The Heart of Man (Blu-ray user review)

[HDTV1080P]

*** In the user review section of this forum there is a 20,000 character limitation which I exceeded, therefore I am forced to post this Christian Blu-ray user review in the general Blu-ray movie forum with a link in the user review section to this post ****

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Heart-of-Man-Blu-ray/243134/#UserReviews

The Heart of Man is a year 2017 Christian documentary movie that was released on the Blu-ray format on 9-17-2019. This Christian documentary is rated PG-13. The Heart of Man is a very low budget movie with an estimated budget of $850,000 and box office sells of $1,089,140. So, it appears the movie had a small profit at the box office with mostly the Christian community supporting the movie. However, I just became aware of this Christian movie being released on the Blu-ray format (released on 9-17-2019), and my actual Blu-ray disc arrived in the mail just in the last 48 hours. Therefore, to help the Blu-ray format out, I well volunteer to review another Christian movie even though I do not agree with everything in this movie documentary.

Many times I give Christian movies 5 stars out of 5, I decided to give this Christian movie 1 star out of 5. The first issue I have is regarding the movie description, this is not a retelling of the Prodigal son as mentioned on Christian websites, but instead a Christian documentary regarding modern day people that have experienced sexual abuse. A true retelling of the Prodigal son is the 1983 Billy Graham movie The Prodigal that was released on the Laserdisc format.

The current description of this movie on Christian websites and at Blu-ray.com is the following:

“The Heart of Man is a cinematic retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son, intertwined with contemporary and poignant true testimonies of personal and sexual brokenness. These two genres are combined as never before to reveal the compassionate heart of God the father for his sons and daughters illuminating an age-old truth: Shame is not a barrier to God’s love, but a bridge to absolute transformation, victory, freedom and hope.”

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Heart-of-Man-Blu-ray/243134/


I just summited a change to the Blu-ray.com database that is pending approval with the following description that I believe is more accurate description:

“A documentary from a Christian perspective regarding sexual addiction, including topics like sexual abuse, pornography, and masturbation.”


If this movie description change is approved then people will know exactly what they are purchasing.

What is weird is that there is no official description for this movie on the Blu-ray jacket. But after watching the around 76-minute documentary it clearly is not a retelling of the Prodigal Son but a documentary regarding sexual addiction with testimonies from modern people that claim to have been involved in some type of sexual addiction. Therefore, while some people reviewing this movie documentary might give the movie a higher rating, I am a little upset that I thought I was going to be watching an actual movie about the retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son and instead I ended up watching a 76-minute (1 hour 15 minutes and 47 seconds actual) documentary regarding sexual addition, including around 2 hours and 45 minutes of bonus material (2 hours 44 minutes and 51 seconds actual). While I have no problem with people’s freedom of speech and their view point on subjects like addiction, I just wish there was an actual more accurate description of the content of this documentary that I thought was going to be more like a real movie, then I might have given the movie more star ratings. In the future I may stop reviewing Christian and other faith-based documentaries and movies since its time consuming taking many hours and sometimes over a day writing a user review (then if one hits the wrong sequence of buttons, one can lose many hours of work by mistake and must start over, which actually happen during the writing of this user review, and I ended up taking over a day writing the user review). It’s difficult and time consuming to review what many people consider controversial topics. No one else at Blu-ray.com wanted to write a brief user review regarding this documentary, so hopefully my user reviews will be helpful to the Blu-ray format.

***** During this brief user review while I will mention some things discussed in the 76 minute documentary and 2 hours and 45 minute bonus features on the Blu-ray. I also will mention some things I have learned over the years from other Christian ministries and secular sources. So, my point is this user review will contain some material not covered in the official The Heart of Man documentary. ******


One of the official online definitions of the word Addiction is the following:


“Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, often usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences”

Therefore, most of the time being addicted to something is considered negative and very harmful in one’s health and life. Someone might be addicted to harmful street drugs which is very harmful to one’s health. Or maybe one is addicted to junk food that is less harmful and less addicting when compared to certain street drugs. However, if I am allowed to change the official definition of the word addiction, then there are many good and healthy addictions in one’s life. For example, drinking water and eating healthy foods can also be both healthy, enjoyable, and at the same time a good addiction. This documentary is about sexual addiction and covers immoral and illegal sexual activity like molestation and rape. However, what this documentary fails to mention or make clear, is that God created sex and made sex and nudity a good thing for inside of marriage. Going back to creation in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve before the fall were clothed in the image of God, and did not realize that they were naked. It is after the fall that nudity and being ashamed of one’s body occurred. So, coming out of the Garden of Eden all animals do not wear clothes, but instead human beings were the only species to be given clothes to wear once sin entered the fallen world (and in a fallen world because of climate change with cold winters and lust issues when seeing naked human bodies, people had to wear clothes). I have never met God, however hypothetically if I was an artificial intelligence lifeform and I had the authority to do so, I would place the passed away porno stars in the Garden of Eden. I believe all porno stars would like the Garden of Eden since one never ages, never gets sick, and never dies in the Eden paradise. Also, porno stars would like to live in the Garden of Eden since no earthly clothes is allowed and one is clothed in the image of God running around like a wild animal having sexual intercourse all day long. However, in the Christian worldview God has final authority on where he places porno stars and everyone else in the afterlife. Some scientist believe there is no God and no afterlife, if that was true then someday advanced artificial lifeforms one day might rule the universe. There are three Abrahamic religions called Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Many Christians including people part of the Abrahamic religions believe nudity is ok inside of marriage if one is in the privacy of one’s home with no one else around except for the married persons wife or husband (where as in public some Muslim women are fully clothed from head to toe so that no one lusts after them). However, some married Christians decide to have sex fully clothed and/or in the dark since they have personal issues regarding nudity. Also, some married Christians choose not to have anal or oral sex since Christian tradition up until the late 20 Century has claimed that type of sex is sinful since procreation only occurs during sexual intercourse (some people in the 21st Century disagree with that Christian tradition). This Christian documentary talks about people being sexually abused using the oral sex method and same sex relationships are discussed. God made sex to be a good addiction between a husband and wife for procreation and pleasure purposes. So, the reason why sex and sexual attraction is addictive is God made it that way so that human beings and animals would not go extinct on the planet earth. However according to the three Abrahamic religions, sex outside of marriage is sinful. In modern times some people wait until they are between 25 to 35 years old before getting marred instead of the old days of people getting married much younger at the age of 18 or sometimes 16 with parents’ permission. Some people wait until they are 35 or older to get married because of college education and/or having to work 80+ hours or more a week to pay the bills (it requires a lot of money and a high yearly salary to have a big or small family). The older one gets it sometimes is more difficult to stay a virgin since one is supposed to wait until marriage before having sex according to Christianity and religion in general (However some people comment sexual sin and they repent by recommitting their life to God and remain faithful to one person inside of marriage or instead decide to live like a Monk, Catholic Priest, or Nun abstaining from all sexual activity for the rest of their life) . Also, in both the Christian community and secular world there have been many people encouraging people to wait until they finish college and have a good paying career before getting married and starting a family. In certain states someone between the age of 18 to 20 years old can marry a 16 or 17 year old with parents’ permission. In Christian tradition many married couples are no more than two years different in age (like a 20-year-old is married to an 18-year-old). However sometimes a 30-year-old is married to a 20-year-old which some people rebuke because of the 10-year age difference (But some people regardless of how old or young they are, fall in love with each other and marry). The advantage of two people being married at around the age 18, is that the married couple has the potential to have a marriage that lasts 50 or 60+ years, since in Christian tradition the ideal marriage is to the same person for the rest of one’s entire life. However, for various reasons in this fallen world like disease and war which leads to early death, some people do not have a lifelong happy marriage.

The tradition of the three Abrahamic religions is the only type of sexual relations blessed by God is marriage between a husband and wife. This documentary is about sexual addiction that occurs outside of marriage, with many people in the Christian community blaming pornography for rape, molestation, affairs, one-night stands, masturbation, and other sexual activity. But people need to take responsibility for their own sexual actions and stop placing the blame on pornography. When one views pornography there is at least five different possibilities that one chooses with their free will. Some people that view hardcore pornography do absolutely nothing after the porno movie is watched. The majority of people while watching a hardcore pornographic movie in the privacy of their home choose to masturbate. Some people after watching a hardcore porno movie decide with their free will to have sexual relations with their wife or husband or another romantic lifetime partner in their life. While in the Christian worldview prostitution is morally wrong, in the state of Nevada prostitution is legal. Some people living in the state of Nevada after watching pornography decide to have sexual relations with a legal prostitute. In some very rare situations, some people after watching pornography make the immoral and illegal decision to rape or molest someone. However, there are many sexual things that attract people in life, and not just pictures and videos that people call pornography. A married man might see a beautiful women walking down the beach in her swimsuit, and instead of asking her out for a one-night stand, the man might make the moral decision to instead go home to his wife and have a romantic night that might involve sex if both people in the marriage agree.

One person in the documentary makes the following comment since she use to watch pornography on cable TV.


Quote


“Though the ways in which I was acting out my sexuality, pornography, masturbation, I knew in essence was wrong, it felt bad, but it felt freeing.”


Currently in the early 21st Century adult pornography is legal in the United States for people age 18 and older to watch. Pornography is the writing of prostitutes according to Christians. Some people in the religious community believe nudity in R rated movies and also beautiful models in swimsuit issues is also pornography. While many Christians believe that all sins are equal. Some Christians believe people viewing and selling pornography is a greater sin then being a drug dealer or drug user. So, some Christians treat drug dealers better then they treat a person distributing pornography. However, if I had a choice of riding in a car with someone that took cocaine before the car drive or instead someone that just viewed a pornographic picture or movie, I would choose the one that looked at porn since the one on drugs has a greater chance of getting in a car accident, since drugs negatively effects ones driving skills. Also, under the law the one that just viewed pornography before driving the car is legally allowed to do so. Almost all non-Christians (including many secular atheists) are against child pornography which is illegal in the western world. However, many Christians are working to try and make all adult pornography illegal (adult pornography is currently legal pornography in the western world since adult pornography has 18-year-old actors that are naked and sometimes in sexual situations).

Many Christians blame pornography for any sexual addiction including rape, molestation, sexual affairs, masturbation, and various other sexual activities. However, God has given people a free will to channel their sexual desires toward their wife or husband and to say no to sexual immorality. Bottom line pornography is not to blame, and people have free will, and I do not believe that people are being taken over by some sexual demon like some Christian churches have taught in the 20th Century. Sometimes in the 20th Century Christians were casting demons out of people that had immoral sexual addictions. Over the last two thousand years and in modern times, some Christians have mentioned that sex inside of marriage should only occur once a year or once a month between a married couple. However, some Christians disagree and have sex several times a day inside of marriage and they feel its blessed by God since holy sex is a natural healthy addiction (sex is for procreation and pleasure purposes inside of marriage). However, God made the sex drive, made sex addictive, and also has given people a free will to use sex for good purposes inside of marriage or bad purposes outside of marriage. Many Christians that have remained virgins until marriage, have found out that once they start having sex with their wife or husband, that sex inside of marriage is very addictive (God made sex a good addiction for inside of marriage). This documentary encourages people to confess their sins including sexual sins to God. In fact, the people in this documentary are confessing their sins to everyone that sees The Heart of Man documentary. However, when one of the husbands in the documentary talks to his wife and she agrees to hear all his sexual sins as a confession, she gets upset with all the nasty sexual things he has done and they get separated or a divorce. So, in general one should only confess all their sins to God in private and one should consider not to confessing their sins to a Priest or Pastor (since some men of the cloth cannot be trusted and may tell other people in the church the sexual sins that was committed). However, one is supposed to be honest with their wife, therefore some people confess all their sins to their wife if the wife wants to hear it, however some wives may not want to hear many weeks and hours’ worth of confessions and might want to limit confessions to sexual activity one has commit during their life before the marriage. Sometimes it destroys the marriage to confess all one’s sins, and that is the chance some people are willing to take in order to start a completely honest and open relationship where no more lies exist (but doing the full confession one is at risk for divorce from some people since adultery is one of the sins the church allows as a reason to get a divorce). Some people switch religions or become an atheist and set their own rules for a marriage relationship or lifelong romantic partner relationship since people get sick and tired of confessing every immoral sexual fantasy or encounter that they have experienced in life. Sometimes Christian tradition can be taken to extremes and people lose interest in religion. The only reason for one to be a Christian is if Jesus Christ really rose from the dead bodily almost 2,000 years ago and ascended into heaven. If the resurrection of Jesus can be disproved one day, then its time to find another religion or become an atheist.

One of the young ladies in The Heart of Man Blu-ray documentary briefly mentions that masturbation is wrong. For the last 2,000 years including the Middle Ages many Christians have claimed that all forms of masturbation is sin. In fact, every Protestant and Catholic book, audio CD, or other material that I have read or listened too about masturbation in the 20th Century and 21st Century claims it is sinful activity to masturbate. However, I disagree with the mainstream Christian teaching regarding masturbation, and feel if the sexual fantasy is pure and holy then it is not sin. For example, if the wife in the marriage leaves town and goes and visits relatives over the weekend, then if the husband is alone in the house by himself, then he is allowed to think about his wife while masturbating (I believe that would be a pure and holy form of masturbation blessed by God looking down from heaven). However, if the husband or wife in the marriage uses pornography while masturbating then that would be considered a sin. While many Christians believe all sins are equal, Jesus did teach that some sins are greater (worse) then others (For example in John 19:11 Jesus talked about one being guilty of a greater sin). However, someone masturbating to pornography in the privacy of their home would be a lessor sin when compared to someone committing adultery (modern day term having an affair) with another person. Since having a sexual affair involves two people in the sin and opens the potential for catching sexually transmitted diseases and possible having a new baby outside of marriage. When one masturbates by themselves it is impossible to catch a sexually transmitted disease, which is evidence that masturbation is sometimes holy and blessed by God, or instead when viewing pornography while masturbating it is a lessor sin compared to having a real affair with another human being. Some Christian women want a divorce if they find out their husband has been masturbating to pornography, since they feel they have been cheated on by the husband masturbating to another women. Also some women fear the next step is the husband having a real life affair with another women, but some husbands do not take that next step and never have a affair with another women.

Some Christians believe one is no longer a virgin if they masturbate. However other Christians believe one must have actual sexual intercourse with another human being in order to lose their virginity. Some Christians in their twenties that I have met while attending a Christian college claim that they have never masturbated in their entire life (which the early church fathers would consider those people being pure and holy). Since many people are not getting married between 16-18 years old anymore, then this means some single teenagers or adults in their twenties or thirties choose to masturbate in private while pretending that they are married. I believe if one is single and they have pure and holy sexual fantasies while masturbating in private then that is a form of masturbating that would be blessed by God. While many people claim they have never masturbated during their entire life, the people that have masturbated have discovered that masturbating is another addictive sexual activity that many people believe was designed by God (and not part of the devil’s system that some people claim). Some people claim masturbating with or without pornography is a very healthy form of exercise that leads to a long healthy life.

Around 30 years ago a coworker that worked with me, found out that I was a Christian, so he approached me and mentioned that he and his wife view hardcore pornography before having sex with each other. This coworker and his wife remained faithful to each other and did not involve anyone else in the sexual relationship. The reality is sometimes several millions of married couples view hardcore pornography before having sex with each other. And in general, several millions of married couples choose not to have orgies with people (no group sex). I am not saying that it is morally correct to view pornography inside of marriage, I am just stating a fact that several millions of married couples do view hardcore pornography around the world, and many of those couples never have sex outside of marriage. Of course, there are the exceptions and some secular married couples have orgies with other people during or after viewing pornography. But again, sex was made addictive by God himself, and its peoples free will if they choose to obey God’s laws regarding only having sex inside of marriage, or having orgies. In the Christian worldview sexual sin can be enjoyable for a certain amount of time, but in this world, one increases their chances of catching a sexually transmitted disease, and one might not like where they end up in the afterlife if they have lived a life of having constant sex orgies all their life.

Over the many centuries Christians and other religions have rebuked certain types of paintings and statues of people claiming that many are pornographic in nature. In the 19th century with the invention of still photography around the 1830’s and the invention of 35mm motion pictures around the 1890’s, soon after people started rebuking pornography and making laws against pornography. However fast forward to the early 21st Century with billions of people worldwide having access to high quality cameras in Smartphones and standalone camcorders, this has resulted in some married couples with their free will making nude still pictures of themselves, or married couples making private sex videos of themselves for the purpose of watching themselves on the bedroom big screen. However, in the 20th Century and early 21st Century the Christian community has rebuked married couples that make private sex videos of themselves claiming that such activity is pornographic even though some of the Christian couples do not view any pornographic videos, but only private homemade videos of themselves having sex using some type of automated robotic camera tracking device or tripod in the bedroom. Some secular people claim that married couples should be allowed to make private still nude pictures and sex videos of themselves, while the majority of the Christian and religious community rebuking such activity as sinful (some people have in their will to destroy any such private nude pictures or private sex videos when they die, while others mainly non-religious people choose to be more open about their sexuality and have the nude pictures and sex videos posted online).

Bottom line Christians and sometimes the secular world have a hard time deciding on what is right and wrong when it comes to cameras and other new technologies. Some people claim keeping a recording of one’s private marriage life when it involves nudity and sex is blessed by God, while other people claim such activity is pornographic and should not be allowed. Some Christians even rebuke husbands that take a picture of their wife in a sexy swimsuit by calling that pornography. If the husband went on a business trip out of town and in the privacy of his hotel room unlocked a encrypted digital picture or video of his wife in a swimsuit while masturbating to her, many in the Christian community would call that person a sex pervert and one that is viewing pornography. However, the Husband decided not to pick up a beautiful woman at the bar to bring back to the hotel room to have sex with, but instead looked at a picture of his wife in a swimsuit, and then masturbating to the image of his wife in the privacy of the hotel room. Therefore, in the eyes of God that husband was faithful to his wife (But some Christians would disagree that God would approve such activity).

While pornography according to the three Abrahamic religions is considered morally wrong. Bottom line I am not recommending this Christian documentary that is about sexual addiction. Many Christians blame pornography for any sexual problem they have in life, when in reality everyone has free will and makes good or bad sexual choices according to the moral code they follow in life.

*** Video Comments ***

The Heart of Man was not released on the 4K Blu-ray format but instead received a standard Blu-ray disc release. This movie uses a total of 42.7GB of space out of 50GB on the dual layer Blu-ray disc. This movie uses the MPEG-4/AVC codec with a resolution of 1080P. Some scenes in the movie have a bit rate of around 23Mbps for the MPEG-4/AVC codec. Overall, the movie documentary had an excellent quality picture with good color quality and facial detail. However, for some reason the English subtitles are automatically set to on, so for people that do not want or need subtitles, they need to manually turn the subtitles off in the Blu-ray disc menu before watching the documentary.

*** Audio Comments ***

This movie documentary also has a lossless English 5.1 DTS-HD Master audio soundtrack that is bit for bit exactly the same as the studio master. Overall, a good audio mix for this movie with no complaints.

*** Extra features ***

100% of the Blu-ray disc menus including 100% of the extra features for this release uses the MPEG-4/AVC codec at 1080P with lossy 2.0 Dolby Digital at 640kbps. When it comes to playing the extras one can play them individually or one can select “Play All” in order to play everything. I selected play all which resulted in watching 2 hours 44 minutes and 51 seconds worth of extras. The extras are basically a roundtable of people discussing the movie. Which I found interesting at times, but also boring sometimes since I felt no real solutions were being given to people about sexual issues that Christians call sinful. With the eyes of God looking down from heaven upon people.

*** Conclusion ***

Overall, for standard 1080P Blu-ray video and also for the 5.1 lossless audio mix this release earns 5 star out of 5 for both categories. Also, when it came to quality extra features 5 stars out of 5 because of the number of extras. However, for the documentary itself for the reasons mentioned before I give this Christian movie only 1 star out of 5. I felt like people were blaming pornography for just about all sexual problems in their life, and being a victim instead of one taking personal responsibility for their own actions. Also, what is up with the apostles starting this Christian tradition of people confessing all their sins to other Christians including complete strangers. It does take a lot of courage to confess major sexual sins on a Christian documentary. But people need to be careful confessing all or most their sins to other people. Some people in the real world lose their job and career, and some people end up in jail depending on if the sins were illegal under the laws of the country they live in. Confessing sins to God in private and changing one’s lifestyle is what some people choose to do.


https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Heart-of-Man-Blu-ray/243134/#UserReviews