In the Arts, particularly in Hollywood cinema post-1964, there has been, and still is, hidden grammar, subliminal messaging, and propaganda used to shape the way moviegoers think.

The chances of a great pro-Christian screenplay being accepted by secular, contemporary producers in, Hollywood, or the UK, is rare if not impossible, as cinema (and the corporate West) has become politicised with Woke ideology.

However, God (Logos) is very much alive in movies, whether the secular producers, screenwriters, and directors want him out.

But there are serious consequences for peoples and nations that turn their backs on Logos. A few examples to consider: The West has never been in such a state of moral decay, but one factor for the build-up to the current state of chaos can be seen in cinema classics, not just in the USA, but also in European cinema, especially French Cinema, inspired by the Existential movement, and in German Cinema, a fallen country in spiritual ruins.

Over a decade ago, in July 2013, The Huffington Post ran a story with the headline, ‘Bestiality Brothels Are Taking Germany by Storm.’ Today, Church attendance is at an all-time low in that country. A country that gave us the excellently made movie in 1974, Fear Eats the Soul: A story about love, hate, lust, fornication, and adultery. Theology permeates nearly all movies.

Most of Alfred Hitchcock’s films are infused with murder, gilt, love, hate and the evils of infidelity. It’s been alleged that the Master of Suspense took Holy Communion before he died.

In other movies regarding life sometimes imitating art, in the film Niagara (1953), a young couple of newlyweds decide to visit the great waterfall for their honeymoon. While there, they meet an older couple plagued with a deluge of marital infidelity and financial problems.

Talking to the newlyweds who he meets, George (played by Joseph Cotton), says of the Falls: “Let me tell you something. You’re young, you’re in love. Well, I’ll give you a warning. Don’t let it get out of hand, like those falls out there. Up above… d’you ever see the river up above the falls? It’s calm, and easy, and you throw in a log, it just floats around. Let it move a little further down and it gets going faster… Why should the Falls drag me down at 5 o’clock in the morning? To me [to show me] how big they are and how small I am?”

It seems we cannot make it alone but need God.

The scene would’ve worked better without George spelling out the metaphor, but Hollywood probably included it for the benefit of the groundlings.

On a grander scale cinematically, it’s been said in some reviews of the movie The Godfather, that the classic film is an insightful sociological study of how the world works. Scenes of violence, power, corruption, murder, gilt, and other crimes in America permeate the plot, with the ‘honourable’ crime family serving as a metaphor for the way business is conducted in crony-capitalistic society, as well as political jungle.

With all this evil in the world, isn’t it odd that the enormous volume of highly artistic works—from movies, drama, literature, poetry to music—are invariably bleak but give us immense joy?

One wonders, regarding the Arts, are we better off living in a fallen world after all, as a perfect one without strife would lack in artistic excellence. But does a world with immense suffering justify moments of optimism through the transient pleasures of the arts, despite their dark themes? One cannot have great movies or plays without tragedy, or W.B. Yeats without “a terrible beauty being born”.

The German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) believed we live in the best of all possible worlds, despite the pain and injustice that exist. In fact, with the exception of George Berkeley and Leibniz, almost every philosopher from Plato to Wittgenstein leaned more towards pessimism in their outlook of life.

Even in the world of theatre, from the ancient Greeks to contemporary drama, tragedy plays a profound role in defining Western civilization, while evoking sadness and joy resulting in catharsis in audiences.

Think about it: besides theatre and cinema, all the TV soap opera dramas infused with misery paradoxically give millions of fans worldwide immense pleasure, and in many ways shape their minds; similarly, dark, melancholic paintings in the genre of Romanticism (‘The Death of Chatterton’) are far more stimulating than a Kitsch ‘Dogs Playing Poker’ by Cassius Coolidge.

But don’t take my word for the decadence and moral abominations in the West and beyond. The following Bible verses say it more eloquently than I, and in fewer words: ‘Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!’ (Isaiah 5:20). Most Hollywood movies (not all) and actors are guilty of all the above. But for how long, as it looks like AI will replace them all. It’s already shaping the minds of those easily influenced by the hypnotic power of mass ideology.

This article is an edited version from the Epilogue in Theology in Film: How Christian Themes Permeate Classic Movies (En Route Books), by Kenneth Francis.