Faith in Film, Week 8

Here's a look at the worksheet for our last class, which will be tonight at 6:30 p.m.!


Title: “Watchmen” (2009)

Starring: Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Malin Ackerman, Billy Cruddup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Matthew Goode

Synopsis: “Watchmen” is one of the most fascinating and controversial films we’ve looked at for Faith in Film. The film, released to great fanfare in the spring of 2009, is based on a graphic novel from Alan Moore. It is a film that presents a number of challenges to the Christian worldview. Moore, by all accounts, was an anarchistic atheist. There is an absence of God in the work and in the worldview of the central characters, and there is also an absence of faith in the role of government and law and order. It makes for a very cynical, dark world that is on the brink of destruction. In that, it presents an accurate picture of a world completely devoid of the spirit — or the fruits of the Spirit, namely faith, hope, and love.

It is said that, in looking at the world, you could look at the glass as half full or half empty. If you apply that principle to the realm of spirituality, you either see us as reliant on the grace of God or morality of our own creation. If you combined someone that believed we were reliant on ourselves but also viewed man as depraved, you would get the world envisioned in “Watchmen.” That makes it a fascinating and heart-breaking film to study.

Questions to consider:
1. Does your faith in God help give you greater confidence in the rule of government?



2. What would the world look like apart from the grace of God?



3. Where does your hope come from? Can you build a lasting hope on the potential of mankind alone?