Religion and Film 2023

Through the research for my term paper, I have learned a lot about Greek and Roman Mythology that I did not know before. The book Classical Mythology in Literature, Art, and Music explains that Eros is the son of Aphrodite. Both Eros and Aphrodite are deities of love. Eros never had any children because “he represents physical desire, a cosmic power that brings beings into physical union, the force of generation and reproduction.” Though he never had any offspring he still had many sexual relations. One notable relationship was his love affair with Psyche. Aphrodite was upset with their relationship and punished Psyche. One of her punishments was collecting black water from the River of Styx. When she succeeded, she was given the beauty of Proserpine. This story will be useful in my paper because it shows that water, which is an important part of the movie, is valuable to Aphrodite. “Who Was Psyche in Greek Mythology?” TheCollector, March 28, 2022. https://www.thecollector.com/who-...

One thing this class has taught me that I was not expecting is how closely love relates to many religious themes. In both Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and Wings Of Desire, love is used to express themes of existentialism. This further makes sense when considering Kierkegaard’s quote “This nature of existence calls to mind the Greek conception of Eros.” I believe that in both of these movies, it is Eros love that drives the characters toward their true selves. For Damiel in Wings Of Desire, it is the first glimpse of eros love that he experiences that drives him to become a human. In Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind the eros love that Clementine and Joel experienced draws them back to each other after having their minds erased. Eros love is a powerful driving force that pushes people to become their true selves.

One of the big plot points of the Movie Mamma Mia which I am writing my paper on is that it takes place upon the fountain of Aphrodite. I was under the impression that this fountain was a real myth. I was planning on making this myth a central part of my paper. However, through my research, I discovered that this myth was created for the movie. However, there are many other myths involving Aphrodite and water. The movie takes place on a Greek Island and many scenes involve the sea. In the myth of Aphrodite’s birth, she emerges from the water. I think I will use this myth and others to argue the sea further intensifies the presence of Aphrodite which sparks many types of love displayed in the movie. The only issue I am still having with using myths as sources are that it is hard to find scholarly sources that explain the myth. My current understanding of the myths comes from google searches. I have not found any sources in the CNU library database that tell me the story of the Myth....

The Bible, in the original text uses many different words which are translated into English as love. In our class lecture on Valentine’s Day, we discussed the different types of Love and the religious themes each one holds. One that stuck out to me was Agape. Agape is a sacrificial or charity love. The word agape is ἀγάπη in Greek. According to the Strong’s concordance, Agape is used 117. It is translated into five different words or phrases. It is translated as “love” eighty six times, “charity” twenty-eight, and as “dear”, “charitably”, and “feasts of charity” each one time. The translation that caught my attention most was “feasts of charity.” Jude 1:12 says “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;” The reason I found this interesting was because, a feast of charity is how Bebett shows her love in the movie Bebett’s...

      In the short animated film,  Bunny, each minute is packed full of meaning and symbolism. This film depicts a moth being killed by an annoyed elder rabbit and at the end of the film it is this very moth that accompanies this bunny to heaven. This film mostly focuses on light and color. Most of the colors are dull, except for inside the oven which can convey the beauty of the afterlife while the faded colors show the end of what once was a vibrant lifetime. The moth is constantly flying toward the singular light source in the room which is not only normal for moths to do but also contains a second meaning of headings towards the light- death. The oven is used as an ultimate source of light and heat in the movie, which is 'like heaven' for the moth.      Harold and Maude depict an odd young man who is not happy that his mother keeps trying to control his love life. The boy keeps finding new ways to scare his dates away and this causes his mothe...

One film that struck my emotions this week was the Pink Floyd film, specifically Animation of War. The meaning behind that film is something I worried about a great deal as a child. My Father was in the navy for the first twenty years of my life and was stationed overseas or deployed for the vast majority of that time. My father never saw combat so thankfully I cannot relate to the aspect of a father dying in war however, I do understand the absence of a father figure due to the military. As a child, I never knew where my father was or what he was doing. Images on the news of combat in foreign lands got the best of my imagination as I thought my father might be there fighting. The images from Animation of War brought back those fears I had as a child. There was one scene where the camera panned up to the sky where animated planes flew. Those black planes transformed into white crosses creating a contrast in the dark sky.To me, this transformation is the death that the planes b...

     The shots presented from Harold and Maude resemble some form of metaphorical rebirth inside the cinematic narrative. The short dialogue between the two characters is followed by a presentation of dandelions and a scene of asymmetrical rows of headstones. The dandelions themself can represent a form of rebirth while the shot of the headstones coordinate to imply the end of something yet the creation of something else. This is also in combination with Cat Stevens music overlayed to assimilate this pure sense of cinematography where the underlying message of the song is in regard to the destruction and encouraged renewal of the environment.     The short 'Bunny' clip opts to present a meaningful cinematic experience without the use of direct dialogue/narration. The initial scene depicts some sort of bird flying towards a light and quickly transitions to a bunny in a kitchen. The animated short depicts the main character but draws its primary focus towards...

 In The New World by Terrance Malik, the director walks us through a story that we know very well, the meeting of Pocahontas and John Smith. At least, this is a story that we think we know very well. This 2005 movie came out after the immensely popular Pocahontas movie that Disney released in the 90's and follows around the same version of the story but takes it further and tells the story of Pocahontas until her death. This story invokes a meaning of familiarity for people who have heard a version of this story one way or another. I understand how this story is seen as poetic, due to the vivid imagery and the slow telling of the story through activating our senses, but I also find irony within the film. As discussed in class, the film was created to be as accurate as possible, down to the clothing and the filming location, but the content is incorrect. I found this film to be a creative and beautifully accurate retelling of an inaccurate story.   In the film, John Smith and t...

The New World by Terrance Malik is a beautiful commentary on the love story of Pocahontas and John Smith. It shows the early English settlers discovering a new world and setting up the Jamestown colony. The world that the settlers are used to is completely different from the world they have entered. As is human nature, the colonists try to avoid the ways of the unfamiliar world and set up a life as close as possible to the one they had in England. The natives, in this film called the Naturals, also avoid the colonist unfamiliar world. However there are two people that go against human nature and embrace the unknown. Pocahontas and John Smith each step out of the world they know and meet each other in the middle. At first neither of them embrace the other’s world. Rather they meet outside of both societies like in empty fields or on the beach. Then John Smith, who is held captive by the Naturals fully starts to embrace their world. Soon he adapts the culture and some of the language. H...