1. Bruce Almighty Questions
1. Viewers might think that the movie ‘Bruce Almighty’ is mocking the idea of God
and making fun of him because God is a serious thing and shouldn’t be used in
such a way. However, this movie doesn’t insult God, and there isn’t really
anything that is really offensive. It’s just used to add humor in the movie and
personally I find that Bruce Almighty is quite a good comedy.
2. Throughout the movie, it shows that God has given his powers to a man named
Bruce. Bruce uses these powers mostly for himself and does very silly things
with them. Bruce does things such as turn his car into a very expensive one and
split tomato soup as if he was splitting the red sea. All this is very funny, and I
don’t see any offense in them.
3. In the movie, God is shown as a plain human, with jobs such as a janitor, an
electrician, and being God. Some Christians may find it offensive, but if the
movie didn’t use a human, what other ways could they substitute for God?
Without using a person, the movie wouldn’t make sense, because God (Morgan
Freeman) explains things to Bruce, which also means explaining things to the
viewers.
4. I think the message of the film was don’t disrespect God like Bruce did and
believe in him. I don’t think that it disagrees with any religions, because the
messages from the film are not offensive at all.
5. The moral from the film is basically respect God and understand that even though
you may not get everything you want, God is always there to look out for you and
he isn’t biased to any one person.
6. I think important religious messages that are missing from the film are things
about God helping people, because there was no example of God or Bruce
helping anyone else. But this is just a movie, and even though it is clear that
Bruce slacks off, there isn’t an example that he isn’t doing his job.

2. SCRIPT:
Holly: Welcome to RFM, this Saturday morning. We have to guests with us, here to
talk about the popular, yet controversial film, Bruce Almighty.
With us now are Rachel and Colwyn, on lines 2 and 3. So, you both have very strong
opinions on the idea of prayer in Bruce Almighty, and the religious aspects of the
film. Why do you think that the way prayer is addressed is a important in today’s
world?
Rachel: Well, as you said, this hugely popular film, has reached thousands of people,
Christians, Along with many believers in other religions, as well as many others. I
think that Bruce Almighty shows only one, quite wrong way of what prayer is, which
may leave viewers with a strong, but false impressions of what prayer is, amongst
other reasons.
Holly: Hm, an interesting point. Colwyn, what do you have to say in response to this?
Colwyn: I believe that people are reading too deeply into a light-hearted comedy film.
It isn’t the job of ‘Bruce Almighty’ to tell people what Prayer is about, and what
Christianity is about. And, even with that in mind, they still treat the subject with
some respect, not trying to offend anyone, from a non-Christan view.
Holly: Bruce dealt with prayer in a manner of different ways. What did you think of
this?
Colwyn: I thought the dealing with prayer was very fair, and honest. It was comical
and allowed people to see that miracles can happen, and God can answer prayers. Yes,
there may have been some flaws, but overall, especially when they highlighted grace’s
Prayers, and the consequences of the selfish prayers, the whole idea was treated with
respect for a film of that sort.
Rachel: I have to disagree. I believe that the way it was shown was false. The film
gave the impression that prayers were a nuisance to the supposedly Omni-benevolent
idea of god, and the idea that God could just say ‘yes to all’ also showed that God was
lazy, and could choose to ignore us. In both these cases this is not true. And, the
nature of these prayers was also very selfish, for example; many people were greedy

3. and wished for things such as money. The film also showed no deserving prayers
being answered, to heal sickness and forgive, for example. The whole mockery of
Prayer could have been improved fully by including the idea of God’s forgiving
nature.
Holly: That is very interesting. You mentioned that the prayers seemed to be related
with greed and lust. Would you add to that idea?
Rachel : Yes. The fact that prayers seemed portrayed as some sort of easy system,
rather than to connect with a greater being, as a sacred part of religion, was very
offensive. The other the fact that the prayers were related to sins was deeply ironic.
Not only because Grace herself had committed sins, when living with Bruce, and had
come off as a good, Christian girl, leaving an incorrect view of Christianity and
religion in general on the viewer - but also because the whole movie was full of
inaccuracies.
Holly: An intriguing point. Colwyn, you thought that the idea of Prayer was dealt with
fairly. What do you say to Rachel’s comments?
Colwyn: I find that without the idea of sin, the movie plot wouldn’t be the same, Yes
they could have improved the idea by, perhaps having some clarifications on what
they could/could not have put in, but overall, I don’t think it was too much of an issue,
as the movie also had consequences and much deeper meaning to everything Bruce
abused the power for.
Holly: Sin was not only used in prayer in this movie, but also with the main character-
Bruce. He directly questioned God, Ranting and using his name in vain. What effect
did this have on the movie, and How would you, and other religious people see it?
Colwyn: I think that God’s direct involvement was a key part of the movie, and was
necessary, but I can see why some people may find it offensive. Putting an image on
god may be license to get a ban in some countries, and God’s involvement with this
one man, may contradict one persons view of a religion, and implement the idea that
all the views were connected with one religion, which is not the case.
Rachel: I agree, for example; the idea that the film is Christian is quite clear, by all the
biblical references and the imagery (eg. Walking on water) . However, other religions
may also take offence, such as Islam, Where putting an image on God allows us to

4. believe/others to see that a human can have the same power/relatable power to god,
Which in most religions isn’t the case.
Holly: In the movie, the way that Bruce uses the powers, such as control of everything
is very questionable, and can also leave an impression of what god is like to the
viewer. What do you think of this?
Rachel : I believe that Bruce’s carelessness and lack of responsibility reflects badly
on….
Colwyn: I think this has the opposite effect. I believe that because Bruce uses the
powers so selfishly, it shows humans in general, how they have no greater
understanding, or knowledge than God does, and it shows us that God manages the
situations so much better than Bruce has. We can see the consequences of what Bruce
did, and the world is not like that now, so it can actually show us that God is doing his
job correctly. Again, the idea of God;s ‘Job’ in the earth is very controversial, and
Bruce Almighty does tend to display the message that god does get involved.