Faith is a rising movie star

This past year was an extraordinary one for religion in film because:

• A film about the last hours of Jesus made in two dead languages — Aramaic and Latin — was the third-highest-grossing movie of 2004.

• Religious filmmakers broke traditional artistic boundaries to tell their stories in R-rated movies that pushed the Jesus-film envelope in depictions of violence, drug use and sexuality.

• In some markets, filmgoers could walk into a commercial movie theater this past year and view a retelling of the Passion by a major Hollywood filmmaker, a drama centered on an evangelical revival, and biographies of the Catholic saint Thérèse of Lisieux and the Islamic prophet Mohammed.

With the Hollywood Hills alive with the sound of box-office registers ringing to the tune of $370 million for "The Passion of The Christ" in domestic release alone, many people expect to see a lot more movies with explicit religious themes in 2005.

SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL Traditional religion also came under attack in 2004 films, such as "Saved!," a satire of religious hypocrisy.

"These films are popular, and they're meeting a very real need," said Harry Forbes, director of the Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which rated "The Passion" as one of the past year's top 20 picks. "Certainly 'The Passion' seems to be a blazing affirmation of the public wanting this kind of movie fare."

The 2004 movies raised numerous concerns — that "The Passion" would promote anti-Semitism, that the films would be either too reverent or not reverent enough, and that religious movies would have no staying power at the box office. Yet one point of consensus emerged: The movies got people talking in Los Angeles and around the country about questions of art and faith.

In a poll of religion writers, "The Passion" tied with the issue of faith and politics in the national election as the top religion story of 2004. The movie is already the subject of several books and was debated in settings from church basements to the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.

"This is provocative. This provokes us. This forces us to be thoughtful," said Nelson Vos, executive director of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture.

The film portrayals might not always be pretty, he said, but they give people an opportunity to "relook at who we are and what we believe."

Any look back at religion and film in 2004 has to begin with Mel Gibson's "The Passion." The biblical picture was ignored by the major studios, starred lesser-known actors and was dismissed early as Mel's folly. But massive amounts of publicity speculating on the depictions of its Jewish characters and a get-out-the-moviegoers campaign in evangelical churches led to a $117 million gross in the movie's first five days, then the second-highest take ever for a Wednesday release. The film, released on DVD on Aug. 31, has a worldwide box office of more than $600 million and counting.

Even though "The Passion" was passed over by the Golden Globes, its breakout box-office success was an important affirmation in the marketplace, said William Blizek, editor of the journal Religion and Film at the University of Nebraska, Omaha.

One immediate beneficiary of Gibson's groundbreaking effort was the television evangelist T.D. Jakes, who promoted the movie "Woman, Thou Art Loosed," based on his best-selling book, in private showings for pastors across the country.

The gritty screen adaptation included scenes of child rape, drug use, domestic violence and murder in telling the story of a young woman searching for hope after a lifetime of abuse, poverty and addiction. His pitch was that while "The Passion" told how Jesus was crucified, his film told why Jesus was crucified, to offer hope to people suffering today.

The low-budget film has taken in $7 million thus far.

Evangelicals were not the only group to emerge in the breakout year for religion and film. "Thérèse," a film about the life of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and the animated film "Mohammed: The Last Prophet" also drew audiences.

Traditional religion also came under attack in films, such as "Saved!," a satire of religious hypocrisy.

Blizek predicted that 2005 could be even more interesting. One of the more anticipated films expected to be shot this year is Ron Howard's adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," a fictional thriller challenging beliefs in Jesus' divinity and celibacy and imagining a vast political and religious conspiracy behind biblical texts.

But there is an expectation filmgoers also will see more religious films.

"If this is making money, you've got to figure lots of people are going to be making movies of this sort," Blizek said.