Jesus, This Was Boring…

“But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”  Matthew 6:6

Given the above verse, I thought it was particularly interesting that conservative evangelicals got all bent out of shape over President Obama’s refusal to hold a public event around the National Day of Prayer.  Something about the above verse also makes that national observance seem slightly out of place as well.  I think Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl also missed the memo when he made Jesus, You Know (2003), a documentary built around the prayers of six Catholics.  The only thing more awkward than filming people praying is watching a film of people praying. [Read more]

Unmasking “The Enemy:” Jack G. Shaheen’s “Reel Bad Arabs”

Over the course of this semester, I have been teaching a course entitled “Theological Crises and the Development of American Cinema.”  In it, we have been looking at, among other issues, the representation of race and ethnicity in the history of American film.  In preparation for the final series of classes, I am developing lectures and discussions on the emergence of the Hollywood blockbuster from the late ’70s until today.  A significant feature in several of these films is the stereotype of Arabs…Hollywood’s villain du jour.  To provide some background on this, I am using Jack G. Shaheen’s book, Reel Bad Arabs:  How Hollywood Villifies a People. [Read more]

FlashForward: Paradoxology and the Work of God

Check out the latest from Jason Derr after the jump, an attempt to look at the theological concepts in the ABC TV series, FlashForward.  The article is written in consideration of the first six episodes and not of the series as a whole. [Read more]

They Killed Sister Dorothy

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”  (John 15:13)

“Then he said to them all:  ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.’” (Luke 9:23-24)

There is a clarion call to self-sacrifice in the Christian life.  Yet the example of Jesus also shows us that living a life that embodies the Kingdom of God might also lead others to want to take that life.  The Prince of Peace modeled (models) a non-violent approach to violence that might temporarily signal defeat but that actually, we hope, works to bring about victory over evil in the end.  A recent documentary, They Killed Sister Dorothy, captures something of this in an engrossing true story. [Read more]

V: A Review

Last summer, we saw an alien spaceship settle over a capital city.  Despite the potential for inter-galactic diplomacy, let’s just say the relationship between the aliens and earthlings, in Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 ended (or suspended) less than amicably.  Though of a different sort, aliens have once again arrived and are hovering over numerous capital cities in ABC’s remake of the ’80s science fiction series, V. [Read more]

Not So Wild Things

Getting into the mind of a 12-year-old boy is no easy task.  Crafting that internal world into a film is even more difficult…I would imagine.  Maurice Sendak did it effectively enough in his book, Where the Wild Things Are, a fantastic tale untainted by the ravages of internal or external dialogue.  The book’s ten or so sentences probably helped make it my favorite book to “read” as a child.  The danger of watching the film adaptation of the book is comparison.  It has been a while since I re-read the book, so I felt somewhat fresh in watching Spike Jonze’s film recently.  It’s safe to say that the film fails first as a film, and then, inevitably, as an adaptation. [Read more]

Screening Violence: A Review

Students of religion and film or theology and film must reckon with the ever-presence of violence in much of contemporary cinema and throughout film history.  However, this is only slightly different from the engagement that theologians, religious studies scholars, and the faithful must undertake in relationship to violence in their sacred texts.  On one level, cinematic violence is less problematic than “religious” violence because at least the directors don’t usually justify said violence by claiming that “God told them to do it.”  But I digress.  The presence of violence in film always demands some response.  The hybrid students would do well to consult works from film studies like Stephen Prince’s edited volume, Screening Violence. [Read more]

Two Films in One…

“I’d love to watch that film with the Women’s Studies Group at the Graduate Theological Union.”

You won’t hear me say that phrase too often; however, Lars von Trier’s latest release, Antichrist, would make for an engrossing discussion with the right audience.  I also wouldn’t mind discussing the film with ministers, therapists, and those in training.  The film has polarized critics like most of von Trier’s work is apt to do.  Whether critics love it or hate it, most of them realize that what we have in Antichrist is really two films in one.  While this duality worked for some and alienated others, I found that the beauty and emotion of the “first” film far surpassed the absurd attempt at horror of the latter. [Read more]