God’s Not Dead
Director: Harold Cronk
Cast: Shane Harper, Kevin Sorbo
Length: 113 mins
Country: USA
This film possibly could have been better if it was re-written by any A-Level philosophy student who isn’t a total moron. Conceptually it’s not so bad, and it could have been an interesting tale exploring the nature of faith and philosophical inquiry, used possibly to enliven high school education. It name-checks practically every philosopher and writer I read during sixth form: Aristotle, Dawkins, Nietzsche, Russell, Dostoyevsky, Shakespeare and so on. However, in service of infantile didacticism the screenwriter has created some of the most obnoxious characters I have ever seen. They do not come across as real people, merely poor representations of the main idea.
Here’s a sample of the dialogue, between a sister and her brother:
– You should really go see mum. She’s not been doing well.
– She hasn’t been doing well for years, that’s why they call it dementia.
What an awful thing to say! The same character (Mark, played by Dean Cain) dumps his girlfriend when he finds out she has cancer. He says that ‘this isn’t the arrangement we had together’. I don’t think it was supposed to be funny, but it’s humorous because it is literally the worst thing you could do when someone tells you they have cancer. This film is full of little gems like this. This is the kind of writing that gets proofread and taken out of higher-budget, much better films. There is a very easy demarcation here between the good characters and the bad. The good characters believe in God and go to terrible Christian Rock concerts, and the bad characters don’t and therefore get run over.
The main struggle of the narrative is between Josh Wheaton (Shane Harper) and Professor Radisson (Kevin Sorbo, best known for The Legend of Hercules). Professor Radisson, who somehow is allowed to teach philosophy, is a controlling psychopath who requires all his students to sign an agreement that “God is Dead” if they want to pass his class. Josh disagrees and is required to prove the opposite in class, otherwise he will fail. Here he runs through parts of the cosmological argument, discusses a little of Darwin’s theory of evolution, pretends he has pointed out its flaws, then finally tackles the argument that an evil God wouldn’t create such an evil world. My view is that if God was all-loving he would have prevented this film from being made. But what about free will, someone might ask? The arguments go on and on, no one has proved anything beyond basic AS level, and without really winning, Josh manages to win over the rest of the class.
This is the sort of film you want to watch with the most atheist guy you know, because the only fun you’ll have is by hating on it, thereby negating the negativity (bit of Hegel there) into something bearable.
Kevin Sorbo is good in the role of the professor, and manages to be cool and suitably snarky until his pathetic backstory is trudged out, and Shane Harper actually manages to make Josh quite a likeable guy, becoming the only character in the film worthy of respect, because at least he stays authentic to himself. Around this director Harold Cronk attempts to weave a series of more or less unrelated plots in the manner of Paul Thomas Anderson to try and render his theme dramatically, but they serve absolutely no point, other than to hate on liberals, Muslims and the communist Chinese. This is the sort of film you want to watch with the most atheist guy you know, because the only fun you’ll have is by hating on it, thereby negating the negativity (bit of Hegel there) into something bearable.
The ending of the film, which I will not ruin, because it has to be seen to be believed, a little like God himself really, is the phoniest thing in the history of cinema, moving from a semi-interesting TV-movie exploration of faith into full-blown propaganda. The text up on screen after the picture has ended, coming after a really bad christian rock concert, is to actually text everyone you know that God isn’t dead. It is entirely unconvincing and offensive to anyone with genuine faith. I grew up as a Catholic, more or less gave up once I started reading Nietzsche, but still have respect for anyone with a kind, compassionate, loving faith. The kind of people that will sympathise with this movie are the braindead type of Christians you see protesting outside abortion clinics in America. If you want to see a good film about faith, watch The Seventh Seal or Magnolia instead.
God may or may not be dead, but God’s Not Dead has flies circling above its rotting corpse.
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