Agora, Bad Boy Bubby, Chocolat, Inherit the Wind, The Ledge, The Wicker Man, Planet of the Apes, The Magdalene Sisters, There Will Be Blood, The Tree of Life, The Golden Compass, The Apostle, Black Robe, Breaking the Waves, Creation (about Darwin), The Crucible, Contact, Hanna and Her Sisters, Paul, Saved, Whatever Works, The White Ribbon, God on Trial, Watchmen.
I’m not familiar with all of these, so I’ll definitely try to look into some of them. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that the movies I mentioned were the only explicitly atheist movies out there—just that it was quite rare in major motion pictures. The Golden Compass is a good example that simply slipped my mind, and perhaps There Will Be Blood and Watchmen—the latter two at least have prominent characters who are atheists, even if atheism isn’t really part of the story itself. But the point is well-taken—there’s more out there than I mentioned.
However, I would question why some of these are on the list. Saved pretty clearly comes away with the message that God is real, but that he wants us to tolerate and appreciate our differences. Contact (at least the movie) suggests that Occam’s Razor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and seems to liken belief in God to belief in Ellie’s trip (which is sympathetic). And while I confess that I haven’t seen all of the original The Wicker Man, isn’t the protagonist a sympathetic Christian?
Anyway, maybe I’m just missing something, but these ones confused me. Otherwise, I appreciate the examples!
My freshman college class watched a private screening of Agora. It’s pretty inaccurate, historically speaking, and generally portrays both sides of the “war” negatively. However, it does show one of the main characters updating her beliefs on the solar system.
Some atheistic films not mentioned in the OP:
Agora, Bad Boy Bubby, Chocolat, Inherit the Wind, The Ledge, The Wicker Man, Planet of the Apes, The Magdalene Sisters, There Will Be Blood, The Tree of Life, The Golden Compass, The Apostle, Black Robe, Breaking the Waves, Creation (about Darwin), The Crucible, Contact, Hanna and Her Sisters, Paul, Saved, Whatever Works, The White Ribbon, God on Trial, Watchmen.
I’m not familiar with all of these, so I’ll definitely try to look into some of them. I certainly didn’t mean to imply that the movies I mentioned were the only explicitly atheist movies out there—just that it was quite rare in major motion pictures. The Golden Compass is a good example that simply slipped my mind, and perhaps There Will Be Blood and Watchmen—the latter two at least have prominent characters who are atheists, even if atheism isn’t really part of the story itself. But the point is well-taken—there’s more out there than I mentioned.
However, I would question why some of these are on the list. Saved pretty clearly comes away with the message that God is real, but that he wants us to tolerate and appreciate our differences. Contact (at least the movie) suggests that Occam’s Razor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and seems to liken belief in God to belief in Ellie’s trip (which is sympathetic). And while I confess that I haven’t seen all of the original The Wicker Man, isn’t the protagonist a sympathetic Christian?
Anyway, maybe I’m just missing something, but these ones confused me. Otherwise, I appreciate the examples!
.
Yeah, I might be remembering some of these wrongly.
Another atheist flick is Begotten. And maybe Gummo.
Well Inherit the Wind is rather notorious for it’s historical inaccuracy.
I’m not sure about your inclusion of The Tree of Life.
My freshman college class watched a private screening of Agora. It’s pretty inaccurate, historically speaking, and generally portrays both sides of the “war” negatively. However, it does show one of the main characters updating her beliefs on the solar system.
Agora drove me crazy because it could have been good and was so terribly inaccurate.
How can someone have such a good memory?
Maybe he has been keeping a list of them (eg. http://www.listology.com/user/99980/content ) or posted regularly about them somewhere?
I don’t agree with your inclusion of The Tree of Life.