God in the Movies

by Andrew M. Greeley

Overview

The religious imagination is alive and well in the movies. Contrary to those who criticize Hollywood, popular movies very often have metaphorically represented God on the screen. From Clint Eastwood as an avenging angel in Pale Rider and Nicolas Cage as a lovesick angel in City of Angels to Jessica Lange as an angel of death in All That Jazz, and from George Burns as God in Oh, God! to Audrey Hepburn in Always to pure white light in Fearless and Flatliners, God is very much present in the movies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351517201
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/05/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	196
File size:	414 KB

About the Author

Andrew M. Greeley

Table of Contents

Introduction; 1: God in the Movies; 2: Movies as Story and Metaphor; 3: Always a Lover: Audrey Hepburn as Lady Wisdom; 4: Life, Love, and All That Jazz: Jessica Lange and the Passion of God; 5: Babette’s Feast of Love: Symbols Subtle but Patent; 6: Is This Heaven? No, It’s Iowa; 7: Pale Rider; 8: Ghost; 9: FlatUners: Forgiveness Stronger than Death; 10: Jacob’s Ladder: God in the Nightmare; 11: Angel Angst and the Direction of Desire; 12: A Note on Purgatory in the Movies; 13: How to Put God in a Movie; 14: Magical Realism and the Problem of Evil; 15: European Novel, American Movie, Japanimation: The Evolution of Storytelling; 16: Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Bergsen (sociology, U. of Arizona) and Greele, a Catholic priest, contend that, contrary to the popular opinion that today's movies are indifferent to religion, there is not only a surprising number of references to religion and faith, but actual efforts at visually representing God on the big screen. They analyze such movies as The preface is written by Roger Ebert. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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