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Demetrius and the Gladiators |
Victor Mature
Susan Haywood
Jay
Robinson |
This movie begins where the 1953 film "The
Robe" leaves off.
While
"The Robe" was a very respectful effort centered around Christ's crucifixion
"Demetrius and the Gladiators", focuses more on the viciousness of Imperial
Rome and the bloody sport of Gladiator combat where innocent men fought to
the death for the Roman mob's amusement.
The
newly liberated slave Demetrius forges an alliance with his Christian
brethren to hide the sacred robe of Christ, coveted for its "magic" by the
vile emperor Caligula. Captured and manipulated into believing his beloved
Lucia (Debra Paget) has been killed, Demetrius rejects his pacifist faith,
plots vengeance while becoming a rising star in the bloody arena, and falls
prey to the scheming senator's wife Messalina (Susan Hayward), who craves
his affection. It all leads to a crisis of faith that will determine
Demetrius's fate as a noble Christian or downfallen hedonist.
(1954), Widescreen, Color. 101
minutes
BibleProbe.com:
Recommended for Christians & Jews. Excellent film.
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Diary of a Country Priest
Original title:(Journal d'un curé de
campagne) |
Claude Laydu
Jean Riveyre
André Guibert
Rachel Bérendt
Nicole Maurey |
A masterpiece!
A young Catholic
Priest
arrives in the French country village of Ambricourt to attend to his first
parish, but the apathetic and hostile rural congregation rejects him
immediately. Through his diary entries, the suffering young man relays a
crisis of faith that threatens to drive him away from the village and from
God.
Through it
all, the young sickly Priests' great faith in the Lord Jesus, and the Lord's
amazing grace manages to save the hardened soul of an aging Countess, by
turning her away from hating God, just before she dies.
1950.
Criterion selection. B&W. 115 min, Full Screen. In French with excellent English
sub-titles. (5 stars)
See at
Amazon.com: here
Some
viewers may find this distinctly Catholic. They shouldn't. It's all about
Faith, and overcoming obstacles by Grace through Faith.
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- Entertaining Angels
The Dorothy Day Story
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Moira Kelly
Martin Sheen
Brian Keith
Melinda Dillon
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Dorothy Day is no saint. She
lives hard, makes mistakes, endures the consequences. But the unquenchable
fire burning within her cannot be contained. Dorothy wants to make a
difference. During the Depression, she vows to house the homeless, feed the
hungry, tend the sick. Easily said. Not easily done when her total finances
amount to 97 cents in a battered canister. Yet Dorothy persists, walking on
frequently stormy waters of faith.
Popular stars and important themes combine in this compelling true story of
the "American Mother Teresa," filmed by Paulist Pictures (Romero) from a
script by ER writer and executive producer John Wells. Moira Kelly plays
Day, the impassioned New York journalist who launched the activist newspaper
"Catholic Worker" and put the words she wrote into controversial action.
Martin Sheen, Melinda Dillon and Brian Keith join Kelly in this moving saga
of a faith not just believed, but lived.
1996, Full
Screen, 112 minutes
RATED PG-13 for a range of thematic elements, some sexuality
(young Dorothy in bed with a man, both mostly covered) and brief
language.
BibleProbe.com:
Recommended for Christians & Jews. Excellent film.
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Escape from Darkness
Documentary/
Testimony |
Daniel Shayesteh |
A former radical
Muslim reveals the foundation of modern Islamic beliefs and actions
It’s time to understand
Islam!
Daniel Shayesteh was many things:
Radical Muslim
Active militant
Iranian fundamentalist
Death row inmate ...
but today, Daniel is a born-again Christian! He travels throughout the world
revealing the hate-based teachings of the Quran—Islam’s holy book—and shines
light on the truth of the Bible. Watch this informative, illustrated
testimony as he shares his miraculous escape from darkness.
Daniel
Shayesteh was born in Iran near the Caspian Sea. By age nine he was able to
recite the entire Quran in Arabic. As a young man he was totally committed
to Islam and was a member of Hezbollah in Iran. He inspired other good
Muslims to hate and kill Americans and Jews. After he helped to oust the
Shah of Iran and bring Ayatollah Khomeini to power, he was kidnapped and
sentenced to death; the Ayatollah didn’t like Daniel’s opposition to his
political agenda. He existed for a time in torturous prison conditions. His
cellmates were executed, but by the grace of God Daniel escaped to Turkey.
It was there that he met a group of Iranian Christians. And it was through
their witness of the love of Christ and training in the truth of the Bible,
beginning in Genesis, that he came to know Christ as Savior.
Though hated by radical Muslims, Dr. Shayesteh travels wherever possible to
provide insight into the teachings of the Quran regarding salvation, Adam &
Eve, and Christians. He helps Christians understand how to effectively
evangelize those still trapped in the traditions and deceptions of Islam.
Speaking as one who formerly trained Muslims in the strategies of Islamic
Jihad, Shayesteh also addresses the alarming social implications of the
growth of Islam in western nations today.
2007. English.
71 min
of the growth of Islam
in western nations today.
See at:
http://www.christiancinema.com
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Exodus |
Paul Newman
Eva Marie
Saint
Ralph Richardson
Peter Lawford
Lee J. Cobb |
For nearly three months in
1947, 4,554 desperate Holocaust survivors chose to live in a floating jail
rather than return to the European graveyards they had just fled.
They had set out from France that summer on a clandestine steamship named
the Exodus 1947, an apt name for a modern incarnation of the ancient passage
of Jewish refugees to the Promised Land. But just miles from their
destination, the British had captured the ship and barred its passengers
from disembarking in Mandatory Palestine.
The refugees said they would rather die than be denied entry to their
homeland, and three of them did when the British forced them off the Exodus.
The rest were then divided among three British prison ships and sent back to
France. When they again refused to get off, they were forcibly removed, this
time in Hamburg, Germany.
The refugees
might have failed in their immediate aim of reaching Palestine, but they
achieved a broader goal of helping to create a Jewish state. The United
Nations Special Committee on Palestine was at that time formulating its
recommendation on what to do with the territory, and the deluge of news
reports on the Exodus helped create sympathy for the Jews and the
recommendation UNSCOP eventually made to partition the land and create a
Jewish state.
Later, Leon Uris's New York Times best-seller, which was turned into a
Hollywood blockbuster, enshrined the episode in the collective historical
consciousness. Indeed, it is perhaps the most storied event in pre-state
Israeli history.
And yet, for all that is known about the Exodus, it is striking what is not
known. The historical record lacks so much as a list of all the passengers
on the ship.
"This was the turning point for the [creation of] the State of Israel.
There's no doubt about it," says Genya Markon, acquisitions curator of the
US Holocaust Memorial Museum. "It seems amazing that there is no list."
1960, 208 min,
See at
Amazon.com
BibleProbe.com: Highly recommended for Christians & Jews. Excellent film.
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- Fiddler on the
- Roof
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Topol |
A masterpiece!
This rousing musical, based on the stories of Shalom
Aleichem, takes place in pre-revolutionary Russia and centers on the life
of Tevye (Topol), a milkman who is trying to keep his family's traditions
in place while marrying off his three older daughters. Yet, times are
changing and the daughters want to make their own matches, breaking free
of many of the constricting customs required of them by Judaism. In the
background of these events, Russia is on the brink of revolution and Jews
are feeling increasingly unwelcome in their villages. Tevye--who expresses
his desire for sameness in the opening number, "Tradition"--is trying to
keep everyone, and everything, together. The movie is strongly
allegorical--Tevye represents the common man--but it does it dexterously,
and the resulting film is a stunning work of art. The music is excellent
(it won Oscars for the scoring and the sound), with plenty of familiar
songs such as "Sunrise, Sunset" and "If I Were a Rich Man," which you'll
be humming long after the movie is over. Isaac Stern's violin--he provides
the music for the fiddler on the roof--is hauntingly beautiful. And
despite the serious subject matter, the film is quite comedic in parts; it
also well deserves the Oscar it won for cinematography. (1971) Wide screen
(5 stars).
BibleProbe.com:
Highly
Recommended for Christians & Jews. Excellent film.
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The Five People You Meet in Heaven |
Jon Voight
Ellen Burstyn
Dagmara Dominczyk
Jeff Richards
Jeff Daniels
Callahan Brebner |
On his 83rd birthday, Eddie (Voight), a war vet and a
maintenance worker at the Ruby Pier amusement park, dies while trying to
save a girl who is sitting under a falling ride. When he awakens in the
afterlife, he encounters five people with ties to his corporeal existence
who help him understand the meaning of his life.
Wonderfully made by Hallmark for TV. This is a story of a man named
Eddie who was shown the secret of heaven: that each life affects the other,
and the other affects the next. The world is full of stories, but the
stories are all one." - The Five People You Meet In Heaven DVD
A critical, abusive, alcoholic father. The nightmares--and a physical
wound--courtesy of war. Infertility. A beloved wife struck down with a
neurological disease. Evaporating dreams of being an engineer, replaced with
a life-long job as a theme park maintenance man.
Eddie feels like a loser. He was a nobody-his alcoholic father made sure of
that. Working at the theme park Ruby's Pier, like his father before him, is
how Eddie died and went to heaven.
Author Mitch Albom wrote the script for the made-for-TV movie The Five
People You Meet In Heaven, which is based on his bestselling book. The theme
of this story is that no life is a waste, no matter how seemingly
insignificant-and that there are no random acts, because all are connected.
Not rated. 2004. Full screen. 133 min. (5
stars)
See at Amazon.com
here
BibleProbe.com:
Highly recommended for Christians & Jews. Excellent film.
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Flywheel |
Lisa Arnold
Alex Kendrick
Barry Carr
Daniel Van Cleave
John Hemken |
A "tear jerker" of a feel good movie.
Made on a $20,000 budget by a Baptist Church group in
Georgia. It's all about getting "right" with the Lord.
Amazon.com Editorial Comment
Flywheel is the first film from the creators of Facing the Giants and
Fireproof. Used car salesman Jay Austin (writer/director Alex Kendrick)
swindles his customers and teaches his assistant salesmen to do the
same--but despite the profits, something gnaws at him. When he realizes that
his own son doesn't respect him, Austin has a conversion and accepts God
into his life. This would be the end of most spiritual stories, but Flywheel
finds a warm comedy in the obstacles on the path of righteousness; Austin
discovers that being right with God means grappling every day with what it
means to be honest. Though the filmmaking is raw (the editing is often
clumsy and the cinematography is flat), the story is well-paced, has a
gently ironic sense of humor, and Kendrick's central performance is
compelling. Kendrick is just as persuasive as a man struggling to emerge
from a joyless life as he is when he's rediscovered his faith but finds it
constantly tested. Though Flywheel is forthright about its Christian
inspiration, the story is about actually living a moral life, not about
abstract spiritual truths. The result is a movie that looks towards heaven,
but has its feet on the earth. --Bret Fetzer
(2003) 125 min
Only $8.49 at Amazon:
here |
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