Favourite Movies – Amazing Grace

I first saw this movie last year, and it immediately shot to the top of my favourite movies list.

Amazon.com: Amazing Grace: Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch, Albert Finney, Michael Gambon, Rufus Sewell, Youssou N’Dour, Ciarán Hinds, Toby Jones, Nicholas Farrell, Sylvestra Le Touzel, Jeremy Swift, Stephen Campbell Moore, Bill Paterson, Nicholas Day, Georgie Glen, Nicholas Woodeson, Tom Fisher, Richard Ridings, David Hunt: Movies & TV.

It’s about William Wilberforce, a Christian who was central to getting slavery outlawed throughout the British empire.  I knew almost nothing about him before seeing the movie.  Before our Civil War, he fought for human rights.

The movie is an amazing historical drama.  It’s beautiful, and inspiring.  Wilberforce suffered from chronic illness, and struggled with an addiction to painkillers given to him because of it.  But he did not succumb to discouragement.  He was an amazing fighter.

The movie has  joy,  humor, trouble and  triumph.  It highlights love, faith, seeking one’s way and then sticking to it once it has been found.

Favourite Movies – Love Comes Softly

This is a very sweet movie about finding life and love again after tragedy.  It’s also about an atheist finding faith from the example of a man of great faith.  It’s not an incredibly deep movie, but it is comforting.

Amazon.com: Love Comes Softly: Katherine Heigl, Dale Midkiff, Corbin Bernsen, Skye McCole Bartusiak, Theresa Russell, Oliver Macready, Tiffany Amber Knight, Adam Loeffler, Nick Scoggin, Jaimz Woolvett, Rutanya Alda, Janet Rotblatt, Michael Landon Jr., Brian Gordon, Faye Schwab, H. Daniel Gross, Kevin Bocarde, Cindy Kelley, Janette Oke: Movies & TV.

My favourite line from the movie is the one which gives it its name: Sometimes love isn’t fireworks, sometimes love just comes softly.

Favourite Movies – The Ultimate Gift

A modern call to service.

Amazon.com: The Ultimate Gift: Drew Fuller, James Garner, Abigail Breslin, Bill Cobbs, Lee Meriwether, George Lee, Brett Rice, D. David Morin, Ali Hillis, Mircea Monroe, Donna Cherry, Catherine McGoohan, Michael O. Sajbel, Cleve Landsberg, Dave Ross, Jim Van Eerden, John Shepherd, Paul Brooks, Cheryl McKay, Jim Stovall: Movies & TV.

This is a very different movie from my last, Ben-Hur.  It is a modern-day movie following the transformation of a spoiled young man who is clearly bored, into someone called to service and faith.  The catalysts?  His dead grandfather and a young girl dying of cancer.  Fearlessly confronts loss and the moments that go into grasping faith, without being preachy.

Favourite Movies – Ben-Hur

The classic epic on faith.

Amazon.com: Ben-Hur: 50th Anniversary Edition: Movies & TV.

This is one of my all-time favourite movies.  I watch it at least twice a year – at Easter and Christmas.  And it amazes me how many Christians I’ve met who have never seen it.  I clung to its message even when I was farthest from being a Christian myself.

I’ve heard that people say “It’s called ‘Ben-Hur: A Story of the Christ’ and it isn’t about Christ at all.”  I can’t understand that.  It’s about God’s will working in the world, about turning the other cheek, about the incredible force of Our Lord when He turned His attention on a man.  It’s about faith.

 

Favourite Movies – Signs

A movie about rediscovering faith…

Amazon.com: Signs: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Clifford David, Lanny Flaherty, Rory Culkin, Babita Hariani, Cherry Jones, Patricia Kalember, Marion McCorry, Paul L. Nolan, Rhonda Overby, Kevin Pires, Michael Showalter, Ted Sutton, Ukee Washington, Adam Way, Merritt Wever, Greg Wood: Movies & TV.

One of the cool things about M. Night Shyamalan’s movies is that they are often not about what they seem to be on the surface.  Or at least, not just about that.  Signs is ostensibly an alien horror movie.  But it is so much not just that.

It is a movie about faith.

About its loss.

About its rediscovery.

About how hard it is to live without.

After the death of his wife in tragic circumstances, Grahame is determined not to believe any more.

But under pressure, what happens?

Favourite Movies – One Night with the King

Sometimes I like to have an inspiration movie on while working on a piece.

An inspiring movie about Esther and the king of Persia.

Amazon.com: One Night with the King: Tiffany Dupont, Luke Goss, John Noble, Omar Sharif, John Rhys-Davies, Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister, James Callis, Peter O’Toole, Javen Campbell, Jyoti Dogra, Indraneel Bhattacharya, Jonah Lotan, Michael O. Sajbel, Carlos DeMattos, John Nelson, Laurie Crouch, Lawrence Mortorff, Mark Andrew Olsen, Stephan Blinn, Tommy Tenney: Movies & TV.

A  love story.

A call to duty and to serve.

A challenge to faith.

A very different culture.