Movie With A Message "Man in the 5th Dimension"
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| Written by: Eric Paddon, History teacher, County College Of Morris, New Jersey, USA | Date: 6 March 2005 |
 A good film, in the opinion of many movie
critics, is one which evokes a positive emotional response. The
noted playwright, Maxwell Anderson, likened such a response to a
religious experience.If this is the criterion for judging films, then there is an extremely good film being shown hourly in the Billy Graham Pavilion. The avowed purpose of "Man in the Fifth Dimension" is to move viewers to receive Christ as Savior and Lord -- right there and then. Certainly, this is a call to a positive emotional response, whose demand for immediacy and importance of decision is without precedent in film annals. But judging from the lines making their way to the counseling rooms behind doors at each end of the screen, it is a successful call. |
Further
in 70mm reading: "Man in the 5th Dimension" Todd-AO Todd-AO Films Internet link: This article first appeared on nywf64.com September 2002. Reprinted by kind permission from the author Eric Paddon. |
 The film, the focal point of the "crusade
in Flushing Meadow," is shown in a red-carpeted,
gold-draped theater which seats 400. The exterior brick walls of
the theater are striking photo presentations in themselves. They
are lined with 14 photographic enlargements which trace Mr.
Graham's worldwide crusades. Two backlighted panels are four
feet by 20 feet, and 12 panels are nine feet by four feet.Made by Mr. Graham's own World Wide Picture Company, the 28-minute, 70mm Todd-AO color film was filmed at spiritually significant locales throughout the world, and details the story of man from the Creation. It closes with Mr. Graham's call to make a decision for Christ. During the first year of the Fair, it is estimated that more than one million people will see the film. |
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 A unique feature of the film presentation is
a simultaneous translation system, similar to that in use at the
United Nations, to reach visitors from abroad. Speaking in
English, Mr. Graham is heard narrating the film. A control built
into the arm rest of each chair in the air-conditioned theater
can switch the sound track to a choice of six different
languages which are heard through a plastic earpiece: French,
Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German. The
multi-lingual seven-channel system was installed by Round Hill
Associates. It is hoped that in the second year of the Fair,
eight-channel translation will be possible."Man in the Fifth Dimension" took seven months to shoot, and was World Wide Pictures' most ambitious effort to date. Scripted by James F. Collier, it was produced by World Wide's president, Dick Ross. Mr. Ross was an American Film Festival Blue Ribbon winner for the movie "Africa On The Bridge," a documentary of the Billy Graham Crusade in the emerging continent. |
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 Billy Graham
(right) discusses scene with Dick
Ross, producer of Mr. Graham's World's Fair production, "Man in
the Fifth Dimension."Filming took the company from Mount Palomar, where footage was shot through the great 200-inch telescope there, to the Holy Land. Interior scenes were filmed at Paramount's Studios in Hollywood. Visiting the Holy Land can be a moving experience for anyone. But tensions between Israel and the Arab world can make location shooting there difficult. The religious rift splitting the Holy Land was felt when Mr. Ross and Jim Collier went from the Jordanian side of Jerusalem, through the Mandelbaum Gate to the Israeli sector for some advance location scouting. The rest of the crew remained behind at the Ambassador Hotel in Jordan. "We were at the King David Hotel, not more than a couple of hundred yards from the Ambassador," Mr. Ross notes. "but because of the restrictions on communications between the two countries, we couldn't call our friends to tell them of our plans. "Finally, we called our London office and had them relay the message. We had to span continents to communicate with friends less than a quarter of a mile away." Source: Industrial Photography, May 1964 |
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A Personal Word from Billy Graham
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 The
story of the creation is told in the setting of what has been
called "man's oldest living things, " the towering
California Redwoods of the Pacific Coast. O The Apostle Paul
addressed scholars of first-century Athens on Mars Hill, just
below the Acropolis. His words are equally relevant to the
20th-century mind,
which inherited so much from the Golden Age of Greece. O It was
in the shepherd's fields below Bethlehem that the birth of
Christ was heralded by angelic hosts. O Augustine, Pascal,
Tolstoy and America's "Founding Fathers" demonstrate
the continuity of Christian witness down to the present day. |
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| For full coverage of the worlds fair, go to nywf64.com and Billy Graham Pavilion | |
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You
are about to embark on a breathtaking journey through the
four-dimensional world of space and time into the realm of the
fifth dimension, the dimension of the spirit. It is my earnest
prayer that it will be an unforgettable experience during which
you will encounter the Living Christ, joining the unending
procession of those who, in every generation and culture, have
discovered the real meaning and purpose of life.