His Only Son My sister and I went to see this movie recently. It is the story of how Abraham responded when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Overall rating: pretty good. Worth seeing. What would you think and feel if God asked you to sacrifice your only son as a burnt offering? Four thousand years and a cultural chasm separates us from Abraham. The movie starts with God asking for the sacrifice in a vision to Abraham and continues for the journey to Mt Moria. Along the way issues are explored through flashbacks and conversations. The link is made with the sacrifice of God’s only son 2000 years later. I have a few quibbles. Abraham is portrayed as a run down version of a previously prosperous and powerful man. I suspect this was done for budget reasons. It’s a lot cheaper to portray a single leaking tent than the more realistic mobile camp of a nomadic clan.
I've always read the Sacrifice of Isaac passage that way -- as prefiguring the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. In sparing Isaac but sacrificing his own Son, God was demonstrating his eternal constancy, love and grace for us. I'm glad the movie picks up on that. Yeah, that's always been a problem with a lot of Christian-themed movies in the modern age -- they look and feel cheap. I mean, I appreciate the effort and faith that goes into these projects, but they really tend not to hold up well on screen. You look at a sumptuous production like Ben Hur or The Robe, and then modern stuff, and you can really see how a lack of budget can hurt these kinds of movies. One of the reasons I think The Chosen is a game-changer is that it generally looks really good. The recent Paul, Apostle of Christ was pretty well done as well. Modern technology has a lot to do with the democratization of movie making -- you can get excellent cameras, lights, and other movie-making gear at a fraction of what it used to cost, and everyday people can now produce CGI on par with (or even surpassing) what you see in lots of big-budget movies. I don't go to movie theaters any more, but I will pick up this movie once it hits physical media.
My son saw "Nefarious" last week. He says it is a faith-based movie, he enjoyed it, and he told me he thought I'd really like it. So maybe it doesn't look or feel cheap. I haven't decided if I'll go, but maybe. I am another who rarely goes to movie theaters any longer, but in my case it's the seats that sometimes cut off circulation in my older legs and the fact that, at my age, I usually have to exit mid-movie for a restroom break. Watching a movie at home is much more convenient.