The God Who Wasn't There : The Movie that Wasn't There

Show All Rants

Everett reviews this film by Brian Flemming

I just watched The God Who Wasn't There, and I must conclude that it is the documentary that wasn't there. According to Newsweek, "Flemming irreverantly lays out the case that Jesus never existed," but the statement is incorrect: the film is definitely irreverent and provocative... but Flemming never seemed to get around to laying out much of a case for anything. He was simply emotional and provacative, but throwing a tantrum hardly makes a documentary.

In the same way that Flemming accuses Christianity of having gaping holes and a lack of supporting evidence, the film's arguments are ultimately lacking and without sufficient supporting evidence, which is unfortunate, because Flemming was venturing into fascinating territory that could have proven interesting for Christians and non-Christians alike.

The Good:

The film raises some salient points about the horrible things that Christians have done. He touches on the horrors of the Inquisition, the hateful rantings of Pat Robertson and other deranged evangelicals, and the stubborn ignorance of the Catholic's church's edicts (e.g. that the sun revolves around the Earth). He challenges the absurdity of the Creationism vs. Evolution debate. He brings up the excellent point that Jesus fits the description of a mythical hero of his time period precisely -- his father was [a] god, he is portrayed as a child prodigy, born of a virgin on (or around) December 25th, stars appeared/aligned at his birth... Indeed, Dionysis, Mithras, Attis, and Osiris had similar tales circulating about them.

Flemming details the fantastical gory nature of Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ" and carefully notes how financailly successful the film was. He concludes that Christians have always loved blood and violence -- and according to him, their whole religion is founded on it.

Flemming later points out what could be a bombshell Bible verse: Hebrews 8:4 -- "If Jesus had been on earth, he would not even have been a priest." This movie does get you thinking (to a point), and the soundtrack was pretty good. But...

The Bad:

I'm very skeptical of film-makers who are too eager to get in front of the camera; it smacks of so much ego and vanity. To that end, Flemming was constantly jumping in front of the camera so the audience could know exactly how he felt about the issue.

Compare this immature tactic to the more mature documentary, "Jesus Camp," where not only did the film- makers never appear in front of the camera, they didn't even use a narrator. They merely showed everything coming from the horse's mouth, and that tactic would have served Flemming well.

One ego-riddled scene ended with a animation of the person being interviewed morphing into Brian Flemming, just to bring home the fact that he "used to be just like them." I was reminded of insecure teen-agers, meticulously dressing like everyone else so that everyone at school would know how original they are.

The final scene was at Flemming's former Christian school. He lured the head master of this school into an interview on false pretenses, but when the interview was declared over, Flemming felt it necessary to head over to the school's chapel and turn the camera on himself yet again while he renounced the Holy Spirit in an uncomfortable climax of what can only be called "theological masturbation."

The Conculsion:

Flemming is obviously still a victim of his past. He is a theological teenager, rebelling against his former beliefs as a fundamentalist Christian. There is SO MUCH that Flemming could have talked about with this film! He had so many legitimate oppurtunities to really wrestle with these issues, but he repeatedly failed. The film is only an hour long, which is too short for a detailed story, but too long for the kind of vain self-gratification Flemming dished up.

The poor film-making aside, Brian Flemming does have a point: it would be difficult to prove that Jesus actually existed. There is virtually no evidence outside the Bible, and many passages in the Bible seem to indicate that he was more of an allegorical hero. However, Flemming should remember that it would be nearly impossible to disprove his existence, either, and making a film so poorly will only strengthen the convictions of believers.

The one redeeming feature of this DVD is its extended interviews. Since Flemming is too busy venting emotions on and off the camera, the viewer is more or less left to find the footnotes and sources for his outrageous claims on their own. Flemming did manage to interview some highly intelligent people who actually had detailed arguments to support their views.

During the actual film, you only get brief fragments of these, so the interviews are a godsend (no pun intended). Instead of buying this movie, I'd recommend looking into Sam Harris' book "The End of Faith." It's far more intelligent, it's not childishly emotional, and it's better researched.