Moviegoers have abandoned liberal director Rob Reiner after his latest film questioning the Christianity of Trump voters flopped big time at the box office.
Opening weekend numbers put “God & Country: The Rise Of Christian Nationalism” in unenviable territory, posting just over $38,000 grossed national across 85 theaters, or $451 per location over four days, according to Breitbart. The film’s themes, which heavily criticize the “Christian nationalism” that Reiner purports go against the teachings of Jesus Christ, were embraced by liberal movie critics who gave the film a 91% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“It’s not surprising that Dan Partland’s documentary about the increasing influence of Christian Nationalism begins and ends with footage from Jan. 6., 2021. Christian Nationalists were among the principal organizers of the insurrection that occurred that day, which featured a trespasser carrying a Christian flag onto the Senate floor. God & Country, which counts Rob Reiner among its producers, delivers a bracing primer on the rise of this political movement that should thoroughly scare the large majority of American adults who don’t embrace it,” wrote Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter.
Reiner has struggled to captivate audiences since his 2005 hit “The Bucket List,” starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson as aging friends who attempt to spend their final days crossing the country to complete their lifelong repressed adventures. In the years since, his films have vacillated between inspirational tales and political messages, failing to recapture the success of earlier hits like 1995’s “The American President.”
Leaning into politics during an election year has been a winning strategy for other films without the heavy-handed proselytizing. “The Ides of March” (2011) and “Killing Them Softly (2012) performed respectably while running on themes of deep cynicism about American politics and withheld judgment of one political party over another. Reiner’s approach, however, is guaranteed to alienate half of a nation that elected President Trump and large swaths of Christians who make up 63% of Americans, critiquing both as lost sheep conflicted by their religious and political beliefs.
Throughout the film, Reiner interviews both MAGA voters and supposed subject matter experts who issue sharply divergent takes on President Trump’s legacy and own moral code. “God & Country” treads familiar territory to “The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism,” a 2019 nonfiction book by author and reporter Kristen Stewart.
Director Dan Partland, who previously oversaw 2012’s film “Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump,” previously explained his desire to call out Christians for, in his eyes, being misled by a demogogue.
“The problem is the intertwining of a Christian identity with a political identity such that it can be hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. The danger to democracy led me to explore this topic, but what I learned in the process is that the threat may be even greater to the Church itself,” Partland told one movie news outlet during a promotional tour for the film.
Reiner’s latest flop may be a nail in the coffin for Hollywood’s continual efforts to politicize religion in its franchises. His 2017 film “Shock & Awe,” an attempt to recast the Iraq War as a misguided search for power and oil, was not received well by critics or moviegoers alike. “Jesus Camp,” a 2005 documentary alleging the religious right was indoctrinating children with pro-Bush sentiments while at summer camp, earned positive reviews and posted a profit though never carried its message far beyond the liberal college campuses where it was frequently screened.
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