Reel Redemption: The Rise of Christian Cinema
Tyler Smith makes as reasonable a case for Christian cinema as I’ve ever seen in “Reel Redemption.” Calling the film a documentary is not inherently accurate; though it does document the history of religious and faith-based stories on the big screen in its 87 minutes, it’s more of a visual essay, with Smith- as the narrator- taking us through the years, stopping at key landmarks along the way. It’s a fairly balanced look at the issue.
I’ve certainly had plenty to say over the years on the subject of faith-based cinema- I wrote a post about it in 2014, and did an interview on a friend’s radio show in 2018 where we looked at many of the films Smith brings up in this documentary. I think one of the things I really liked about “Reel Redemption” is how it makes the case for the modern Christian cinema put out by the likes of PureFlix and Sherwood as a genre, with tropes and formulas, like any other genre, with Smith using slasher cinema as a comparison point. I don’t know that I entirely agree with the idea that time will be kind and accepting of the genre like it seems to have been for slashers, though; part of the reason that happened is because talented filmmakers like Wes Craven and Tobe Hooper expanded the ideas of what the genre could look like without losing the basic shape of it. While there is something to be said about the instincts of the Kendrick brothers and others when it comes to catering to their respective audiences, they also haven’t taken chances to push the genre outside of its relatively narrow focus. It also doesn’t help that the filmmaking craft, and performances, are still relatively pedestrian in their approach. That’s where the infancy of this modern look at the genre comes into play; we haven’t seen a D.W. Griffith or Cecil B. DeMille step up and really push the genre forward narratively or stylistically. Maybe we will in time.
If you are interested in exploring the history of religion and cinema, “Reel Redemption” is not a bad place to start. It’s a decent piece of film essay, in that respect, giving time to films like “The Passion of Joan of Arc,” “The Night of the Hunter,” “The Seventh Seal” in addition to the biblical epics of the early eras. It sets the context for shifts in how religion and faith has been portrayed in movies, over the years, and hits a lot of the main points of significance (although “Monty Python’s Life of Brian” and Kevin Smith’s “Dogma” are both notably absent). I’m not sure I agree entirely with his points of Hollywood’s most recent religiously-tinged efforts being tied to them seeing the success of lower-budget Christian cinema, especially since Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” and Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” were both well-known passion projects for both filmmakers they’d wanted to make for years (and were coming off of big critical and commercial successes for both filmmakers), but I certainly think there’s value in the observations Smith is making in this film when it comes to how faith and cinema have been conjoined over the years, and how that blending together of message and medium might evolve in the years to come. I’m definitely curious about it myself.
