Going to the movies is what we do when we have a free evening. A video is what we rent for our children when we are going out. A few people consider film a waste of time, or at best one leisure time option among many. It is hardly the staple of our lives. But for many, movie watching is a as natural to their daily routine as eating, sleeping or using a computer. Yet though we watch movies, we seldom try to relate what we have seen to theology.
After all, theology is one thing film is another.Film is an extraordinarily popular medium today, but films do much more than simply entertain. Films, as with other culture forms, have the potential to reinforce, to challenge, to overturn, or to crystallize religious perspectives, ideological assumptions, and fundamental values. Films provide more than "just entertainment" they provide a key means for millions of Americans to grapple with religious issues, and fundamental concerns.
By looking critically at films, we can learn a good deal about theology.The words of Farley, theology refers to "the cognitive enterprise using appropriate methods and issuing in a body of teaching" Theology, is to be seen as a critical task whose end was an integrated knowledge of God. For movies like no other art forms, help us not only to know about God but to actually experience God as well."Film, especially for those under 35, is a medium through which we get our primary stories, our myths, and our read on reality" says Robert K. Johnston, professor of theology and culture at the Fuller Theological Seminary and author of the newly published Finding God in the Movies: 33 Films of Reel Faith. It was member of that generation, says Johnston, who "even if they loved God, was simply not going to church.
Clergy are realizing that unless we reorient how we talk about our faith, we will lose the next generation." He sees movies as modern parables that connect the audience that seeks not reason but emotional relevance. As culture has moved from a modern to a postmodern era, we have moved from wanting to understand truth rationally to understanding truth as it's embedded in story," he says.But Movies? From the beginning they were considered in the words of the Catholic doctrine, an occasion of sin.
The Catholic Legion of Decency was more notable for proscribing movies than promoting them some of the sterner Christian sects forbade filmgoing. And that was when Hollywood still produced religious films, from uplifting tales of jolly priests and selfless sisters to outright miracles like The Song of Bernadette, with Jennifer Jones as a French girl who had a vision at Lourdes.In the broadest sense, movies are getting more religious. According to Ted Baehr of Moviehouse.com, only one film in 1985 (Trip to Bountiful) has"positive Christian content," compared with 69 in 2003(including Finding Nemo, Spy Kids 3D and Master and Commander). Of course, it all depends on who's doing the counting.
What's irrefutable is the growing number of theocentric movie websites, most recently a sophisticated one launched by the magazine Christianity Today.If we want to understand American culture, we need to study Hollywood films. We will examine critically the way popular films relate to religion. Though people define religion in different ways, some much more broadly than others, they all assume religion is an important part of our world and that popular films are powerful vehicles for communicating religious meanings, mythic stories, and bedrock ideological values to millions of people.Movies can no longer be viewed as an antiquated or peripheral institution in predominantly secular society. Rather, films perhaps because they are presumed to be "just entertainment," provide a key means for millions of Americans to grapple with religious issues, mythic archetypes, and fundamental ideological concerns.
By looking critically at films we can learn a good deal about religion. We will review several films to show how messages can be found in film.In The Return by Andrey Zvyagintsev the story follows two brothers who must deal with the unexpected "return" of their father, a man they've never known.They try to take their mothers word for it, but when the mysterious quiet man takes them on a journey that morphs from fishing trip to a desperate frustrating mystery, the brothers argue passionately over the man's true identity and what he intends to do with them.
Are they being led to their deaths? Is this a rite of passage into manhood? Is it a lesson in wilderness survival skills? What in the world is going on?On a deeper level, the film leads us to ask questions about our own experiences with authority figures. Is it ever enough to just "trust and obey" Is it arrogant of us to demand justification for the behavior of instructions of our elders? If there is a god, what is he like? Is it cruel for God to expect unquestioning obedience of us? Or is it his right? What is God really up to, and what is our part in this plan? Does he love us? Wouldhe place us in danger unnecessarily, or has he ever demonstrated his love for us in any significant fashion?Cast Away a film about Chuck Nolan and his experience after his plane crashes in the South Pacific. He is washed ashore on a tiny uninhibited island. Chuck spends over four years on the island isolated.
This time gives Chuck time to reflect on his life and how he lives in a hostile, existentialist world.In some ways the unbearable loneliness and abandonment transform him from an ordinary guy to an almost shell of a person. At the same time, the four years provide an exploration of his will to survive and what is truly important to him. The message here may come in the form personal reflection. What does it mean to "take your time" or "find the time"? Is it possible to be late arriving for your own life? Are there moments at the crossroads when heaven may be gained or lost?In Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, John Nash, was a brilliant graduate student at Princeton back in the 1940's, when , among other accomplishments, he invented an analytical tool now know as the "Nash equilibrium" This discovery, for which Nash received the Nobel Prize in 1994, turned out to be one of the foundations for modern game theory, with application to everything from arms control talks to pricing goods in a competitive market.
There is a lot of Christian parallelism in this film. So much of Christ's teaching is about self-control, and so much of the Christian life is recognizing how we serve God's ends by pursuing his purposes rather than our own fervent passions.Michael Haneke's Time of the Wolf follows a family in France as they flee to their cabin in the woods while the world falls into an uncertain period of chaos and danger. When they arrive, they're in for a terrible surprise, and they have no choice but to go on the run in a desperate quest to survive. Something has happened?we're not exactly sure what, but one image in the film hints at a nuclear disaster. As a result, governments seem to have lost their balance.
Chaos reigns, and people are left to fend fro themselves as evils rise and men become barbaric and cruel in their attempts to survive.This isn't a film that says "Look what could happen!" It's a story that emphasizes our need to believe in higher powers. It explores the role of myth and metaphor in civilization to suggest that the world is part of the grand design.Cool Hand Luke directed by Stuart Rosenberg is about a character Luke who is sentenced to two years in a prison chain gang. Luke becomes the growing hero to his fellow inmates. First Luke spurs his fellow prisoners to finish tarring a country road in record time.
Secondly he bets he can devour fifty hard boiled eggs and succeeds.Luke becomes the natural leader of the camp, but there is also an official leader, the warden. Luke's potential for leadership being abated by the will of those in authority. This doesn't last long. He makes a dash for freedom and rather than surrender and be further degraded before the men, Luke chooses to resist. He appears in the doorway of a chapel and is gunned down.
The character of Luke is a Jesus transfiguration fully integrated into the narrative continuity of the film. Luke is the archetypal figure of the captive who transcends his captivity, at least in spirit, and leads others to the same victory.Shawshank Redemption by Darabont is a story of human friendship; the friendship of Andrew Dufresne(Andy) and Ellis Redding(Red). Red has been sent to prison for a crime committed in his youth twenty years earlier. Andy, a bank vice-president, has been recently and wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife who was found in the arms of her lover. Red is an African American, Andy is white.
Red has a little education but lots of street smarts. Andy has lots of education but lacks prison savvy. The two friends do get out. Andy first; Red sometime later. Their friendship remains throughout the rest of their lives.
Human friendship is one of Creator's great gifts to humankind in helping us deal with life's problems. The film portrays human possibility within the impossibility of that interpersonal world.George Stevens Shane, the main character Shane rides into a conflict between cattleman Ryker and a bunch of settlers, like the Starretts, whose land Ryker wants. When Shane beats up Ryker's man Chris, Ryker tries to buy him. Then Shane and Joe take on the whole Ryker crew.
Ryker sends to Cheyenne for truly evil gunslinger Wilson.We wonder about Shane's relation to Joe's wife Marian. Shane must clear out all the guns from the valley before he can ride off with Joey hollering "Shane ..
. Shane ...
Come Back!" This story parallels the story of Cain and Abel. The story pits farmers against cattle hearders. It tells us that evil intrudes from outside the essentially good society.Saving Private Ryan a Steven Speilberg film takes place during WWII, Chief of Staff, General Marshall is informed that three of a woman's sons have been killed and that she's going to receive the notifications of their demise at the same time. And when he learns that a fourth son is still unaccounted for, the General decides to send a unit to find him and bring him back, despite being told that it's highly unlikely that he is still alive and the area that he was known to be at is very dangerous.
So the unit consisting of 8 men are sent to find him but as stated it's very dangerous and one by one, each of them are being picked off. Will they find him and how many of them will still be alive. This film though controversial in the minds of many Christians it does cause us to question our own humanity and the humanity of others.Stanley Kubrick Sparticus, the rebellious Thracian Spartacus, born and raised a slave, is sold to Gladiator trainer Batiatus.
After weeks of being trained to kill for the arena, Spartacus turns on his owners and leads the other slaves in rebellion. As the rebels move from town to town, their numbers swell as escaped slaves join their ranks. Under the leadership of Spartacus, they make their way to southern Italy, where they will cross the sea and return to their homes.Meanwhile, in Rome, the slave revolt has become a deciding factor in the power struggle between two senators: the republican Gracchus and the militarist Crassus, each of whom sees the fortunes of the rebellion as the key to his own rise to power or humiliatingdefeat.
As the two statesmen attempt to aid, hinder and manipulate the rebels for their own benefit, Spartacus and his followers press on toward freedom.While the clergy may see all this as a revival; Hollywood sees it as a way to increase numbers at the boxoffice. New Line Cinema reaches out to Christian groups with films like Secondhand Lions, about a boy living with his two codgerly, kindly uncles whose themes might resonate. Russell Schwartz, the president of domestic marketing of New Line Cinema says "The thing about all the special interest groups ? Christian, Jewish, whatever?is that they have to discover something relevant to their experience." Hollywood doesn't necessarily want to make Christian movies.
It wants to make movies Christians think are Christian.
