Good movies in general help people who have been in tightly controlled aberrant groups get re-acculturated. It's been said, "Movies are incredibly important in America. That's how people acquire information about the world. Movies create this web that texts traditionally created." Movies also provide the metaphors of our culture. Consult a website, such as filmsite.org, for lists of great movies. The movies listed here have themes or elements relevant to the Assembly. Additional suggestions welcome!
| 1984 | Control within utopia |
| 16 Blocks | Doing the right thing in spite of the system. Marcia M. of Ottawa sums it up: "Bad cop Jack Mosley chooses to do the right thing, even to the extent of risking his own life, and expose the whole system that he has been party to for most of his career. |
| Amazing Grace | How to find purpose in life--know your own natural gifts, listen to your friends, ask God. |
| Animal Farm | Tyrannical control develops in utopia |
| The Apostle | Delusional preacher. Great psychological parallels with our own apostle. |
| At Play in the Fields of the Lord | "Sincere people create unwitting mischief so that evil people can have their way" - Roger Ebert |
| Babette's Feast | Generosity and joie de vivre break down dour austerity |
| Blast from the Past | A guy born in a bomb shelter in his parents back yard in the days of cold war paranoia, comes out into the real world after 35 years |
| Catch Me If You Can | Charismatic con artist, based on true story |
| The Chair (Frank Piretti video) | Biblical insights presented in a one-man stage show |
| Chocolat | More to life than self-denial |
| Cinderella Man | The true story of a boxer who was a genuinely good man in the grim days of the Great Depression. |
| The Da Vinci Code | A central character agonizes as he is directed to do evil deeds by a high-ranking spiritual authority. Good Christian analysis of this film at The Truth About Da Vinci.com. The Silas character in this movie is a graphic illustration of the double bind in which Assembly leaders were entrapped. The acknowledged spiritual authority gave explicit orders or/and indirect expectations to treat people or issues in an unscriptural way. The consciences of some leaders became seared and desensitized, while others bore a hidden cilice in their souls for their actions and words. |
| Dead Poets Society | Carpe diem! And the tragic result if your life is controlled by someone else. |
| Elmer Gantry | Con-man preacher |
| Enough | Heroine has had enough abuse and fights back |
| Everybody Loves Raymond | TV series - Assembly-like family dynamics of favoritism and rejection |
| The Firm | Corruption at the heart of the system |
| Groundhog Day | Finding meaning in a life of endless repetition. The results are the opposite of what happened in the Assembly. |
| The Island | Fleeing the controlled utopian system |
| Join Us | Ondi Timoner's 2007 documentary "Join Us" follows 21 cult members in real time as they leave their South Carolina Bible-based cult and get help at Wellspring. Watch the trailer on the film's website. Here is a statement by Ondi Timoner on how she became interested in making a film about mind control. She is also interviewed on YouTube about her film-making: Webisode 1, Webisode 2, Webisode 3, Webisode 4, Webisode 5. Dave Sable sent a link to John Fischer's comments on an Los Angeles Times article about "Join Us." |
| The Man Who Would Be King | Two guys con people into treating them as kings |
| The Manchurian Candidate | The mother, played by Meryl Streep in the 2004 version, is a case study in evil. |
| The Matrix | Control in a utopian system. See reader's comments. |
| Million Dollar Baby | The church leader is not the one who shows sacrificial love |
| The Mission | Deeds of greed and acts of conscience |
| Ordinary People | Evil masked as normalcy and how it affects another person. The closing scene is creepily similar to GG. |
| The Prisoner | BBC Television series, 1967. The struggle to maintain individuality in a controlled society |
| Snow Falling on Cedars | Complex, moving film. One theme is doing the right thing when it is very hard, and suffering for it. |
| Star Trek: The Borg | Tremendous pressure to assimilate into the collective, lasting effects in the mind afterwards |
| The Stepford Wives | A town full of too-perfect wives--how did they get that way?? BB comments: "Amazing similarities!" "The assembly annihilated our personalities, for sure! You didn't last if you were keen on keeping your personality...My husband and I woke up after we left realizing that is especially how most wives were" - Kimberly T. Critics seem mostly prefer the 1975 version to the 2004. |
| The Tale of Two Cities | Noble and evil characters in opposition |
| The Truman Show | Deceived that life within an illusion created and controlled by a despot is real life. Wikipedia has a good entry on this movie. |
| The Village | Control |
| The Wave | A high school teacher demonstrates how easily a group can be induced to conformity and cruelty. Based on the real experience of a class in Palo Alto, CA, in 1969. Very relevant! Blockbuster doesn't have it, but it's available for download or purchase at Wave, The - Alexander Grasshoff - 1981. |
Submit a comment or a movie recommendation for publication on this page, or contact us if you would like to talk or email with someone about the Assembly. Comments will be published on a separate page.
Copyright © 2003-2007 Margaret M. Irons
Pages on this site may not be framed.