who we are
staff picks
More CT Movies & TV
Looking for Laughs? Look No Further
'Thou Shalt Laugh 4' brings plenty of yuks into your living room
Though billed as "Christian comedy," don't roll your eyes. (I know what you're thinking!) Yes, it's clean, but it's also really funny -- proving that the terms "Christian" and "funny" don't have to be mutually exclusive. (Even an oxymoron could figure that one out.)
There are a lot of funny moments on the disc, but the funniest come from Michael Jr., whose schticks on "creepy Christians," the "oversaved" and the pressure of being Jesus's little brother are all worth the price of admission. I like what the comedian says on his own website: “If I’m in a club, my material has to be clean enough to work in a church. If I’m in a pulpit, it has to be funny enough to work in a club.” Amen to that.
Watch the trailer here:
Lessons from the Cinema: How NOT to Preach
Blogger spotlights 'Three Amigos,' 'Ferris Bueller,' and 'Princess Bride' among examples
He starts with some Steve Martin silliness from Three Amigos, then Ben Stein's droning ways in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, followed by (bad) examples from The Karate Kid, Star Wars, and The Princess Bride.
Funny stuff -- and instructional. Pastors, take note!
And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ...
It's a much different story in North America, where IA:DotD currently ranks 21st among animated films and 117th among movies in general. And when you combine the "domestic" and "foreign" grosses, IA:DotD currently ranks 5th among animated films worldwide, behind Shrek 2, Finding Nemo, Shrek the Third and The Lion King.
Still, however you look at it, the success of this film is a striking example of how computerized animation has taken over the business and, in some sense, levelled out the playing field. As I noted in my review of the original Ice Age seven years ago, successful animated films at that time had largely consisted of movies that were produced in partnership with Disney (e.g. the Pixar films) or in explicit rivalry with Disney (e.g. the DreamWorks films) -- but Ice Age and its sequels, which are produced by 20th Century Fox, don't appear to have given Disney a moment's thought. They're just there -- and audiences have been turning out for them in droves.
Continue reading "And the biggest cartoon of all time overseas is ..." »
Sand dunes in three dimensions, please!
Many of the more impressive scenes involve computer-generated backgrounds and other kinds of special effects, such as a sequence involving a loose bridge of levitating rocks that stretches across a deep, deep chasm. But there is wonder and awe to be had in some of the natural scenery, too. As Trevor, Sean and Hannah hike up an Icelandic volcano near the beginning of the film, we can see the other mountains and the landscape stretch for miles around them, and it's almost enough to make you wonder what an epic, scenic film like, say, Lawrence of Arabia could have looked like if it had been produced in 3D.I am happy to report that Jeffrey Wells now shares my curiosity.
Fresh, Rotten, and Everything in Between
What's in a consensus of opinions, anyway? Depends on your source.
When Star Trek hit theaters last month, I wrote that the film was getting "pretty good, though not great" reviews across the board. One of our critics dashed off an e-mail asking, "Do you and I have a different definition of 90-plus percent at Rotten Tomatoes?!"
Statistics don't necessarily tell us everything, and the websites that are in the business of compiling a consensus of movie reviews -- like Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and the new Movie Review Intelligence -- all have different systems for determining what the numbers really mean.
A fascinating story that ran in The Chicago Tribune this week explores these "review aggregators" in depth, shedding more light on their methodology -- and why major studios covet a "fresh" rating from the consensus. (Studio execs have even called RT urging them to reconsider certain reviews to change them from "rotten" to "fresh.")
Here's the sentence that stood out most to me: "But as rivals Metacritic and Movie Review Intelligence point out, Rotten Tomatoes can give its coveted 'fresh' rating to films that any number (and hypothetically all) of its counted reviewers don't really love. And though all three sites present numerical averages in their ratings, the calculations involve subjective scoring by the aggregators themselves, not just the critics."
It's an interesting read. And while you're checking out Rotten Tomatoes, be sure to stop by the CT Movies area while you're there.
How Sarah Connor made the war worse.
But what really struck me were the deleted scenes, which I don't believe I had watched since I first got the DVD in 2001. And why did they strike me? Because they make it fairly clear that, on some level at least, Sarah Connor is responsible for the war.
That's right, Sarah Connor is responsible for the war.
How can this be, you say?
Rating Woes
I have a friend, a young film critic, who is incensed that the upcoming Terminator: Salvation has been given a PG-13 rating. And he's not the only one. I understand where he and others like him are coming from, yet I cannot identify with their anger, nor my friend's assumption that the more family-friendly rating is an automatic reflection of the film's assumed poor quality.
Doubtless the rating decision is a marketing move - the film will take in far more money the wider an audience it can attract. That's basic economics. Playing to those economics, at the expense of artistry and the creative process is, unequivocally, shameful. But is that what's going on here?
Director McG has stated that he cut very little to bring Terminator: Salvation within the PG-13 guidelines - one scene of violence and another of nudity. Losing both scenes, he said, in no way impinged on the holistic, structural integrity of the story. If that is indeed the case - and what more do we have to go on right now than his word - the gratuity he describes won't be missed by anyone other than those who go to movies seeking little more than titillation.
Condemning all R-rated films simply because they are R-rated is misguided. Some stories, in pursuit of the truth of their narrative, naturally incur an R-rating. Would The Passion of the Christ have been nearly as effective had Christ's torture and crucifixion been sanitized? Tragically, we do not live in a G or even PG world. Ours is a fallen world and, struggle as we might to bring the light, we harm our witness and make a mockery of the truth if we claim otherwise. When a film reflects the world as it truly is, oftentimes an R-rating is inevitable. (I am in no way implying that Terminator: Salvation throbs with a message of Christian redemption, no matter what the title may imply.)
In the same way, we cannot decry films that mange to relay this truth (or simply entertain) without gratuitous sex and violence as a necessary prime mover for their plot. Good drama (or comedy for that matter) is hardly beholden to body counts and bare breasts. As another, older critic friend recently said, "Wantonness doesn't equal quality."
Human vs. machine = spirit vs. body?
Victory lies in the soul of the human spirit, not in the hands of the machines.A phrase like "the soul of the human spirit" sounds a little redundant at first, but when you hear it contrasted with "the hands of the machines", it sounds more emphatic than anything else -- and its meaning seems clear enough. As far as John Connor is concerned, machines are defined entirely by their physicality, their material qualities, their bodies, but humans are defined by something more invisible, something more intangible, something more spiritual.
Incidentally, this isn't the first time John Connor has referred to the "hands" of his opponents. In a trailer that was released late last year, John Connor remarks, "The devil's hands have been busy," and then proceeds to say some not-very-friendly things to a man who may or may not be a Terminator.
SpeedCine
Veteran indie publicist Reid Rosefelt is launching a site called SpeedCine, which will launch in July as a database of all the movies that are legally available for viewing online. This will be a great resource for anyone who has moral issues with the so-called "free" content that the internet makes available.
Until then, Reid is blogging about the industry. He's a fount of information on the movie business, and a great writer as well. So if you like to read about Hollywood and Indiewood, check out his blog here.
Film Premiere Hits Home
American Violet, out in limited release today, faced protests from the KKK when it recently premiered at a church in the small Texas town where the movie is set. The NPR reporter who broke the true story the movie is based on covered the event and you can listen to his report here.
The backstory: filmmaker Bill Haney was listening to the radio during his commute in Boston when a story on NPR caught his attention. The story focused on a poor young woman in Hearne, Texas, who was charged with drug possession. She faced intense pressure to plead guilty despite a lack of solid evidence. And she decided to fight back. That young woman's name was Regina Kelly and her story became American Violet, a movie Haney wrote.
Kelly's story shines the light on the racially tense environment in Hearne and on the untold numbers of innocent casualties of the war on drugs. Kelly's faith played a big role in her ability to go up against the local legal establishment and my interview with Kelly and Haney was posted on Tuesday.
Terminator odds and ends.
For example, when former FBI agent James Ellison tries to teach the artificial intelligence known as John Henry that it is wrong to let someone die, he bases this assertion on his belief that human life is made in the image of God and is therefore sacred. The viewer may or may not share Ellison's belief in this regard, but to my ears, this is at least a more potentially engaging argument than the one John Connor made in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), when he tried to persuade the reprogrammed Terminator that you can't go around killing people "because you just can't, okay?"
I still have several episodes to watch, so I can't say much more about the series just yet. But for now, let me say that I am one of the many people who hopes Fox renews this show for at least another season, despite its low ratings.
Meanwhile, in other news, io9 (via Carmen Andres) has posted a chart that attempts to show the entire history of the Terminator franchise, including all the timelines that have been revealed in the movies and TV episodes to date. It looks fun, but if I were to take it at all seriously, I think the chart makes three errors:
Expression of the day: Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Young, Gay, and Christian . . .
A new documentary includes interviews with those who fall into the demographic
According to its website, Through My Eyes, a new DVD documentary, "provides an unflinchingly honest look at the role of today's young Christians in the gay debate: what they really think, how they perceive the church, and what they wish other Christians knew."
I was moved by the words of the teens and young adults in the trailer. The film was apparently "created for Christians by Christians" to help promote discussion in the church on this important topic. The website says the DVD "tackles one of the most controversial topics today with compassion and sensitivity, shining new light on the debate for people on both sides. It's unlike anything you've seen before."
The film was produced by The Gay Christian Network, "a nonprofit ministry serving Christians who happen to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, and those who care about them."
Here's the trailer:
An improvement on guy flicks and chick flicks alike
"All of this has happened before..."
No time to develop this thought in any detail, but it just dawned on me that there is something strangely coincidental about the fact that Knowing premiered in theatres on the same day that Battlestar Galactica had its series finale. If you have seen both of these shows, then you might have spotted some interesting similarities between them -- but there are also some crucial differences as well. For some intriguing spoiler-filled comments on Knowing, check out Roger Ebert's blog, and for some intriguing spoiler-filled comments on Battlestar Galactica, check out The Gospel according to Science Fiction author Gabriel McKee's blog. And then, feel free to discuss what these sci-fi dramas did -- and didn't -- have in common in the comments below.
Fearing the Reaper
The latest edition of The Atlantic showed up in my mailbox, and in it there's a rather fascinating article by James Parker, who considers the popularity of the slasher movie (of which there have been several recent examples: The Last House on the Left, Friday the13th, My Bloody Valentine 3-D, etc.) in light of what it says about our culture, what it might tells us about our own attitudes toward violence and death, and more. Christian moviegoers might want to note that Parker draws even makes a connection to a certain Mel Gibson movie. (It should also be noted that Parker quotes a bit of movie dialogue that contains some harsh language, and that his discussion includes a couple of brief descriptions of some rather gory scenes). The whole article is available online.
Fanboys Fracas
First, there's this angry retort:
You panned Kyle Newman's "Fanboys" last Friday and I felt compelled to write. I'm the Chicago-based co-host of the "The Force-Cast," the most downloaded Star Wars podcast on the net. I appreciate and understand most of your review and I accept your appraisal. Your pan is not what bothers me. What bothers me is this quote from your review of "Fanboys": "Its primary flaw is that it's not critical. It is a celebration of an idiotic lifestyle, and I don't think it knows it"Now… when I read the words "Idiotic Lifestyle," my heart sunk. I actually felt personally offended. I've never felt such emotion before while reading a review. I felt like you were calling out my lifestyle as Idiotic. Why the hate??? Where does THAT come from. It was an ignorant and close-minded put-down that needs to be addressed. Remember when Chuck Woolery said the 501st (Star Wars costuming group) were guys who need to get a life at the Rose Bowl parade??? He realized afterwards that it was a ridiculous remark and he apologized. I think this situation is just as bad times 10!
...
So, Please take time to reconsider the terrible way you depicted the broad base of Star Wars fandom. What's wrong with an individual expressing his love and passion for a film franchise that influenced so many? Call us geeks or nerds, whatever you want. Because at the end of the day, we are all just people. And lets face it, at the end of the day, you are nothing more than simply a glorified movie nerd yourself. Eat that, Roger you Fanboy!!!
...
An idiotic lifestyle??? How dare you Roger Ebert. How dare you.
And then there's this reply, on Ebert's behalf:
In calling Roger Ebert a "glorified movie nerd," you seem to imply that knowledge of film and knowledge about The Force belong on even pedestals. Comparing Ebert's knowledge to your knowledge of Star Wars minutiae only reveals to me that you're about a few midi-chlorians short of an annoying Gungan -- or a few roofies short of being able to say you've gotten laid, take your pick. Knowing "Citizen Kane "frame by frame and being able to talk about each scene in depth as an example of great formalism in cinema is just a little less fanatical than being able to quote 6 two-hour films by heart, plus the spin-offs, the animated series, and the entire timeline as it pertains to the extended Star Wars universe - -which by now probably fills more comics, books, websites, zines, and non-canonical fan fiction than has ever been written about our own actual universe. Stephen Hawking would feel ashamed by the sheer volume of work dedicated to the Star Wars universe in comparison to his own achievements....
Life really is too short, the world too full of wonder, for any one person to go out of his way to possess such inconsequential knowledge. You miss out on so much in life and, in the end, will it have been a life well spent?
Why do I bring this up? Well, mostly because I think it's an interesting study in how people perceive the fine line between being passionate and being obsessive-- a line I have to make an effort to be mindful of when it comes to, say, U2 or Flannery O'Connor or Arrested Development. Also: Because it's kind of a funny exchange.
How important is "accuracy" in a movie?
There has been a lot of talk lately -- a lot -- about Zack Snyder's adaptation of the graphic novel Watchmen and the degree to which his movie is an "accurate" or "faithful" rendition of Alan Moore's writing and Dave Gibbons' artwork. Indeed, there has been so much emphasis on the movie's "accuracy" that it struck me as redundant when Warner Brothers released a "motion comic" on DVD that takes the panels of the graphic novel and makes them move. Isn't that more or less what Snyder is doing, except he uses actors etc.?
I have not yet seen the film for myself, but I have read a few reviews, and a line at Roger Ebert's blog (he likes the movie, by the way) puts a fun, witty spin on my concerns: "Faithfulness in adaptation is not necessarily a virtue; this is a movie and not a marriage."
If the discussion has reminded me of anything, it is of the way Christians tend to approach movies based on biblical stories. To quote a line from one of my reviews of The Passion of the Christ: "It is quite telling that the only way many Christians know how to defend a work of art is to assert that it is an 'accurate' adaptation of scripture, as if to minimize its artistry or creativity. It is even more telling that many Christians make this assertion even when the work of art in question contains several elements that are quite definitely not accurate."
Continue reading "How important is "accuracy" in a movie?" »
The Lost Dawn Treader?
Peter reported earlier this week that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage Dawn of Treader film is currently undergoing much rewriting. Ironically, some TV viewers have noticed in recent weeks that this Narnia book may actually be getting a rewrite in a different way - on ABC's Lost.
C.S. Lewis' influence on Lost isn't anything new. After all, last year saw the addition of a character named Charlotte Staples Lewis (pictured). Her arrival on the island clearly rang of Prince Caspian. And when I wrote my recent Christianity Today review of the show, I was tempted to include my observations about the show's parallels to The Great Divorce (a group of characters visit heaven - symbolically in Lost, literally in Divorce - but cannot be happy there because of their stubborn and selfish attachment to selfish sins and thus rush back to hell.)
Only recently has the show begun to overtly connect its island to the magical, mythical land of Narnia. While some examples of this would be spoilers to those not fully caught up, suffice it to say that the episode two weeks ago introduced an important place called "The Lamp Post" - which stands figuratively at the Island's entrance, much like the one that welcomed Lucy to Narnia in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.
Entertainment Weekly's resident Lost writer, Jeff Jensen, recently devoted a whole column to Narnia-Lost connections. While much of the article will read like ancient hieroglyphics to the uninitiated (and spoiler-heavy to fans not absolutely caught up), he had some thought-provoking observations - especially regarding Dawn Treader.
Here's a spoiler-free rundown of Jensen's Dawn Treader comparison:
The Dude Abides . . . and Other News
'The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers,' a Schiavo doc, & Phil Vischer's new venture
Our friend Cathleen Falsani, religion writer for the Chicago Sun Times and author of this terrific cover story on Bono for CT, just happens to be a big fan of the Coen Brothers too. And that just happens to be the topic of her next book, The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, due from Zondervan this fall -- right about the same time the next movie from the Coens, A Serious Man, hits theaters (due Oct. 2).
Falsani, also the author of Sin Boldly and The God Factor, gives an early glimpse at the cover (at left) on her blog, also called The Dude Abides.
A Zondervan press release says the book "will look at the filmmakers' presentation of serious existential and theological questions using the dark, intelligent humor and epic storytelling that have been their trademarks in more than a
dozen films during the past 25 years. . . . Falsani will investigate the theological, mythological, moral, ethical, religious and philosophical content and what their overarching message -- their "Gospel" -- might be."
I've already been in touch with Cathleen about an interview to discuss her book and the Coen movies, so stay tuned . . .
* * *
A new documentary, The Terri Schiavo Story, promises to reveal "previously unexplored facts of the case . . . through in-depth interviews with participants on both sides of the issue. Hosted by author and speaker Joni Eareckson Tada, who became personally involved in the case in 2005, The Terri Schiavo Story sheds new light on the controversial decision that led to the death of a 41-year-old disabled woman."
Read more about the film or purchase it on DVD at the official site, and watch the trailer here:
* * *
VeggieTales founder, creative genius, and all-around good guy Phil Vischer has launched an online children's TV network called JellyTelly. The free network, which streams programming 24/7, is aimed at kids ages 5-11.
In an introductory video to parents on the website, after noting how many hours kids spend in front of the TV -- especially the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon -- Vischer says, "Is it any wonder that our kids are growing up knowing more about Hannah Montana than about the Apostle Paul? Or that they're more emotionally engaged in the outcome of American Idol than in the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the work of the church around the world?
"JellyTelly is a way to bring the Bible to life for kids on a daily basis, to show them the work of the church around the world and the role they can play in it, to teach their faith and what it looks like to live it."
If anyone can get through to children through the means of visual media and new technologies, it's Phil Vischer. May God bless this latest endeavor.
for Lent
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
The Mission (1986)
Les Miserables (1998)
Into Great Silence (2007)
Book Adaptations
On my personal blog, I wrote a post called How to Turn a Book Into a Movie culled from my experience as both a screenwriter and a story analyst specializing in book adaptations. Recently a reader wrote in with some additional questions and I thought I'd answer them here.
'We're Going to Have Our Own Spielbergs'
Christian film fest founder draws battle lines, wants to 'build an industry around faith'
"We're here to send a message to the world that we no longer want our children immersed in toxic media which is in opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ. Christian filmmaking is coming of age. Christian filmmaking is coming of age!"
So said Doug Phillips, organizer of the recent San Antonio (Texas) Independent Christian Film Festival, as reported by NPR.
The NPR piece quotes Phillips further: "I think we're going to see significant production houses that will be funding $200 million films done by Christians. We're going to have our own Steven Spielbergs. We're going to have our own filmmakers that can tell great stories, produce tremendous films, but they're going to be doing it with a Christian world view, and they're not going to be embarrassed about that."
The story also notes that Phillips told festival-goers "they were drawing the Maginot line in the culture wars."
I appreciate Phillips' passion for good content, but the feisty rhetoric about creating "our own" industry just doesn't sit well with me -- especially with such militaristic imagery as a "Maginot line" (built to keep the enemy -- in this case, Hollywood -- at bay) and "culture wars." (NPR may have paraphrased Phillips by using those exact terms, but his meaning apparently came across that way.)
But why create "our own" industry? Why not get really good at the craft of filmmaking within an already well-oiled machine -- aka, Hollywood -- and make the movies there?
Continue reading "'We're Going to Have Our Own Spielbergs'" »
Exposing Sex Slavery
New documentary turns its lens on the problem in Thailand
Turns out his 25-year-old daughter, Rachel, gets it too. That's why she's made a documentary exposing the problem of sexual slavery in Thailand as part of The SOLD Project, which calls itself is "a grassroots organization dedicated to inspiring and empowering individuals to stop child prostitution before it begins."
Rachel recently told The Indianapolis Star, "At first all it was to me was a lot of statistics," she recalled. Then she met victims in Thailand, changing everything.
Read more of Rachel's story here, and check out the trailer below:
The SOLD Project: Thailand trailer from The SOLD Project on Vimeo.
Random thought of the day.
Many people blamed the difference between the two films' box-office grosses on the fact that one film was released during the family-friendly holiday season while the other film was released in a highly competitive summer market, within weeks of Iron Man, Speed Racer, Indiana Jones and the like.
Meanwhile, Night at the Museum opened in December 2006 and made a lot of money. Its sequel, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, will open two and a half years later, in May 2009, in a highly competitive summer market, within weeks of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Star Trek, Angels & Demons, Terminator Salvation and Pixar's Up. (Yes, all of those films are opening just in May. And there will be more in June, July, etc.)
If Battle of the Smithsonian is a hit, will that invalidate the theory that some people made in Prince Caspian's defense?
Americans Are Pro-Communist!
Box-office statistics don't paint the whole picture
If you break down box office statistics in just the right way, you could conclude that American moviegoers care more about supporting communism and its causes than they do about widows and orphans and global poverty.
We could do that if we used a similar approach to the logic employed in this recent op/ed in the Wall Street Journal, written by Movieguide's Ted Baehr and Tom Snyder, who argue that "what succeeds [at the box office] is capitalism, patriotism, faith and values."
Baehr and Snyder base this on their analysis of "250 major films from Hollywood studios and independents for their social, political, philosophical, moral and religious content. . . . Once again, family-friendly, uplifting, and inspiring movies drew far more viewers in 2008 than films with themes of despair, or leftist political agendas."
Consider how statistics don't tell the whole story.
Tom Joad's Ghost in New England?
Upcoming film to address economic collapse
"Focusing on the struggles of people who find themselves suddenly unemployed or even homeless, it reflects in dramatic and cinematic terms on the possibilities of personal and communal rebirth in the aftermath of economic collapse."
An image promoting a reading of the script includes this quote from a Bruce Springsteen song: "I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light, searching for the ghost of Tom Joad."
CT Movies critic Frederica Mathewes-Green recently interviewed Buzz McLaughlin, co-founder of Either/Or Films, which was named for a book by Soren Kierkegaard. The company's mission statement says they exist "for the purpose of developing and creating films of beauty and artistic excellence that provoke the public to engage with the providential mystery of grace."
Did We Miss the Religion of 'The Wrestler'?
S. Brent Plate of 'Religion Dispatches' apparently thinks so
"How did reviewers from the New York Times to Christianity Today miss the obvious religious references in this Oscar-nominated hit? Did they blink and reach for popcorn at the images of a tattooed Jesus Christ on Randy's back, or was it more about the myth of modern individualism and body-soul dualism?"
But Plate's not done yet. He's just getting started.
Continue reading "Did We Miss the Religion of 'The Wrestler'?" »
Dr. Jeee-kyll
The other night I saw the 1931 "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde", starring Frederic March, on Turner Classic Movies. Wow, is it disturbing. Truly a horror film. As a pre-code talkie, it also has some surprisingly sexual moments with "Champagne Ivy", Miriam Hopkins. Rouben Mamoulian directed, and March won the Best Actor Oscar. (Reason for the entry title: everyone calls the lead character "Dr. Jeee-kyll").
What's disturbing is how effectively it shows that "The line between good and evil runs down the middle of the human heart" as Solzhenitsen said; how intractable, overwhelming the evil can be. Jekyll--an intelligent, well-behaved young doctor, a "good" person--believes that the good and evil inside a person can be separated, and invents a potion to do so. But it coalesces all the evil inside him, and releases it to control his whole person, becoming the cruel character Hyde. And bad stuff happens:
(URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVESREi5JhU)
That part is kind of scary, but that's not what makes this a horror movie. What's piercing is Jekyll's terror when he returns to himself, and realizes that he has no control over Hyde, that the evil side can now spontaneously emerge, and there is nothing he can do to stop it.
"Oh, God. This I did not intend. I saw a light but did not know where it was headed. I have trespassed on your domain. I've gone further than man should go. Forgive me. Help me!"
I think we live in an age where "repentance" doesn't make sense, because everybody is basically good at heart (as Anne Frank said, before her death offered evidence to the contrary). There are only a few really terrible people, and the rest of us are OK, only human, a few foibles, but the important thing is that we're nice. That kind of fuzzy feel-good helps grease the wheels of a consumer-focused economy, because people buy more stuff when they're flattered.
But the Gospels are so different--Christ's emphasis on repentance is so different. Life in Christ is a process of healing, and healing requires recognition of evil, enough to be scared by it, as Jekyll was. The psychology (and even theology) of this movie is so different from the way we look at things today; I found it very thought-provoking.
The newest Harry Potter movie poster
Given that the seventh book is being split into two films, how do they plan to advertise those movies?
As "HP7" and "HP8"? That might annoy fans who know that there are only seven stories in the series, not eight.
As "HP 7.0" and "HP 7.5"? That sounds a little too tech-based for a story set in a world that is so ignorant of muggle technology that some people don't even know what a rubber duck is for.
The Biblical Origin of Movie Posters
Betcha didn't know that a flick about Jesus sparked the first one-sheet. (We didn't either.)
There's a cool new exhibit at New York's Museum of Biblical Art called "Reel Religion: A Century of the Bible and Film."
MOBIA's official website says that the exhibition "probes the fascination the Bible has exerted over filmmakers as different and distinct as Cecil B. deMille, Mel Gibson, John Huston, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Martin Scorsese. The exhibition features 80 rare vintage movie posters reaching back to the dawn of film in 1898."
That 1898 film was The Passion Play of Oberammergau, which actually sparked the very first movie poster. After a small flier proved ineffective for promoting the film, the promoters created a poster measuring 27" × 41" that became the template for the one-sheet promo we see in theaters everywhere today--with those very same dimensions.
A couple of interesting things about this first poster: It notes that the image is an "actual scene" from the movie, and makes a big deal that the film itself is "reproduced by means of 2554 feet of LIFE MOTION PICTURE FILM."
"Film is a recognized art form that has developed relatively recently," says Paul Tabor, MOBIA's Director of Exhibitions. "Not unlike painters, filmmakers from the outset turned to the Bible for emotionally powerful source material. The posters made to promote these films were often works of arts themselves."
We agree.
recent posts
Archives
November 2009October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
