# Agnostic movies
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 13, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128 "2004-06-13T15:51:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)
#### Post date: [June 14, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/21 "2004-06-14T17:33:42Z")
**National Lampoon’s Animal House**. When that Playboy Bunny girl flew into that boy’s bedroom was it dumb luck or divine providence? Theologians are divided.
**E.T.** Did he just happen to come back to life, or did Gertie’s belief in him bring him back?
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/22 "2004-06-15T00:40:21Z")
I thinkm its pretty clear that the Wizard of Oz was a dream.
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### Author:  [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/23 "2004-06-15T01:28:35Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> Good one, although people tell me that in the book there is a more definitive answer. I need to read it.
In the book
five people went into the pod and had 18 hours of shared experiences, each seeing the “alien” as either one of their beloved dead relatives or a historical figure they revered, so it’s a bit harder to discredit their story than just Ellie Arroway’s. Not related to the thread, but in the book Palmer Joss [McConnaughey’s character in the movie) is middle-aged and not Ellie’s romantic interest- and Ellie wasn’t an orphan (only her “father” died- see book to explain quotation marks).
_Somewhere in Time_- Did Christopher Reeve really go back in time and make red hot Victorian monkey love with Jane Seymour, or was it a psychotic break?
_Barton Fink_ man what a terrible movie- but it fits this category.
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/24 "2004-06-15T01:55:23Z")
In [Household Saints](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107152/) the big question is . . .
[SPOILER]. . . is Teresa really a saint? Is she going crazy and suffering from delusions? Or does she really see Jesus and does he order her to continue in the Little Flower’s footsteps, showing her devotion to god and the Catholic faith through little acts of kindness?
There’s a definite _leaning_ in the movie that she really was touched by god, but there’s a lot of room for argument – is it her father’s guilt about his role in the death of his beloved and only daughter that leads him to believe that his daughter is holy? The smell of roses, the appearance of stigmata – are these all figments of his imagination and grief at Teresa’s unexpected death? His wife Catherine certainly tries to talk him out of it.
For that matter, did god move in mysterious ways to cause Joseph to win Catherine in the pinochle game? Was the spontaneous revival of the flowers at Joseph’s mother’s death a miracle or did Joseph really care for and replace those dead flowers?
Every “miraculous” event in that movie has a simple and ordinary explanation, which may just serve to drive the Little Flower’s message of devotion to god through little things all the further home, rather than take the miracle out the miraculous.
Oh, and I am in fact agnostic, so I’m not trying to further any faith’s message with this post.[/SPOILER]
Sorry for the ginormous spoiler. Excellent movie, especially if you like Vincent D’onofrio frequently dressed in wife-beaters. Rowrr.
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### Author:  [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/25 "2004-06-15T02:49:57Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> In the book (contact)
>
> five people went into the pod and had 18 hours of shared experiences, each seeing the “alien” as either one of their beloved dead relatives or a historical figure they revered, so it’s a bit harder to discredit their story than just Ellie Arroway’s. Not related to the thread, but in the book Palmer Joss [McConnaughey’s character in the movie) is middle-aged and not Ellie’s romantic interest- and Ellie wasn’t an orphan (only her “father” died- see book to explain quotation marks).
Not only that but :
The Alien gives her a clue that there is a message from God hidden in the digits of pi. After investigating, she finds a long sequence of 0’s and 1’s which when plotted as pixels draw a perfect circle. This indicates somehow that there is a point to the universe after all.
Ive not seen the movie, I don’t know if that was included or not. But this revelation shows she wasn’t imagining it or making it up.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/26 "2004-06-15T05:09:38Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> Hitchcock’s **Family Plot**. Is Barbara Harris clairvoyant? Her wink at the end leaves it open ended.
While Harris pretends to have fainted, she overhears William Devane tell Karen Black the hiding place of the diamond. You don’t really catch this until you’ve seen the picture a second time.
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### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/27 "2004-06-15T08:18:03Z")
> [@Sampiro](#):
>
> _Somewhere in Time_- Did Christopher Reeve really go back in time and make red hot Victorian monkey love with Jane Seymour, or was it a psychotic break?
Oh God, I need a psychotic break like that!
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/28 "2004-06-15T10:02:14Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> Ah, but how many people witnessed it?
IIRC, nobody - including Elwood Dowd.
> [@](#):
>
> Blair Witch, while containing some true menace, was not necessarily supernatural. We don’t know what it was.
You haven’t seen Curse of the Blair Witch, the documentary that set up the movie. In that it’s said that the tapes used to make the film were found buried in the ruins of Rustin Parr’s house in a condition such that they couldn’t have been disturbed in forty years or more. Also, the last scenes of the film take place in Parr’s house, which was burned to the ground in the early 50’s.
So while you’re right in that we don’t know exactly what did happen, there’s sufficient evidence that it’s supernatural.
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### Author:  [@Selkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Selkie)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/29 "2004-06-15T12:55:03Z")
Haven’t seen it since it was in theaters so the details are a bit blurry in my mind, but [Jacob’s Ladder](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099871/) might qualify.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/30 "2004-06-15T17:26:04Z")
> [@Evil Death](#):
>
> You haven’t seen Curse of the Blair Witch, the documentary that set up the movie. In that it’s said that the tapes used to make the film were found buried in the ruins of Rustin Parr’s house in a condition such that they couldn’t have been disturbed in forty years or more.
I’m confused here. They’re talking about videotapes or audio tapes? From the 1950s? Of whom?
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/31 "2004-06-15T18:47:22Z")
> [@Walloon](#):
>
> I’m confused here. They’re talking about videotapes or audio tapes? From the 1950s? Of whom?
\
The videotapes BWP was made from. The tapes of the characters who started out in the 90’s and disappeared. Not tapes from the 50’s, on account of their lack of VCRs and 8mm handhelds. Those tapes.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/32 "2004-06-15T19:00:32Z")
I still don’t get it. They found videotapes from the 1990s, and they hand’t been disturbed in more than 40 years — so they found them in the 2030s?
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/33 "2004-06-15T19:09:26Z")
I have the perfect title for you, though it’s way obscure and in the end not a very good movie.
_ **Mekhong Full Moon Party** _ is a Thai film, supposedly based on a real incident in which mysterious glowing spheres were emerging from a river on a religiously significant date. Scientists converged to analyze the phenomenon in terms of a rational, real-world cause; the local folk ascribed the display to the “naga,” big serpent gods in the river, and tried to make the scientists go away. The movie looks at the conflict between the two points of view, and in the end it leaves room for either explanation to be valid.
[My full writeup is here](http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15330). I really wish the movie had been better, because the theme is enormously interesting and worthwhile. It’s not a waste of time, and is worth tracking down for anybody interested in the subject, but it’s still ultimately sort of disappointing.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/34 "2004-06-15T19:34:45Z")
> [@Walloon](#):
>
> I still don’t get it. They found videotapes from the 1990s, and they hand’t been disturbed in more than 40 years — so they found them in the 2030s?
\
\
Two men and a girl go to the woods to make a film. They don’t come back from the woods, and are seen no more.
One year goes by. The film the men and the girl made is found in a burnt house, but the film has been there much more than one year. The film shows that the man and girl who made the film were killed in the burnt house before it was burnt, but the burnt house was burnt down long before they were born.
Got it?
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [June 15, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/35 "2004-06-15T20:03:21Z")
> [@Evil Death](#):
>
> Two men and a girl go to the woods to make a film. They don’t come back from the woods, and are seen no more.
>
> One year goes by. The film the men and the girl made is found in a burnt house, but the film has been there much more than one year. The film shows that the man and girl who made the film were killed in the burnt house before it was burnt, but the burnt house was burnt down long before they were born.
>
> Got it?
To simplify it even further, the tapes were buried 40 years before they were made. Hence the weirdness, creepiness, inexplicability, and putatively supernature of the witch.
But really, Parr’s house burned down? I saw the special, and read the website, and I don’t remember that.
But aside from that, the stand-alone movie remains pretty agnostic. About the only supernature therein is the colossally stupid inability of those kids to use a compass.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/36 "2004-06-16T00:39:52Z")
> [@tdn](#):
>
> But aside from that, the stand-alone movie remains pretty agnostic. About the only supernature therein is the colossally stupid inability of those kids to use a compass.
Or to follow the creek and downward slopes, which would naturally lead to a larger river or a settlement. That’s assuming natural laws apply, though. I got the strong impression that by the time they got lost, any way they travelled would lead them to where they wound up.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/37 "2004-06-16T00:44:38Z")
> [@Evil Death](#):
>
> The film shows that the man and girl who made the film were killed in the burnt house before it was burnt, but the burnt house was burnt down long before they were born.
Ya, that’s as clear as mud.
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### Author:  [@Tech\_Sass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tech_Sass)
#### Post date: [June 16, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/38 "2004-06-16T04:21:43Z")
There are a couple of movies that come to mind. One is “Troy” and the other is “Wicker Man”. In both cases there are strong beliefs in god(s) on the part of both of the opposing sides, and these beliefs affect the behavior of the main characters, but in neither case do they actually show up or do anything.
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/39 "2004-06-17T12:16:57Z")
> [@kellner](#):
>
> I think you could count [Unbreakable](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0217869/).
You do? I think it’s pretty clear that there are supernatural elements in that one. David “sees” what people are up to by touching them and knows what Elijah has done when they shake hands. His strength and endurance may be entirely natural, but his ESP is supernatural.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [June 17, 2004, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/agnostic-movies/250128/40 "2004-06-17T12:26:09Z")
> [@Walloon](#):
>
> Ya, that’s as clear as mud.
It’s really not all that difficult to understand.
The house was burnt down in the 40s. When the film makers arrive in 1994, their footage clearly shows them walking into the house, which is still standing. But how can this be? It was burnt down decades before. But their footage doesn’t lie. Could it be a creepy mystery? Ooh, maybe it’s witchcraft!
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