Movies with gods: a list of the best

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The desire to know the divine principle is inherent in human nature, therefore, since ancient times, creators have described gods in literature, depicted in painting, sculpture, and cinema. In cinema, this topic is considered very sensitive. Filmmakers are quite cautious about religious issues, even touching on divine themes, often avoid demonstrating the Christian Almighty. Much more often in the cinema, ancient Greek, Egyptian or Scandinavian gods shine. However, god movies are released regularly and their pantheon is quite impressive.

List of best films

The list of the best films in which divine beings appear traditionally includes the following pictures:

• Clash of the Titans;
• "Bruce Almighty";
• Dialogue about Percy Jackson;
• God Wars: Immortals;
• Thor;
• "The Passion of the Christ";
• "The Ten Commandments";
• "Dogma".

Legends and myths

Hollywood has had several more entries into the territory of Roman mythology and the myths of Ancient Greece since the days of the peplums. Films about the gods of Olympus were not all successful, many were frankly a failure. But there isand successful projects such as Clash of the Titans (1981) by Desmond Davis. For all its naivete, the picture turned out to be pretty and quite inventive for its time. Which is not surprising, because Ray Harryhausen worked on the special effects. Several Greek gods appear in the tape, but the great Zeus, performed by Laurence Olivier, towers over them all.

In 2004, Fox decided to acquire the film rights to books about the gods of Olympus and their descendants living in modern America. So there were films about Percy Jackson with the sub titles "The Lightning Thief" (2010) and "Sea of Monsters" (2013). There are a lot of gods in these tapes, special attention deserves Steve Coogan in the image of Ares, who unexpectedly changed the usual role of a comedian.

Films with gods often show their heroes as wise old men, sedately perceiving what is happening. But not Tarsem Singh, who directed the film "War of the Gods: Immortals" (2011). The ancient Greek deities of the Indian director are young athletes, fierce rivals, desperately fighting each other. M. Rourke, F. Pinto, L. Evans, S. Dorff, I. Lucas - this is how, according to Singh, Olympus looks like. Unfortunately, behind the special effects and divine battles, the main story of the film is completely lost - the adaptation of the myth of Theseus.

Egyptian power

Despite the impressive list of films about the gods, neither the ancient Greek pantheon of gods, nor the Hindu, nor the Scandinavian, nor any other, is clearly demonstrated by filmmakersit turns out. For example, Alex Proyas' blockbuster "Gods of Egypt" surpassed the worst predictions.

The topic is again not fully disclosed, and whether someone is destined to shoot something really worthy in this niche is a moot point. It is not necessary to criticize the complete discrepancy between the relationships and the hierarchy of the gods in the work of Proyas with the canons declared by the researchers of Egyptian civilization. The director has every right to the author's vision and a certain amount of fiction. From the ancient Greek pantheon, either “Percy Jackson”, then “The Immortals”, then “Wrath of the Titans” are also obtained. Another thing is surprising, why in the cinema the "divine" motive is childishly naive, and the characters from the human world are surprisingly unattractive.

Marvel Comic Mythology

The Scandinavian gods Odin, Thor and Loki have long been an integral part of Marvel comics mythology. In 2011, with the light hand of Kenneth Branagh, the rulers of Asgard appeared on the movie screens. Perhaps these god movies are fiction, but the fact that Thor, Loki and Odin have become part of world culture through a series of films cannot be denied. "Thor" (2011), "Thor 2: The Kingdom of Darkness" (2013), "Thor: Ragnarok" (2017) and episodes of the film adaptation of the Avengers comics are proof of this. If Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston have become world movie stars with a multi-million dollar army of fans, then it means that the gods in these films were not mistaken.

Based on Scripture

As you know, filming any book is, to put it mildly, hard work. And even more so the Bible. Everyone interprets this work in their own way, she hasmany discrepancies and a colossal army of fans (not fanatics). Therefore, any film product based on the Holy Scriptures has a lot of criticism from the believing community.

Films with gods have been made since the dawn of the film industry, with Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments taking pride of place among them. This project is considered culturally, historically and aesthetically significant. On top of that, the film was very successful, grossing 131 million at the box office.

The next story about the Exodus was the 1998 animated film "Prince of Egypt" with musical content and an hour and a half running time. The cartoon is considered a landmark project of its time due to the use of innovative technology of combining computer, brush and subsequent digitization.

Criticized and approved

Almost every decade of the last century was marked by the release of films with the gods. Sometimes the creators quite freely interpreted the books of the New Testament. For example, in the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar (1972) by E. L. Webber and T. Rice, the Christian god was depicted singing and dancing. Such a spectacle could send more than one believing grandmother to the Kingdom of Heaven ahead of schedule.

And Martin Scorsese's film "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988) was criticized in the early stages of the plan. Religious organizations could not accept such a free interpretation of biblical events, especially the ending, hinting at the physical closeness of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Unlike the first pictures, the filmMel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" (2004) was accepted by the Catholic Church with open arms, even the Pope, however, unofficially, but declared his approval.

Comedy

In 1999, usually cautious and scrupulous in matters of displaying the Christian God, Hollywood made a serious mistake by allowing the sarcastic humorist and real cynic Kevin Smith to make the film "Dogma" (1999). Not only did the director manage to show Jesus in the image of a playfully winking statue, he also made God the Father a woman. The courage to transform into such a provocative image was taken by the musician and singer Alanis Morissette.

After four years, film makers once again dared to give the Almighty a human appearance. In Tom Shadyac's comedy Bruce Almighty (2003), black actor Morgan Freeman appeared as God. He appears at the beginning of the film in the form of a janitor and passes the reins of power to a journalist complaining about Heaven, in which the unsurpassed comedian Jim Carrey reincarnated. By the way, a sequel to Evan Almighty was released a few years later, but unlike the original, it is never included in the category of "best movies about gods".