevy, rapey cult leader in Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Look for the pendulum to eventually swing in the other direction, with lots of movies featuring level-headed, intelligent Christians at Sundance 2013.
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Comments
I don't see a "level headed Christian" trend coming out of Hollywood, it's the only prejudice they're allowed to keep, and since it only costs them investor's money I don't see them giving it up soon.
Furious D, if you are offended by the tone of these movies then perhaps it's time to look at the extreme fringes of your religion.
I am Christian and love God, but Fred Phelps has never and WILL never speak for me. And people like Joel Osteen must have read the Bible from Cliff Notes.
Christianity should live and thrive as a religion, but as our Founding Fathers intended, it should NEVER be a form of government. We are dangerously close to a theocracy now. So if you are angry at these films, then take a good look in the mirror and ask why.
I don't even consider Phelps a Christian, he and his scrofulent crew are just hate filled nut jobs screaming for attention. Hollywood has developed a tendency to define the extreme fringe as the mainstream. They essentially let about a hundred or so yahoos define millions of normal people.
Try to do that with any other religious/ethnic group and you'll be called a bigot, or in some cases targeted for violence.
However, all that aside the thing that really bugs me is that it's become a boring cliche. I see someone in a movie or TV show that's openly religious, and I know they're going to be perverted/homicidal/crazy at worst, or sleazily hypocritical at best. It's become a safe and lazy way to avoid doing actual work creating something original.
I've been hearing tales of "America's coming theocracy" my whole life, and despite what some folks say about their political opponents, it's never happened and it's never going to happen. If it was going to happen Hollywood wouldn't be making movies insulting their future theocratic masters. Trust me, if it wasn't 100% safe, Hollywood wouldn't do it.
Sheesh, silly comment sections aren't the right places for serious discussions.