The representation of religion in American motion pictures during the 20th Century.

With the transition of America from an agrarian society to an industrial one, a process that speeded up following the dawn of the 19th century, people started to embrace a new lifestyle of unfettered mass consumption. The time of simplicity and candor faded into the distant memory due to the sophistication of technology and its consequences on society, politics, and culture; individuals found themselves surrounded by a new culture of fragmentation and deceit. As a reaction, a new American character emerged which, in Jackson Lears’ definition, marked the conception of an eccentric “social self” based on individuality and greed. In this regard, the general understanding of religion in the United States has always been integral to this major social, political, as well as economic changeover. A succinct examination of the multiple traditions of religious representations in American movies –released in the 20th century- shows to what extent religiosity and religious themes underlay US visual culture.

The move towards urbanization erased in part the old way of life by incorporating a newly restructured society into a new market economy, and thus spreading a new behavior, –that of leisure and expenditure in American public and private life. Therefore, the Victorian set of ethics together with that era’s religious moral codes were overshadowed by the post-industrial schools of thought, which, in turn, were basic components of American movies. Subsequently, as popular culture in America established its dominance, traditional institutions like religion, churches, and schools started to lose their influence over individuals.

The American film industry produces movies that reflect to audiences a number of cultural artifacts, among which is religion. John Kavanaugh, a professor of philosophy at St. Louis University, argues that personal identity is constructed from the objects one consumes. The movie industry could therefore be considered as an apparatus of mass-control, since it repackages ethical messages into cultural goods in order to make money, or to please the prevailing ideology for political reasons, or even to revamp old traditions. Thus, it is not astonishing that the turn of the 20th century marked the golden age of the American film industry like Hollywood. It became a powerful force that shaped American attitudes toward religion as well as politics and the outside world.

In fact, the first half of the 20th century was dominated at the box office by movies with a religious and biblical content. Films like The Life of Moses (Vitagraph, 1909), The Deluge (Vitagraph, 1911), From the Manger to the Cross (Kalem, 1912), and Civilization (Triangle Film Corporation, 1916) were very popular back then as they successfully conveyed biblical messages to a Christian audience through a theological narrative. Thomas H. Ince’s Civilization (Triangle Film Corporation, 1916) enjoyed widespread popularity in the United States at the time as it used the depiction of Christ to help deliver an anti-war message.

By the early 1920s, religious themes and biblical stories had become well consumed topics. They enjoyed popularity among all classes of society. Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (Paramount Pictures, 1923), The Sign of The Cross (Paramount Pictures, 1932) and The King of Kings (Paramount Pictures, 1927) is a biblical trilogy that dominated the American silver screen. Its popularity stemmed perhaps not just from the techniques used in the making of the film, but also from the fact that it shared with the American audience many moral attitudes which set how religious stories tend to be understood and formulated.

Although most religious movies revolved around biblical stories related to White Protestants and Catholics, a good number of non-Christian religious films tried to explore other religions and cultures. D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms (D.W. Griffith, 1919) and Alan Grosland’s The Jazz Singer (Warner Brothers, 1927) can be considered as eminent examples as they respectively feature Buddhist and Jewish characters. Raoul Walsh’s The Thief of Baghdad (United Artists, 1924) calls into question the role of religion and the strong political seize of aristocracy in obstructing the dreams of the lowest social strata in the old Arab society.

However, some films exploring non-Christian religions and traditions belittled or disparaged images of the “Other.” They created a standardized and fixed image of the Orient as uncivilized and rude, of the East as mystical and esoteric, and of Africans as savage, barbaric, and dangerous. Such movies engendered a feeling of superiority in the White American, and thus contributed to increasing the American’s feeling of supremacy over other cultures, religions, and races. Luis Buñuel’s Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (Oscar Dancigers, 1954) might serve as a good example to illustrate this. However, other traditions of representation struggled against such stereotypes. Oscar Micheaux and Spencer Williams, Black American actors and moviemakers, produced films for Black audiences. In fact, they gave voice to the Black American religion since that their movies often involved religious themes. William’s The Blood of Jesus (Amegro Films, 1941) and Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (Sack Amusement Enterprises, 1942) showed the dedication of Black American communities to Christian church rites beliefs.

Religious coverage in American motion pictures from the early 1930s and through the late1940s was full of stories of righteous people and religious institutions accomplishing charitable activities and enforcing a philosophy of kindness and compassion. Movies during that period represented Christianity with principles related to the Social Gospel. Perhaps Boys Town (Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1938) and its sequel Men of Boys Town (Metro Goldwyn Mayer, 1941) are the best examples of such a tradition of representation, as they illustrate the humanitarian mission of Father Flanagan in Omaha, Nebraska, to save boys from their destitute situation. Samuel Goldwyn’s The Bishop’s Wife (RKO Radio Pictures, 1947) tells the story of an angel who helps and guides the bishop with his financial and emotional problems. The movie embodies basic ideas about the nature of religion that derive from Christianity and Western traditions- it encourages people to embrace love, sympathy, and compassion by projecting such values onto an angelic, saintly, and heavenly figure.

Religious epics enjoyed extensive popularity during the 1940s and 1950s, and repeatedly the highest grossing films at the box-office. However, many movies appropriately used religious themes to express opinions on political topics such as McCarthyism, communism, and the Cold War, arguing that the foundation of the American ideology, notably the values of liberty, equality, and democracy, stemmed from the Bible, and that God was by their side. Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments (Paramount Pictures, 1956) stands out as it counterbalances the godless and oppressive tyranny of the Pharaoh against the divinely ordained democracy brought out by Moses.

From the late 1960s through the late 1970s, a good number of films used horror genre to explore religion. Rosemary’s Baby (Paramount, 1968), The Exorcist (Warner Brothers, 1973), and The Omen (20th Century Fox, 1976) could be taken to represent the new trend in depicting religion. These three movies use mysterious composition to contrast the religious territory within which Christianity falls out against the mirk and mystical province of the demon. The harmless and gentle liturgy of Christianity is then contrasted against the supernatural, evil, malevolent rituals of Satanism and diablerie.

From the 1970s onwards, however, Hollywood studios began to undergo a radical change in their standpoint toward religion. In fact, American filmmakers had started to question religious scripts and to criticize religion as early as the 1920s, but by the 1970s, filmmakers were making serious attempts to get movies to shake off conventionality, and were thus adopting a more defiant approach to religion. One significant attempt to modernize the representation of Christianity was David Greene’s Godspell (Columbia, 1973) which conveyed its subject matter via a series of parables from the Gospel. Another musical drama film was Jesus Christ Superstar (Universal, 1973), which took the conflict between Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ before the latter’s crucifixion as the heart of the story. The movie received a negative critical response in part from Jews who considered it anti-Semitic, and in part from Catholics and Protestants, who considered the interest of Jesus in carnal life and sensuous matters as “blasphemy” (Greenhouse).

Although audiences generally accepted these religious movies, many Protestant and Catholic leaders worried about the commercialization of sacred stories and the irreverence toward the divine. Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ (Universal, 1988) was fiercely attacked by Roman Catholics who complained about the lewd depiction of Christ, and strongly objected to the idea that Jesus had contemplated a sensuous life with Mary Magdalene over sacrificing himself for humanity.

Religious leaders like John T. McNicholas, Paul F. Leibold, Frances Willard and Annie Wittenmeyer, together with their fellow Church members, reacted against the depiction of God and Jesus in American motion pictures. They attempted to reform and control the content of movies, trying to limit all idiosyncratic representations of religious figures and to restrict content they took to be immoral and harmful to society, like sex, drugs and crime movies. They supported the creation of movies featuring their ideas and corresponding to their mindset. Some religious leaders were also behind the release of movies for educational and preaching purposes, persuading the audience at large to convert to Christianity. The Great Commandment (Cathedral Films, 1939) told the story of two young people converting to Christianity under Jesus’s guidance. Irving Pichel’s Day of Triumph (Cathedral Films, 1954) recounts the life of Jesus in a flashback through Jesus’s apostles Andrew and Zadok.

Catholic and Protestant leaders were arranged in several organizations. The Catholic Legion of Decency and The Woman’s Temperance Union actively participated in establishing mechanisms of self-regulation in Hollywood studios. The cold confrontation between filmmakers and religious reformers resulted in multiple lawsuits and dissatisfaction on both sides. Hollywood studios also formed their own organization, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), in 1922 to help resist the badgering imposed from religious authorities.

Nevertheless, apart from producing their own religious movies, religious leaders, especially Catholics and Protestants, functioned as interest groups in Congress, and actively used their influence to create censorship codes, which regulated the substance of the American silver screen from the early 1930s to the late 1960s. The Motion Picture Production Code, also called Hays Code after to the name of its issuer, Senator Hays, was a censorship code governing the production of films. The code censored all films that would undermine the moral values of the audience. It dealt with three main areas: criminality, sex and profanity, and religion. The Production Code Administration would therefore not allow the release of a film until after consultation with the clergy to investigate the film’s adherence to the Code, and guarantee its credibility.

The Code stated that no film should satirize religion in all its forms and beliefs, and that religious figures should not be depicted either as clownish or as comical, but in a careful and honorable way. The Code also stipulated that films could not be released nor produced without the seal of the Production Code Administration. As a result, religious themes declined, and many movies shifted their focus from Jesus to other minor religious characters. They stopped dealing with issues like religious discrimination, religious conformity and conscience, or the relationship between religion, society, and science, tackling instead religious and social issues of no real worth.

The struggle against the religious authorities did affect the content of American movies. The representation of religion during the period over which Hays Code came into effect was effective consisted of stories that were not completely based on the Bible, but still drew from it certain minor characters, motifs, and themes. Films such as Angels with Dirty Faces (Warner Brothers, 1938), Brigham Young- Frontiersman (20th Century Fox, 1940), The Keys of The Kingdom (20th Century Fox, 1944) and Dead Man Walking (Polygram, 1955) focused on the clergy, minor religious problems and religious leaders, rather than on the fundamental differences between religions, or the defects of a certain religion.

The Hays Code came to an end in 1966, after a large number of scandals, indictments, and successful lawsuits by studios demanding the release of films that did not adhere to the code standards. In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of the studios in order to protect movies as free speech under the First Amendment, but replaced the code with an age rating system, which displayed the range of appropriate ages for which a movie was suitable.

In the 1990s, long after Code Hays had been abolished, and in a period marked by waves of immigrants to the United States, Hollywood filmmakers along with other independent directors turned their attention to the impact of outer religions on US religious culture. Movies like Martin Scorsese’s Kundun (Touchstone, 1997) and Jean Jacques Annaud’s Seven Years in Tibet (Mandalay, 1997) revolve around an encounter between East and West, between the “Other” and the “I,” and explore the experience in a rational and well-informed manner. Mira Nair’s Mississippi Nasala (Black River Production, 1991) and Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust (Kino International, 1991) investigate the gender, ethnic, and religious relationships within American society in a convoluted way, so much so that the audience is left questioning the state of interracial affairs and the complexity of religious diversity in the United States.

The Hays Code has been successfully eliminated, indeed. However, religious institutions have not given up. There is evidence that the tradition of using motion pictures to persuade people to convert can still be seen in American cinema. Donald D. Thompson’s A Thief in The Night (Mark IV Pictures, 1972), Robert Marcarelli’s The Omega Code (TBN Films, 1999), and Victor Sarin’s Left Behind: The Movie (Cloud Ten Pictures, 2000) might be considered biographical films about religious figures, and could be considered as religious educational programs, as they offer an innocuous understanding of Christianity. However, many films have enjoyed total freedom in criticizing religion, and in depicting religious characters without any moral or legal restriction. Movies like The Crucible (20th Century Fox, 1996) or Contact (Warner Brothers, 1997) clearly portrayed religion as being unable to prevail over science. The Crucible (20th Century Fox, 1996) showed how religion can be a source of social conflict and discrimination. Likewise, Contact (Warner Brothers, 1997) not only showed how religion can hamper the scientific development but also represented science and technology as the new religion of humanity.

Other movies have not so much focused on religion itself as on religious characters. Depicting them as immoral and hypocritical, such movies tend to bring to light, as a matter of a traditional cultural representation, the hypocrisy of the clergy as a crime and not a mere moral defect. Many movies have covered the hidden polygamy and child abuse perpetrated by Mormons, priests, and the clergy. The Boys of St. Vincent (National Film Board of Canada, 1992) is a docudrama that exposes the antagonisms of the Roman Catholic priests who fail to practice what they preach. It is based on real events, and unmasks the child abuse and scandals that occured in Mount Cashel Orphanage in St. John’s Newfoundland during the late 1980s through the 1990s.

Accordingly, the cinematic representation of religion has been highly affected by the cold clashes that arose between the religious authorities and filmmakers. However, despite the wrangling controversies that accompanied some of the critical, humorous, or supportive explorations of religion in American life, the interplay between the different religions in the United States and the American film industry, on the whole, has been distinguished by open-mindedness and responsiveness to critical explorations of religions. American cinema has not presented just one image of religion, but rather multiple representations, which derive from ideological, social, and political backgrounds.

References :

 Sloan, William David. Media and Religion in American History. Northport, AL: Vision Press, ed. 2000.

 Lears, T. J. Jackson.“From Salvation to Self-Realization: Advertising and the Therapeutic Ethos.” In The Culture of Consumption, edited by Richard Wightman Fox and T.J. Jackson Lears. New York : Pantheon Books. 1983.

 Greenhouse, Linda. “SUPERSTAR’ FILM RENEWS DISPUTES.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Aug. 1973, www.nytimes.com/1973/08/08/archives/superstar-film-renews-disputes-jewish-groups-say-opening-could-stir.html.

 Walsh, Frank. Sin and Censorship: The Catholic Church and the Motion Picture Industry. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press. 1996.

 Black, Gregory. Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. New York : Cambridge University Press. 1994.

 Kavanaugh, John F. Still Following Christ in Consumer Society. Maryknoll. NY: Orbis. 1991.

 Hulsether, Mark. “Sorting out the Relationship among Christian Values, U.S. Popular Religion, and Hollywood Films.” Religious Studies Reviews.

 Couvares, Francis G. Movie Censorship in American Culture. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. 1996.