Alright, explanations for this blog....
So serious, here's a picture of Chuck Norris as Jesus.
If you've found your way here, you're one of the few, the proud, the nerdy, the friends, professors, and smart-fella aquaintances I've asked to occassionally check in on the progress of my newest scholarly venture, religion in film. Essentially, for my independent studies classes 2014-15 (kinda' my 4th senior project...) I'm exploring religious concepts I find in film.
Now, this all began at a midnight showing of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Scene: the lights are dim, the crunch of cold popcorn to my left (my sister nomming down) mixed with explosions of the final fight scene of Christopher Nolan's final installment of the trilogy. Bam! Bane's shot down by Catgirl. Bam! The slow crechendo of the music as the Bat flies off toting the neucleur core. Bam! Right on time, Bruce Wayne shows up in the Alfred's cafe with Catgirl, the legend dead, Batman risen, exalted, and, wait a minute....
BAM! Christopher Nolan stole Jesus!
...I say to my family as we walk down the long lit hallway, out the door, and through the lobby.
Now, I won't go into particulars right now. That's for another post. But apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so. A quick Google search (is there any other type?) revealed whole fan communities (religious and secular) who also identified themes of fall, rise, redemption, exalation, and general Christ mythology in the Batman Trilogy. As one blogger suggested, is Christopher Nolan a secret evangelical, a Bible-beating hollywoodite complete with artistic proficiency to tell the Gospel through a means do discrete, so fantastically filmically elite no one would suspect he's giving us the Savior that we need?
No dice. Evidence is in: he's athiest, or at least not religious in the popular sense.
But... He did grow up Catholic... Hmmm...
Anyways, long story short, this whole shenanigans has set me on a long hunt leading through Summit, the library, 19th century literary criticism, film theory (both realism and formalism), schitzophrenism, heirophanies, dozens of films, and several blog posts now to a thesis something like this:
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy is a cultural heirophany for both Nolan himself and the viewers he watches, pulling from the filmmaker's own subconscious mythos Christian themes of fall, sin, redemption, grace, and exaltation.
Sure, Nolan isn't a Christan, any more, at least. However, as Campbell, Jung, Freud, and even literary critics like Lewis and Tolkien would agree, that doesn't mean that the Chrisian mythos isn't heavily ingrained in his subconscious. And that subconcsious, I will argue, as subconscious elements tend to do, poked through in the making of The Dark Knight and also pulled at the shared cultural Christian mythos of the West.
And that's just the beginning.
So far, I've identified three films with heavily religious influence and dynamics I want to write essays about this year:
1) Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy as a personal and cultural heirophany.
2) Gnosticism in The Last Temptation of Christ
3) Conflicting Confucian and Buddhist ideologies in Cloud Atlas.
And this is just the beginning.
This blog is going to be, essentially, an idea organizing place for me. A place I throw and organize ideas, quotes, concepts, images, and thoughts in regards to where I'm going with thesis, arguments, and resources.
And I'd love you to help.
If you have the time, please feel free to stop by on occassion, read what's going on through my mind, and put a comment or two. Maybe suggest some further reading. Maybe point out a flaw or two in my reasoning and some way to make it better. Maybe make a joke to make sure I'm not taking myself too seriously (I have a tendency...) And overall, please, just enjoy my musings.
And now I grow weary of such blogging! Tuck, tuck, tuck it away!
More soon...
Now, this all began at a midnight showing of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. Scene: the lights are dim, the crunch of cold popcorn to my left (my sister nomming down) mixed with explosions of the final fight scene of Christopher Nolan's final installment of the trilogy. Bam! Bane's shot down by Catgirl. Bam! The slow crechendo of the music as the Bat flies off toting the neucleur core. Bam! Right on time, Bruce Wayne shows up in the Alfred's cafe with Catgirl, the legend dead, Batman risen, exalted, and, wait a minute....
BAM! Christopher Nolan stole Jesus!
...I say to my family as we walk down the long lit hallway, out the door, and through the lobby.
Now, I won't go into particulars right now. That's for another post. But apparently I wasn't the only one who thought so. A quick Google search (is there any other type?) revealed whole fan communities (religious and secular) who also identified themes of fall, rise, redemption, exalation, and general Christ mythology in the Batman Trilogy. As one blogger suggested, is Christopher Nolan a secret evangelical, a Bible-beating hollywoodite complete with artistic proficiency to tell the Gospel through a means do discrete, so fantastically filmically elite no one would suspect he's giving us the Savior that we need?
No dice. Evidence is in: he's athiest, or at least not religious in the popular sense.
But... He did grow up Catholic... Hmmm...
Anyways, long story short, this whole shenanigans has set me on a long hunt leading through Summit, the library, 19th century literary criticism, film theory (both realism and formalism), schitzophrenism, heirophanies, dozens of films, and several blog posts now to a thesis something like this:
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy is a cultural heirophany for both Nolan himself and the viewers he watches, pulling from the filmmaker's own subconscious mythos Christian themes of fall, sin, redemption, grace, and exaltation.
Sure, Nolan isn't a Christan, any more, at least. However, as Campbell, Jung, Freud, and even literary critics like Lewis and Tolkien would agree, that doesn't mean that the Chrisian mythos isn't heavily ingrained in his subconscious. And that subconcsious, I will argue, as subconscious elements tend to do, poked through in the making of The Dark Knight and also pulled at the shared cultural Christian mythos of the West.
And that's just the beginning.
So far, I've identified three films with heavily religious influence and dynamics I want to write essays about this year:
1) Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy as a personal and cultural heirophany.
2) Gnosticism in The Last Temptation of Christ
3) Conflicting Confucian and Buddhist ideologies in Cloud Atlas.
And this is just the beginning.
This blog is going to be, essentially, an idea organizing place for me. A place I throw and organize ideas, quotes, concepts, images, and thoughts in regards to where I'm going with thesis, arguments, and resources.
And I'd love you to help.
If you have the time, please feel free to stop by on occassion, read what's going on through my mind, and put a comment or two. Maybe suggest some further reading. Maybe point out a flaw or two in my reasoning and some way to make it better. Maybe make a joke to make sure I'm not taking myself too seriously (I have a tendency...) And overall, please, just enjoy my musings.
And now I grow weary of such blogging! Tuck, tuck, tuck it away!
More soon...