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Journal of Religion & Film

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The Path Of Jihad In The Yacoubian Building, Michel Gardaz Apr 2009

The Path Of Jihad In The Yacoubian Building, Michel Gardaz

Journal of Religion & Film

The field of religion and film is growing steadily. Films are the most popular cultural productions in today's global world. In some cases, the Seventh Art is used to further the cause of religiopolitical ideologies. This article analyses the theme of Jihad in the film Yacoubian Building (2006): the most important Egyptian production to date. The film is based on the best-selling novel by Alaa Al-Aswany originally published in Arabic (2002). The film presents the Yacoubian Building (located downtown Cairo) as a moral microcosm of Egyptian society. In substance, the film is a harsh criticism of Egyptian society during Iraq's …

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Preacher, Shepherd, Judge: The Role Of The Outlaw Prophet In American Film, Heather Clements Oct 2008

Preacher, Shepherd, Judge: The Role Of The Outlaw Prophet In American Film, Heather Clements

Journal of Religion & Film

U.S. understandings of violence and non-violence are often expressed in stereotypically simplistic terms by Americans and their critics. The maverick cowboy anti-hero who answers to his own code of honor, enforced by redemptive violence, is a quintessential symbol of this American ethos. An exploration of this theme in Pale Rider, Pulp Fiction and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, which center on the tension between violence and non-violence through an outlaw protagonist and his use of Judeo-Christian scriptures, suggests that the true complexity of the American popular moral theology of violence and non-violence is being addressed …

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From The Editor, William L. Blizek Apr 2008

From The Editor, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This Editorial announces the change of editorship of the Journal of Religion & Film following Volume 12, Issue 1.

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Dvd Review: The Ultimate Matrix Collection, Danny Fisher Apr 2006

Dvd Review: The Ultimate Matrix Collection, Danny Fisher

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of The Ultimate Matrix Collection, a 10-disc DVD set released in 2004.

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Portraying The Quest For Buddhist Wisdom?: A Comparative Study Of The Matrix And Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Geoff Baker Apr 2006

Portraying The Quest For Buddhist Wisdom?: A Comparative Study Of The Matrix And Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Geoff Baker

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper analyses the way in which the quest for Buddhist wisdom has been portrayed in The Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Both films seek to explore the notion of hidden realities and both suggest that selflessness can enable the individual to overcome the material world. Furthermore, it is argued that the Buddhist concept of skillful means is not only employed by advanced practitioners in each of the films to ensure that central characters are on the path to true wisdom, but also that through careful cinematic manipulation the directors prompt the audience to question their own notions …

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The Birth Of A Nation As American Myth, Richard Salter Oct 2004

The Birth Of A Nation As American Myth, Richard Salter

Journal of Religion & Film

The Birth of a Nation was one of the most important films of all time, both for its technical and aesthetic achievements and for its enduring legacy of racism. This paper uses Bruce Lincoln's approach to myth as a form of discourse and Robert Bellah's notion of civil religion to show how Birth might be understood as a mythic component of American civil religion. From this perspective, Birth serves as a paradigmatic story of American origins rooted in ideas of white supremacy. At the end of the article Oscar Micheaux's work, Within our Gates, is used to briefly demonstrate filmic …

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Are The Gospel Passion Accounts Anti-Jewish?, Dennis Hamm Feb 2004

Are The Gospel Passion Accounts Anti-Jewish?, Dennis Hamm

Journal of Religion & Film

For teachers and students in a university setting, for religious leaders - and for life-long learners generally - the advent of Gibson's film raises questions like the following. How does this film fit into the history of dramatic presentations, productions like the famous Oberammergau Passion Play or the previous cinematic versions? What has been the social impact of such presentations? How closely does this film reflect the Gospel accounts? How much are those Gospel accounts themselves responsible for their anti-Jewish use? And how accurately do the Gospel accounts reflect what we know of the secular history of early first century …

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In Memoriam: Ronald R. Burke (1944-2002), William L. Blizek Apr 2002

In Memoriam: Ronald R. Burke (1944-2002), William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

Founding Editor of the Journal of Religion and Film William Blizek reflects on the influence and legacy of the Ronald R. Burke.

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Superman As Christ-Figure: The American Pop Culture Movie Messiah, Anton K. Kozlovic Apr 2002

Superman As Christ-Figure: The American Pop Culture Movie Messiah, Anton K. Kozlovic

Journal of Religion & Film

Holy subtexts abound within the popular cinema. Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman II (1981) were examined as a protracted secular analogue of the Jesus story. The literature was reviewed and twenty Superman-Jesus parallels plus eight Christic personalistic traits were explicated. It was concluded that Superman is not only a legitimate Christ-figure, but the American pop culture movie Messiah.

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The Apocalyptic Cosmology Of Star Wars, John C. Lyden Apr 2000

The Apocalyptic Cosmology Of Star Wars, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

The paper analyzes the saga of Star Wars as a text that has borrowed extensively from biblical apocalyptic. There is a cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil; a great cataclysm is foretold, but the faithful will survive with the help of God (The Force); a messiah figure (Luke) appears; and a new world order will come about in which justice triumphs and wickedness is punished. This myth is made relevant to modem viewers by being framed as a battle of technology vs. the natural human: the machine Vader vs. the human Anakin, the Death Star vs. the …

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Seeing And Being Seen: Distinctively Filmic And Religious Elements In Film, Greg Watkins Oct 1999

Seeing And Being Seen: Distinctively Filmic And Religious Elements In Film, Greg Watkins

Journal of Religion & Film

Using philosophical propositions from Stanley Cavell's work The World Viewed, I argue in this paper that there is a religious dimension available in film which has to do with a creative and disruptive approach to the normal and naturalized habits of the typical viewer. By examining both Von Trier's Breaking the Waves and Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice, I attempt to show that these film makers challenge their viewers via the nature of the medium itself and in ways that have religious/ethical implications.

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From The Editor, William L. Blizek Dec 1998

From The Editor, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

The Editor introduces the December 1998 Special Issue on Teaching of the Journal of Religion and Film.

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Teaching Field Of Dreams As Cosmogonic Myth, Mara E. Donaldson Dec 1998

Teaching Field Of Dreams As Cosmogonic Myth, Mara E. Donaldson

Journal of Religion & Film

Trotting away from the camera toward the boundary between baseball diamond and surrounding corn, Shoeless Joe Jackson, himself part of American baseball myth, turns to ask: "Hey, is this heaven?" "No," replies Ray Kinsella, who has turned part of his farm into his field of dreams, "It's Iowa." Both the line and the movie from which it comes, Field of Dreams (1989), have become a staple in my "Religion and Modern Culture" course, providing a teachable occasion for linking popular culture, the religious category of myth, and the task of critical thinking in religious studies.

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Religion And Popular Movies, Conrad E. Ostwalt Dec 1998

Religion And Popular Movies, Conrad E. Ostwalt

Journal of Religion & Film

A few years ago, I was lecturing on John's "Revelation" in a New Testament course when a student approached me after class with a question. He wanted to know if I had seen the movie The Seventh Sign and if it was based on the Christian Apocalypse. Unaware that Demi Moore had just appeared in a movie by that title, I assumed the student was referring to Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal and answered him accordingly. He quickly corrected me and challenged me to see The Seventh Sign. I watched the movie soon after that, and although it was …

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Ritual, Music, Sociability And Censure: Making A Film On Sufi 'Dhikr' In Egypt, Valerie J. Hoffman Apr 1998

Ritual, Music, Sociability And Censure: Making A Film On Sufi 'Dhikr' In Egypt, Valerie J. Hoffman

Journal of Religion & Film

The author describes her experiences attending and filming the Sufi ritual of communal dhikr in order to create an educational videotape approximately a half-hour in length that would include commentary and translation of some of the lyrics and could convey Sufi dhikr as ritual, art (in the form of music and poetry), and social event. Dhikr is the "remembrance" of God through concentrated repetition of some of his "Beautiful Names," accompanied by stylized movements of the body such as bowing or swinging from side to side, often employing methods of breath control and done in some countries (Egypt included) to …

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Religion, Theology And Film In A Postmodern Age: A Response To John Lyden, Clive Marsh Apr 1998

Religion, Theology And Film In A Postmodern Age: A Response To John Lyden, Clive Marsh

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper engages in a critical, creative conversation with John Lyden's article in JR & F 1.2. Though affirming the basic tenor of Lyden's approach, this paper presses Lyden to consider that a "commending and critiquing" approach to the task of film interpretation requires greater attention to the ideological basis upon which such a stance is possible. In particular, the theological particularity of discrete religious traditions has to be respected by the scholar of religion. This respect must be shown despite all the attendant institutional complexities which accompany it. The consequences of this need for religious interpreters of film to …

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From The Editor, William L. Blizek, Ron Burke Oct 1997

From The Editor, William L. Blizek, Ron Burke

Journal of Religion & Film

The Editor introduces the October 1997 issue of the Journal of Religion and Film.

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To Commend Or To Critique? The Question Of Religion And Film Studies, John C. Lyden Oct 1997

To Commend Or To Critique? The Question Of Religion And Film Studies, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper examines two approaches to popular film to come out of religious studies. The first assumes popular culture is as valid as any culture, in which case "religious" analysis of films seeks to identify the iconography and mythology of film as expressive of a viable popular religion. The second method critiques popular film as a form of hegemonic discourse to be unmasked as supportive of classist, racist, and sexist ideologies. This paper accepts the validity of both methods and seeks to balance them by asserting that all films should be seen both as viable expressions of culture and also …

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Using 'Homemade' Documentary Video In Religious Studies, Scott C. Alexander Oct 1997

Using 'Homemade' Documentary Video In Religious Studies, Scott C. Alexander

Journal of Religion & Film

On the whole, the lesson I learned from making Abraham's Children, and the one I would like to pass on, is a fairly simple one. If an instructor can imagine a video that would enhance his or her religious studies teaching in specific ways, but cannot seem to find a strong candidate available in the current market, that instructor may want to consider producing a "homemade" video with the primary goal of improving his or her own students' education, and the secondary aim of making your project available for purchase to colleagues who may be facing similar pedagogical challenges. …

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Mozart & Salieri, Cain & Abel: A Cinematic Transformation Of Genesis 4, Gregory Robbins Apr 1997

Mozart & Salieri, Cain & Abel: A Cinematic Transformation Of Genesis 4, Gregory Robbins

Journal of Religion & Film

The story of Amadeus becomes poetry and myth when one learns it is far from the official biography of Mozart. For in fact Salieri first became Mozart's lethal enemy in a poem by Pushkin, written 40 years after the great composer's death. Robbins clarifies many historical inaccuracies regarding both Mozart and Salieri in the film, but proposes that playwright Shaffer and screenwriter Milos Forman have made the story a "myth better than history," a masterpiece of drama which reveals deep truths about the human condition. The film confronts the viewer with the sheer givenness of human inequality, the pride that …

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