What’s the most underrated movie you’ve ever watched?
A Google search will reveal box office ticket counts. The Oscars award prizes annually. But there is no single “most underrated” movie—acclaim or neglect, good or bad, all depends on personal taste, genre, and era. Everyone has their own most underrated film, not necessarily the world’s.
As for me, some old films like Moses are underrated and under-watched today. The film was based on Israel’s escape from Egypt—their slavery home—and showed how the Almighty God saved them and placed them in the promised land of abundance. To me, that story proclaimed what I have come to believe: when people are lost in the world, they are uplifted through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.
Besides history, most films portray present reality yet create fantasies real life does not offer. Or they mirror reality’s cruelty and audiences’ dreams as a wake-up call for a renewed life, with a realistic hope. Some filmmakers channel desperate calls for kindred spirits, dreaming the dreams themselves.
Awards and critics exist to satisfy supply and demand for survival. No demand, no supply; no audience, no filmmakers; and sadly for many—no dreams, no life.
Ironically, many find comfort in dreams they never attain. But reality is an illusion pursuable with open eyes—an illusion only in the sense that it must be pursued to be seen. Comfort sought in movies is a dose of entertainment for an hour or two. Realising one’s aspiration happens not in the cinema but by working hard under the sky—a sustainable entertainment, a truly living experience. And when you reap what you sow, you have truly lived. And when you sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit you will reap eternal life—Galatians 6:7–8.
Film performance is rated by awards or critics, with audiences and the industry each holding a ticket or a pen. But ultimately, who judges every real-life performance? I know the final judge—through living, I see Him (Job 42:5).
