Watching It

The Name of the Rose-

A monk and his apprentice head up to a mysterious foggy mountain top abbey to do some detective work about a possible suicide. As they are there, a few more deaths happen and as the story progresses there are many twists and turns. The audience watches as the heros and the villains are revealed, and men are burned to death because they are suspected of witchery. With all the death about, the monks start to not trust each other, and the main monk in the plot struggles to figure out the causes of the deaths. He soon concludes that all of these monks have read a piece of literature written by Plato that is comedy. Since monks are forbidden to laugh, the head monk has take this book and poisoned the two pages, and since back than licking ones finger was often the way pages were turned, the monks would than ingest the poison and die.
This movie at first was quite a bore, it was hard to understand at first what was going on, and since the movie was filmed some time ago, it was quite dark which makes the movie much scarier. IF you are in a very desperate need to watch a movie with a cheesy and random love scene than this movie is for you.

I watched The Name of The Rose. While this movie seemed to be in extremely unrealistic representation of the Christian faith, I was nonetheless a somewhat entertaining movie. The movie is essentially the story of a new preacher (Sean Connery as William of Baskerville) that comes to an abbey and tries to discover the secrets of seemingly random killings among members of the abbey. He resolves that the killings are due to this book located in the secret library that other members of the clergy refuse to tell him about. Eventually Sean Connery and his apprentice went exploring around the abbey to try and find the library. The suspicion of this book is due to the fact that all the people that die are found to have black fingers. Much of the religious aspects of the Christian church was excluded from the movie except for very common practice knowledge. Overall, it was a somewhat entertaining movie and I would say it’s not worth it to go out of your way to see it, but if it’s convenient it’d be worth it to watch.

I watched "The Dalai Lama". This is a movie following the life of the Dalai Lama. It starts with the death of the Dalai Lama, and proceeds into the quest to find his incarnation. This film shows the many different tests that the baby discovered to be the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama must take. For example, which glasses belonged to the Dalai Lama before he died. One scene that really stuck out to me was when the young Dalai Lama was first introduced to the people of Tibet, he was only a very small boy, but was still given an enormous parade with many 1000s of people. The movie then went on to follow the incredible life of The Dalai Lama and his struggle with the Chinese government. I defiantly recommend this movie to anyone, it is not very fast, but it is well done and powerful.
(this is my assignment for the first independent assignment, I hope I can still receive credit)

I watched a video online called ,"why do atheists care about religion?" this video was based on a study done by the university of Minnesota. this video discusses why someone who does not believe in god care about religious issues. It mentioned that any person in the world today is extremely affected by religion. Anyone that Identifies themselves as atheist can not be a member of the Boy Scouts of America. In a few states in the US, an atheist can not hold public office. Their point of view is that religion restricts non religious peoples freedom. The truth is that America is founded on the belief in god. I thought that this video was interesting because of the different perspective. I would defiantly suggest this video to other people, it is a totally new perspective than any other religion video that I have watched previously. I really learned a lot and this that others could benefit too.

Bill Maher is regarded as one of the most controversial figures in entertainment today. Starting in stand-up comedy with an edgy political and religious theme as well as having his show "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher" removed due to his supposedly 'unpatriotic' comments regarding the 9/11 attacks. His new film "Religilous" is very much in the same fashion as his previous works. The main system the documentary follows is Bill Maher interviewing different figures that are in some way shape or form associated with different religions. He starts in the bible belt talking to members of a church for on-the-go truckers. He starts with Christianity then progresses into Mormonism, Islam, Judaism, and then other smaller religions. He talks to these figures continually poking holes in their beliefs and arguments throughout the movie. Although the movie finishes with a strong message promoting non-believer action and independent thinking, the movie is very entertaining and comes off more as a comedy than a documentary. Some credit for this is due to director Larry Charles, who also directed the movie "BORAT", displaying his prowess in the genre of comedy documentaries. Bill Maher stated in an interview about the movie that it is mainly a comedy with a hidden message that "goes down easily, like a pill" and I believe that to be very true. I would HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone who is in the slightest bit interested. In the end, it is a very good laugh with a thought provoking finish.

I watched the movie Bloodline. This movie is a documentary on the bloodline conspiracy of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene, who were claimed escaped to the south of France following Christ's crucifixion, with their child. If the conspiracy about their marriage is true then the greatest story ever told on the Christian religion will all be a lie.
In this movie, the documentary director Bruce Burgess does immense research to find if this conspiracy is true or not. He meets prominent religious leaders in France, and many religions professors to guide him to his answer. Most importantly, he was able to arrange to meet with two very important members of the Priory of Scion, in which is a secret society that guards the secret treasures revealing the truth about Christ and Magdalene. Throughout his three year journey and research, Bruce Burgess finds something that may be the answer to the conspiracy. Did Christ and Mary Magdalene really get married and have kids?
I recommend this movie to anyone who is interested in the bloodline conspiracy. It is very interesting and you will learn a lot about the secret societies that lived and religious corruption. Overall, it was an interesting movie, with a lot of suspense.

I watched Life of Brian created by Monty Python. The whole film is based on the idea of religion and satirizing the story of Jesus. Brian was just a commoner in Jerusalem. The Romans took over Jerusalem, and he joins a group called The People’s Front of Judea, which focuses on ousting the Romans from Jerusalem. Brian claims to be a Jew, but he finds out that his mother was raped by a Roman, thus proving that he is related to the Romans. Throughout the movie, Brian is pushed around because he is weak and a whiner. In his attempt to escape from the Romans, he starts to half-heartedly preach to a crowd of people. Once the Romans are gone, Brian thinks he is safe, but he is mistaken because he now has a continuously increasing group of followers who won’t leave him alone. The ending consists of Brian being crucified with a big group of sinners, who are all singing, “Always look on the Bright Side of Life”. He is viewed as a Martyr for the cause of The People’s Front of Judea, even though he has no choice and is actually opposed to this idea. I would recommend this movie to those who can view satirizing religion in good humor. Those who have strong beliefs in their faith, especially Christianity, should not watch this movie in case they are easily offended. This movie takes on the lighter side to religion, because it shows religion in an almost atheistic perspective. It sheds light on how religion can take over the lives of others, and gives a satirical version of how a religion, based on the life of Jesus Christ, can be created.

I watched Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments.” The movie was about the life of Moses and the Exodus. Although the movie is about the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt to Israel, it spans Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Dueteronmy. The movie starts with Moses floating down the river to Bithiah, daughter of the pharaoh Ramses I, after he deaclared all Hebrew male babies be killed. Bithiah hides the fact that he is Hebrew, and no one knows except her servant. Moses is raised as Pharaoh Seti I’s son along with Ramses II. Moses competes for the throne and the marriage of Nefretiri who clearly loves Moses and not Ramses II. Moses proves himself as a better leader than Ramses by winning the war with Ethiopia and by building Goshen. He also instates many practices that are kind to the Hebrew slaves such as one day of rest in every seven, and he gives the grain in the Pharaoh’s granaries to the slaves. Ramses II accuses Moses of being loyal to the slaves and trying to organize an uprising, which at this point is untrue. Moses proves himself time and time again. It looks as if he will become king, but then Bithiah’s slave tells Nefretiri that Moses is the son of a slave. Nefretiri kills her, and says it doesn’t matter because she is in love, but Moses finds out, and wants to find his real mother. Moses finds his mother and becomes a slave. He saves Joshua from the overseer, kills the overseer, and then declares to Joshua that he is Hebrew; Joshua immediately declares him the destined deliverer. A devious slave overseer sees this scene, and tells Ramses in exchange for power. Moses is brought in chains in front of Seti, where he claims that he is not the deliverer, but that he would be if he had the ability to. Moses is then exiled and Moses meets the Midians (probably Islamic people), and he stays with them awhile and marries Sephora. Seti than dies, (his last words were Moses) making Ramses II Pharaoh. Joshua then finds Moses and stays with him. Moses then sees the Burning bush in the mountain of Sinai, telling him he is the deliverer and that he must lead his people to freedom and out of Egypt. Moses then comes back and tells Ramses to “Let his people go.” Ramses refuses and declares Moses’s God to be false; Moses than turns his staff into a serpent, which Ramses calls a magic trick. Because of Moses the Hebrew are forced to make buildings without straw for the next week. In response, Moses turns the water to blood, and sets other plagues on Egypt, all of which Ramses calls coincidences. Then Moses tells him that hail will fall and then bur, which happens. Ramses, in anger, orders the killing of all firstborn Hebrews, but Moses told him the reverse would happen, and all of the Egyptian firstborn sons die including the Pharaoh and Nefretiri’s only son. God knew not to strike Jewish households because of Ram’s blood on the doors, so God “Passed over” them, which is the reason Pesach is celebrated. Ramses then orders Moses to leave with all of the Hebrews and take what they will. Nefretiri then convinces Ramses to take revenge on the Hebrews and he then follows the Jews, and traps them against the Red Sea. But God creates a pillar of fire to hold off Ramses and Moses “Parts the seas,” creating a safe escape route. The pillar of fire eventually dissapeares and Ramses’s army (sans Ramses) goes into the pathway, but Moses sees this, and God closes the Sea on top of the Egyptians. Ramses returns to Nefretiri and tells her he failed in killing Moses and he declares, “His God is God.” The Hebrew then go to Sinai, and Moses goes up the mountain to receive God’s word. The Hebrews grow impatient and they chaos develops, and idolatry breaks out, in which a Golden Calf is worshipped. Danthan, who has been a problem from the start, is the reason for this. He also plans to lead them back to Egypt and give the cow as a gift to Ramses and ask for forgiveness. God then reveals the Ten Commandments to Moses in the form of the two stone tablets. Moses comes down the mountain and sees the false idolatry and yells at the people and throws the tablets at the calf. The idol then explodes, and a crevice is created, which consumes Danthan and his followers and all that do not join Moses. God then forces the Hebrews to wander for forty years. After these forty years, they are about to arrive in Israel when Moses hands off leadership to Joshua and Moses then departs, while the Hebrew enter Israel.
I would recommend this to others. As you can clearly see it is very relevant to the class and especially our current unit, as it covers 4 of the 5 books of Moses (Genesis is the one missing). It is also well done, and has received numerous awards. I enjoyed it very much, however in order to enjoy it one must have a long attention span. My only concern in recommending it is the fact that it is 220 minutes long or 3 hours and 40 minutes long (hence the long summary). While the movie can be appreciated for relevance and cinematic mastery, one should be cautious because of the length, but I would recommend it.

I watched the movie Religilous. It was an extremely entertaining film. The movie was written by a political comedian named Bill Maher, and was directed by Larry Charles. The documentary examines and satirizes organized religion and religious belief. The film contains a range of views on the various world religions that are explored as Bill Maher travels to numerous religious destinations, such as Jerusalem, the Vatican, and Salt Lake City, interviewing believers from a variety of religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormons, and Satanists. (along with a few other smaller religions) Throughout the movie Bill Maher pokes fun at different religions and beliefs. At one point in the movie, Bill Maher begins to preach scientology beliefs in London. I would recommend this to anyone who is even remotely interested. It is very funny and entertaining to watch.

I watched the documentary film "Jesus Camp," an objective exploration of evangelical Christianity. The film follows two children, Levi and Rachel, as they go from their Pentecostal church in Missouri to "jesus camp" in North Dakota. Although the film is objective, the film shows how the church effectively uses fear and propaganda to garner followers. As Becky Fischer, who runs the camp, tells the campers, as young as 5: "Had Harry Potter been around in biblical times, he would have been put to death.”

I found the film to be slightly scary. I will defend anyone's right to believe anything, but when they start blasting the concept of separation of church and state, modern science, and then encourage the kids to either influence or become lawmakers I feel pretty uncomfortable. I also strongly objected to the use of a Dr. Seuss quote to promote anti-choice views. I would recommend the film to anyone who is curious about what evangelicalism is actually like, as the film is objective. Although the movie may be scary or boring at times, if watched with friends it could be humorous.

I watched the Masterpiece Theater production of "God on Trial." It was a play about the Holocaust, and whether God was responsible for it, and whether the prisoners of the internment camps should blame or abandon God for the Holocaust. This show was on PBS a few Sundays ago and is available online at PBS.org. The show consisted of a group of Jews at Auschwitz putting God on trial. The Court, or the group of scholarly Jews that would decide whether God was guilty or not, had a hearing in which any of the prisoners in the prison house could speak. There was much discussion about whether the Holocaust was made out of God's wrath upon the Jews or whether it was because the Jewish God was not strong enough to protect them, or whether the Holocaust was simply testing the faith of Jews. One man, a physicist, asked why God, who created the Universe and hundreds of galaxies and planets, would choose a planet on the outer arm of a medium-sized galaxy, and on that planet choose one group of nomadic desert people who were not particularly special in any way. In the words of William Ewer, "How odd of God to choose the Jews." Another man tells the story of his kids being taken away. He tells the court he tried to get the guard to give back his three boys, then the guard tell him he may choose one. How can he possibly choose? He puts his faith in God, but he doesn't know what to do. Ultimately, the court comes to no decision because the Nazis switch the schedules of the prisoners, so the people who were to be exterminated are spared, and the majority of the Court is put into the gas chambers. I would recommend this play to anyone, as it is not only brilliantly acted but more importantly makes the viewer think about the true role God played in the Holocaust, if any. It also makes the viewer consider how people use religion in times of great crisis and when facing certain death, and whether or not they hold onto their God .

I watched Forbidden Love: Polygamy, a documentary on the Discovery Channel. I found this very interesting. A woman visited a polygamist town in utah and stayed with a very large family for a few days, then moving on to another very different family and stayed with them for a bit. I was shocked to hear what the wives had to say about the way they lived. They seemed to truly believe that this was a superior way to raise children than having one mother and one father. The women were very protective of their kids and husband, never letting the interviewer talk bad about him. I was very interested to find out how the husband rotated between the wives and his perspective on their situation and how he keeps up with his fast paced life style. One of the many things that surprised me about their way of life was the age range of the wives and the way a new wife is taken in to the family. The fist wife said that the ideal spot is wife number four because the family dynamics are worked out previously. I thought that this was a very insightful show and I definitely learned a lot about polygamy.

I watched the documentary, "Jesus Camp," which is an objective look at Evangelical Christianity. I had watched the film a few years ago and found it fascinating, so I decided to watch it again in order to revisit what it was about. The film follows a number of different evangelical families as the kids take a summer trip to Bible Camp. The portions of the film that show the kids' home life and the views their parents instill on them is very interesting. Since the views of these families are very unlike my own views, sometimes it is a bit scary to see that other kids around the nation are being taught things that are so opposite of what I know. I'm not saying my views are better than theirs, but it is almost a culture shock to see how these people live. The children in the film are all very dedicated to their faith, and really believe that they have the love of Jesus in their hearts. I would definitely recommend this film to others, because I think it is a great representation of the Evangelical faith. Before watching this film, I had no idea how evangelicals felt about various political and cultural topics, and also how dedicated they are to their faith.

- I watched the movie Bloodline. It is a documentary film, produced by Rene Barnett and directed/ written by Bruce Burgess.
- Largely, the movie explores the possibility that Jesus might have conceived a child with Mary Magdalene. Burgess starts his quest in 2005 in the French village of Rennes-le-Chateau, where supposedly priest Berenger Sauniere had revealed a massive secret. The secret was that Jesus had risen after crucifixion and married and had a child with Mary Magdalene. Then, like in The Da Vinci Code, Burgess follows inclinations and clues left by Sauniere. During Burgess’ quest he interviews many interesting folks, but by far the most intriguing chat is with researcher Ben Hammot. He reveals a preeminent discovery; a chest containing a mummified corpse, along with other artifacts. Jesus…Mary…a random lost individual…who could be in the chest?
- Bloodline is the reality version of The Da Vinci Code. It is filled with hokus pokus; conspiracy theories and secret society rumors. I enjoy this kind of plot in fiction movies, but in documentaries. When there is actual proof that Jesus had a child with Mary Magdalene, then this documentary would be worthwhile because it would have a decent ending. Therefore, I do not recommend this movie.

I watched the movie "Jesus Camp" which objectively follows some children from Missouri as they go to Bible Camp in North Dakota.
I found it to be very interesting, because it showed a completely different side of Christianity than what I am used to. It gave the viewer an inside look into the extremely fundamentalist and evangelical religious right. The main characters in this movie were a boy named Levi and his younger sister, Rachel. Levi and Rachel were home schooled, a practice that their mother adamantly defended. On one occasion, Levi’s mother quizzes him on how to defend Creationism, and he questions science as a whole. The family also recites the “pledge of allegiance” but change the words so that they are very Christian based, they also hold up American, Israeli and Evangelical flags. The movie also focused on Becky, the leader of the Bible camp. She talks to Levi about how he was “born-again” at age 5. The children also speak in tongues and have a very militant-type attitude. This forces one to ask the question; how much do these kids understand about what they are doing? Becky talks about how she wants the equivalent of fundamentalist Islam for Christianity. Throughout this movie there seems to be an attitude of seeing the world as completely black and white; Becky says this very explicitly, “(there are) two kinds of people in the world, people who love Jesus and people who don't." Levi’s sister, Rachel, also has many interesting encounters. They go bowling (next door is an “adult store” which created a funny juxtaposition) and at the alley, Rachel says that God called her to approach a woman in the bowling alley to tell her about God. Rachel also states that she wants to become a manicurist, so that she will have an engaged audience for her little sermons. The movie then follows the children as they go to the Bible camp in North Dakota. At the Bible camp, Becky prays over the seats, electrical systems, Power points, and microphones at the camp, which I found to be really funny. She also uses guilt and scare tactics to engage the children. She makes everything extremely emotional for the kids. At the camp, Rachel explains how God likes her kind of church more than other churches and Levi talks about how being around non-Christians makes him feel sick and upset because “America is supposed to be God’s nation.” The kids are also taught about abortion, which made me feel sick to my stomach. The adults were using these kids as political tools. I also feel that it is completely wrong to teach a 5 or 6 year old about abortion. The kids then go to Ted Haggard’s mega-church in Colorado, where he talks to Levi about being a good Christian and trying to spread the Word. But this is extremely ironic, because mere months after this Ted was arrested on drug and prostitution charges. The movie ends with the kids in DC, protesting abortion in front of the Supreme Court. The movie follows the selection of Alito onto the Supreme Court and how the Religious Right tries to politicize everything. In the final scene, Rachel walks up to some African-Americans and tries to convert them. She asks them if they are going to heaven or hell, and they respond by saying that they think they are going to heaven. Rachel then gets very frustrated and as she walks away, says that they didn’t listen to her because they were probably Muslim. This struck me as extremely racist and was pretty upsetting.
I would definitely recommend this movie to others. Parts are really funny and others are so extreme they can be unsettling. There is also a liberal Christian commentary throughout the movie, which creates another point of view.

I went to see Doubt. Philip Seymour Hoffman played Father Flynn who was a catholic pastor for both the church and for the connected school. Meryl Streep played Sister Aloysius the rather ominous nun who is principle of the school. The movie is roughly based around the power struggle between the two characters. Father Flynn gives powerful sermons and often uses them to make a point in a thinly obscured way. The conflict between the two only grows when Donald Muller leaves class to meet with Father Flynn and returns with alcohol on his breath. Sister Aloysius uses several underhanded ways of manipulating people including blackmail and extortion to meet her ends of which only she is sure.

The movie also looks at opening the church up and changing with the times. This is another area where the fight is most intense and in the end Sister Aloysius keep the church traditional.

It is very interesting movie if not all that entertaining . But the acting is good throughout the movie. I would recommend out to anyone who has the patience to to sit through the entire movie because it is very slow to reveal its secrets.

I watched the first of four hour long segments of "From Jesus to Christ: the First Christians," a frontline PBS show. This first segment examined the life of jesus from his relatively humble beginnings to his death at the hands of Pontius Pilate. This video went into more detail about Jesus's origins than I have ever learned about. Although you usually hear about Jesus as a peasant carpenter living in the countryside, this video showed how in fact Jesus lived at Nazareth but was near enough to Sephorus (a larger, more sophisticated nearby town) that he likely led a more worldly life than many thought and was of a higher social standing that a peasant carpenter. Although there is a lot of history in between including the dead sea scrolls, john the baptist and jesus's journeys as a preacher, I will skip to the passion of Jesus and his crucifixion. It took place in Jerusalem during passover when the city was crowded with jewish celebrations and underlying political, religious and social unrest. Although the city and its celebrations were of a thoroughly jewish nature, roman soldiers and guards were watching over all proceedings to make sure that no anti roman sentiments came out too strongly. So when Jesus threw out the money changers his actions were particularly significant. He was preaching a special kind of dissidence in which an apocalyptic end was near. Pontius Pilate probably saw this as a very contentious attitude which might inspire uncontrollable unrest and thus must be suppressed as a form of crowd control. Perhaps even the priests of the temple at Jerusalem might have handed over jesus in order to avoid a heavy handed reprisal by the grumpy pilate. Whatever the case, Jesus was then taken and crucified by ROMAN soldiers (jews almost never crucifixion, while it was common roman practice.) The crucifixion, although now one of histories most famous events, was at the time probably a pretty humdrum affair, considering Jesus was one of many political/religious dissidents crucified and that crucifixion was not a public event and took place on the outskirts of the city. I would recommend this film to anyone interested in an expressly historical look at the origins of Christianity.

I watched "The Passion of Christ". The movie is a depiction of Jesus' last few hours through to his crucifixion. The setting of the movie is in Jerusalem. As a result of Jesus publicly announcing that he is the son of god he is betrayed by Judas and eventually turned into the guards. The leaders of the city, one being Pontius Pilate have him beaten but the crucifixion is ultimately declared by the people, due to disputes over Jesus' public announcement. I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who would like to grasp a clear understanding for events that led to Jesus' crucifixion. In addition, the movie provides viewers with a clear image of The Stations of the Cross. Although it is quite graphic, the film is informative and well put together. The director and producers did the best they could to create an accurate portrayal of this day and I feel it was a successful attempt.

I watched “Jesus Camp”. I found it on Google videos. It was a movie about Evangelical Christians and specifically their efforts and effects on children. Though it takes awhile to get to the “Jesus Camp” mentioned in the title, the majority of the movie does take place at the camp located in North Dakota. This movie shows how seriously the Evangelicals take their teaching of children to love and worship Jesus. I admire their commitment to Jesus but frankly they scared me. The stereotypes and racist comments that the kids didn’t even have to think to spew out were terrible. When the little girl tries to talk to and convert the black man and walks away saying ‘he’s a Muslim, that’s why he doesn’t want to talk.’ The kids church service leader says that she wants to create children who are as committed to Christ and the church as the Muslim children who are committing suicide in the Middle East. This scared me. I would recommend this movie for others, it helps you understand the Evangelical movement – and the resistance in the Christian faith towards it as well (as depicted by a radio dj whose clips are interjected in the film.)