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FORGOTTEN SILVER

What You Need To Know:

Coming to a theater near you may be this "mockumentary" from New Zealand co-starring Leonard Maltin, the movie critic for the TV show ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT. FORGOTTEN SILVER is a fake documentary about an allegedly forgotten silent movie filmmaker from New Zealand, named Colin McKenzie. Supported by "archive" footage and stills, the movie explores the relationship between film reality and film fantasy, often in an amusing and even dramatic fashion.

FORGOTTEN SILVER makes fun of Hollywood biblical epics, documentaries and pompous film critics and executives, but it does not slam the Bible. It shows how easily eyewitness testimony can be faked, and how important it is to confirm such testimony through credible external and internal evidence and/or cross-examination of witnesses. The Bible itself provides credible internal evidence because it does not contradict itself, and its references to historical people, times and places can be confirmed by external eyewitness testimony, external historical documents and external archeological research. Finally, the eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ's death and resurrection in the New Testament documents were cross-examined under persecution by the Roman and Jewish leaders. That's why we have very good reasons to believe the Gospel while we have few good reasons to believe the story of Colin McKenzie in FORGOTTEN SILVER.

Content:

(Ro, B, V, N) Romantic world view, with modern artistic sentiments about film reality & film fantasy but also with what appears to be a biblical view of eyewitness testimony; no obscenities or profanities; mild action violence from the Spanish Civil War & a silent movie biblical epic; and, one brief scene of bare-breasted native women in Tahiti.

More Detail:

Coming to an art house, revival theater near you may be this 1995 “mockumentary” from New Zealand co-starring none other than Leonard Maltin, the movie critic for the syndicated TV show ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT and author of a popular video guide for movies. FORGOTTEN SILVER is a fake documentary about an allegedly forgotten silent movie filmmaker from New Zealand, named Colin McKenzie. Supported by “archive” footage and stills, the movie explores the relationship between film reality and film fantasy, often in an amusing and even dramatic fashion.

FORGOTTEN SILVER begins with filmmaker Peter Jackson, director of the critically acclaimed HEAVENLY CREATURES, telling about his “discovery” of some old films at Mrs. McKenzie’s, his next door neighbor’s house. The films are really just snippets. Jackson alleges that the clips were directed by Mrs. McKenzie’s late husband, Colin. They include footage such as the first alleged talking movie, the first alleged color movie and footage from the supposed “real inventor” of the airplane. Throughout FORGOTTEN SILVER, the film critic Leonard Maltin and Miramax Pictures executive Harvey Weinstein appear to give credence to Jackson’s find. In a spoof, they even declare Colin McKenzie as one of the greatest film directors of all time.

Much of FORGOTTEN SILVER is taken up with the story of McKenzie’s “greatest” film project, a three-hour epic called SALOME: A TALE OF THE BIBLE. SALOME purports to be about John the Baptist and the dancer Salome, who asked for John the Baptist to be beheaded by King Herod. McKenzie takes almost 15 years to finish his epic and even enlists financing from dictator Joe Stalin’s Communist Russia, for whom he makes a propaganda version of SALOME. McKenzie falls in love with the girl playing Salome in his epic. They eventually marry, but she dies in childbirth. Heartbroken, Colin buries the footage of SALOME and ends up filming the Spanish Civil War, where he dies helping a fallen soldier.

FORGOTTEN SILVER makes fun of Hollywood biblical epics, documentaries and pompous film critics and film executives, but it does not slam the Bible. It shows how easily eyewitness testimony can be faked, and how important it is to corroborate and confirm such testimony through credible external and internal evidence and/or cross-examination of witnesses. The Bible itself provides credible internal evidence because it does not contradict itself, and its references to historical people, times and places can be confirmed by external eyewitness testimony, external historical documents and external archeological research. Finally, the eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection in the New Testament documents were cross-examined under persecution and torture by the Roman and Jewish leaders. That is why we have very good reasons to believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we have very few good reasons to believe the story of Colin McKenzie in FORGOTTEN SILVER.