Movie that Mirrors church of Pelor?

[TheDarkSaint]

Ok Playgrounders, I had an interesting request from my Crusader and Cleric of Pelor.

They want me to recommend a movie that would embody the dogma of the Church of Pelor. They are looking to flesh out their characters and they both let me know they would rather watch a movie and then work with me to flesh out the local church doctrines rather than me just post a bunch of rules that they might forget.

I think this is a great idea as it adds a visual element to what they are trying to portray, but I'm stuck.

Anyone have suggestions for a movie that might have something like that?

[supermonkeyjoe]

Canonically? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733125/

This may not be the best example though, unless you want to drive them away from your game.

[TheDarkSaint]

I get the serious feeling that if I watched that, I would need either a large dose of scotch or eye bleach.

I could be a jerk and recommend it to them :smallbiggrin:

Doesn't have to be cannon. Any movie would work if it had some NGish religious structure.

[Zubrowka74]

Canonically? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733125/

This may not be the best example though, unless you want to drive them away from your game.

Is it as bad as the other D&D movies ?

[BowStreetRunner]

While Pelor is described as a Sun god (like Apollo or Ra), the dogma presented in the Player's Handbook and Complete Divine have a more western religious orientation than that of the ancient Greco-Roman or Egyptian gods. Priests are supposed to help those in need, oppose evil, tend the sick, bless the crops, provide for the spiritual needs of the community, etc, etc... I would expect the 'sun' motif to be presented more with cathedrals filled with enormous stained-glass windows and such here.

That having been said, I can't think of many movies offhand that have such a focus. I might suggest Ladyhawke (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089457/) and maybe the priest in Van Helsing (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0338526/) for the anti-undead side of Pelorites.

I asked around with some friends who suggested Kingdom of Heaven, Name of the Rose, and Arn: The Knight Templar as well, but I haven't actually seen all of these.

[Juntao112]

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.

[BowStreetRunner]

Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter.

So Jesus and Abraham Lincoln were both Vampire Hunters...somehow I must have grown up on a revisionist version of history that left that all out.

[SciChronic]

Jesus even did it in musical form

[undead hero]

Pelor isn't a good god, you all have had the wool pulled over your eyes!

Look into "Pelor the Burning Hate"

[Rhynn]

Pelor is pretty much the deity of the default OD&D/Basic cleric, who were definitely fantasy "Christians," so yeah, replace crosses with suns and that's pretty much it.

Kingdom of Heaven doesn't really do anything with the religion angle, though, and certainly isn't what TheDarkSaint is looking for - the only priest I can recall in that film is the one who starts screaming how they all need to abandon their faith to survive when Jerusalem is taken.

Arn: The Knight Templar and Arn: The Kingdom at Road's End are totally awesome movies, but not exactly right for this, either.


Is it as bad as the other D&D movies ?

It's worse than the first one. For all that that was a narmy B-movie, it had Jeremy Irons (hot), Thora Birch (hot), and Marlon Wayans (almost funny).

But hey, it's still not Eragon. "I suffer without my stone," indeed... and how does Jeremy Irons keep getting tricked into horrible fantasy movies?

[Gildedragon]

Name of the Rose if playing in a grimdark world.
There are some documentaries that could be good research. Into the Great Silence is a good one.
Overall, however, I think movies that explore the relationship between individuals and faith (on an institutional level) are somewhat scarce. First figure out the tone and feel you want the pelorites to have.

[supermonkeyjoe]

Is it as bad as the other D&D movies ?

Personally, I'd say it's the best of the three official DnD movies, I enjoyed the second one more but this one seemed to have more polish, the slaymate scene especially was pretty effective. It's definitely worth a watch if you are really bored and can get ahold of it for bargain-bin prices.

[Zubrowka74]

...and how does Jeremy Irons keep getting tricked into horrible fantasy movies?

He gets paid the same wether the movie is good or not, I guess.

[cerin616]

Pelor isn't a good god, you all have had the wool pulled over your eyes!

Look into "Pelor the Burning Hate"

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19558798/Pelor,_the_Burning_Hate

Exactly what i was going to say.

[Rijan_Sai]

Personally, I'd say it's the best of the three official DnD movies, I enjoyed the second one more but this one seemed to have more polish, the slaymate scene especially was pretty effective. It's definitely worth a watch if you are really bored and can get ahold of it for bargain-bin prices.

I actually agree with this for the most part. Though to be honest, I kind of liked all three for what they were (non were Oscar-contender/"Summer Blockbusters," but still):

1) A semi-decent movie with some decent actors/resses (Irons, Burch, Wayans, ...(the kid that played Jimmy Olsen in "Lois and Clark")); Game Rules: probably AD&D/ early 3.0

2) This one felt the most like watching a gaming session, what with everyone calling each other out by class almost as much as name; Game Rules: 3.X

3) This one actually seemed to almost take itself semi-seriously as a movie, and not just a "Dungeons and Dragons" movie; Game Rules: late 3.5

Were any of them "great?" Not really. They all have their "charm," so to speak, and are worth seeing at least once.
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Aside from this rant, I unfortunately have nothing else to contribute to the OP...

[Yora]

Somehow I started thinking about From Dusk Till Dawn.

[undead hero]

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19558798/Pelor,_the_Burning_Hate

Exactly what i was going to say.

+1


Somehow I started thinking about From Dusk Till Dawn.

Nice.

[ArcturusV]

Arn: The Knight Templar, as mentioned, pretty good movie. But I wouldn't hold it up so much as an example of Pelor, as I would an example of more of a Lawful Good bent like Hextor. :smallwink:

It's hard for me to think of a movie that really reflects the image of the Church of Pelor, either his propaganda side, or his "true" side. Most movies do not really focus on characters that are about Healing, Charity, and Undead Smiting. Or pain, subjugation, propaganda, and undead smiting.

If you wanted to go to Books, I'd recommend something like Midnight Mass, where the Protagonists would fit like a glove with Pelorites, even the "twilight man".

[BWR]

While Pelor is described as a Sun god (like Apollo or Ra), the dogma presented in the Player's Handbook and Complete Divine have a more western religious orientation than that of the ancient Greco-Roman

Greco-Roman isn't Western?:smallconfused:

[Deepbluediver]

Canonically? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733125/

This may not be the best example though, unless you want to drive them away from your game.

I had never heard of that movie. From watching the trailers, it looks kind of like the old Xena/Hercules TV-shows (visually, at least).

Most fantasy movies tend to have their own slant on morality/religion/necromancy, but if you want I can recommend a book: The Deed of Paksenarrion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deed_of_Paksenarrion).

It's heroic Fantasy. I read the book before I ever started playing D&D, and it wasn't until it was pointed out to me that I realized it's basically using pastiches of many of the major D&D entities (St. Gird instead of St. Cuthbert, The High Lord is the stand-in for Pelor, there are evil elves with a spider-themed goddess, etc.). Supposedly, the author wrote it because she was tired of people roleplaying paladins badly, and wanted to show them how to do it right.

The title character is a Fighter/Paladin instead of a Cleric, but if you want an example of a world that functions on the D&D ruleset, by and large, its the best example I can offer. Especially the later chapters, in which there is much more interaction with the "church" of the land.

[Phelix-Mu]

And the first, unhelpful thing that jumped to mind was the Silent Hill movie. :smallcool:

As far as a NG church that espouses a quasi-Western-ish doctrine, I'd look into the movie The Mission, which was a nice story about an evil man realizing the error of his ways and seeking redemption. An often underplayed aspect of the Church of Pelor (if not Pelor himself, as the burning comments have eluded to), is the Good aspect, and helping to keep society together by allowing people to be normal, screwed up people, but still be part of the faithful. Some of the FR gods are better analogues of pseudo-Christian stuff, but Pelor is the closest in the core mythology.

As to the Sun/Nature gods aspect, I dunno. It's hard to think of examples away from historical religious stuff.

Are we open to anime? Nothing is coming to mind at the moment that is really similar to Pelor's church, but there are scores of anime that draw directly from fantasy-esque settings, though often incorporating aspects of historical Japanese culture. For protecting people and fighting evil, Shounen Onmyouji was good, about vanquishing demons and warding people against evil. Kekkaishi has a similar guardian/exorcist thing going on. For a more fantasy-feel, there is the quasi-churches from Scrapped Princess, and one of the main characters is even a priestess. Was there a cleric character in Record of Lodoss War? Been an age since I saw any of that, but it was basically a D&D setting in the story.

[Serin]

My best suggestion would be Season of the Witch with nicolas cage. If you guys aren't familiar with it, it starts out with the two of them being knights fighting in the crusades. They get fed up with being ordered to murder women and children because they are "pagans" and strike out on their own as renegades. They end up saving the world in a suicidal fight against a demon that has possessed some peasant girl. As they die in the final fight no one really knows about their sacrifice aside from the squire that survived the battle.

It marginally shows the darker side of Pelorites with the mindless slaughter of pagans undead and then if you don't follow the doctrine correctly they hunt you down and put you on trial and/or make you do crazy penance quests.

[Saintheart]

Equilibrium. It even has clerics. :smalltongue: :smalltongue:

[BowStreetRunner]

Greco-Roman isn't Western?:smallconfused:

Sorry, just using the terminology from my old Comparative World Religions class back in college. The term 'Western Religion' is more often used to refer to the Jewish, Christian and Muslim monotheistic faiths but you are correct that Greek, Roman, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic polytheistic religions from antiquity were certainly western religions as well. I should have used the term Abrahamic to more accurately categorize those faiths, but fell back on the term Western Religion out of habit.

[Invader]

You could draw a comparison between Constantine and a radiant servant of Pelor if you subbed out demons for undead.

[sonofzeal]

Pelor doesn't really make for good movies. He's just plain nice. At least if he isn't in his Burning Hate aspect.

With that in mind.... Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame actually works pretty well. The divisions between Judge Frollo and the actual priests is, effectively, what the difference between a Cuthbertine and a Pelorite should be.

The Name of the Rose is another more high-brow alternative; some of the characters are more Heironian IMO, but it may give you a good spectrum from which to work.

Anything and everything based on Father Brown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Brown#Father_Brown_in_other_media) is also entirely applicable.



For real dogma though, you're better off going with some sort of sub-order devoted to some particular aspect. I had a Healer once who was a member of an order devoted to Pelor that focused on the healing aspect, political neutrality, and nonjudgementalism. It worked pretty well.