Highest-Rated Movies about 'Liberation Theology'

Gandhi (1982), Malcolm X (1992), Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005), Selma (2014), The Mission (1986), Lust for Life (1956), The Prince of Egypt (1998), The Last Station (2009) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Liberation Theology movies.

#1. Gandhi (1982)

Storyline: In 1893, Mohandas K. Gandhi is thrown off a South African train for being an Indian and traveling in a first class compartment. Gandhi realizes that the laws are biased against Indians and decides to start a non-violent protest campaign for the rights of all Indians in South Africa. After numerous arrests and the unwanted attention of the world, the government finally relents by recognizing rights for Indians, though not for the native blacks of South Africa. After this victory, Gandhi is invited back to India, where he is now considered something of a national hero. He is urged to take up the fight for India's independence from the British Empire. Gandhi agrees, and mounts a non-violent non-cooperation campaign of unprecedented scale, coordinating millions of Indians nationwide. There are some setbacks, such as violence against the protesters and Gandhi's occasional imprisonment. Nevertheless, the campaign generates great attention, and Britain faces intense public pressure. Too weak...

Plot Keywords: india, independence, hindu, peace, world war two, brutality, year 1948 ...

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#2. Malcolm X (1992)

Storyline: Biograpical epic of Malcolm X, the legendary African American leader. Born Malcolm Little, his father (a Garveyite Baptist minister) was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Malcolm became a gangster, and while in jail discovered the Nation of Islam writings of Elijah Muhammad. He preaches the teachings when let out of jail, but later on goes on a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca, there he converts to the original Islamic religion and becomes a Sunni Muslim and changes his name to El-Hajj Malik Al-Shabazz. He is assassinated on February 21, 1965 and dies a Muslim martyr.

Plot Keywords: islam, african american, cult film, blaxploitation, based on autobiography, assassination, racism ...

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#3. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005)

Storyline: The Final Days is the true story of Germany's most famous anti-Nazi heroine brought to life. Sophie Scholl is the fearless activist of the underground student resistance group, The White Rose. Using historical records of her incarceration, the film re-creates the last six days of Sophie Scholl's life: a journey from arrest to interrogation, trial and sentence in 1943 Munich. Unwavering in her convictions and loyalty to her comrades, her cross-examination by the Gestapo quickly escalates into a searing test of wills as Scholl delivers a passionate call to freedom and personal responsibility that is both haunting and timeless.

Plot Keywords: 1940s, nazi uniform, nazi flag, secret police, resistance fighter, decapitation, father daughter relationship ...

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#4. Selma (2014)

Storyline: The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

Plot Keywords: civil rights, bechdel test passed, revisionist history, courage, protest, black american, u.s. history ...

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#5. The Mission (1986)

Storyline: Jeremy Irons plays a Spanish Jesuit who goes into the South American wilderness to build a mission in the hope of converting the Indians of the region. Robert DeNiro plays a slave hunter who is converted and joins Irons in his mission. When Spain sells the colony to Portugal, they are forced to defend all they have built against the Portuguese aggressors.

Plot Keywords: mission, slave, spanish, jungle, 18th century, slave trade, river ...

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#6. Lust for Life (1956)

Storyline: Vincent Van Gogh is the archetypical tortured artistic genius. His obsession with painting, combined with mental illness, propels him through an unhappy life full of failures and unrewarding relationships. He fails at being a preacher to coal miners. He fails in his relationships with women. He earns some respect among his fellow painters, especially Paul Gauguin, but he does not get along with them. He only manages to sell one painting in his lifetime. The one constant good in his life is his brother Theo, who is unwavering in his moral and financial support.—John Oswalt <jao@jao.com>

Plot Keywords: painter, mental illness, severed ear, art dealer, paris france, suicide note, death of brother ...

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#7. The Prince of Egypt (1998)

Storyline: This is the extraordinary tale of two brothers named Ramses II and Moses, one born of royal blood, and one an orphan with a secret past. Growing up the best of friends, they share a strong bond of free-spirited youth and good-natured rivalry. But the truth will ultimately set them at odds, as one becomes the ruler of the most powerful empire on Earth, and the other the chosen leader of his people. Their final confrontation will forever change their lives and the world.

Plot Keywords: hebrew, ancient egypt, nudity, death of child, desert, sword and sandal, pharaoh ...

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#8. The Last Station (2009)

Storyline: The Countess Sofya, wife and muse to Leo Tolstoy, uses every trick of seduction on her husband's loyal disciple, whom she believes was the person responsible for Tolstoy signing a new will that leaves his work and property to the Russian people.

Plot Keywords: homosexual subtext, horse riding, bare chested male, moscow russia, camera, photographer, dying ...

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#10. El crimen del Padre Amaro (2002)

Storyline: Recently ordained a priest, 24-year-old Father Amaro is sent to a small parish church in Los Reyes, Mexico to assist the aging Father Benito in his daily work. Benito--for years a fixture in the church as well as the community--welcomes Father Amaro into a new life of unseen challenges. Upon arriving in Los Reyes, the ambitious Father Amaro meets Amelia, a beautiful 16-year-old girl whose religious devotion soon becomes helplessly entangles in a growing attraction to the new priest. Amelia is quickly following into the footsteps of her mother, Sanjuanera, who has been engaged in a long-time affair with Father Benito. Amaro soon discovers that corruption and the Church are old acquaintances in Los Reyes. Father Benito has been receiving financial help from the region's drug lord for the construction of a new health clinic. As well, another priest in the diocese, Father Natalio, is suspected of assisting guerilla troops in the highlands. Maenwhile, Amelia and Father Amaro have fallen in...

Plot Keywords: based on novel, hypocrisy, celibacy, catholic, blasphemy, confessional, catholic church ...

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#11. The Birth of a Nation (2016)

Storyline: Set against the antebellum South, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat's preaching to subdue unruly slaves. As he witnesses countless atrocities - against himself and his fellow slaves - Nat orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom.

Plot Keywords: preacher, slavery, starving, starving child, force feeding, gang rape, abuse ...

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#12. Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)

Storyline: Biblical epic Exodus: Gods and Kings stars Christian Bale as Moses who, as the film opens, fights alongside his brother Ramses (a shaved-headed Joel Edgerton), to help defend Egypt, which is ruled by their father, Seti (John Turturro). During battle, Moses saves Ramses life, causing Ramses to fear that his brother will one day be King because it fits with a prophecy handed down by one of Seti's trusted spiritualists. Soon after Seti's death, Moses, who is actually Jewish and not Egyptian, is banished. However, he becomes the leader of the Jewish people and leads a rebellion, with the help of a wrathful God, against that Egyptians..

Plot Keywords: pharaoh, plague, sibling rivalry, exodus, egypt, based on the bible, ancient egypt ...

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#13. The Day Shall Come (2019)

Storyline: In this absurdist dark political satire, a somewhat nutty and naive impoverished African American preacher, who along with his worried family and a small group of followers wishes to bring hope to the Miami projects by preaching about his own version of God based on the liberation theology and African nationalism, is forced by a nefarious character to agree to an arms deal in order to save his family from eviction and possibly start his revolution for real. What the preacher doesn't realize is that he has become a target of a complex false flag operation by the FBI to first turn him into a terrorist and then arrest him and score points in the U.S.'s war on terror. However, what the FBI does not realize is that, although a vocal revolutionary, the preacher is also a firm believer in pacifism, a loyal citizen and a very unpredictable character.

Plot Keywords: hood, arms deal, shot in the head, religious cult, police corruption, wrongful imprisonment, absurdism ...

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#14. Mary Magdalene (2018)

Storyline: Judea, 33 AD. Mary is a faithful young girl from the village of Magdala (close to Galilea Lake) unsure to follow the traditions and destiny reserved to the women, living only as wife and mother, in her wish to be free. After to reject a marriage proposal of Ephraim, a family friend, her brother Daniel and her father Elisha make her an exorcism in the belief that she is possessed by a demon. Trying to find a solution Elisha asks help Jesus, a healer who is earning fame between the Jews of the zone with his speeches about a kingdom of peace and love free of hate, tyranny, oppression and prosecution, to heal Mary and that finally she obeys and submits to their will. Astonished by the charisma, personality and words of Jesus, Mary decides to follow him despite the strong opposition of her family. She meets a few men who too walk with Jesus as Peter, Andrew, James, John and Judas, who have their personal interests and ideas about Jesus' words and his revolution. At the same time that Mary feels more passionate about Jesus and his vision of the world and people, Peter starts to feel a progressive resentment to her, in the belief that Mary's presence in the group weakens Jesus and his message, who each time pays more attention to her. Arriving at Jerusalem, Jesus and his apostles try to transmit the message against Roman Empire and Jews' authorities, but the events soon will turn dramatically against Jesus, as well as the confrontation between Mary and Peter about Jesus' not only will change they both, too will change the whole world.—Chockys

Plot Keywords: religion, baptism, jesus christ character, belief, treason, crucifixion, jerusalem ...

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