Chosen Film:_Waiting for Armageddon_

The world is coming to an end – haven’t you heard? Evangelicals interviewed in Waiting for Armageddon all agree. They have different opinions on when and how, but they’re sure of three things: One, Biblical prophecy will be fulfilled; Two, Jews are a pivitol part of Christ’s return; and, Three, it’ll all be great, for them at least.

This documentary captures just a handful of America’s 20 million Evangelicals who believe these are the end times. They talk about how it’ll be satisfying to “see the prophecies fulfilled.” (Some seem to stop just short of calling it “fun.”) Others say they’re “excited.” A mother worries her youngest won’t have time to grow up. It’s coming fast. Her daughter wishes she could start her own family and complains it’s “unfair” her grandparents got to live to a ripe old age before the end.

Israel has to be attacked first. That’s part of the phrophecy. "It will be a horrible time for the Jews because the anvil on which the human race seems to be crushed is Israel," a middle-aged man confidently explains. These events feel so inevitable, some call them "future-history." And today’s wars in Middle East are seen as phrophetic signs, like "birth contractions" for the end. Pulling it all together, Waiting for Armaggedon shows how passion inspires political pressure, creating some very strange bedfellows between the Israeli government and the Christian Zionist movement.

The movie’s core, though, is the individual interviews, which somehow capture fundamentalism without mockery. Though filled with laugh-worthy moments, the film’s never malicious. For a group that believes the end of the world is nigh, its members have quite the sense of humor. One proudly shows pictures from his trip to Israel. (He photoshopped out the Dome of the Rock and replaced it with the Third Temple.) Filmmakers Franco Sacchi, Kate Davis and David Heilbroner do a spectacular job of showing both how frighting and funny the end of the world, or at least the people who believe in it, can be.