Marty Mapes' Darwin Day List

List creator: AKrizman Created on: January 14, 2005 - 9:23 AM PST Description: My friend Marty Mapes is an atheist and a movie critic, and he put together this great list for Darwin Day

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	movie title	related list	average rating	MPAA rating	watch	rent	buy
	Inherit The Wind (1960)			Not Rated
NOTE: All comments are Marty's What Darwin Day list could be complete without this classic retelling of the 1925 Scopes trial, the legal battleground of the American schoolteacher who was arrested for teaching evolution.
	Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (Criterion Collection) (1922)
Completed in 1923, two years before the Scopes trial took place in Tennessee, Haxan is a docudrama on the subject of witchcraft. ...features a hypothetical recreation of witch hunts in the Middle Ages.
	Brotherhood of Wolf (Director's Cut) (2001)			Not Rated
...stays true to its scientific roots. It may take a few liberties with the laws of physics, just like any good action movie, but it illustrates the importance of skeptical inquiry and an open mind.
	The Advocate (1993)
...deadpan depiction of a ridiculous legal system, one that values tradition over logic and misinterpreted holiness over justice.
	Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr. (1999)
Morris gives Leuchter the benefit of the doubt at the beginning of the film. Ironically, it's the same open-minded and inquisitive approach to Leuchter's life that makes him look like such a monster by the end.
	Lorenzo's Oil (1992)
Great acting and a wonderfully uplifting sense of empowerment make Lorenzo's Oil a triumph. Since it puts science into the hands of everyday non-scientists, it makes a great choice for Darwin Day.
	Contact (1997)
Contact is also a great tribute to Sagan. Ellie has all of Sagan's curiosity, morality, and rationality. Like Sagan, Ellie is a rationalist who's interested in religious discussion.
	The Gods Must Be Crazy (1981)
Although the film isn't particularly skeptical or atheistic -- it seems too eager-to-please to cover these divisive topics -- it is interesting to see how extraordinary, unexplainable phenomena can be attributed to divine beings.
	Lord of the Flies (Criterion Collection) (1963)			Not Rated
Humanism is not an easily defined term. For me, it's a philosophy and practice that respects humans as humans. In all our glory and with all our warts... If any movie could be called Humanist in my book -- warts and all -- it must be Lord of the Flies.
	The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964)			Not Rated
It takes a holy text as source material and distills the humanity from it. The core of the story is still there, but all judgments and spiritual baggage has been removed.