Search - Blasphemy on DVD

Has the balls to declare atheism, not enough to be great

Francois Tremblay | Montreal, QC Canada | 06/07/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This movie was made by an unknown director called John Mendoza, in the United States, a country in the grips of Christian fundamentalism. You can say what you want about his directing, but this guy has balls the size of South Dakota.

Blasphemy : The Movie is an obvious low-budget movioe from all aspects, the kind of movie that a director that identifies himself with an alienated social movement makes. It's similar to the kind of movies made at the beginning of the gay/lesbian movie wave.

The main problem I have with Blasphemy is that it is woefully underdeveloped. This is the kind of movie where someone should have told Mendoza "Okay, that's great, but you need to take this from the first level to the second and third level. You need to think bigger". The story is rudimentary, the dialogue is pretty much what you'd imagine of a cross between a satire and a discussion between an atheist and a Christian on a moderately intelligent message board, the directing and acting is competent but pretty simplistic.

The story turns around the idea that a deconvert called Martin Garcias decides to come out to his parents and his whole family at Christmas. Right away, there is a major problem with the basic (and only) idea in this movie, and that is : why does Martin come out in the first place ? His only given reason is that "it's his family too", but there seems to be little reason for him to want to keep a close relationship with his family. So this is a problem that should at least have been addressed. Without it, the whole point seems rather silly.

Also, there are clips of "sacrileges" interspersed throughout the movie, showing different gods and goddesses discussing theological issue (such as the gender of the gods). Some of them (like the one involving Abraham getting called to sacrifice his son) are inspired, but most fall flat.

I give the movie three stars for sheer bravery and one and a half stars for the game attempt."

Excellent movie

David Tamayo | 10/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are very few groups that are more attached to religion than Hispanics. This movie is a funny way of looking into the beliefs given to us as children and how they are accepted as part of the culture as anything else. As a bilingual Hispanic, I thoroughly identified with the issues, comments and ideas presented by the families and the main character. Even as a comedy, this movie is thought provoking and should be part of your collection, especially if you are the freethinker type."