Liberation/Freedom

Movies/Scenes Representing Liberation/Freedom

Orange County (2002)
- Orange County is a recent movie all about liberation. (CJ Thompson)
A Knight's Tale (2001)
- I recently preached a sermon using the movie "A Knight's Tale" to illustrate the freedom found in Christ. I used scene 26 (1:51:00 - 1:55:30) which shows the main character William Thatcher in the stockade for impersonating a noble knight. It is a powerful metaphor for people who desperately try hard to live good moral lives apart from Christ -- people who attempt to "fake it." In the scene, Prince Edward, the future King of England who is concealed in the crowd, steps forward, orders William to be released, and then bestows knighthood upon him. A great illustration of those who are trapped in legalism and works and who are set free by the "King" and made royalty. Major Themes: Freedom, Legalism, Works (Pastor Grant Misseghers, Youth Pastor, Hill Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada)
The Patriot (2000)
- Both sides in the revolutionary war offered freedom to slaves who would fight. Among Martin's militia there is one slave who is there because his owner assigned him to the army. One of the interesting sides to the revolution was that it was a struggle for liberty by those who owned slave. At various times, the slave marks how much longer he has to serve to gain his freedom. When the big battle comes, one of the soldiers notes that his time is up. Then the slave says that he knows, he's there of his own accord now.
Chocolat (2000)
- A mysterious, appealing woman Vianne appears in a small French town. She quietly challenges the religious establishment's hold on the people, by the generously hospitable way she lives and by her welcome of outcasts. The Mayor keeps the people in line by the force of his joyless, controlling personality, and has brought the church under his influence (he writes the priest's sermons, exhorting the people to fasting and abstinence). Vianne opens a chocolate shop, and the people start secretly visiting during Lent. They are torn between their religious duties and the vision of joy represented by Vianne's hospitality and wonderful food. She and the Mayor come into conflict, as he resents her power to attract the people and cause them to break the Lenten fast. Eventually the Mayor's midnight attack on her shop backfires on him, as he unwittingly tastes the chocolate and surrenders to his own need for joy and comfort. (Marnie Barrell, Auckland, New Zealand)
Chicken Run (2000)
- "It's not the fences around the farm that keep us here; it's the fences around your brains." A fun show, not just for children. (submitted by Eric Bagwell)
The Confession (1999)
- Bleakie's liberation as he sacrifices himself and all he has obtained through his immorality.
Three Kings (1999)
- The American soldiers are converted from their greed to become people who are willing to sacrifice their own freedom for the freedom of others. Through this sacrifice, they understand true freedom.
Angela's Ashes (1999)
- Frank leaves Ireland and comes to America. The symbol of the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of liberation throughout his life. (DVD ch 28)
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
- Lana finds freedom - symbolized by final scene of her driving away from Falls City.
Double Jeopardy (1999)
- There's a great resurrection/raising of Lazarus scene within this movie. Libby is locked in a casket in a New Orleans tomb by her husband. By the illumination of a cigarette lighter she realizes her condition and even sees a corpse in the coffin next to her. There's a moment when we see light streaming through the stained glass window (cross) onto the coffin, after which she shoots the locks from the inside and then pushes the lid open and comes out. But she's still locked in the tomb. So she takes a vase from the altar smashes the stained glass window, and escapes (through the cross!). (DVD chapter 13)
- Matty finds sees his mother whom he thought was dead. ("They told me you were dead." "No, Sweetheart.") (DVD chapter 15)
Instinct (1999)
- Theo, the psychiatrist, is trying to understand the professor (Anthony Hopkins) who abandoned his family and lived with gorillas and is in prison for murder in Africa. If you were learning their peace, then why does this all end in murder? There were many murders...Ethan Powell
  Theo is seeking to
  I?m the one
  the one in control huh?
  Yes
  Who?s in control?
  So who is in control? Are you, am I, the gods out
  What have I taken from you, what have you lost
  Theo writes "control"
  wrong
  what did I take?
  Theo writes: "My freedom"
  you are a fool, you think you were free
  where were you going to
  is it ambition?
  What have you lost? What did I take from you?
  Theo writes: "My illusion"
  Yeah, congratulations....
  You are a student after all
  You?ve lost nothing but your illusions, and a little bit of skin.
  (submitted by Pastor Jeff Whillock)
The Hurricane (1999)
- Carter finds liberation from the prisons within himself as well as those outside of himself.
The Prince of Egypt (1998)
Beloved (1998)
- Sethe kills Beloved rather than have her become a slave.
- The elusive "freedom" of Sethe the runaway slave.
Amistad (1997)
- "GIVE US FREE!" (DVD ch 13)
- Cinque uses a nail to free himself from his bonds. (see review at Hollywood Jesus)
- "The natural state of man is freedom. He will try and try and try to get home." (DVD ch 21)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
- Poncelet finds freedom when he accepts and admits the truth about his responsibility for the murders.
Braveheart (1995)
- William Wallace: Fight and you may die. Run and you'll live. At least awhile. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all of the days from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Andy Dufresne standing in the rain after his escape.
Schindler's List (1993)
- Clip from Schindler's List (starting as the folks from the factory gather to give Schinlder the ring - "He who saves one life..." through them driving away dressed in prison clothes.
  
  Luther in his Small Catechism:
  He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person. He has purchased and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and with his innocent suffering and death. He has done all this in order that I may belong to him, live under him in his kingdom, serve him in eternal righteousness, innocence and blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally. This is most certainly true. (A Contemporary Translation of Luther's Small Catechism)
  
  John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
  
  Luther in his lecture on Galatians: "By this fortunate exchange with us He took upon Himself our sinful person and granted us His innocent and victorious Person. Clothed and dressed in this we are freed from the curse of the Law, because Christ Himself voluntarily became a curse for us, saying: ?For my own Person of humanity and divinity I am blessed, and I am in need of nothing whatever. But I shall empty Myself (Phil 2:7); I shall assume your clothing and mask; and in this I shall walk about and suffer death, in order to set you free from death." (284)
  
  Luther's "Happy Exchange" (submitted by Pastor Jeff Whillock)
The Mission (1986)
- In the film, The Mission, I found the scene where Robert DeNero's character (a slave trader) is cut free from the ropes that held him in bondage by the natives whose lives he had slaughtered very powerful. (submitted by Judith Snyder)
Cocoon (1985)
- from the point of where the grandfather and grandson are fishing together - standing in a river, and the grandfather tells the grandson he's going to leave.
Yentl (1983)
- Yentl pursues the freedom to study and worship God.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
- The escape from the mental institution to go on a fishing trip. (ch 14-15)
- The Chief's escape at the end of the movie.
Papillon (1973)
- Papillon's prison escape sequences, especially the final one. He counts and waits and discovers that it seems like every 7th wave is strong enough to take him out to sea and to freedom. He jumps into the sea on the 7th wave.
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- The young priest leads the people through the water and through adversity to freedom. He almost makes it to the end but does not find freedom from the overturned ship himself. On the other hand, he has found the "freedom" that one finds through self-giving.
- Mrs Rosen - the former underwater swimming champion - saves the priest (and thus the group), but loses her life while doing so. She almost makes it to the end but does not leave the ship alive.

Index of Movie Titles

Index of Movie Themes