finding God in the movie

Finding God in the Movies: The Very Best Religious Films. This course will focus on the very best religious films ever made, a list that will include works as diverse as The Shawshank Redemption to Babette’s Feast. Although Hollywood and film generally are usually seen as bastions of gleeful secularism, these films comprise an extraordinary body of film--some of filmdom’s greatest, in fact--that is religiously acute and moving. The course will look at the sorts of religious statements these films make and how they go about making them, concentrating on the interrelation between means and “message.” The course will begin by asking the question of what makes a film religious, and then move on to consider the drama of religious experience in the journey from darkness to light, from despair to hope, and from tragedy to comedy. We will also reflect on the nature of audience response and the legitimacy of oft-drawn distinctions between religious film and Christian film. As much as possible the course will follow a seminar format. Recent viewing of all films in the course is a requirement. Class sessions view films and discuss, including some time for professor lecture on filmmakers and meanings, though this is kept to minimum. Students will be responsible for viewing the films and reading analysis of written critical texts. Students will keep a daily log of reactions to films, write three analytic papers, and take a final exam on the substance of the course. The course is rather intensive, examining a film just about every day of the term. It should also be noted that a number of the films in the course are R-rated and often dark in their estimate of human life. The viewing list will include such films as Kieslowski’s Three Colors: Blue, Malick’s The Tree of Life and The Thin Red Line, and Robbins’ Dead Man Walking. The course is designed to immerse students in the work of the great masters of religious cinema in order to develop their own awareness of the religious capacities of cinema but also their exploration of the presence and character of the divine.