{"id":13343,"date":"2018-05-21T15:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T19:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=13343"},"modified":"2018-05-21T15:00:46","modified_gmt":"2018-05-21T19:00:46","slug":"paul-schraders-first-reformed-plays-questions-faith-big-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2018\/05\/paul-schraders-first-reformed-plays-questions-faith-big-screen.html","title":{"rendered":"Paul Schrader\u2019s \u201cFirst Reformed\u201d Plays Out Questions of Faith on the Big Screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paul_Schrader_Montclair_Film_Festival_(cropped)\"<\/a>Paul Schrader is no stranger to battling movie financiers over the final cuts of his films. He has lost that battle before, including when it surrounded the 2014 film \u201cDying of the Light.\u201d The difference between the final cut of the film and Schrader\u2019s cut were wildly different and evoked a very different reaction from the 71 year old writer and director than final cuts had in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never cared that much for the final cut in the past, because you were always dealing with studio heads who were movie people\u2013they all liked movies. But now I was dealing with financial people,\u201d Schrader said. \u201cThat was a very, very bad experience. I spiraled into alcoholism and depression, and I thought that was it: The last film in my career was going to be a fiasco.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schrader, however, was not through yet. He created \u201cFirst Reformed,\u201d a film that was greeted as Schrader\u2019s masterpiece and snapped up by A24 when it made its festival rounds in Toronto. The film deals with a pregnant woman named Mary who is being pushed by her radical environmentalist husband to get an abortion as he feels that the world is on the brink of an ecological collapse. Mary seeks council from Reverend Toller, a despondent minister who is at a bit of a loss for how to help her.<\/p>\n

Like many other films, \u201cFirst Reformed\u201d touches on tricky issues, including the nature of faith, the role of capitalism in modern day organized religion and the responsibility of mankind toward nature. Unlike many movies, however, \u201cFirst Reformed\u201d does not leave these questions rhetorical but plays out the confrontation between the two sides throughout the movie.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost contemporary movies don\u2019t ask you to think; they don\u2019t ask unanswerable questions,\u201d said Ethan Hawke, the actor who plays Reverend Toller. \u201cA lot of filmmakers have an agenda: They\u2019re trying to convince you to think the way that they think. What [Schrader] is doing is my favorite thing a filmmaker can do, which is present life to you so that you ask yourself these questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst Reformed\u201d appears to have been well-received so far, and Schrader is hopeful that the film will continue to do well. \u201cThat same feeling I had about \u2018Dying of the Light\u2019\u2013is this going to be the end?\u2014I\u2019m having that feeling again,\u201d Schrader said. \u201cOnly now it feels good instead of bad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Schrader is no stranger to battling movie financiers over the final cuts of his films. He has lost that battle before, including when it surrounded the 2014 film \u201cDying of the Light.\u201d The difference between the final cut of the film and Schrader\u2019s cut were wildly different and evoked a very different reaction from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[3706],"class_list":["post-13343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-movies","tag-faith-in-movies"],"yoast_head":"\nPaul Schrader\u2019s \u201cFirst Reformed\u201d Plays Out Questions of Faith on the Big Screen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Paul Schrader\u2019s latest film, \u201cFirst Reformed,\u201d opens messy questions about faith, but unlike many movies, he does not leave the questions rhetorical.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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