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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Biblical Coens: Can We Laugh Now?, Richard G. Walsh
Biblical Coens: Can We Laugh Now?, Richard G. Walsh
Journal of Religion & Film
A review of Coen criticism, specifically attending to Elijah Siegler’s recent, significant collection of essays, indicates that Coen brothers’ films frame characters in harsh, amoral worlds. This aesthetic “framing” is similar not only to Camus’ analysis of the absurd, but also to the “feel” of some biblical narratives. Where Camus urges one to move beyond the absurd to absurd creation and biblical narratives press on to faith—at least, in most religious readings of them—the Coens laugh. A selective overview of the use of bibles in Coen brothers’ films demonstrates that the Coens’ biblical hermeneutic is risible. Their films frame bibles …
Who Is Like God? The Deer Hunter As Angelic Allegory, Nicholas J. Schaser
Who Is Like God? The Deer Hunter As Angelic Allegory, Nicholas J. Schaser
Journal of Religion & Film
Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter utilizes Christian contexts and biblical motifs in order to present an allegory in which Michael (Robert De Niro) represents an angelic being. While Michael displays powers that parallel those of biblical angels, his lack of religious reverence and divine self-perception lead to a metaphorical fall in Vietnam. Michael’s friend Nick (Christopher Walken) is also an allegorical symbol for imperiled humanity in need of salvation. When Michael is unable to rescue Nick from a Russian roulette table in Saigon, Cimino’s film emerges as a theological statement about the problem of human violence and the necessity for …