In no particular order, other than alphabetical, here is the pool of Christian films I’ll be looking at for the coming Easter holiday countdown. You have no idea how helpful it was to receive suggestions via email, Twitter, and in the comments. I’m embarrassed to admit how many of these great films I might have otherwise overlooked. Not everything nominated by everyone is on this list of nominees. But the only titles I removed were films that I didn’t think qualified as a Christian film for the purposes of this particular countdown.

So here’s your last chance to make your case and change my mind, or to fire off something else that might have been overlooked. I intend to view all of these over the coming weeks. In the end, the ranking will be one that reflects my personal opinion, but within that context, I do intend to be exhaustive. I’ll also try to explain why some didn’t make the cut as the countdown rolls on.

A Man Called Peter
A Man for All Seasons
A Prayer for the Dying
Agony and the Ecstasy, the
Amazing Grace
Andrei Rublev
Angels With Dirty Faces
Apostle, The
Au Hasard Balthazar
Babette’s Feast
Bad Lieutenant
Barabbas
Becket
Bella
Ben-Hur (both versions)
Bishop’s Wife
Black Narcissus
Blind Side, The
Book of Eli, The
Boy’s Town
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
Bruce Almighty
Cardinal, The
Chariots of Fire
Come to the Stable
Day of Wrath
Dead Man Walking
Decalogue
Defending Your Life

Devil’s Advocate
Diary of a Country Priest
Dogma
Dracula 2000
El Cid
Elmer Gantry
Exorcism of Emily Rose
Exorcist
Facing the Giants
Fireproof
Flowers of St. Francis
Friendly Persuasion
Fugitive (John Ford)
Ghost Rider
Godspell
Going My Way
Gospel According to St. Matthew
Greatest Story Ever Told
Guys and Dolls
Heaven Can Wait
Heaven Knows Mr. Allison
I Confess
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Inn of the Sixth Happiness
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus of Montreal
Jesus of Nazareth
Keys of the Kingdom
King of Kings (both versions)
Knowing, The
Last Sin Eater, The
Last Temptation of Christ, The
Letters to God
Life of Brian, The
Lilies of the Field
Luther
Magnolia
Messenger, The
Michael
Midnight Clear
Millions
Miracle of Marcelino
Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima
Mission, The
Molokai
Nativity, The
Next Voice you Hear, The
Night of the Hunter, The
Ninth Configuration
Nun’s Story
Oh, God!
Omen, The
One Foot in Heaven
Ostrov
Passion of the Christ, The
Places in the Heart
Priest
Prince of Egypt
Purgatory
Quo Vadis
Rapture, the
Road, The
Robe, The
Rookie, The
Sacrifice, The
Scarlet and the Black
Sergeant York
Shadowlands
Shoes of the Fisherman
Sign of the Cross
Signs
Silver Chalice
Song of Bernadette
Sound of Music
Stalker
Story of Ruth
Straight Story
Ten Commandments (both version)
Tender Mercies
Therese
Three Godfathers
End Tip of the Spear
To Save a Life
Viridiana
Wing’s of Desire
Winter Light
Witness

Simply put, I need your help through a nomination process.

As has always been the case with every single one of these lists, you the commenters are what make all the work involved in such an endeavor worthwhile. You’re also invaluable when it comes to jogging my notoriously bad memory about deserving films I might have otherwise forgotten or may not have yet seen. So please continue that tradition in the comments section here. The more titles you name, the more comprehensive the final list will be. With almost a couple months to go, there’s plenty of time for me to see and contemplate everything.

A few guidelines: These films should be openly Christian. I’m not interested in allegory or even subtlety. “Lord of the Rings” and “Narnia” are terrific, but once the floodgates open to that kind of thing it becomes impossible to draw any kind of line. But that doesn’t mean that the list will only include Biblical epics. There are plenty of mainstream movies, even dark and thematically complicated ones, where a Christian God is central or at least important to the story. Please feel free to nominate any of those and please feel free to nominate entries critical of the Christian faith. There’s nothing wrong with a smart, well-made, respectful story that forces us to think. Also, as far as the photo above, the Old Testament is an important part of our faith and anything in that arena should and will be considered.

Finally, please keep in mind that I’m no theologian. Far from it and will never pretend to be. Hell, if you’ve ever read my Twitter feed you know I’m not even a very good Christian.  All I’m going to do here is express my love for 25 films from the position of an everyday movie fanatic who also happens to love him some Jesus. To aspire to anything more would only expose my ignorance, and I do that enough already.

P.S. I know there were a ton of requests for a Top 25 Conservative Movie countdown. Someday I would like to try something like that but enough time would have to pass so that my work wouldn’t pale in comparison to this excellent compilation put together by John J. Miller at National Review just a couple of years ago.

He told me about a dream that he’s had for thirty years.  That dream, he stated, was “to use motion pictures to get [a] message out.” That message, he added, is that “God is real and you can have a relationship with him.” His movie, which I recently had the chance to view, certainly does that. It’s open about its Christian message, a message that might not have reached moviegoers just a few years ago before Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” changed everything. Today, Nixon told me, studios are more interested in films that appeal to the faith community and “Letters to God” will likely very much appeal to that large demographic. (To learn more about the marketing for this film, make sure to check out Christian Toto’s BH interview with Mr. Nixon.)

“Letters to God” tells the story of Tyler Doherty, a young boy fighting cancer. As he struggles against the disease, he sends letters to God about what he and his family are going through. He also inspires his friends and family even though he’s the one physically suffering. It’s a sad story with a positive message about faith and Christianity.

Unlike some other Christian films, “Letters” is inspired by a true story. Patrick Doughtie, whose own son fought cancer, helped write the screenplay. In his interview, Nixon told me that the “reason we’re making the movie is [as] a tribute to Tyler.” Nixon also said he wanted the film to be more than just a story inspired by true events, he “wanted this to be a real story, [and have the viewers] relate to the characters and believe in the characters.”  

In order to do that, Nixon looked for quality actors and actresses. “It’s all about the casting,” he said and added that it was “amazing that he could get this caliber of actors,” which included such well-known faces as Ralph Waite, one of the stars of the massively successful television drama “The Waltons.” There are also a number of young up and comers such as Michael Bolten, Bailee Madison, and Tanner Maguire — who plays the lead character.

As I noted above, Nixon told me that he does not want to make movies without a message. Fortunately for the audience, he is ready and willing to spread a message of hope and faith though motion pictures and “Letters to God” is only his latest film. Nixon is currently working on two others which should start filming this summer. One of them is another true story and the other is a family comedy.

Until then, “Letters to God” is in theatres everywhere tomorrow.

These trends beg a few questions. What took Hollywood so long to discover the Christian market? Why can’t they replicate even half the success of “The Passion?” And when Christians make up over half the population, why are faith-based films still relegated to the low-budget, straight to DVD world? The seemingly obvious answer would be that there are few Christians in Hollywood, both at the studio and creative level, but even that would raise the question of why.

I think I know the reason(s), although it’s a bit embarrassing because I happen to be a Christian evangelical. But we must face the truth, and as Dr. Phil so eloquently and charmingly puts it, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.” The fact is, Christian movies have been pretty bad for a few decades. Yes, Hollywood had largely ignored the Christian market, but it’s not like there have been good examples for Hollywood to learn from. And now that Hollywood is actively seeking faith-based material, there’s still a lack of quality scripts and filmmakers available, with a few exceptions, and among the films that are being made in this genre, there are still more crappy ones than good ones.

There are plenty of reasons for this, but four stand out, in no particular order:

1. The Christian community abandoned Hollywood a few decades ago. Until 1968, the Catholic Church had a direct influence on what Hollywood produced with the “Production Code.” After the code was abandoned and movies became more risque, American Christians became disenfranchised with Hollywood. Over time, the distance between Hollywood and the church became greater, especially as many artists made movies that mocked or attacked the church or its traditions. Instead of trying to influence Hollywood by becoming a part of it, Christians avoided it and told their children to do the same. The only time that Hollywood heard from Christians was when boycotts occurred.

2. Even though Christians didn’t want to see evil Hollywood films or listen to evil secular music, they still wanted to see movies and listen to music like everyone else. So what were they to do if the acceptable choices from Hollywood were so few and far between? They created a Christian entertainment subculture, where Christian movies and music were made by Christians, for Christians. Christian bookstores exploded, as families could feel safe shopping in an environment where the only entertainment available was Christian-based. Now Christians had no need to communicate to Hollywood what they wanted because they could get it from Christian media providers, and the relationship between Hollywood and the Christian community became even more distant. Combine the cynicism of Christians towards Hollywood with the annoyance or ignorance of Hollywood towards Christians, and you’ve got the perfect divorce.

3. In “Christian film,” you’ve got a genre defined entirely by its message. There is nothing else like this in entertainment, other than perhaps “gay films,” but because there are so many more gay people in Hollywood than Christians, gay characters show up in mainstream films more than Christian characters do, thereby reducing the need or desire for films devoted exclusively to a gay theme. This has not happened with Christianity in film, so the “Christian film” sub-genre remains alive and growing.

The problem is that everyone knows good art should always put story and character above message. Message films are rarely exciting. So by their very nature, most Christian films aren’t going to be very good because they have to fall within certain message-based parameters. And because the Christian audience is so glad to get a “safe, redeeming, faith-based message,” even at the expense of great art, they don’t demand higher artistic standards. So aspiring filmmakers who are Christians have little need to perfect their craft, and Christian investors have little need to spend a lot of money because the message is going to be most important anyway. Add in the fact that the average heartland Christian couldn’t care less what a critic thinks–if anything, they assume they’ll feel the opposite of a movie critic–and you’ve got even less incentive for Christian filmmakers to be obsessed with quality.

To be fair, this trend isn’t exclusive to Christian entertainment. Horror films are similar in that they don’t need good reviews or higher budgets to deliver the goods to their core audience. And of course, in no genre is this more the case than porn. Even Christian movies are higher quality than porn films. Not that I would know.

4. The above points all lead to one predominant problem: young Christians aren’t encouraged or trained to become great artists. If a young Christian wants to become a filmmaker, they are often either discouraged to do so because Hollywood is so dangerous, or if they do find encouragement, they have a hard time getting proper training. There are two primary things that can foster someone becoming a better artist: one, seeing and being inspired by hundreds of great films, and two, getting a great artistic education. For better or worse, many parents won’t allow their kids to see some of the great films (because of questionable content), and many Christian kids are discouraged from attending the best film schools (also because of questionable content). This not only impacts potential filmmakers, but actors as well.

Therefore, when Hollywood starts to pursue more faith-based films and filmmakers (which they have), they find the cupboard bare. So even if and when they decide to make a faith-based film, they have a hard time finding great Christian filmmakers or actors, which affects both the film and the publicity. A name actor in an action or comic book film is willing to go to Comic-con to promote their film to film buffs and nerds; they know they need to go where the core fans are. This publicity is necessary of course. But if they starred in a faith-based or Biblical film, are they going to go to a church or a Christian convention to promote it to the core fans? Not likely.

Yes, it’s true that Hollywood should do a better job of understanding and relating to the heartland Christian audience. But at some point the Christian community needs to know its role in the problem. I’m talking to myself here, too. I’m a Christian, I’m a filmmaker. I’ve made a few films, and they were pretty good, but they weren’t good enough. I’ve got to get better. We can complain all we want about how Hollywood doesn’t reflect our values, but we lose that right if we’re not producing great projects and artists of our own.

They adjusted their marketing plan.

This was before the Left Behind movies sold a few million DVD’s and The Passion of the Christ opened to over $100 million despite being set 2000 years ago in a dead language. Now every studio in Hollywood is looking for “faith-based” projects, especially because this year’s highest-grossing independent film was Fireproof, produced by a church for about $700,000 and which grossed over $30 million. Several studios even have faith-based divisions.

So has Hollywood found religion? Hardly. While it’s certainly a good thing that the studios are finally aware that Christians exist, they still don’t understand them, nor do they really want to try very hard. To be fair, Christians as a whole don’t exactly make things easy for Hollywood, as usually the only time that Hollywood hears from the Christian community is when they complain about or boycott their product. But that’s also been true of other people groups such as blacks, gays, and lobbyists for various nationalities or causes, and Hollywood has spent considerable effort to understand them while the media has done countless stories on the lack of accurately portrayed minorities.

But if there are faith-based divisions in Hollywood, what’s the problem? The problem is the divisions themselves; they are set up to acquire already financed or partially financed films from independent Christian producers and spend as little money as possible. They will occasionally bring in a Christian publicity firm to drum up some grass roots support, but the primary strategy is to release a film cheaply and hope the core Christian audience shows up. If they do, they make a killing; if they don’t, no harm done because so little was spent in the first place.

Once in a blue moon (full disclosure—I don’t know what that means), a studio will release a big budget film that’s story was generated from the Christian community, such as Chronicles of Narnia, or…um, I can’t really think of another one. Maybe The Nativity Story, but that was a half-hearted and boring attempt to capitalize on the Passion craze. But even in the case of Narnia, they chose a film that was safe and wouldn’t feel like a faith-based film to mainstream audiences, so as not to risk turning anyone off. When Sony Universal released Brokeback Mountain, they didn’t shy away from a few explicit gay sex scenes, as that would have been compromising; one wonders if they would extend the same treatment to explicit prayer or churchy scenes in a faith-based film that had a budget above $5 million.

So the faith-based film spectrum includes explicitly churchy cheap movies on one end, safe and moderate expensive movies (albeit very few) on the other. There is no in between. Movies like Chariots of Fire, The Mission, The Apostle, or A Walk to Remember, quality films of subtle power that address in an explicit and accurate way the issues of faith that most Americans experience, just aren’t made anymore. If these films were pitched to a studio today, they would either be shuffled to the faith division, dumbed down, and made for $2 million with no stars, or they would be beefed up and done expensively but have all the faith stuff thinned out. The Mission would be called The Journey, and it wouldn’t be about a missionary preaching to a third world tribe, it would be about an environmentalist preaching to a wrong-intentioned missionary.

The result? The majority of Americans miss out on films that reflect a large segment of the populace and an important part of our life experience. 90% of Americans believe in God, but how often do we see Him discussed in a mainstream film? Over half the country goes to church on a regular basis, but how often do we see church or clergy in a mainstream film? Or any Christians at all for that matter? Most Americans pray; have you seen prayer on screen in awhile?

There’s no question that Christians need to do a better job of making films and becoming world-class filmmakers who will deserve the ear of Hollywood executives. But even when we do, we often face the fate of famous screenwriter Joe Eszterhas, who recently became a Christian and is desperate to make a faith-based film. He pitched a script that executives thought was brilliant, but they didn’t want to make a “Christian film” unless it was cheap. The quality of the film matters less than which category they can fit it in to. In a vacuum, this isn’t abnormal or bad, as all entertainment is usually about marketing and finding categories. The problem in this case is that neither category is a good one.