{"id":2616,"date":"2024-08-21T02:53:49","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T02:53:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2616"},"modified":"2024-10-14T12:28:39","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T16:28:39","slug":"oh-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/21\/oh-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, God!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Oh, God! <\/strong>(1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Carl Reiner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Larry Gelbart\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Elliott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 7, 1977 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Burns, John Denver, Teri Garr, Donald Pleasence, Ralph Bellamy, William Daniels, Barnard Hughes, Paul Sorvino, Barry Sullivan, Dinah Shore, Moosie Drier, Rachel Longaker, Jeff Corey, George Furth, David Ogden Stiers, Titos Vandis.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $51M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0What would happen if God decided to make an appearance on Earth? To whom would He show himself? What would He ask of this person? How would others react when this person says that he or she spoke directly to God?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Such is the premise of Oh, God<\/strong>, a funny, gentle comedy from Carl Reiner (The Jerk, Summer School) starring George Burns (The Sunshine Boys) in the title role. I guess the then-81YO actor was the closest in age to the Almighty. It\u2019s hard to believe that anybody would object to a movie that casts a positive light on God, but several fundamental religious organizations- e.g. Catholics, Mormons and Southern Baptists (okay, no surprise there)- not only denounced Oh, God<\/strong> as sacrilegious, they threatened to excommunicate anybody that went to see it. They even picketed theaters showing it. What is it that gets into some people whenever a film dealing with religion is made? It\u2019s not like Oh, God<\/strong> made fun of Him. On the contrary, it makes Him seem like a nice guy with a sense of humor. If God was to appear in the flesh, why not as somebody as good-humored as Burns? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s disrespectful to consider such a thing. Oh, God<\/strong> is actually one of the most respectful movies dealing with religion I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s also very funny.<\/p>\n

\u00a0People have stopped believing in Him and He needs somebody to spread His message to the world, so God calls in Jerry Landers (folk-country singer Denver) for an interview. An assistant manager of a supermarket, he\u2019s a decent guy with a wife Bobbie (Garr, Tootsie) and two kids, Adam (Drier, The Hollywood Knights) and Becky (Longaker, The Waltons). He initially dismisses the letter summoning him as a prank. He\u2019s still convinced it\u2019s a joke when he shows up and only hears a voice on an intercom. It takes a bit of doing, but God manages to convince Jerry He\u2019s the real deal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0He then asks a big favor of Jerry. He wants him to tell the world that He exists and to have faith. They have it in them to fix the mess the world is in. After all, God can\u2019t be expected to do everything, can He? Even though he\u2019s not a religious man, Jerry accepts the assignment. As expected, everybody thinks he\u2019s losing his mind. People either mock him or call him a liar. It all culminates in a court battle between Jerry and a loudmouth preacher (Sorvino, Goodfellas) who sues him for slander after Jerry publicly calls him a phony (as directed by God).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Reiner and script writer Larry Gelbart (creator of M*A*S*H) do a fine job explaining why God appears and sounds like He does in Oh, God<\/strong>. He explains to Jerry that if He was to appear as He truly is, he wouldn\u2019t able to comprehend it. Hence, he appears as a little old man with glasses and a fishing cap. As for the voice, he chose a human voice to enable Jerry to understand Him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The cool thing about God, as portrayed by Burns, is that He\u2019s a funny guy. When asked about miracles, He replies the last one was the 1969 Mets. He also admits to making mistakes when creating the world- e.g. tobacco, ostriches (they look ridiculous) and avocados (the pits are too big). The intelligent script augments Burns\u2019 stellar performance as the Creator. He carries the role with a combination of quiet authority and good humor. While Denver isn\u2019t a particularly good actor, he has this air of sincerity about him that makes him the ideal choice to play God\u2019s newest messenger.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some good points are made in Oh, God<\/strong>, but the one that resonates most with me is when God tells Jerry it\u2019s about faith, NOT religion. Thanks to Reiner\u2019s light-hearted touch, the movie never feels like a sermon. It\u2019s more like a Frank Capra movie with a protagonist that will prevail because he\u2019s a decent, unassuming kind of guy. Oh, God<\/strong> also has elements of satire, but not once is it offensive or disrespectful. It\u2019s in good taste, a quality rarely seen in comedies anymore. It\u2019s impossible NOT to like Oh, God<\/strong> for the simple reason that it\u2019s a nice, good-humored movie with a positive message. It doesn\u2019t hurt that an old pro like Burns takes the lead. One might even say that his casting is divinely inspirational.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, God! (1977)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 98 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (mild language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Carl Reiner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Larry Gelbart\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jack Elliott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 7, 1977 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: George Burns, John Denver, Teri Garr, Donald Pleasence, Ralph Bellamy, William Daniels, Barnard Hughes, Paul Sorvino, Barry Sullivan, Dinah Shore, Moosie Drier, Rachel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Oh-God-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2616"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3484,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2616\/revisions\/3484"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}