{"id":78,"date":"2010-09-29T17:08:15","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T17:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/will-christian-themes-help-disney-ride-secretariat-to-blind-side-level-success.html"},"modified":"2010-09-29T17:08:15","modified_gmt":"2010-09-29T17:08:15","slug":"will-christian-themes-help-disney-ride-secretariat-to-blind-side-level-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/will-christian-themes-help-disney-ride-secretariat-to-blind-side-level-success.html","title":{"rendered":"Will Disney ride “Secretariat” to “Blind Side”-level success?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hollywood has finally figured out that there is an audience for movies that portray Christians as heroes (or at least decent people) rather than intolerant boobs or Bible-quoting psychopaths. And, beyond that, it may just be that people prefer stories that portray hope over cynicism. <\/p>\n

The latest in the trend is Disney’s Secretariat <\/i><\/a>which chronicles the true story<\/a> of the legendary racehorse of the title’s journey to Triple Crown legend in the early seventies.  <\/i>Like last year’s hugely-successful Blind Side<\/a>, <\/i>the film uses a true sports story to convey timeless Christian themes of faith and determination. That faith and determination is primarily embodied in the film by Penny Chenery, the horse’s owner, portrayed by Diane Lane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reporting on Disney’s outreach to Christian media to promote the film, Hollywood Reporter<\/a> quotes Secretariat <\/i>director Randall Wallace as comparing values-based filmmaking with Jesus’ telling of parables: “Jesus didn’t argue doctrinal questions whenever he was asked a question…He almost always
\nresponded with story — because the stories carry more truth than our
\nphilosophical arguments do.”<\/i>  <\/p>\n

If Secretariat<\/i> (opening October 8th) wins the Box Office Derby, expect to see more movies with Christian themes coming round the bend. I rooted for Secretariat the horse in 1973 and I’m rooting for Secretariat<\/i> the movie in 2010.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hollywood has finally figured out that there is an audience for movies that portray Christians as heroes (or at least decent people) rather than intolerant boobs or Bible-quoting psychopaths. And, beyond that, it may just be that people prefer stories that portray hope over cynicism. The latest in the trend is Disney’s Secretariat which chronicles…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-media","category-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nWill Disney ride "Secretariat" to "Blind Side"-level success? - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/will-christian-themes-help-disney-ride-secretariat-to-blind-side-level-success.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Will Disney ride "Secretariat" to "Blind Side"-level success? - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hollywood has finally figured out that there is an audience for movies that portray Christians as heroes (or at least decent people) rather than intolerant boobs or Bible-quoting psychopaths. 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Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Will Disney ride \"Secretariat\" to \"Blind Side\"-level success? - Catholics Media and Culture","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/will-christian-themes-help-disney-ride-secretariat-to-blind-side-level-success.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Will Disney ride \"Secretariat\" to \"Blind Side\"-level success? - Catholics Media and Culture","og_description":"Hollywood has finally figured out that there is an audience for movies that portray Christians as heroes (or at least decent people) rather than intolerant boobs or Bible-quoting psychopaths. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}