The 10 Best Film Portrayals of God & The Devil

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I’ve never met Tom Waits, but everything I’ve read about him leads me to believe he’s a stand-up fella—loving husband, father of three, surprisingly down to earth, a pleasure to work with. But Terry Gilliam’s choice to cast Waits as the Devil in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus seems almost too obvious to praise. Actors sometimes are born to play a role, and I’m not sure what it says about the following 10 men and women that their particular role is either of unending love or eternal torment.

First, we’ll look at those particularly adept at playing God.

5. Will Ferrell in Superstar
Ferrell, who so lovingly prayed to “Eight Pound, Six Ounce, Newborn Baby Jesus, in your golden, fleece diapers, with your curled-up, fat, balled-up little fists pawin’ at the air,” was the best thing in yet another ill-advised Saturday Night Live character that got stretched into a film. “Oh my me!” he exclaims, when Molly Shannon’s Mary Katherine Gallagher first envisions him flying in through the window on golden light.

4. Alanis Morisette in Dogma
All the answers we seek can be found in the eyes of Alanis Morisette. Granted, her surprise appearance at the end of Kevin Smith’s Dogma wouldn’t have been so perfect without Alan Rickman’s droll turn as the seraphim, the voice of God. But Smith’s film was as much about messing with preconceptions as anything, and Morisette did just that.

3. Graham Chapman in Monty Python and The Holy Grail
Chapman’s voice-over in the animated scene where God sends King Arthur and his knights on a quest for the Holy Grail is a far cry from Donald Hayne’s booming proclamations to Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments. This God is a cranky God, but a memorable one.

2. George Burns in Oh God!
John Denver may have studied at the Mark Hamill “whine your way through a movie” acting school, but George Burns’ self-satisfied grin anchored this 1978 film. 81 years old at the time, Burns still had a fire that would burn for nearly two more decades and got to the heart of our longing for easy answers by not really giving any.

1. Morgan Freeman in Bruce Almighty
I don’t pretend to know or understand all the facets of God, but if there ever were an actor who carried a facsimile of his wisdom, compassion, patience and love more than Morgan Freeman, I’ve yet to see his or her films.

And on the flip side, these next five are Devilishly good.