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The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2014

The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2014

Last updated on: January 5, 2015 at 4:49 pm by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

The Most Spiritually Literate Films of 2014 2015-01-05T16:49:40-05:00 Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

One way we practice our spirituality in everyday life is to go to the movies. As film reviewers for SpiritualityandPractice.com, we review 300 films a year, always looking for how the stories and the characters illustrate spiritual qualities and practices. At the end of the year, we choose the 45 “Most Spiritually Literate Films” of the year in five categories.

Every time we head out to a screening (or catch a film on DVD or streaming) we make an intention to be open to its potential transformative powers. In 2014 we noticed common themes in many of our choices: they inspire us to both to love and to act heroically.

Boyhood

IFC Films

We were swept away by Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, a nearly three-hour film probing the childhood of an East Texas boy from elementary school through his arrival at college. Boyhood inspires us with its tantalizing invitation to loosen up, look around, and master the art of improvisation.

Love Stories

• Belle is an old-fashioned costume drama that won us over with its truly delirious love story. These other films moved us to go for romance, commitment, and new adventures in our intimate relationships:

Belle

Fox Searchlight Pictures

• Only Lovers Left Alive featuring a vampire couple who have mastered the art of romance;

• Love Is Strange about an elderly gay couple who have to be resilient after they lose their New York City apartment;

• The Fault in Our Stars, a heart-rending love story about two adolescents battling cancer;

• Begin Again, a touching love story about the soulful coming together of a couple who let music pull them through their troubles;

• Lunch Box, a drama set in India about the unusual way that a yearning and lonely man meets a wife whose husband ignores her;

• The Theory of Everything, which covers the 25-year love affair between Stephen Hawking and his first wife, who became his caregiver providing him with shelter in the storms of his life.

Movies about Heroes

In these times of worldwide distress, we feel the need more than ever for heroes with spiritual qualities that can inspire us to service. 2014 has provided us with an impressive batch of dramas that give us hope, open our hearts and minds to fresh possibilities, and lift our spirits. We were moved by:

• Selma, which celebrates the moral leadership of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who showed us how nonviolent action can effect social change;

Selma

Paramount Pictures

• Cesar Chavez, a stirring portrait of the great Latino leader who expended himself in pursuit of justice for migrant farm workers while espousing the ethic of nonviolence;

• Still Alice about the courage of world famous linguistic professor who finds herself in a battle with early onset Alzheimer’s;

• Citizenfour, an incredibly important documentary about the whistleblower Edward Snowden who revealed the concerted attacks on the privacy of citizens by governments and intelligence-gathering agencies;

• Kill the Messenger, which is based on the true story of an investigative journalist who broke an important story on governmental corruption and unethical behavior of the CIA;

• The Imitation Game, the strange story of the mathematical genius whose led the World War II team that broke the code used by Germany to encrypt messages;

• The Salt of the Earth, a stunning documentary about the life and work of the world-famous photographer whose pictures create empathy for the poor and the oppressed;

• Two Days, One Night about the spiritual unfolding of a low-paid factory worker who after losing her job takes giant strides forward in a process of self-transformation;

• Alive Inside, an uplifting documentary about an intrepid social worker who has brought personalized music tapes to thousands of elders in nursing homes and watched them perk up and come alive;

• Big Hero 6, an enchanting animated film that salutes a robot who possesses the spiritual qualities of heart, caring, service of others, and nonviolence;

Big Hero 6

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

• The Homesman, which probes the kindness and Christian charity of a single woman who volunteers for a dangerous mission to look after three mad women exiled from their prairie community in 1854;

• Code Black, a sobering documentary about a band of idealistic doctors trying to initiate new procedures to serve the poor and transform the health system;

• Wild, about a young woman seeking to find a way into a future of her own choosing through a 1000-mile trek;

• How to Train Your Dragon 2, a parabolic film about why it is important to love all animals;

• A Most Violent Year, which challenges us to empathize with a principled entrepreneur who struggles not to lose everything during a dark night of the soul;

• Virunga, an astonishing documentary set in the Congo, where we meet four heroes who are caught up in a battle to save the glorious park that is home to the last mountain gorillas and other wild animals.

Virunga

Netflix

Our One-World Womb

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin has written: “We are all of us together carried in the one-womb world.” We are sharing the inspiration we have received from the Best Movies of 2014 because we see them as a source of hope.

There is an abundant and endless supply of truth, beauty, and love in these movies. They remind us of the streams and tributaries that make a mighty river, as described in this passage one of our spiritual heroes, Joyce Rupp in The Cosmic Dance:

“I once walked in ankle-deep water across the small narrow source of the great Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. As I did so, I thought of the myriad streams and tributaries that join to make a wide, vigorous river. Like that river, everyone and everything is joined in the dancing water of the cosmos. Individually we are small rivulets but united we are a mighty river held in one great embrace of All Goodness. Together we are strong. Together we have hope. Together we will grow. Together we will co-create a world that dances in harmony and love.”

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