Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Christianity Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Journal of Religion & Film

2020

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Christianity

The Virtues Of Being Human: Faith, Hope, And Love In James Gray's The Immigrant (2013), The Lost City Of Z (2016), And Ad Astra (2019), John Adair Oct 2020

The Virtues Of Being Human: Faith, Hope, And Love In James Gray's The Immigrant (2013), The Lost City Of Z (2016), And Ad Astra (2019), John Adair

Journal of Religion & Film

James Gray’s three most recent features reflect on the Christian virtues of faith, hope, and love, revealed and developed through encounters with others. The Immigrant (2013) reveals the way faith informs familial commitments, social bonds, and a life-giving response to suffering and injustice. The Lost City of Z (2016) portrays a dreamer, a man whose hopeful vision of another world animates every aspect of his being. And Gray’s most recent feature, Ad Astra (2019) traces a man’s turn toward relationship as he discovers what it means to love. In each case, as Gray’s characters display these virtues, the characters transcend …

Go to article

The Monstrous Other And The Biblical Narrative Of Ruth, Jonathan Lyonhart, Jennifer Matheny Oct 2020

The Monstrous Other And The Biblical Narrative Of Ruth, Jonathan Lyonhart, Jennifer Matheny

Journal of Religion & Film

Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water (2017) restages the biblical narrative of Ruth in Cold War America, crystallizing the parallel through setting numerous scenes at a local cinema that is playing The Story of Ruth (1960). The book of Ruth tells the tale of how a non-Israelite outsider could be welcomed into the kingdom of God and ultimately into the lineage of Christ. Likewise, del Toro populates his tale with multiple outsiders—multiple ‘Ruths’—including a mute woman, an African American cleaner, a Russian Communist, and an elderly homosexual male. However, these are merely reflections of the ultimate outsider, Del Toro’s …

Go to article

Corruption As Shared Culpability: Religion, Family, And Society In Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan (2014), Maria Hristova Oct 2020

Corruption As Shared Culpability: Religion, Family, And Society In Andrey Zvyagintsev's Leviathan (2014), Maria Hristova

Journal of Religion & Film

This article engages in close analysis of how Andrey Zvyagintsev depicts corruption and its various manifestations: moral, familial, societal, and institutional, in Leviathan (Leviafan, 2014). While other post-Soviet films address the problem of prevalent corruption in Russia, Zvyagintsev’s work is the first to provoke strong public reactions, not only from government and Russian Orthodox Church officials, but also from Orthodox and political activist groups. The film demonstrates that the instances of legal and moral failings in one aspect of existence are a sign of a much deeper and wider-ranging problem that affects all other spheres of human experience. …

Go to article

Hail, Caesar! A Jesus Film In Search Of A Christ Figure, Jon Coutts Mar 2020

Hail, Caesar! A Jesus Film In Search Of A Christ Figure, Jon Coutts

Journal of Religion & Film

For over a century the moving picture has been a medium ripe for propagation or exploration of the story of Christ. Since the first wave hit screens in the late 1890s and early 1900s, the list of so-called “Jesus films” has come to number in the dozens. Given that Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2016 Hail, Caesar!­ sets itself up as a reprisal of such films, the question is how to interpret it. To explore this, interpretation of the film is framed by consideration of the Coen brothers' attention to religious themes, is set against the backdrop of the second wave …

Go to article

The Moving Image And The Time Of Prophecy: Trauma And Precognition In L. Von Trier’S Melancholia (2011) And D. Villeneuve’S Arrival (2016), Luca Zanchi Mar 2020

The Moving Image And The Time Of Prophecy: Trauma And Precognition In L. Von Trier’S Melancholia (2011) And D. Villeneuve’S Arrival (2016), Luca Zanchi

Journal of Religion & Film

Both the deferred recurrence of post-traumatic symptoms and the foresight granted by prophetic vision bring about a disruption of temporality and generate a chronological discontinuity which is often formally rendered as narrative discontinuity. This similarity produces an interpretive ambiguity that is central to the films, Melancholia (2011) by Von Trier and Arrival (2016) by Denis Villeneuve. Both movies begin by hinting at the post-traumatic origin of visions and then gradually shift towards a prophetic explanation. In addressing these two case studies, this article approaches prophecy and its temporality from a narratological perspective, integrating the critical parameters of trauma-theory with the …

Go to article

J.E.S.U.S.A., John C. Lyden Mar 2020

J.E.S.U.S.A., John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of J.E.S.U.S.A., directed by Kevin Miller. It is now available on Vimeo Prime (bit.ly/jesusa).

Go to article

Burden, John C. Lyden Mar 2020

Burden, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Burden (2020) directed by Andrew Heckler.

Go to article

Three Deaths, William L. Blizek Feb 2020

Three Deaths, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Three Deaths (2020) directed by Jay Dockendorf.

Go to article

Uncle Frank, John C. Lyden Jan 2020

Uncle Frank, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Uncle Frank (2020), directed by Alan Ball.

Go to article

Farewell Amor, John C. Lyden Jan 2020

Farewell Amor, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Farewell Amor (2020), directed by Ekwa Msangi.

Go to article

This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection, John C. Lyden Jan 2020

This Is Not A Burial, It's A Resurrection, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection (2019), directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese.

Go to article