Movies/Scenes Representing a
Prodigal
- Boiler Room (2000)
- Seth strays from his father's values. His father remains loyal to him at great cost to himself. Seth turns in the company and returns to his father's value system.
- Deep End of the Ocean
(1999)
- The scene where the mother realizes her toddler is gone and begins a frantic, all-out search is a great clip to connect with Luke 15 type things... The all out search is emotional, gripping, and one people easily identify with. (Martha Johannides, Quest Community Church, Lexington KY)
- Boogie Nights (1998)
- Dirk/Eddie decides that he is being exploited by Jack who has befriended him and along with his wife has become surrogate family for Dirk. Dirk 'tells off' Jack in front of their colleagues and there is a fight. Dirk leaves the "family". He is unable to find another career. He is almost killed when he and friends decide to attempt to peddle fake drugs. He returns to Jack and begs to be taken back into his surrogate family. Jack hugs him and welcomes him back.
- Good Will Hunting
(1997)
- "I Have Sinned," sermon by Peter L Haynes, linking "Good Will Hunting" with the Prodigal Son parable.
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Legends of the Fall (1994)
- We are going to use a clip from the movie 'Legends of the Fall' for a sermon about the Prodigal Son. We are just going to use the scenes of when Tristan comes home set to music. The character Tristan is a prodigal son in this movie. A great movie, by the way! (Jenny Lust, New Vision Community Church, Marion, Ohio)
- Overboard
(1987)
- Goldie Hawn plays a spoiled rich woman, Kurt Russel a single parent carpenter / commoner. She abuses him in the beginning as lower than whale feces while he reinvents the closet on her yacht to accomodate her superfluous wardrobe. He kind of dreams about her (she is beautiful) but her jarring rudeness is more for even lust to overcome in fantasy, I think. She gets thrown overboard during a party at night (by accident) and strikes her head. Kurt Russel finds her and tells her she's his wife, mother of three boys (the boys cooperate). She can't believe it, of course, but ultimately learns to love and respect this odd lot family she's now a part of (unwillingly). Kurt (who never takes advantage of her, as far as I can remember) finally tells her (I think, or someone else does and he was going to). The rest is vague. I suppose she storms back to her yacht, absolutely can't stand to live without him and the kids, and rushes back into his arms when he and the kids show up to say they can't live without her. (submitted by Rev. Michael Phillips, Berwick, Pennsylvania)
- First, it wasn't during a party that she was thrown overboard, it was while trying to retrieve her jewelry left on deck earlier that day. (She lost the gold and gained a life?) Most important -- her husband came back to get her (after he had stranded her in the hospital months before), and she got her memory back in a flash. She went off with him back to the yacht, but with her experiences as a poor mother of 4 fresh in her mind, she realized how selfish and superfluous her former life (and her mother, husband and shrink) all were, and told the captain to turn the ship around. A battle with her husband ensued, and, with Kurt Russell and the kids following in a coast guard yacht (courtesy of some friends), she was close, but not close enough to go back to the poor life, the one with values. Kurt Russell jumps overboard, then Goldie Hawn jumps overboard, and they end up together in a life raft, and it all ends happily ever after. SHE changed, and that's what makes the story a valid one for it's place in this directory. (submitted by Sharon Pajak)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939)
- Dorothy leaves home, wanders, and returns with new appreciation for those who love her.
