Ten Years of Film Interpretation

In Metaphilm, and in these books . . .

Monday, August 25, 2003

Here and Hereafter

Explores recent trends toward the “spiritual” in TV and the movies. Producer Barbara “Hall thinks the new shows also reflect a waning faith in science’s ability to solve all our problems—and a culture-wide admission that life is built on mysteries that might never be solved. ‘Science was gonna cure cancer, it was gonna give us perfect children,’ Hall says. ‘Information and science and reason and reductionist theory were going to show us how to live. Well, none of that has come to pass.’” (Matt Zoller Seitz, ”Here and Hereafter,” The New Jersey Star-Ledger, August 17, 2003). (Our cynical read: “baby boomers try to face mortality” or, “are baby boomers finally growing up?"). Thanks to relapsed catholic for the link. 

Sunday, August 24, 2003

Christ Figures in the Movies

Apropos of our recent feature on Christ-figures in film, we found an article by Barbara Nicolosi that covers similar ground with a bit more theological detail, dividing the images into priests, prophets, and kings. Section one:  ”Other films that offer compelling portrayals of characters that offer themselves for others in a Christlike priesthood include: The Miracle Worker (both versions), Metropolis, The Iron Giant, Glory, Open City, The Mission and The Country Girl.” (Catholic Exchange, February 2003)

Monday, August 18, 2003

Movies That Trick Us

A short exploration of the recent spate of tricky films with unreliable narrators, such as The Crying Game, ”The Usual Suspects, The Sixth Sense, The Others, The Game, Fight Club, and memento.” ”While every film has its own objectives, I think it is fair to say that the movement on the whole is focusing on our own perceptions of reality. They are all pointing to the idea that we create our own truth.” (Dan Buck, “Movies that Trick Us,” Relevant Magazine, July 2003).

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

Fight Club’s Hidden Conflict

Now here’s a reading we hadn’t seen before, and one we really like. The struggle in Fight Club is the struggle to exercise free will in a spiritually tone-deaf culture. “This ending makes the real conflict in the film perfectly clear: Fight Club is about the reality of spiritual warfare. As the late Fr. Malachi Martin noted in his book Hostage to the Devil, the world portrayed in Fight Club—violent, hedonistic, cruel, ugly, filthy, degraded, and passionate but bereft of genuine love—is what prevails when demonic forces possess human subjects who open themselves up to such influences.” (Peter Alig and S. T. Karnick, “Fight Club’s Hidden Conflict,” American Outlook, Summer 2000.) Thanks to Mr. Karnick for the tip.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

Fight Club

An unusual reading of a movie that’s usually seen as a call to masculinity. Here the author focuses on the subversive role of the always hard-to-place Marla Singer. Marla “becomes Jack’s new power animal replacing the proletarian penguin that riddled his thoughts before. She has become the source of his power, the reserve from which he draws his healing energy, the eventual solution to his problems.” (Alex Bernhardt, “Fight Club’s Femininity,” 24 Frames Per Second, August 2003). Compelling argument, but a friendly note to Mr. Bernhardt: skip the disclaimer at the end.