Hollywood Turns to the Bible with Christ-Like Heroes

Times are tough and certainly Hollywood has not remained impervious to the troubled financial context. Aside from cutting down on expenses and workforce, the movie industry is also dealing with recession by swiftly but clearly turning to religion for help. Specialists say that’s normal, since audiences need Christ-like heroes to give them hope and, of course, recent releases perfectly illustrate that, as NewsARama can confirm.

Productions like “Avatar,” “Zombieland,” “Terminator: Salvation,” “The Book of Eli” and “Legion,” to name just a few of those that came out recently, all feature a Christ-like hero that comes to save humanity in an epic battle against the forces of evil. They all contain Bible references and are, though not obviously, very heavy in religious symbols. That’s only natural, experts say, because, at this moment, man needs something to believe in, even if it’s not a deity in the traditional sense of the word.

“Whether they know it consciously or not, in times of trouble people look for two things from the culture they consume – entertainment and understanding. Well-told stories also may help us to make some sort of meaning out of the chaos of our lives, and that exploration can happen whether or not we intend it,” Baylor University English Professor Greg Garrett says in reference to how spirituality has found its way back into pop culture.

“We live in a time and culture where belief in traditional gods is increasingly difficult. Extraterrestrial aliens represent an ‘other’ that once was the gods. [Science fiction] taps into the old religious urges with ‘answers’ that fit better into our world. We all want to know who we are, why we’re here, where we’re going; in a good science fiction story, we see these issues worked out. What makes ‘Avatar’ or ‘The Matrix’ or ‘Battlestar Galactica’ resonate are those dramatic depictions of answers to hard questions,” George Aichele, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Adrian College, says for the same publication.

The bottom line is that, whether we like to admit to it or not, we (meaning, we, the audiences) like to believe that we can still rely on our heroes to save us from whatever perils lie ahead. Since Hollywood has always been there to provide us with narratives that can, even for a short while, fulfill these dreams, it’s no wonder Christ-like heroes and angels are the main characters in recent releases.