(Possible spoilers). Borrowing a line from Roger Ebert, I hated, hated, hated this movie. I have seen over 2000 movies in my life and I think I may rank this one dead last. No matter what category you choose, this movie is an inferior product.
The acting is below the quality of most TV dramas. Never once did I believe in the characters as people rather than as actors being put through their paces. There is one scene where a young woman hugs her father with the same emotion as if she were hugging a telephone pole. The acting is so wooden that one is inclined to avert his eyes.
The special effects were primitive, even by 1950 standards. I was hoping to be entertained by the science fiction aspects of this movie, but being disappointed understates my reaction. The main event of the story is the rapture - where all the "good" people are simultaneously taken to heaven by Jesus. In fact the good people do disappear about a quarter of the way into the film, but not once do we get to see an actual disappearance. We just see clothes left behind. I always thought the idea was that people's souls ascended to heaven while the body was left behind. But in this movie it appears that Jesus wants naked bodies in heaven. Big opportunities were missed by not allowing us to see the immediate effects of people being yanked off the planet - cars crashing, planes going down, dishes clattering to the floor, surgeries stopped in mid-stream, nuclear power plants going unmanned, dogs unleashed on their walks, and so forth. We see none of this actually happening. At best we get shots of the aftermath, like a multi-car accident, or passengers in a plane trying to figure out what happened. All the interesting stuff is left out and all we see is some obviously staged after effect shots. The only reasons I can think of for this are either a lack of imagination or a limited budget.
The music is unremarkable - some generic rock music (a transparent attempt to appeal to a younger audience) and a few swelling crescendos to accompany the "experiencing the awe of God" scenes.
But the worst thing about this movie is the horrendous screenplay. The script could have been written in a way to engage us in honest thought as to what constitutes a good life - the ultimate moral question. But, judging from the people who are taken in the rapture in this movie, it seems that the only good people are the devout Christians and children. This does not seem to me to be realistic. For one thing, based on my recollections of childhood, I recall an amazing number of acts of undisguised meanness. Should all children be given a free pass to heaven? And most of the people left behind seemed like pretty decent sorts to me - I would liked to have had more information as to just why they were left behind. We are given no first-hand knowledge of the people who were taken, so it is hard to compare their qualifications for being taken with those who are left behind. And one has to question the beneficence of a God who would, through an act of supposed kindness, cause such chaos and grief on earth - a loving mother ripped from her family, children taken, planes crashing, cars crashing, communication broken down, and so forth.
The ultimate message seems to be: turn to the Bible, family, and God. Is this message something we have never heard before? It is hard to know who this movie is aimed at. I guess for Christians the sermon delivered here is an affirmation of their faith, but for non-Christians this is a sermon they have endured ad nauseam.
Give your money to your favorite charity, don't give it in support of such worthless nonsense as "Left Behind."
If this commentary can save one person from seeing this movie, then the time I have spent writing it will not have been spent in vain.
The acting is below the quality of most TV dramas. Never once did I believe in the characters as people rather than as actors being put through their paces. There is one scene where a young woman hugs her father with the same emotion as if she were hugging a telephone pole. The acting is so wooden that one is inclined to avert his eyes.
The special effects were primitive, even by 1950 standards. I was hoping to be entertained by the science fiction aspects of this movie, but being disappointed understates my reaction. The main event of the story is the rapture - where all the "good" people are simultaneously taken to heaven by Jesus. In fact the good people do disappear about a quarter of the way into the film, but not once do we get to see an actual disappearance. We just see clothes left behind. I always thought the idea was that people's souls ascended to heaven while the body was left behind. But in this movie it appears that Jesus wants naked bodies in heaven. Big opportunities were missed by not allowing us to see the immediate effects of people being yanked off the planet - cars crashing, planes going down, dishes clattering to the floor, surgeries stopped in mid-stream, nuclear power plants going unmanned, dogs unleashed on their walks, and so forth. We see none of this actually happening. At best we get shots of the aftermath, like a multi-car accident, or passengers in a plane trying to figure out what happened. All the interesting stuff is left out and all we see is some obviously staged after effect shots. The only reasons I can think of for this are either a lack of imagination or a limited budget.
The music is unremarkable - some generic rock music (a transparent attempt to appeal to a younger audience) and a few swelling crescendos to accompany the "experiencing the awe of God" scenes.
But the worst thing about this movie is the horrendous screenplay. The script could have been written in a way to engage us in honest thought as to what constitutes a good life - the ultimate moral question. But, judging from the people who are taken in the rapture in this movie, it seems that the only good people are the devout Christians and children. This does not seem to me to be realistic. For one thing, based on my recollections of childhood, I recall an amazing number of acts of undisguised meanness. Should all children be given a free pass to heaven? And most of the people left behind seemed like pretty decent sorts to me - I would liked to have had more information as to just why they were left behind. We are given no first-hand knowledge of the people who were taken, so it is hard to compare their qualifications for being taken with those who are left behind. And one has to question the beneficence of a God who would, through an act of supposed kindness, cause such chaos and grief on earth - a loving mother ripped from her family, children taken, planes crashing, cars crashing, communication broken down, and so forth.
The ultimate message seems to be: turn to the Bible, family, and God. Is this message something we have never heard before? It is hard to know who this movie is aimed at. I guess for Christians the sermon delivered here is an affirmation of their faith, but for non-Christians this is a sermon they have endured ad nauseam.
Give your money to your favorite charity, don't give it in support of such worthless nonsense as "Left Behind."
If this commentary can save one person from seeing this movie, then the time I have spent writing it will not have been spent in vain.