MovieChat Forums > Left Behind III: World at War (2005) Discussion > Remarriage? Huh?

Remarriage? Huh?

posted 10 years ago by teaguetod
17 replies | jump to latest

So in this third installment of the series, one of the main characters we've come to know & kinda tolerate, Rayford Steele (long-lost brother of Remington), portrayed by Brad Johnson, gets remarried at the beginning of this film.

Huh? Dude, your first wife's not dead -- she's just been raptured and is in Heaven, chillin' & hangin' out. We saw her get raptured at the beginning of the story & then watched you cry about it for almost the whole first flick. Now you're getting remarried already? What's your other wife up in heaven gonna think of that?

Hey man, the world's ending. It's just supposed to be seven years, so they say. You really couldn't hold out that long? Just had t' get laid again, huh? Besides, isn't everything supposed to be turning to sh#t by now: sky turning black, rains of blood, stars falling to earth, pestilence, plague, etc.? Plus, there are like hundreds of millions of lost souls to save before the end -- but you're gonna waste time getting remarried just so you can bump uglies again legally (Christian-style, I mean)? Where's yer higher calling? WWJD?

It just sounded kinda gross, frankly, to listen to you give your wedding vows with all those words like 'love,' 'forever' & 'eternity,' when the last Mrs. Steele ain't really dead yet.

Just sayin'.

[–] GoldReaper 10 years ago

Yeah, as I understand it, in the last book of the series when they are living under the 1,000 year reign of Jesus, Rayford and Amanda get back together with their original spouses, so it is kind of like swinging.

By the way, did you know about the Left Behind reboot coming out this year with Nicolas Cage as Rayford? They are saying it should be out in wide release sometime in June.

[–] teaguetod 10 years ago

Yeah, I heard about it on here. Have to wait & see what it's like.

Full disclosure: I'm an ex-Christian-fundamentalist. But I'm pretty mellowed out, to the point where I can even sit down and actually "enjoy" this series now (kind of? - to the point that's possible).

So, yeah, these three Left Behind films weren't very good. Which got me thinking: Why didn't Hollywood jump all over the rights to the book series back when it was obvious just how dang popular it really was? I remember the books were selling so well that they finally made the cover of Time or Newsweek, talking about belief in the Rapture. I mean, they sold millions of copies. And still no big studio in Hollywood thought they could maybe make a decent big-budget disaster movie out of these? That's really short-sighted or prejudiced or both.

After Mel Gibson's christploitation grindhouse flick came out and made a bundle, I wonder if some folks were kicking themselves. You don't have to believe it, guys, to make some money off of it.

Besides, so many of the blockbuster disaster flicks Hollywood normally produces nowadays (2012, The Day After Tomorrow, etc.) are poor imitations of The Big One, what should be The Mother of All Disaster Movies: the Biblical Apocalypse. It funny they wouldn't jump at the chance, whether they're atheists, Jews, or Scientologists.

[–] GoldReaper 10 years ago

LaHaye and Jenkins sold the movie rights of the first two books to the low-budget Namesake Entertainment and Cloud Ten Pictures before the mega-success broke out. The movies with Kirk Cameron were made and LaHaye absolutely hated them as well as the fact that he sold the rights too soon. He sued them and the courts gave him back the rights back for a full year on the condition that he can get a deal done with some other studio. He failed to get any deals done. You must understand that Hollywood believes Christian movies to be once-in-a-while hits considering that there are hundreds of Christian films that get made every year that don't make any money or are even heard of unlike The Passion of the Christ. There are several bible-themed movies coming out this year which hope to ride the coattails of surprise hit of The Bible Miniseries ( which will probably also be just a fad ). Another factor to consider is that the popularity of the Left Behind series has pretty much ended with the release of the last book back in 2007 much like how Twilight is starting to fade from memory with the books and movies being done with and The Hunger Games replacing it in pop culture. In fact, I have spoken to some Christians pretty recently who didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned Left Behind. So anyway, the movie rights went back to the original producers and now this Nicolas Cage remake is coming out with a bigger budget in hope that the popularity could get started back up again ( Producer Paul Lalonde has compared the movie to a pilot for a TV series in this respect ).

[–] teaguetod 10 years ago

[So I'm up late washing clothes... now, getting back to this thread...]

I actually read some of your other posts about the LB series, and you're obviously pretty well informed about the nuts-and-bolts business side of these movies, and what it took to get them made.

It all makes sense now that I understand LaHaye and Jenkins sold the movie rights too quickly. (I had read about the lawsuit before here on IMDb, and found it absolutely hilarious. Because nothing says God's divine love like a big angry lawsuit.)

Anyway, I think you're right in what you said elsewhere: basically, that the days of The 10 Commandments, The Robe, and Ben-Hur are long gone. And Mel Gibson's exception only proves the rule. It's kind of sad, in a way (even though I don't consider myself a believer).

I don't think the reboot will successfully jump-start the series again, even with Nick Cage; I think the window has passed, like you suggested with some other series.

[–] GoldReaper 10 years ago

I have just kept up-to-date with all the articles that come out about the movies, so it's been easy to piece the story together.

Left Behind is one of my favorite "So bad, it's good" stories but if the new version turns out to actually be good I will not complain since it is a great concept for a movie series even though I don't believe it. In fact, Left Behind is what made me start disbelieving the Bible after I got to the sixth book with the demonic 200 Million Horsemen and I just burst out laughing and thought, "Okay, so this is LITERALLY going to happen?" Yeah, I know not every Christian has the same literal interpretation of The Book of Revelation as Tim LaHaye, but it is the one I was taught growing up in the South.

[–] teaguetod 10 years ago

I'm embarrassed (not really) to say I haven't read through all the books; only the first one. I collected all the volumes of the original series at Goodwill, but I just never got around to it. But now that you say there are 200-million demonic horsemen, I can't wait!

One interesting book I found to read in conjunction with the series is Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America by Amy Frykholm. It's a lit-crit study of the books from a reader-response view. She did lots of interviews with believers who read the books. She said she really grew sick of the terrible LB series but honestly liked the Christians she talked to -- even though they seemed to believe all these horrible things.

Have you seen the Thief in the Night series from the 70s? When I was a teenager in the late 80s, that's what they used to show at church camp to scare the kids.

As far as these stories go, I actually like the Omen series. Part 3 stars Sam Neill as the grown-up Antichrist, plotting to take over the world. It's cheesy and fun.

[–] GoldReaper 10 years ago

I haven't (technically) read them all either to be honest. I listened to the first six on abridged audio book tapes, then read the full seventh book, and stopped half-way through the unabridged audio book of the eighth and then just read the summaries of all the rest on Wikipedia because I grew tired of it at the time. But since then, I went back and read the "updated" 2011 reissue of the first book and now I keep going back and forth whether or not to read the rest. I agree with one review which I have read, that they need to edit and compact all 16 books into one big novel sort of like Stephen King's The Stand, since a lot of the story is full of pointless dialogue and side-plots. I have mainly just watched the Kirk Cameron trilogy over and over because I think it's a hoot how they tired to emulate Hollywood and failed miserably.

I did spot and flip through Rapture Culture in my college library once, so maybe I'll go ahead and check it out. I have read the blogs of Fred Clark on patheos.com, though. He calls himself a progressive Christian ( I think he might have specified that he was Catholic ) and he has dedicated his life so to speak to write up weekly blogs detailing, page by page, how he firmly believes that the Left Behind series is morally and theological horrible, full of plot holes and general terrible writing. He started way back in 2003 and as of right now about halfway through the third book ( not kidding, he really has that much to say about this series ). Here's the very first post: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2003/10/17/left-behind-is-evi l/

No, I haven't seen either the Thief in the Night series or the third Omen film, but I do have them on my to-watch list.

[–] teaguetod 10 years ago

Obviously, Catholics (but not only them) hate the whole Evangelical Protestant notion of the Rapture as unbiblical. They especially reject the belief in a rapture as separate from the Second Coming.

Thanks for the links to the critique of LB on patheos.com; that looks really interesting. A similar book I read that was written as a response to Left Behind (there have been many) was The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation by Barbara Rossing (an ELCA minister).

One of the most important realizations I've had as an adult is that the Christian religion isn't summed up by the way I was raised. The faith is much, much biggger and more varied than I ever knew as a child experiencing one subsection of Christianity in the Midwestern United States. Thankfully, Tim LaHaye and Kirk Cameron don't speak for everybody.

It really comes down to your view of God, the nature of God. Fundamentalist-evangelical Christians' beliefs about Hell and the Apocalypse and the Final Judgement reflect a belief in a very particular type of God. But that's not the only way Christians think, or have thought about God over the history of the religion.

One book that totally changed my thoughts on this was A Gentler God: Breaking Free of the Almighty in the Company of the Human Jesus by Doug Frank. An amazing book which, of course, almost nobody has ever heard of -- especially the people who need it most. Check out the reviews on Amazon or Goodreads to get an idea what it's about.

The other thing that has really made me re-think the version of religion that I grew up with is a documentary called Hellbound? (2012), which I highly recommend. I'm still thinking about all the issues raised in that film. You can look it up here on IMDb.

Again: I say all this as someone who longer considers himself a believer. But I still feel very emotionally & psychologically connected to Christianity as the spiritual tradition I grew up in.

I guess I still come back to check out Kirk's version of the Apocalypse for the same reason you said: it's a hoot.

[–] teaguetod 10 years ago

Maybe I can explain my long-winded posts this way. I think most people believe in religion, but they aren't very interested in it or aren't very curious about it. I don't believe, but I'm completely fascinated by it.

[–] GoldReaper 10 years ago

I totally understand. It's an engrossing subject streaming from the beginnings of humanity and once born into an environment heavy with it, it's hard to get away from completely.

[–] vmars080 8 years ago

It seems like most people are here to laugh at the films and haven't read the books. If I thought you really wondered why Ray married again, I would be happy to explain it. But I have a feeling that you don't care.

There is no marriage in heaven - look into that or read the books and you can learn it on your own, which IMHO is always better than having it spoon-fed.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] Kammurabi 8 years ago

Ray Steele had a marriage unto death do they part. It is good for as long as their lives last. According to Luke 16:18 all divorces-and-remarries are adultery. So death is the only legal recourse to end a marriage in the court of God.

Marrying Amanda is equivalent to bigamy if his wife is not dead.
If his wife and all others who disappeared are dead, then Mr. God is the perpetrator of the largest mass murder in history.

Therefore, either Ray Steele is a bigamist or God is a murderer.
You can try to snake your way out of it with either Ray or God as your client, but one of them has to take the fall.

.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] Kammurabi 8 years ago

That was the first time I posted in this thread so you were talking more directly to others.
My post was more in reply to the overall topic of the thread.

But your two things you said you added were death and cheating. I included death, so let's talk about cheating.
The biblical response to cheating was usually stoning the woman to death. If a man cheats, he usually just lived in shame. If there was a reference to stoning a man for cheating, I missed it and you can feel free to correct me.

So regardless, there was no cheating in Left Behind so that one is safely put aside. I didn't read the books but I doubt Ray's raptured wife had cheated on him at some point. So it is still Ray's a bigamist or God's a murderer.

.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] danzig138-668-939218 8 years ago

What's sad about this is that I can only imagine that the OP thought that they were being terribly clever with this post, when a baboon flinging *beep* is more clever.

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WORDS MEAN THINGS! Also, before you come to bitch about a plot hole, rewatch the show/movie.