Representing Religion in Film (Critiquing Religion: Discourse, Culture, Power)

"This is the first full-length exploration of the relationship between religion, film, and ideology. It shows how religion is imagined, constructed, and interpreted in film and film criticism. The films analyzed include The Last Jedi , Terminator , Cloud Atlas , Darjeeling Limited , Hellboy , The Revenant , Religulous , Earth , and The Secret of my Success . Each chapter offers: - an explanation of the particular representation of religion that appears in film - a discussion of how this representation has been interpreted in film criticism and religious studies scholarship - an in-depth study of a Hollywood or popular film to highlight the rhetorical, social, and political functions this representation accomplishes on the silver screen - a discussion about how similar analysis might be pursued for other films of a similar genre, topic, or theme. Written in an accessible style, and focusing on Hollywood and popular cinema, this book will be of interest to both movie lovers and experts alike"-- Provided by publisher Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Contributors Foreword Introduction: Three Film Critics Walk into a Theater: The Ideological Blindspot in the Academic Study of Religion and Film Chapter 1: Atheistic Documentaries and the Critique of Religion in Bill Maher’s Religulous (2008) Chapter 2: Capitalism, the Hero’s Journey, and the Myth of Entrepreneurship in The Secret of My Success (1987) and Joy (2015) Chapter 3: Oprah, Mindy, and Reese:: “The Gaze” and the Holy Trinity of Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time (2018) Chapter 4: Race, Colonialism, and Whiteness in Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016) Chapter 5: We Haven’t Located Us Yet:: The Mystic East in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Chapter 6: Lost in Žižek, Redeemed in Cloud Atlas (2012):: Buddhism and Other Tales of “Asian Religions” in Western Cinema and Affective Circulation Chapter 7: Magical Realism, Anti-Modernity, and the Religious Imaginaries of Latin American Cinema:: A Look through Ciro Guerra’s The Wind Journeys (2009) Chapter 8: Unsettling Settler-Colonial Myths about Native Americans in The Revenant (2015) Chapter 9: From the Horrors of Human Tragedy and Social Reproduction to the Comfort of a Demonic Cult:: Agency in Hereditary (2018) Chapter 10: Superheroes, Apocalyptic Messiahs, and Hellboy (2004) Chapter 11: AI Apocalypticism and the Religious Impulse in, and from, the Terminator (1984–2019) Franchise Chapter 12: Myth of the Auteur and the Authentic in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) Conclusion: Religion as Film: Constructing a Course as a Critique of a Dominant Paradigm Notes References Index This is the first full-length exploration of the relationship between religion, film, and ideology. It shows how religion is imagined, constructed, and interpreted in film and film criticism. The films analyzed include The Last Jedi, Terminator, Cloud Atlas, Darjeeling Limited, Hellboy, The Revenant, Religulous, and The Secret of my Success. Each chapter offers: - an explanation of the particular representation of religion that appears in film - a discussion of how this representation has been interpreted in film criticism and religious studies scholarship - an in-depth study of a Hollywood or popular film to highlight the rhetorical, social, and political functions this representation accomplishes on the silver screen - a discussion about how such analysis might be applied to other films of a similar genre Written in an accessible style, and focusing on Hollywood and popular cinema, this book will be of interest to both movie lovers and experts alike.