In the 20th century, seekers sought books as their portable pastors, building a library of best-selling balm by the likes of Deepak Chopra and the Dalai Lama, M. Scott Peck and Rabbi Harold Kushner, Marianne Williamson and Norman Vincent Peale.
Movie studio photo
“Celestine Prophecy” is one several films that are part of an uptick in spiritually themed movies.
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Now, movies are emerging as the scattered sanctuaries for folks who see themselves as more spiritual than religious.
From home theaters to local movie houses, interest in spiritually themed films is experiencing a “huge upswell,” as one observer puts it.
Check out the showtime listings and you're likely to see New Age-laced flicks like “The Celestine Prophecy” and “Peaceful Warrior” on the same page as the animated adventure “Over the Hedge” and the upside-down adventure “Poseidon.”
“I think people are seeking more meaning in life, more purpose, more direction,” says Dan Millman, author of the 1980s classic, “Way of the Peaceful Warrior.” The movie version of the book, a semi-autobiography about a college gymnast (played by Scott Mechlowicz) who meets a mysterious guru figure (Nick Nolte), debuted in theaters last weekend.
Millman sees “Peaceful Warrior” as tapping into an audience weary of the R-rated mayhem of exploding special effects and thundering surround sound.
“I think there's a deep, absolutely deep, well in most of us wanting something positive and real that reminds us about our lives and the possibilities,” says Millman, a Northern California resident who describes his self-help programs as essentially nudging people to realize what they already know. He adds, “I'm like the a yellow highlighter in the book of life.”
Unlike religious movies with a particular theology, spiritually themed movies have broad, usually uplifting messages about the meaning of life, being better people and the power of the human spirit. But they aren't necessarily in conflict with religion. As Millman puts it, spiritual films illuminate principles “that will help people be better Christians, better Jews, better Muslims, better Taoists and Buddhists.”
“Peaceful Warrior”
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Tracy Callaway welcomes the new movies. “The spiritual films are like, 'Hey, there's more out there,' ” says Callaway, who works at Indigo Village, an Encinitas center that offers classes ranging from naturopathic health care to family coaching.
Callaway saw “Peaceful Warrior” and was impressed. “It was like being in one of our personal growth courses,” she says. “I loved it.”
Two years ago, after walking out of a few too many violent movies, self-help author Gay Hendricks co-founded a DVD-of-the-month club dedicated to distributing films with uplifting themes.
“Conversations With God”
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“There were these tremendously wonderful movies out there that were great, heartful, mindful movies – but nobody was getting a chance to see them,” says Hendricks, who started Spiritual Cinema Circle with his wife, Kathlyn, and movie producer Stephen Simon (“What Dreams May Come,” “Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure,” and “Somewhere in Time”).
Today, this Netflix for the soul has more than 200 movie groups across the country – including San Diego – and an estimated 25,000 subscribers who get the monthly movie selections in the mail.
It gleans offerings from film festivals, independent productions and other venues. Among past selections: “Gabrielle,” a short movie that asks the question, “What if, between lives, we had the ability to choose our next life?” and “Changing Hearts,” starring Faye Dunaway and featuring a “poignant story about coping” and “the resilience of the human spirit.”
“American Beauty”
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In some cases, people watch the films in the inner sanctum of their home. Others have started groups to watch and discuss the movies.
It's all part of a reflection of a growing movement of spiritually curious seekers who are coming of age outside the pews.
“A lot of people are waking up to a more universal spirit inside themselves,” says Hendricks, who lives in Ojai in Ventura County. “I think it's a natural progression. As more and more people begin to think about themselves and be aware of the world around them, they're going to naturally discover a kind of organic spirituality inside themselves. And people want to see more movies where that kind of thing is celebrated.”
In the beginning
Even before moving pictures had sound, they had religion.
Beginning in the 1920s, with the silent “The King of Kings,” filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille created a steady stream of epics that cast God as a central character. Thanks to DeMille, and the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments,” generations of Americans believe that Moses looks like Charlton Heston.
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“The Green Mile.” Both “Mile” and “Beauty,” along with others in 1999, had spiritual
underpinnings – perhaps forecasting this latest, more overt trend.
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The next decades would see a more cynical treatment of religion, from Burt Lancaster's portrayal of the huckster-turned-preacher in “Elmer Gantry” in 1960 to Martin Scorsese's controversial “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1988. More recently, religious films have had a mix of themes – from the devout treatment of “The Passion of the Christ” to the church-bashing conspiracy of “The Da Vinci Code.”
But this new genre of movies plays more to a general spirit than a denominational one.
“People really get turned off by the dogma, the rules, the restrictions of the church experience,” says Fallbrook resident and spiritual film fan Linda Anguiano. “It interferes with their connection with God.”
She thinks movies offer a safe place to explore your spirituality. “You don't have to make a commit that you're going to join or take Communion or go to confession or tithe or volunteer.”
Anguiano, who attends Seaside Center for Spiritual Living in Encinitas, where she hopes to organize a film series in July, credits other factors for the newfound popularity. “I think that people who are making films are maturing,” she offers. “They're seeing that what they used to produce or direct isn't satisfying to them. It doesn't touch their souls.”
Robert Johnston, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and author of “Reel Spirituality,” began to notice an uptick in the late '90s of movies with particular underpinnings about life and death, values and beliefs.
“In 1999, there were a large number of spiritually themed movies and some thought that was simply a millennial blimp,” Johnston says, citing such works as “American Beauty,” “Magnolia” and “The Green Mile.” “But in fact I think it signaled our move from the sterility of modernity to the recognition that life had to have more depth and thickness.”
More to come
Three years ago, when “The Matrix Reloaded,” sequel to “The Matrix,” was the talk of audiences, Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly delved into the Christian and Buddhist imagery in the futuristic series.
“One of the things that's really interesting about the film, as well as the first film, is how much we see a mix of East and West philosophies coming together,” Lynn Schofield Clark, a religion and pop culture expert at the University of Colorado, told the Public Television news magazine. This multi-path highway to heaven, she added, is particularly appealing to young people.
Johnston, the Fuller Seminary professor, suggests that this year's entry of more obviously spiritual movies is evidence that the trend is maturing. “There has been simply a huge upswell of interest as we move from late modernity to post modernity,” he adds.
Capitalism also can't be discounted. After all, “Celestine Prophecy” and “Peaceful Warrior” were based on books that sold millions of copies.
Anguiano, the Fallbrook resident, is optimistic about the future of the movement. “I think there's going to be more audience, more encouragement, more acceptance. This is just the beginning,” she says. “This is like the tip of the iceberg.”
This fall, Spiritual Cinema Circle is planning to debut its first original production, based on the book “Conversations With God.” The movie stars Henry Czerny as “Conversations” author Neale Donald Walsch.
The bottom line, however, is likely to be box office receipts.
So far, the news could be better. Despite reportedly popular preview screenings earlier this year in selected “new thought” congregations, “Celestine Prophecy” came out near the bottom of the heap when it was released in theaters.
After six weeks, the film had grossed a paltry $260,000. By comparison, “Mission: Impossible III” grossed $48 million on its opening weekend. On the other hand, “Prophecy” was only in a fraction of the number of theaters that showed “MBIII.”
“Peaceful Warrior” opened last weekend in a limited release of 10 venues, including San Diego, and had what analysts called a “solid” showing with an estimated $77,000. But it was no match for the likes of the romantic comedy, “The Break-Up,” which grossed $38 million in its opening weekend.
It looks like reel spirituality, to borrow from Johnstone's book title, has some real work ahead of it.
