Favorite Secular Movie

[gracea1one]

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Outlaw Josey Wales
3. Dances With Wolves
4. Jaws

Seriously, I can't believe nobody has mentioned my 2-4(!). If I'm flipping through the channels and see any of these on it is "game over" and whatever plans I previously had go out the window...

My favorite all time movie quote:

Bounty hunter #1: You're wanted, Wales.
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood): Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?
Bounty hunter #1: A man's got to do something for a living these days.
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood): Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.

 

[gordo]

My favorite all time movie quote:

Bounty hunter #1: You're wanted, Wales.
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood): Reckon I'm right popular. You a bounty hunter?
Bounty hunter #1: A man's got to do something for a living these days.
Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood): Dyin' ain't much of a living, boy.

Yes. Excellent movie. Excellent quote.

 

[Weston Stoler]

Dr. Strangelove
Wall-E
The Fellowship of the Ring

I love Wall-E, tis my favorite Disney movie

 

[Constantlyreforming]

I don't understand why "secular" was included in the thread title, but still...

Seriously. You couldn't pay me enough to watch a "Christian" movie.

The movie about Pistol Pete Marivich was pretty solid...

 

[RobertPGH1981]

5? Really?! I think most Rocky fans like to pretend part 5 didn't happen.

I like them all. But 5 would be my least favorite. Rocky 4 is by far the best one. I think its the soundtrack. Sometimes I find myself listening to the songs when I workout.

 

[py3ak]

Well, I feel a little out of place with all these votes for Star Wars (was there ever such a badly executed trove of tropes?), but here goes. I did bullets because while I can pick my top movie in various categories, and while the overall best is not really in dispute, attempts at inferior rankings would drive me mad.
• Musa the Warrior. This piercing film shows that there are things worth being defeated for. The soundtrack also deserves a prize.
• The Banquet/Legend of the Black Scorpion (one film with 2 titles). For beauty of production and cinematography, this film has no equal that I’ve come across: that same sensibility is reflected in the story and the acting.
• To Live – the beauty (as well as the stupidity and brutality) of people emerges through the serried tragedies that befall one family.
• Curse of the Golden Flower. This is a film that deserves the title of epic. Serenity and harmony are restored – but at a terrible cost, and in an oppressive manner.
• The Road Home – this is the simplest of love stories; but it is also beautiful, and not just for the amazing location where it was shot.
• I Am Legend – in its own right the story and acting are incredibly compelling, but this one gets extra credit for being a film that significantly departed from its source material while producing a product of comparable quality. This is also what people should mean when they talk about Christian themes.
• The Golden Compass. The loveliest and best done fantasy movie ever. And a very fine story, to boot. The attempted anti-Christianity fails.

This is taking too long. Here’s an unannotated list – but if you haven’t seen these, you are missing out.

• Monsters, Inc.
• The Turn of the Screw (with Jodhi May)
• Toy Story 1,2,3
• Batman: Under the Red Hood
• Up. Saddest and best of the Pixar films.
• Fist of Legend
• Pride & Prejudice (with Jennifer Ehle)
• Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (“Batman, Batgirl, Batwoman: what is about this city, the water?”)
• Hero
• Snow White
• The Warlords
• The Myth
• Fearless
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Finding Nemo
• Batman Begins
• Raise the Red Lantern
• Mulan
• The Incredibles
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• The Dark Knight
• Stranger than Fiction
• Cromwell
• Quiz Show
• Henry V
• A Man for All Seasons
• Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero
• Popi
• House of Flying Daggers
• Batman vs. Dracula
• Little Dorritt
• Wives and Daughters
• Martin Chuzzlewit
• The Lost World (with Peter Falk)
• Flawless

There are naturally at least a few more, but with 42 I have listed more than anyone else so far. But please be assured I have not forgotten about the existence of Wall-E – Pixar’s attempts to anthropomorphize machines have been vastly less successful than similar attempts with monsters and fish.

 

[DyeLi]

Favorite: The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen)

Very much liked: The Prestige, The Dark Knight, UP, Expelled:No Intelligence Allowed

 

[Andres]

Well, I feel a little out of place with all these votes for Star Wars (was there ever such a badly executed trove of tropes?), but here goes. I did bullets because while I can pick my top movie in various categories, and while the overall best is not really in dispute, attempts at inferior rankings would drive me mad.
• Musa the Warrior. This piercing film shows that there are things worth being defeated for. The soundtrack also deserves a prize.
• The Banquet/Legend of the Black Scorpion (one film with 2 titles). For beauty of production and cinematography, this film has no equal that I’ve come across: that same sensibility is reflected in the story and the acting.
• To Live – the beauty (as well as the stupidity and brutality) of people emerges through the serried tragedies that befall one family.
• Curse of the Golden Flower. This is a film that deserves the title of epic. Serenity and harmony are restored – but at a terrible cost, and in an oppressive manner.
• The Road Home – this is the simplest of love stories; but it is also beautiful, and not just for the amazing location where it was shot.
• I Am Legend – in its own right the story and acting are incredibly compelling, but this one gets extra credit for being a film that significantly departed from its source material while producing a product of comparable quality. This is also what people should mean when they talk about Christian themes.
• The Golden Compass. The loveliest and best done fantasy movie ever. And a very fine story, to boot. The attempted anti-Christianity fails.

This is taking too long. Here’s an unannotated list – but if you haven’t seen these, you are missing out.

• Monsters, Inc.
• The Turn of the Screw (with Jodhi May)
• Toy Story 1,2,3
• Batman: Under the Red Hood
• Up. Saddest and best of the Pixar films.
• Fist of Legend
• Pride & Prejudice (with Jennifer Ehle)
• Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (“Batman, Batgirl, Batwoman: what is about this city, the water?”)
• Hero
• Snow White
• The Warlords
• The Myth
• Fearless
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Finding Nemo
• Batman Begins
• Raise the Red Lantern
• Mulan
• The Incredibles
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• The Dark Knight
• Stranger than Fiction
• Cromwell
• Quiz Show
• Henry V
• A Man for All Seasons
• Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero
• Popi
• House of Flying Daggers
• Batman vs. Dracula
• Little Dorritt
• Wives and Daughters
• Martin Chuzzlewit
• The Lost World (with Peter Falk)
• Flawless

There are naturally at least a few more, but with 42 I have listed more than anyone else so far. But please be assured I have not forgotten about the existence of Wall-E – Pixar’s attempts to anthropomorphize machines have been vastly less successful than similar attempts with monsters and fish.

What would you do if Pixar made a Batman film?

 

[Weston Stoler]

Well, I feel a little out of place with all these votes for Star Wars (was there ever such a badly executed trove of tropes?), but here goes. I did bullets because while I can pick my top movie in various categories, and while the overall best is not really in dispute, attempts at inferior rankings would drive me mad.
• Musa the Warrior. This piercing film shows that there are things worth being defeated for. The soundtrack also deserves a prize.
• The Banquet/Legend of the Black Scorpion (one film with 2 titles). For beauty of production and cinematography, this film has no equal that I’ve come across: that same sensibility is reflected in the story and the acting.
• To Live – the beauty (as well as the stupidity and brutality) of people emerges through the serried tragedies that befall one family.
• Curse of the Golden Flower. This is a film that deserves the title of epic. Serenity and harmony are restored – but at a terrible cost, and in an oppressive manner.
• The Road Home – this is the simplest of love stories; but it is also beautiful, and not just for the amazing location where it was shot.
• I Am Legend – in its own right the story and acting are incredibly compelling, but this one gets extra credit for being a film that significantly departed from its source material while producing a product of comparable quality. This is also what people should mean when they talk about Christian themes.
• The Golden Compass. The loveliest and best done fantasy movie ever. And a very fine story, to boot. The attempted anti-Christianity fails.

This is taking too long. Here’s an unannotated list – but if you haven’t seen these, you are missing out.

• Monsters, Inc.
• The Turn of the Screw (with Jodhi May)
• Toy Story 1,2,3
• Batman: Under the Red Hood
• Up. Saddest and best of the Pixar films.
• Fist of Legend
• Pride & Prejudice (with Jennifer Ehle)
• Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (“Batman, Batgirl, Batwoman: what is about this city, the water?”)
• Hero
• Snow White
• The Warlords
• The Myth
• Fearless
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Finding Nemo
• Batman Begins
• Raise the Red Lantern
• Mulan
• The Incredibles
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• The Dark Knight
• Stranger than Fiction
• Cromwell
• Quiz Show
• Henry V
• A Man for All Seasons
• Batman & Mr. Freeze: Subzero
• Popi
• House of Flying Daggers
• Batman vs. Dracula
• Little Dorritt
• Wives and Daughters
• Martin Chuzzlewit
• The Lost World (with Peter Falk)
• Flawless

There are naturally at least a few more, but with 42 I have listed more than anyone else so far. But please be assured I have not forgotten about the existence of Wall-E – Pixar’s attempts to anthropomorphize machines have been vastly less successful than similar attempts with monsters and fish.

What would you do if Pixar made a Batman film?

Cry

 

[py3ak]

What would you do if Pixar made a Batman film?

Watch it with some anticipation and a little trepidation. It seems like an unusual blend.

 

[Andres]

What would you do if Pixar made a Batman film?

Watch it with some anticipation and a little trepidation. It seems like an unusual blend.

I just said that since those two categories seemed to dominate your list. I was hoping it would be your greatest film ever, alas I don't see that combination anytime soon.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

"My Dinner with Andre." My children were particularly partial to the action figures from this "on the edge of your seat" dynamo.

Peace,
Alan

 

[Eoghan]

I really like "the Man Who Would Be King" with Sean Connery
Also like Charles Bronson in "The Watermelon Man" and most of his other films.

What is a "non-secular" movie?

 

[py3ak]

What would you do if Pixar made a Batman film?

Watch it with some anticipation and a little trepidation. It seems like an unusual blend.

I just said that since those two categories seemed to dominate your list. I was hoping it would be your greatest film ever, alas I don't see that combination anytime soon.

I do like Pixar (Cars notwithstanding); I do like Batman done right (no Tim Burton or Adam West); but I don't think they would mix well. Maybe if they got Zhang Yimou to direct and set it in China's past?

 

[Rufus]

I don't understand why "secular" was included in the thread title, but still...

Seriously. You couldn't pay me enough to watch a "Christian" movie.

I didn't want someone to tell me facing the giants was the greatest movie of all time. That kind of stuff just is a christian bias lol

The only semi-Christian movie I truly enjoy is Amazing Grace, even then it isn't really God based but abolition based.

Luther was good. There are a plenty of movies that have "christian" themes or don't look down at religion that are good.

 

[Zach]

I really enjoyed Luther. I thought it was fantastically done. I'm waiting for Calvin.

Amazing Grace was also a really good movie. A little bit on the long side if I remember correctly, but I could be thinking of a different movie.

 

[Alan D. Strange]

Speaking of Christian, secular, etc. with respect to films, have any of you seen "Ledge" from this past summer? I got it on Netflix last week not realizing that it was made by an antitheist propagandizing for his antitheism?

Yes, it attempts to show fundamentalism in a bad light and make the atheist the hero, but I don't think that it works on any level and, in fact, subverts its own intentions. It is apparently the firstfruits dramatically of the militant atheism of recent times of Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, et al.

In my view it falls flat on its face and demonstrates, once again, that antitheism presupposes theism. Warning--it has things in it that I neither condone--in addition to its atheism!--nor ordinarily watch (and here zipped past), but my wife and I found it interesting once we saw its blatant anti-Christian bias.

Peace,
Alan

 

[asc]

Well, I feel a little out of place with all these votes for Star Wars (was there ever such a badly executed trove of tropes?)...

I don't even know what that means but it doesn't sound kind...

 

[py3ak]

It means that it's been an incredibly fruitful source of allusions, illustrations, and jokes; fortunately one can appreciate them without having a high opinion of the movies.

 

[JimmyH]

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
His Girl Friday (Cary Grant & Rosalind Russell)
Hamlet (Laurence Olivier)
Richard the Third (Olivier again)
The Maltese Falcon ( Bogart version)
The Great McGinty ...... anything directed by Preston Sturges is probably worth seeing.

 

[RobertPGH1981]

I've been known to appreciate The Big Lebowski on occasion...

Great choice!

I want to add another movie. "The Goonies"... It might a generational thing..

 

[Mephibosheth]

Makes me want to do the Truffle Shuffle...

 

[Edward]

I can't believe no one has mentioned the Bourne Identity, Supremacy, or Ultimatum.

Well paced action films, but I do flinch at the not infrequent use of the Lord's name in vain.

I really have a hard time believing that anyone can watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Not a Meatloaf fan?

 

[21st Century Calvinist]

Airplane and the Naked Gun movies. No matter how many times I have seen them I am still in fits of laughter.
Road to Perdition is another favorite.

 

[Kesed]

Just one? Sheesh.

Anne of Green Gables Trilogy
Little Women
Most BBC classic movies [Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Little Dorrit, Bleak House, etc]
Sherlock Holmes [Jeremy Brett]
Robin Hood [BBC series]
Tangled
Star Wars
Despicable Me
And of course, the old tv shows: The Waltons, Little House, Dick Van Dyke, etc....

That's off the top of my head, of course. Probably have more.

 

[kappazei]

The Long Riders, Enemy at the Gates, A River Runs Through it, Kingdom of Heaven, Peacemaker,

 

[Somerset]

Titfield Thunderbolt - an Ealing comedy from the 1950's. Small community taking on the state, railway loving CofE vicar (we used to have a lot of these), steam roller driver won over by a fair maid. No sex, no violence and no swearing.

 

[Pilgrim72]

Here are some:

Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Princess Bride
Braveheart

---------- Post added at 06:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 AM ----------

Sherlock Holmes [Jeremy Brett]

I absolutely love Brett's Sherlock Holmes! I never tire of watching these!

 

[Pilgrim Standard]

Anne of Green Gables Trilogy

Good set. Quite the departure from the books but very good.

 

[SolaScriptura]

It is a small task for even the most feeble of minds to make a list of movies liked. It is much more difficult to sort through a number of great options to identify that one movie which stands out from its peers - even if by a hair's breadth.

So rather than take the easy route and make a list of movies, I've mulled it over in my mind and come to a close tie between The Princess Bride and Braveheart. But as I reflected even further, I have decided that I like The Princess Bride the most. The reason is that The Princess Bride integrates deftly a number of thematic elements into one package. It very well could be the perfect movie.