Have you been going to the movies these past few weeks? You may be suckered into this movie by some of your friends! Considered a sequel to “Passion of the Christ,” "Risen" has been well-received by critics. The majority of the past faith-based films, such as “God’s Not Dead,” “Son of God,” “Heaven is for Real,” and "War Room" are meant for Christian audiences. Their influence has been targeted to direct Christian audiences around the whole world. Each of these movies ends with a direct message or a call to action. It is meant for people that already know the scriptures and know the difficulties of living a Christian lifestyle. It is about the hardships and the condition of this world, and how we can find hope through Jesus Christ, and through nothing else.
The directors of these films didn't aim to reach a secular audience, even though they succeeded in doing so. Each of these films gained international success for their tremendous work on the big screen. It has come to show us that Hollywood has begun to become influenced by Christianity. Never before have we seen so many Christian films come to light and be advertised so heavily like the ones that we have seen in the past few years. However, as I had mentioned before, the previous films only targeted a specific type of audience. The protagonists were all believers, or had mildly or had previously attended church. "Risen" takes a different approach than these films.
“Risen” attempts to relate to secular audiences: people that question the topic of the resurrection of Jesus, or people that have a diminishing or deteriorating faith in God. With all of the things that we are seeing around the world, this film perfectly portrays the condition of people's hearts. We have seen such a deterioration of faith and many people rising up with different types of beliefs, arguments, and politics. We have fallen away from our traditional marriage values, and our society isn't the way that it used to be a few decades ago. Although "Risen" takes place during the time period of Jesus, there were similar elements that took place during that time. The Roman soldier of the film questions the faith of people. The soldier, himself, is a "non-believer," who has a conquest of exploring the reality of the story of the Messiah. He doesn't believe in the resurrection, and all of the Roman soldiers were taught to discard the idea of any resurrection. What he discovers changes his life forever!
Not only does "Risen" cross the line of boredom and traditional “Bible-based” theology films, but the directors successfully and creatively managed to plot a film that catches the hearts and minds of the people, while still incorporating scriptures and sticking to the true story. Haven’t seen it yet? It will blow your mind away!
