MovieChat Forums > The Mist (2007) Discussion > Misrepresentation of Christians

Misrepresentation of Christians


Marcia Gay Hardens character was the religious version of a white person in black face playing a black minstrel. I honestly know no Christians that angry and negative. The ones I know would've prayed and tried to help however they could. It's still an awesome movie, but her character was an ignorant stereotype representing Kings disdain for and bigotry against Christianity.

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Yeah, she truly is a strawman (woman), practically a caricature, but the movie needed a villain, so... That time she demands the boy for a sacrifice was the most outrageously, over-the-top thing in the entire movie. Silly as hell. And the mini market people drinking the kool-aid... Wow, things escalate quickly in this movie. Reminds me of the exxagerations from South Park, in that episode where the townspeople kill and devour one of their own just because they get trapped for a few hours in a gymnasium during a snowstorm. But then again, every character is so overreactive that they practically give you permission to disregard any motivations and psychological nuances they are supposed to represent. That stubborn neighbor that won't even check the storage to see the blood, preferring to think the "rednecks" want to prank him, or that redneck itself that instantly takes an advice for being cautious as an offense from "one of you people that went to college and think are better than us", are other examples that place has something in the water that won't allow anyone to think straight. Funny that even so I love this movie, it's the best Silent Hill adaptation they could have made.

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Yea, to a point I agree. The theme of the film of course is 'fear changes everything' and people do tend to over-react and panic when fear strikes and we really don't know how far this kind of panic might go if the existence of an army of supernatural monsters out to destroy our world is suddenly verified OUTSIDE OUR DOOR. All bets are off, I think. Yet I still think the way this is shown in the film is a bit unrealistic. But then again maybe it wasn't intended to be realistic but to be more of a dramatic microcosm sort of thing.

Actual demagogues have and do exist who can prey on our fears and cause us to become murderers, and that's a fact, so don't be too cocksure. I think the theme of both the film and the novella was to try and demonstrate how this kind of thing happens but I suspect the psychology of it was a bit oversimplified. I don't see this film as an attack on Christianity, exactly, at least not on the entire religion - more of a dig at extremests. Primitive religiosity is an easily triggered 'mode' of human behavior. Carmody is obviously not quite representative of the real in your face hell and damnation religious leaders, as annoying as they were at that time and who may have inspired King to create her character, but is more of a cult-like character, ala David Koresh, but an insane cult leader is the kind of demon who might be spawned out of the recesses of our culture and in 1980's New England that would have been likely Christian. Yes, today the obvious manifestation of this is occurring elsewhere, and from a different religious base, but I wouldn't be shocked if under different circumstances it could 'happen here'.

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Yeah, well, his neighbour wasn't an issue for long... Natural selection did its job... It should have done the same to the crazy religious fanatics...

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Yeah, she truly is a strawman (woman), practically a caricature, but the movie needed a villain, so... That time she demands the boy for a sacrifice was the most outrageously, over-the-top thing in the entire movie. Silly as hell. And the mini market people drinking the kool-aid... Wow, things escalate quickly in this movie. Reminds me of the exxagerations from South Park


To be fair they did establish that the woman was already considered the town nut before things went to hell so I can accept her character as the lone nut of the group but to have in a matter of a few short days, the majority of the survivors as you say drinking her crazy Kool Aid and turn into murderous, drooling neanderthals was when things turned into a ridiculous cartoon.

Search your feelings, you know it to be true. 
https://goo.gl/fZ0xWS


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What really upset me about how Mrs. Carmody was portrayed in the movie is that in the book, she has a reputation of being a witch, not an extremist Christian. Her beliefs in the book seem to be of both OT-Christian and Pagan orientation, but the movie acts as though she's just an insane Christian. Clearly the director had an agenda, and it was painfully obvious.

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It's Stephen King, what did you expect? He pulled a 'I believe' after he was hit by that van and almost died, but backed off once he recovered. Typical. King has a subtle antagonism against Christians and most religions. And he constantly revisits it. I can't remember any moderate reasonable depictions of Christians in any of his works I read. He is anti-christian and likely anti-religion. Which is a pity, as that is a bias and hurtful position.

Also the fold he wraps himself in shows as MGH was voted as Best Supporting Actress. Really? I found her portrayal wooden. Nothing really believable about what or how she portrayed her character. In the book, the character she plays is very believable. But I guess fat canary yellow pants pseudo religion ladies weren't photogenic enough for Darabont.

The telegraphing of the future from her lead up bits was simply crappy. No other way to put it.

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Do a search in Google on how Christians being funded from US work in India, how they torture kids to force them to convert, etc. etc.

Christians ARE like that. Just another group of backward religious apes thinking they are better than other apes who failed to evolve.

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So you judge all Christians by a vast minority who blatantly disobeys actual Christian teaching? That's very ignorant and bigoted. I suppose by your logic, you can judge every atheist by Stalin who actually has a death toll of 20 million or so.

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Lol just like everyone blames all Muslims for what terrorist groups do?

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"Lol", except Islamic terrorism is the greatest modern threat in the world today. There are many caliphates who have declared violent jihad on all who do not follow them.The same cannot be said for Christianity. So "lol"

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Right on! I'm so tired of all this complaining. "Christians are being persecuted" what a crock

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Except, they actually are persecuted. According to CNN, Christianity persecution reached a high in 2015. The article said it was akin to the level of ethnic cleansing. Not that you care.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/17/world/christian-persecution-2015/

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So, you base your criteria on CNN and you think Muslims are the evil ones and Christians are the victims... right on man!

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No I base my position on actual doctrines and current events in the real world.

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You just described every religion ever...

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Just another group of backward religious apes thinking they are better than other apes who failed to evolve.


Yup.

I am an atheist, so I judge all religions on the actions of their nut-job followers, not what is written in their fairy-tale books (though Abrahamic religions have really fu*ked up sh*t written in their books).

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Lol, double standards. You hate religion, yet don't care abo the actual doctrines. You just admitted to being a generalizing bigot.

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Oh and also, the group you mentioned were clearly disobeying the teachings of Christ. To blame Christianity for those who disobey it is extremely idiotic.

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Oh and also, the group you mentioned were clearly disobeying the teachings of Christ. To blame Christianity for those who disobey it is extremely idiotic.


That's great and all, but doesn't change the fact that your people are doing it and rest of you "moderates" are not out there on the street protesting their actions.

That and the fact that American and Roman churches fund these nut-jobs, let's not forget, the pedophiles your Pope protects.


Mother Teresa is a good example >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65JxnUW7Wk4

Instead of wasting time defending your cult, come down to the earth and abandon false prophets. World will, eventually. Americans are turning to atheisism anyway. Century of gods is over. Muslims as the delusional fools have shown the world in masses why "god" doesn't save you from a guy flying a drone thousands of miles away.

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You should look up the definition of a cult, as you clearly don't understand the meaning. Cults, by definition are small. You say that you hate all religion, yet don't care about the actual doctrines of different religions. This proves you to be a close minded bigot. You say Christians don't condemn violent acts by the very small minority that disobey the teachings of peace new testament Christianity teaches, yet here I am doing it, proving you wrong. I challenge you to find one single teaching of Christ teaching violence. Love your neighbor...be charitable...treat others as you want to be treated...OH SUCH VIOLENT TEACHINGS. You just want to justify your bigoted hatred regardless of facts and logic. You've used the term fairy tale which is typical of mindless anti theists. From everything we know about the perpetuation of life and complex systems, thinking life could ultimately come from non life and that complex systems could come from non design is far, far more silly and fictional than the idea of an intelligent creator.

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MY PARENTS, AUNTS, UNCLES, ETC... ACT JUST LIKE MS. CARMODY!!! AND WHAT'S GOING ON IN INDIA AGAINST THE HINDUS, BY THE ABRAHAMICS IS PURELY SHAMEFUL & EVIL IMO.
________________________________________
http://www.youtube.com/user/loveunderlaw

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Wow your parents are trying to sacrifice people?

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She was clearly a fanatic. I don't think anyone would doubt that for even a second.

There's a difference between extremists, and rationalists. Both of the polar opposites, will always exist within any given religion, movement or other belief held systems. The extremists, are the ones giving - particularly Islam and Christianity - their religious practice a bad name.

The lady in the movie (forgot her name), was intentionally displayed as being clearly a nutcase right from the beginning; this is further reinforced by some of the locals claiming she was always like this, before the events at the supermarket.

The old biker dude, also made a point of this to the audience, when he said that he too believed in God, but not in the same way she did.

Hey, crazy lady, I believe in God, too. I just don't think he's the bloodthirsty *beep* you make him out to be.


So I don't think you have anything to prove here. If people are really that naive, to believe all Christians are like this, then there's nothing you can do or say, that will ever change their interpretations. Their minds have been preset already on the subject.

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Seemed accurate to me.

Maybe if Christians behaved more like Jesus, and less like Carbody, that would have been the depiction.

Maybe you should just stick to complaining about stores not saying "merry Christmas" oh greatest persecuted ones.

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There is no hidden disdain for religion here. No need to have this be a us vs. them mindset here.

To me this woman is not depicted as a typical religious person but a mentally ill person who has nonsensical, violent pious ideas. Typical religious people wouldn't fall away this fast or even this easy.
The people that followed her were terrified and happen to be trapped around the charisma of a mentally sick person - much like the way mentally vulnerable people are drawn to the promises of charismatic cult leaders. This is exactly what David's group are discussing when they voice their concerns of Mrs. Caramody's popularity. Additionally, many scientific studies show that almost all people are capable of truly violent and dehumanizing things when they are slowly eased into it, religious or not.



~I even um...I ate some of their brains and I tried to cook a little~

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I'd be interested how many people who are not religious would agree with you. I found her frighteningly believable....not because I think all religious people are like that but because by its nature, religion encourages people to abandon rationality and also to embrace the end.

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Atheism also encourages irrationality. The very nature of life has only shown perpetuation and by nature, programming and complex systems only come by design. Atheists by definition cannot believe in intelligent design. The idea that these things are ultimately random are incredibly irrational.

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Nope, you're just talking bollocks.

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Yet you didn't offer an intelligent/ reasonable counterpoint to anything I said.

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Because, as I said, you're talking bollocks. You brought up ID as if it was anything other than a piss poor attempt to shoehorn creationism into education in order to continue one of the forms of child abuse inherent in christianity. there's no need to refute that, except to point out that it's utter bollocks.

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No I pointed out the irrationality of life and complex systems coming from random chance due to their inherent nature. You had and still have no intelligent response.

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Random chance is irrational? Fine. Prove it. After all, the onus lies on those who say the universe and everything in it was designed for a reason to disprove the scientific theories that, through empirical data and mathematics, all point to the contrary.

You have nothing, absolutely nothing, to back up any theory of intelligent design by an omnipotent being. All you have are beliefs and yet you call atheists irrational. OK. Whatever.

"Nothing is more ill bred than trying to steal the affections of someone else's dog."

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I made the case for intelligent design. I cited the observed nature of life and complex systems. Believing in random eventuality is like believing a monkey could write a coherent novel if he bangs on a keyboard long enough. I think this is irrational.

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Yes random chance is irrational. Believing all this is a random eventuality is like believing a monkey could write a coherent novel if he bangs on a keyboard long enough. It's illogical. The perpetual nature of life and the nature of code and complex systems is evidence (not proof) of intelligent design. If you were intellectually honest, you'd see that.

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You display an ill-conceived notion of evolution. Evolution is far from random. Mutations are random; however, natural selection (and myriad other processes like sexual selection) are decidedly not random. If a random mutation produces a fitness (reproductive) benefit, those mutations propagate throughout a species. If they are deleterious (decrease reproductive success), they are winnowed from the gene pool. Again, this is not a random process.

If you wish to learn more about what evolution is actually about you really should pick up any number of books that are available for laymen. You are merely attacking a straw man with your nonsense about randomness.

My brother was eaten by wolves on the CT Turnpike

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I never stated evolution was random I wasn't even talking about evolution at all. I was talking about the theory that the first living cell came from random eventuality of conditions. Do you understand now?

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Your reckoning of probability goes down quite a bit when things are happening on a planet-wide scale over billions of years.

My brother was eaten by wolves on the CT Turnpike

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but the thought that unlimited fantastillions of events per microsecond happen by design seems rational to you?

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