Here’s what I just posted on Huffington Post… and then, here’s the problem with it. Now if only there were about three hundred more 300‘s. Maybe not in blood and gore but movies with kick-ass women from ancient Persia and Greece. Then, more people would get what has so captivated me about Amytis, Cassandane, and …
300, Awesome Ancient Women, and the Perils of Historical Fiction Read More »
Job and Proverbs. Texts from those (very different) biblical books launch the two movies that I’ve seen most recently — Secretariat and True Grit. Stories about determination and perseverance, success in the face of misfortune and seemingly impossibilities. But this wee post isn’t about the movies so much as to note how they begin — with biblical texts, …
If most people don’t get the biblical references, why do the creators of popular tv, movies, music and lit still use them so much? Pondering this question over iced tea with a novelist, Ph.D.-candidate friend, we decided: it’s tough to say. Here are a couple of ideas that we bounced around: 1) Audiences do recognize the biblical …
Given its title, I figured that the movie would have something to do with demons — a whole, well, legion of them… in full-on “possession” mode. After all, “Legion” is the name of a biblical demoniac, according to the stories in Mark and Luke, because many demons were involved. But in the movie, Michael (our hero-angel gone …
Did you know that “Eli” means “my God,” in Hebrew? Yup. In one form, anyway. So, even if you’d missed all the previews, reviews, and commentary in between on the movie “The Book of Eli,” you still might guess that the book in question is the Bible. The English translation King James Version, to be precise. …
I wish I’d had the presence of mind to bring a notebook with me to “Sherlock Holmes.” I should know better — that the Bible shows up everywhere. This movie was no exception. A fun flick — a little cerebral, lots of action, and a sobering reminder that what may seem to be convincing magic is sophisticated manipulation of the …
As I work my way through the Buffy tv series (“work” is too severe a word here — I’m having a blast), I’m struck by how bilbical themes, language, and images lend themselves to the science fiction imagination. This isn’t earth-shattering news, I know. What’s striking is how the Bible is translated into this medium. Appreciating the wild and wacky …
I saw the movie, “The Invention of Lying” last night, not expecting to find any biblical or religious associations or messages in it. Hah. I should know better! They’re everywhere. It’s really quite a sweet story in which the main character becomes a kind of Moses, even standing before an expectant crowd with two tablets …
Spoiler alert: If you haven’t yet seen Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino, don’t read any more here. Clint was all Clint in his latest, Gran Torino, but he did a mighty fine Jesus, too. I’m assuming, given the spoiler alert above, that you’ve already seen the movie. I loved it, especially for its ending. But of …
