Hollywood's faith in religious films
The Bible miniseries finished this Easter with the grand finale of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. Overall it drew more than 30 million viewers, the History Channel’s largest-ever audience. It’s considered a triumph for “in your face” faith films. With a possible sequel (and the current batch of Bible-based films currently in production), The Bible may represent a modern resurrection of Bible-oriented cinema.
The fervent desire to place the Bible on film dates to the very beginning of the Hollywood industry. In fact, the inventor of reel-to-reel film was an Episcopalian minister, Hannibal Goodwin. He wanted to make the Bible come alive and thus keep the attention of children for religious instruction. But Thomas Edison’s stereopticon—an early film projector—was dangerous to children because the glass slides broke easily. Concern for safety and hopes for religious instruction motivated Goodwin’s invention of celluloid, the core technology that sustains the distribution and presentation of film today.
From then on, a visionary group of pastors, missionaries and denominational leaders were among the earliest advocates for the use of film. Religious films depicting the events of Christ’s passion were produced as early as 1897, and by 1900 churches were exhibiting motion pictures not only for their own congregations but also for the broader community. Clergy wanted to keep immoral films away from the public—but also to generate and promote films that highlighted the values and beliefs that they treasured.
