The 1998 movie, City of Angels stars Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage. Cage plays Seth who is one of many guardian angels who watches over the people of Earth. Even though he observes people all day long, he is fascinated to understand them better. When they die and he takes them to the other side, he always asks what they liked the best. For instance, one little girl said she liked pajamas.
I liked how this movie’s portrayal of angels was theologically correct from a Judeo/Christian perspective. In fact it is a very spiritual film. Hollywood often glamorizes the incorrect notion that when people die, they become angels. Even the Catholic film maker Frank Capra in his classic It’s a Wonderful Life propagated this concept with Clarence the angel, who was once a person, missing such things as alcohol and cigarettes. But in Judeo/Christian theology the angels were created before, and separate from human beings, directly by God. The Bible says we become like the angels, but never says we become angels.
City of Angels makes this point clearly when the little girl told Seth she wanted to be an angel. Seth and Cassiel (Andre Braugher) discuss how they always want wings. Cassiel states that angels are not human beings, and never were.
I liked how this movie’s portrayal of angels was theologically correct from a Judeo/Christian perspective. In fact it is a very spiritual film. Hollywood often glamorizes the incorrect notion that when people die, they become angels. Even the Catholic film maker Frank Capra in his classic It’s a Wonderful Life propagated this concept with Clarence the angel, who was once a person, missing such things as alcohol and cigarettes. But in Judeo/Christian theology the angels were created before, and separate from human beings, directly by God. The Bible says we become like the angels, but never says we become angels.
City of Angels makes this point clearly when the little girl told Seth she wanted to be an angel. Seth and Cassiel (Andre Braugher) discuss how they always want wings. Cassiel states that angels are not human beings, and never were.
Seth and the other angles watch the sunrise because they here music in it.
There is a scene where after Seth decides to be seen by Maggie (Meg Ryan, Dr. Maggie Rice) he tries to tell her that her patient who died is still alive, just in a different way. She tells him, she doesn’t believe in that. His answer to her was amazingly insightful and spiritual.
 | City of Angels was loosely based on the German film, Wings of Desire 1987. Its screenplay was written by Dana Stevens who seems to work on romantic and wholesome films, including an adaptation of Nicolas Sparks’, Safe Haven, which she wrote the screenplay for. A year after City of Angels, she wrote For the Love of the Game, staring Kevin Kostner. |
| Here is where the writer takes liberties with the theology. Because he loves Maggie so much, Seth decides to give up being an angel. When Cassiel asks him if it was worth it, he utters what could be called the most romantic line in film history. |  |
Spoiler Alert: The film has a very ironic and sad ending. After Seth becomes human to be with Maggie, she is killed and taken from him. Before she dies, she tells him what she liked best.
The comforting factor is when Cassiel tells him: “One day you will die too.”
Andre Braugher as Cassiel
Seth asks Cassiel if God was punishing him, he is told, “You know better than that.” Another theologically correct statement.
Dennis Franz plays Nathaniel Messinger, another angel who had decided to live life as a human. Get it… Messinger?
Dennis Franz as Nathaniel Messinger
Great Film, very worth the watch.
My latest releases. Click the images for purchase options.
 |  |
RSS Feed
