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Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Babette's Feast And The Goodness Of God, Thomas J. Curry
Babette's Feast And The Goodness Of God, Thomas J. Curry
Journal of Religion & Film
This article attempts to answer the preeminent question Babette’s Feast invites viewers to consider: Why does Babette choose to expend everything she has to make her feast? Of the critical studies made of the film, few have considered analytically crucial the catastrophic backstory of Babette, the violence of which is implied and offscreen. Appreciation of the singularity of Babette’s own personhood and the darker aspects of her experience, and not only how she might act as a figure of Christ, are key to understanding the motivating force behind her meal and its transformative effect: That through the feast Babette lays …
Whale Rider: The Re-Enactment Of Myth And The Empowerment Of Women, Kevin V. Dodd
Whale Rider: The Re-Enactment Of Myth And The Empowerment Of Women, Kevin V. Dodd
Journal of Religion & Film
Whale Rider represents a particular type of mythic film that includes within it references to an ancient sacred story and is itself a contemporary recapitulation of it. The movie also belongs to a further subcategory of mythic cinema, using the double citation of the myth—in its original form and its re-enactment—to critique the subordinate position of women to men in the narrated world. To do this, the myth is extended beyond its traditional scope and context. After looking at how the movie embeds the story and recapitulates it, this paper examines the film’s reception. To consider the variety of positions …
Framing Salvation: Biblical Apocalyptic, Cinematic Dystopia, And Contextualizing The Narrative Of Salvation, Caesar A. Montevecchio
Framing Salvation: Biblical Apocalyptic, Cinematic Dystopia, And Contextualizing The Narrative Of Salvation, Caesar A. Montevecchio
Journal of Religion & Film
Christian biblical authors used the apocalyptic genre to help contextualize the meaning of salvation for their audiences. Today, dystopian film can serve a similar function. In each case, the narrative diagnoses a sinister mis-ordering of human civilization and attempts to prescribe ways in which it can be overcome. Just as apocalyptic gave biblical authors the ability to make statements about what salvation was salvation from, dystopian narratives can similarly demonstrate what social conditions today remain in need of remediation. When these dystopian narratives do so by making use of symbols and themes associated with Christian soteriology their diagnoses can become …
The Transformation Of The Pope: The Agony And The Ecstasy (1965) And The Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Jennifer Mara Desilva
The Transformation Of The Pope: The Agony And The Ecstasy (1965) And The Second Vatican Council (1962-65), Jennifer Mara Desilva
Journal of Religion & Film
In 1965 the film The Agony and The Ecstasy (dir. Carol Reed) presented Renaissance artistic culture, Catholic iconography, and the papal court in Rome to a popular, broad, and non-denominational audience. Based on the novel by Irving Stone (1961), the narrative follows Michelangelo and Pope Julius II through the decoration of the Sistine chapel ceiling (1508-12), outlining a relationship between the two protagonists that suggests some spiritual equality. In the same way that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) strove for spiritual renewal and an emphasis on the wonder of humankind’s relationship with God, The Agony and The Ecstasy portrays the …
Melodrama On A Mission: Latter-Day Saint Film And The Melodramatic Mode, Airen Hall
Melodrama On A Mission: Latter-Day Saint Film And The Melodramatic Mode, Airen Hall
Journal of Religion & Film
This article examines how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) makes use of the melodramatic mode in creating short and feature length films for both insider and outsider consumption. The argument is made that the melodramatic mode gives the LDS Church a particularly meaningful tool for accomplishing three key goals: to encourage conversion or re-conversion by provoking tears and pathos, to work out social issues, and to create and maintain a certain identity for the Church as victim-hero. As such, the melodramatic mode is a means for identity formation and community building, significant in a …
Hitchcock And The Scapegoat: Violence And Victimization In The Wrong Man, David Humbert
Hitchcock And The Scapegoat: Violence And Victimization In The Wrong Man, David Humbert
Journal of Religion & Film
Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man tells the story of Emmanuel Balestrero, arrested for a crime committed by his physical double. This paper examines the theme of the scapegoat in the film and argues that it portrays in miniature what theorist René Girard has described as a mimetic crisis. While the plight of the central character is usually portrayed as a product of blind chance, it is instead due to the mimetic fears, desires, and vanities of the members of society that accuse him. The fate of Balestrero reveals the operation of a specific kind of scapegoat mechanism that has its …
The Ring Goes To Different Cultures: A Call For Cross Cultural Studies Of Religious Horror Films, Seung Min Hong
The Ring Goes To Different Cultures: A Call For Cross Cultural Studies Of Religious Horror Films, Seung Min Hong
Journal of Religion & Film
Within the field of religion and media, the study of horror films has always been treated as a minor topic, and cross-cultural comparative studies of such films are even rarer. Furthermore, such comparative projects that involve East Asian contexts, despite their influence on the genre of horror, are yet more difficult to find. By attempting a brief American & East Asian comparative analysis of the Ring series as an example and also proposing an empirical comparative audience research, I call for more cross cultural studies of religious horror films.
Los Ultimos Cristeros (The Last Christeros), Davide Zordan
Los Ultimos Cristeros (The Last Christeros), Davide Zordan
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Los Ultimos Cristeros (2011), directed by Matias Meyer.
Good Deeds, Carol Miles
Good Deeds, Carol Miles
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Good Deeds (2012), directed by Tyler Perry.
The Woman In Black, Danny Pegg
The Woman In Black, Danny Pegg
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of The Woman in Black (2012), directed by James Watkins.
Take Shelter, Dereck Daschke
Take Shelter, Dereck Daschke
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Take Shelter (2011) directed by Jeff Nichols.
The Descendants, William Blizek
The Descendants, William Blizek
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of The Descendants (2011), directed by Alexander Payne.
Out Of The Fire, William Blizek
Out Of The Fire, William Blizek
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Out of the Fire (2010), directed by Jeanette Reedy Solano.
Melancholia, Jon Pahl
Melancholia, Jon Pahl
Journal of Religion & Film
This is a film review of Melancholia (2011) directed by Lars Von Trier.
Slamdance Film Festival 2012 Report, William Blizek, Dereck Daschke
Slamdance Film Festival 2012 Report, William Blizek, Dereck Daschke
Journal of Religion & Film
This is the report on films reviewed at the Slamdance Film Festival, held in Park City, Utah in January 2012.
Sundance Film Festival 2012 Report, John C. Lyden, William Blizek, Dereck Daschke, Kutter Callaway, Jeanette Reedy Solano
Sundance Film Festival 2012 Report, John C. Lyden, William Blizek, Dereck Daschke, Kutter Callaway, Jeanette Reedy Solano
Journal of Religion & Film
This is the report of our editors from the Sundance Film Festival, held in Park City, Utah from January 19-29, 2012.
From The Editor, John C. Lyden
From The Editor, John C. Lyden
Journal of Religion & Film
The Editor introduces the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Religion and Film.
Ironic Faith In Monty Python’S Life Of Brian, Steven A. Benko
Ironic Faith In Monty Python’S Life Of Brian, Steven A. Benko
Journal of Religion & Film
Monty Python’s Life of Brian tells the story of Brian, a contemporary of Jesus whose life becomes chaotic when he is mistaken for a messiah. Standard comedic devices are used to mock and ridicule those who use their authority or office to claim that they are more than human. In this case, laughter humbles those individuals and brings them back to the human community. Second, an ironic faith perspective allows the Pythons to assert that it is up to each individual to define the meaning of his/her own life. While some interpretations of ironic faith suggest the possibility of an …
King Of Masks: The Myth Of Miao-Shan And The Empowerment Of Women, Kevin Dodd
King Of Masks: The Myth Of Miao-Shan And The Empowerment Of Women, Kevin Dodd
Journal of Religion & Film
King of Masks represents a particular type of mythic film that includes within it references to an ancient sacred story and is itself a contemporary recapitulation of it. The movie also belongs to a further subcategory of mythic cinema, using the double citation of the myth—in its original integrity and its re-enactment—to critique the subordinate position of women to men in the narrated world. To do this, the Buddhist myth of Miao-shan, which centralizes the Confucian value of filiality, is re-applied beyond its traditional scope and context. Thereby two prominent features of contemporary China are creatively addressed: the revival of …
Irruptions Of The Sacred In A “World Of Shit”: Profanity, Sacred Words, And Cinematic Hierophanies In Stanley Kubrick’S Full Metal Jacket (1987), Joseph E. Bisson
Irruptions Of The Sacred In A “World Of Shit”: Profanity, Sacred Words, And Cinematic Hierophanies In Stanley Kubrick’S Full Metal Jacket (1987), Joseph E. Bisson
Journal of Religion & Film
Full Metal Jacket remains embedded in the consciousness of the popular culture mainly because of its abundance of profane language, violent imagery, and salacious set pieces. The juxtaposition of profane language and imagery with sacred language and religious symbolism reveals that Kubrick’s Vietnam film has powerful religious overtones that comprise an important element of the film’s critique of homo religiosus and the modern human condition. By continually juxtaposing the sacred and profane, Kubrick created “cinematic hierophanies” that advanced a cultural critique that inventively integrated ideas from some of the mid-20th Century’s greatest interpreters of myths -- Carl Jung, Joseph …
There’S No Place Like Home: From Oz To Antichrist, J. Sage Elwell
There’S No Place Like Home: From Oz To Antichrist, J. Sage Elwell
Journal of Religion & Film
This article explores the dialectic of the uncanny in The Wizard of Oz (Victor Flemming, 1939) and Antichrist (Lars von Trier, 2009), treating the latter as a sequel to the former such that we encounter Dorothy first as a young girl and then as a grown woman. I observe that the uncanny entails a repressive and expressive moment that is cinematically rendered in these two films, and drawing on Freud and Žižek, I argue that in Dorothy’s evolution from Oz to Antichrist we see that the witches and wizards and gods and devils of our own minds are known to …
Scapegoats And Redemption On Shutter Island, Cari Myers
Scapegoats And Redemption On Shutter Island, Cari Myers
Journal of Religion & Film
The themes of redemptive violence, scapegoating, and ritual in the films of Martin Scorsese have provided much grist for critical scholarship. While it is going too far to claim that Scorsese is intentionally interpreting Girardian themes (which are themselves borrowed from a rich mythological tradition), the comparisons between the theorist and the director are compelling. My goal here is to establish the primary themes of scapegoating, mimesis, the cycle of violence, and feuding identities that occur in both Girard’s works and Scorsese’s films and pull them forward into a more recent work of Scorsese, Shutter Island.
Menstruation As Heroine’S Journey In Pan’S Labyrinth, Richard Lindsay
Menstruation As Heroine’S Journey In Pan’S Labyrinth, Richard Lindsay
Journal of Religion & Film
I propose that the Guillermo del Toro film, Pan's Labyrinth (2006) follows the narrative outline of Joseph Campbell's hero's journey as experienced through the biological process of onset of menstruation in its young protagonist. I suggest a reading of the film that takes into account the visual and mythological symbolism of the figure of Pan, as well as the cultural context of menstruation in mythology and religion. I offer interviews from the director that support this interpretation, but ultimately I value a folk interpretation, or a "viewer's hunch" that the strange and fertile symbolism of the film represents a coming-of-age …