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Jordan Peele's horror movie, Us, takes moral ambiguity to its logical extreme by creating a world, or, rather, two worlds, in which good and evil mirror each other on multiple planes—the narrative, the visual, the spatial, the racial, the ethical—and by its use of a biblical verse—Jer 11:11. The Wilsons, who inhabit "our" world, view the "Tethered", who inhabit a nether world, as evil insofar as they have emerged from the shadows to terrorize and kill them. The Tethered, however, view the humans as evil, insofar as they take for granted the ability to enjoy and act in the world. Like the prophet Jeremiah, the film draws the audience's attention to its own iniquity—and the consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biblical healing stories, especially when subjected to ableist interpretations, can fuel discriminatory attitudes toward people with disabilities. The Chosen series has opted to address issues of disability directly, not only by adapting healing stories from the Gospels, but also by creating storylines to depict other people with disabilities, including two of the twelve disciples. This article uses film criticism and disability studies to examine depictions of disability in The Chosen over the course of its first three seasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accattone, Pier Paolo Pasolini's first film, focuses on a marginal microcosm represented in all its desperation, yet also transfigured by the high forms of religious, scriptural, and figurative traditions. The cornerstone of Pasolini's project is his work with the actor. This article focuses on the character Balilla (Mario Cipriani), in whom Pasolini's figurative project is clearly visible, through the composite medium of the image and the diegetic function and cultural references that Balilla's words and gestures recall. The scriptural allusions reveal a conscious project of investiture in relation to the character, transforming him into the bearer of a universal message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Soviet Union, even after perestroika, explicitly biblical films have practically not been produced; nevertheless the Bible, despite acute censorship, has been present in a symbolic way in films directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and Larissa Shepitko. A certain revival of biblical themes is evident in recent works of Russian directors Pavel Lungin (Island, 2006; The Conductor, 2012), and Andrei Zvyagintsev (The Return, 2003; Leviathan, 2014). The paper analyzes the meaning of the Bible in these films: biblical texts are quoted in dialogues, and evoked in the titles and the protagonists' names; biblical motifs are present in images, in contemporary events, and in the narrative structures. The Bible is recognizable in the experiences of the protagonists (Christ figures), and it influences their lives, or is refused and denied. Lungin and Zvyagintsev show the importance of the Bible in challenging personal, social, religious and political contexts and situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responses from ordinary English church-goers suggest that viewing filmed presentations of Bible passages can both elicit emotive reactions to the texts and promote a greater cognitive understanding of the stories portrayed. In some cases, differences between the viewers’ prior experience of the text and its interpretation in film provoked deeper engagement and lead to fresh and fuller understandings of the passages. However, the power of conveying the Bible through film is seen by some as potentially undermining an orthodox Christian view of the texts. A consideration of other visual presentations of biblical stories, past and present, supports the importance of such resources in promoting biblical engagement among ordinary English Christians. However, the context of their employment needs consideration and care should be taken to inculcate a healthy hermeneutics of suspicion regarding any film version as one possible interpretation of a text with more than one possible reading. Indeed, the very process of viewing the Bible on the screen can be used to introduce Bible-readers to the plurality of meaning inherent in these ancient texts and the different ways in which they may be understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Hail, Caesar! written, directed, and produced by Ethan and Joel Coen initially appears to be merely a light satire of classic Hollywood of the 40s and 50s, it also comments upon several kinds of faith, religious and otherwise. Most obviously, the film humorously critiques the Bible-blockbuster films of the era, as being fairly insincere, manipulative, and too conveniently reconciling of secular, Christian, and Jewish perspectives. But careful examination reveals that four different kinds of faith are dealt with in the film: 1) Christian faith, 2) communist faith, 3) faith in Hollywood, and 4) Jewish faith. The second of these is mercilessly mocked, but the first and third are dealt with more sympathetically. The Bible-blockbuster film, as well as the efforts of the studio fixer Eddie Mannix to cover-over scandas in the lives of not a few of the actors and directors, are both efforts to support a the 1950s cultural consensus. That consensus involves a good deal of hypocrisy, but the Coens present the best case they can for understanding those like Mannix who seek to maintain it, even if they show why it ultimately cannot be. Most interestingly, while the film does little to examine Jewish faith itself, it uses the classic Jewish prohibition of graven images to criticize both Christianity and the basic activity of Hollywood. The film illustrates why the 50s cultural consensus could not hold, and raises troubling questions about the long-term impact of cinema itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reads Jesus' baptism in Mark as an experience of possession akin to that of the demoniacs. It suggests several possible readings of Mark in light of this baptismal possession: (1) as a story of heavenly rape similar to that of the Lukan Mary's overshadowing by the spirit; (2) as a story like the possessed of cinematic horror; (3) as a story of a colonial holy warrior's enthusing possession by the spirit and subsequent dispossession and failure vis-à-vis empire; and (4) as a story of one entrapped by an obsessive script. The readings' cumulative effect is a different perspective on the Markan Jesus' first and last words -- the announcement of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14) and his final lament (15:34, 37) -- than is common in Markan scholarship. The sayings become descriptions of Jesus' possession and the subsequent loss of that spirit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although biblical movies could be considered an almost defunct genre, television and cinema audiences in the first years of the 21st century are discovering a new interest of producers, motivated more by the desire for profit than by religious reasons. Among films, modern audiovisual apocrypha, we can observe new tendencies: animated feature films aimed at large family audiences, the appearance of a "professional Jesus" (Bruce Marchiano), and the tendency to put the figure of historical Jesus in modern ahistorical situations and in racial contexts (black Jesus). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several large-scale Bible epics have been produced in the decade after the revival of epic cinema at the turn of the millennium. Yet, while many biblical films of this period were primarily aimed at religious audiences, Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014) and Ridley Scott's Exodus:Gods and Kings (2014) stand out due to their broader epic appeal and religious skepticism. Using Gilles Deleuze's concepts of the impulse-image and the action-image as framework, this article analyses some of the nuances and complexities of both films. It argues that although both films offer scale and spectacle consistent with older biblical epics, the portrayal of their lead characters as a man determined on destruction (Noah) and religious skeptic and warrior (Exodus) differentiates them from traditional biblical cinema. Additionally, comparing both films helps articulate nuances within Deleuze's movement-image that are often overlooked. Having proclaimed that modern cinema brings with it a crisis of truth that challenges the certainties of classic American cinema and its clear ideas on morality and belief, Deleuze ultimately calls for a leap of faith to reinstate the possibility of action. The article concludes that Noah and Exodus offer us a bit of both—spiritual uncertainty and a return of classic epic cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Judeo-Christian Scripture quoted within the popular cinema is frequently an unexpected yet pleasurable occurrence because it embodies diverse meanings that invite investigation. Adele Reinhartz's biblical texts approach to film analysis was utilized as the guiding analytical lens, accompanied by a careful review of the critical literature and a close reading of notable Scripture-quoting exemplars culled from anad hocselection of popular Hollywood movies from diverse genres and historical periods. This examination revealed six functional heuristic categories of this fascinating filmic phenomenon, namely, (1) Scripture-quoting as verbal weapon-cum-divine protection, (2) Scripture-quoting as moral guidance, (3) Scripture-quoting as interpersonal jousting, (4) Scripture-quoting as indicator of madness, (5) mock Scripture-quoting, and (6) Scripture-quoting as scene-setting. Each rubric-category was illustrated with key dialogic quotations accurately transcribed, contextualized, and explicated herein. Expanding and refining these categories along with further scholarly research into the emerging interdisciplinary field of religion and film was recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the career development of American film director Cecil B. DeMille and his contributions to the development of new genre of Hollywood Bible films. It discusses the role of his film "Samson and Delilah," in changing the perceptions of the Bible, religion and American culture in general. It also examines DeMille's aesthetic practise of using multiple overlapping layers of sacred subtexts to enhance the drama, sacredness and credulity of his biblical storytelling.

Movies in the Jesus film genre often claim to be not only faithful renditions of their texts—the New Testament Gospels—but also accurate representations of the person, words and deeds of the historical Jesus himself. More fundamentally, they also presume a tight connection between historicity and faith. A viewer who learns about the historical Jesus through these films, they suggest, will have his or her faith forever strengthened. The irony is that whereas the Gospels have inspired profound ideas and beliefs that have shaped Christian spiritually through the two millennia since Jesus' lifetime, their transformation on the silver screen almost always results in a superficial, shallow, simplistic representation of Jesus, his life and his significance for humankind. While almost every Jesus movie has its moments of grace and artistry, most of them plod through the story even as they claim to bring to life both the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. This paper explores two films—Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Denys Arcand's Jesus of Montreal (1989)—that break out of this pattern, and in doing so mount a fundamental and explicit challenge to the links between scripture, history and faith. Paradoxically, this challenge allows them a more profound and nuanced exploration of Christian faith than can be found in most other films of this genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jesus films improve the Judas story by adding plot connections and amplifying Judas' character, but their Judases reprise "the Gospel according to _" pattern. Like Jewison's Judas, they all are part of the adoring Christian chorus. Films' selective uses of the gospel Judas incidents intensify the gospel exclusions. Judas remains the traitorous disciple who deserves his fate. Films' visuals continue the iconography of art and create interlocking scenes associating Judas with Jesus' opponents. While some films motivate Judas traditionally, others modernize Judas' motivation in order to create a simulacrum of a modern person. Regardless, Judas remains the mythic other whose exclusion separates us from the evil that we do not wish to accept as part of our self-identity. Films' Judases define what "we" are not. We can arrange the Judases of Jesus films into four types: a traditional Judas, a modern, human Judas, a Christ-figure Judas, and a parabolic Judas. The first two Judases are clearly part of Christian myth-making. While the Christ-figure Judas may suggest an antimyth opposing the Christian myth, it ultimately supports Christian mythology as well. Only the parabolic Judas contests the continuing power of Christian discourse by telling stories alongside "the gospel" story. The parables of Arcand's Daniel and Jones's Brian suggest a view askew on Christian discourse that invites us to read other Jesus films and the gospels themselves parabolically and to find the evil lurking and the "dark night of story" within Christian mythology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article approaches the immense popularity of Mel Gibsons 2004 film. The Passion of the Christ as a significant artifact in the contemporary public, cultural curriculum, and a unique opportunity for religious educators to build on its notoriety. Five interrelated contexts are identified and explored to assist religious educators more deeply understand and better interpret the significance of this film and all Jesus films. These five contexts are: (1) narrative theology, (2) scripture, (3) midrash, (4) the early film industry, and (5) the Jesus film canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suggests that Old Testament stories are the source of much of the plot of the 1978 film "Days of Heaven," directed by Terrence Malick. Biblical sources of the film; Information on Malick's use of imagery to establish patterns and rhythms in the film; Plot of "Days of Heaven"; Comparison with two other films by Malick.

The biblical story of the Flood, which portrays a humanity worthy of annihilation, is the fundamental myth used by generations of interpreters as they radically criticized the society and culture in which they lived. Accordingly, the Deluge myth's various versions and interpretations over the years mirror ever-changing cultural dilemmas and values. Our comparative–historic study observes this mirror and how changes in modern Western culture are reflected in it through the analysis of selected films. It exemplifies the representation and evolution of the Deluge myth in cinema from its inception to the present day, and demonstrates that the myth's cinematic adaptation and its infusion with current interpretations turn it into an imminent apocalyptic threat. Apparently, the Flood becomes a relevant concern involving a wide scope of cultural, theological, and ethical issues, e.g., the problem of evil, ecology, the treatment of animals, family values, feminism, the Other, and deification of science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the success of the motion picture "The Passion of the Christ," starring Mel Gibson. Information on the attention being given by biblical scholars on the subject of the Bible and film is presented. It also offers information on film as an influential medium, and the Bible as an influential text.