Gods & Moviemakers

In a huge departure from the normal format, Katie & Joe revisit the recent Holiday Special episode on Elf (2003), featuring Dr Chris Deacy, to share some insights gained and questions raised by that episode. If you have not yet listened to our Elf episode, we highly recommend doing so first, and coming back to this one.

Discussion points include:

The Jews Who Wrote Christmas, by Rob Kapilow

Elf screenwriter, David Berenbaum's relationship with Christmas films, as discussed in The Movies That Made Us

Pew Research's Portrait of Jewish Americans (2013)

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In 2003, relative newcomers, Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel, were cast in a film written, produced, and directed by a bunch of inexperienced guys, to star alongside national treasures, Ed Asner and Bob Newhart, and screen icon, James Caan. The film was Elf: a goofy story about a man, raised in the North Pole among Santa's elves, who sets off to New York City to find his long-lost Scrooge-esque father. Inspired by the stop-animation classic, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964), infused with references to other Christmas staples such as A Christmas Carol and Miracle on 34th Street (1934), and scored with beloved Chris...

It's February 1692 and a mysterious illness has befallen two young girls in Salem, Massachusetts. Eleven-year-old Abigail Williams and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris have been having violent fits, and bouts of catatonia. A doctor declares the cause: Witchcraft! Three women of low social standing are accused. But it is not long before the accusations start to spread. Paranoia overtakes the community. Witches are seen everywhere. Over 150 people are accused, and 25 dead before this infamous witch-hunt finally comes to an end. How could this all have gotten so out of hand? Was it all superstitious nonsense run wild, or does this episode...

It's the first years of the Cold War. Fascism has been defeated abroad but a new Red enemy is emerging and the US government is stoking fear among it's citizenry. Neighbour is turning on neighbour; friend on friend; paranoia is spreading. What do YOU do?

Playwright Arthur Miller looked to a similar event in American pre-history to produce The Crucible (1953). Set in 1692, Salem, Massachusetts, the play (and 1996 film adaptation) explores a witch-hunt that consumed the community. Accusations of witchcraft and consorting with the devil abound, scores are settled, lives ruined. Behind it all, Miller issues a clarion...

In this bonus episode on The Terminator (1984), Dr Michelle Fletcher talks to us about using the complete Terminator series in a classroom to highlight the way in which texts change over time in response to cultural and historical shifts. We also discuss how to teach with film without asking students to watch an entire movie.

If you haven't listened to our main episode of The Terminator, we recommend doing so first, so you have the full context for our discussion.

Many thanks to Dr Fletcher for her extra time.

Subscribers will...

In this bonus episode on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), Dr Marian Kelsey explains how she uses characters from The Lord of the Rings to teach about biblical prophets - including, the role of the prophet and the nature of prophecy - and the difficulty of discovering that students are not necessarily familiar with the same cultural content as their teachers.

If you haven't listened to our main episode on The Lord of the Rings, we recommend doing so first, so you have the full context of our discussion.

In this bonus episode on The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), we chat some more with Matt Page about using The Last Temptation in public education settings (such as church groups) to help people understand that they bring their own context and cultural baggage, to any text they read, including the Bible. Matt also talk about how he addresses antisemitism in Jesus films, and the challenges posed to the educator when the film deals with deeply-held religious beliefs, and he provides us with his top recommendations to learn more about The Last Temptation.

If you haven't listened...

In this bonus episode on Dune (2021), we chat with Katherine Gwyther, about using Dune in her research. Kat gives us an introduction into Fredric Jameson's thoughts on fantasy and science-fiction (including what Jameson has to say about the spice worms in Dune), and explains why she prefers to teach Hebrew Bible with films like Dune, rather than with traditional biblical-adaptation movies.

If you haven't listened to our main episode on Dune, we recommend doing so first, so you have the full context for our discussion. 

Many thanks to Kat for her extra time.

In this bonus episode on  La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) and Joan of Arc (1948), Dr Laura O'Brien talks to us about viewing period drama as a form of history writing, the way multiple films on the same figure or event can help students think about historical questions and reception narratives, and the online spaces in which some of the best examples of popular reception are happening today. We also talk about some of the practicalities of teaching with film, including: how to integrate film into lesson-planning and assessments; the time film-watching asks of the student; how students today consume, and t...

In this bonus episode on Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), Dr Andrew Mark Henry gives us a bit more insight into how he utilizes the Star Wars franchise to teach about the process of canonization, the human impulse to write spin-off literature (fan fiction) that we see in so many early Christian texts, and the usefulness of analogy to building understanding. He also talks to us about his approach to public education, and the thought process that goes into creating content for Religion For Breakfast (his hugely successful YouTube channel).

If you...

In this bonus episode on Raya and the Last Dragon (2021), we talk to Dr Piyawit Moonkham about teaching anthropology with film, how his students get to try out anthropological methods and skills through film analysis, and the insight we gain when we rewatch.

If you haven't listened to our main episode on Raya and the Last Dragon, we recommend doing so first, so you have the full context for our discussion. 

Many thanks to Dr. Moonkham for his extra time.

Subscribers will gain access to extra content after each main episode broadcast. B...

The Green Knight (2021) is a surreal retelling of the 14th century poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Directed by David Lowery, the film departs from its source material to present a compelling account of a man's mission to become a knight, live up to a legend, and face his own mortality. 

The King Arthur legend is a fitting end to our season on Chosen Ones - a king who was destined to rule the Britons, fighting the invading Saxons and whom, it is said, will one day return to once again save his people. Yet i...

When Raya and the Last Dragon premiered in 2021, it gave us Disney’s first South-East Asian princess, and joined a small minority of Western films centring South-East Asian people, culture and society. News of the film, therefore, drew a lot of excitement from SE Asian people (and those with SE Asian heritage) looking for representation in Western media. The film’s reception was more mixed however, with many feeling it just didn’t quite get things right.

In this episode, we’re joined by doctoral candidate, Piyawit Moonkham, to talk about Raya and SE Asian represent...

At first glance, Star Wars appears to be a fictional world built with religion and religious ethos: The Jedi live an ascetic lifestyle (much like Jesus, the Qumran community, Buddhist monks, and other religious orders), they dress kind of like Franciscan monks, they have a temple to gather in, they are guided by prophecy, and await deliverance to a better era by a "chosen one" figure; and let's not forget, Anakin Skywalker is literally the product of a virgin birth. Yet, probe a little deeper and you find most of that world building is only surface-level, falling apart under scru...

When The Matrix debuted in 1999, audiences were delighted by its use of Hong-Kong style fight choreography (rooted in wuxia and involving mixed martial arts performed, in part, by suspending actors on wires) combined with a new cinematographic style, later known as "Bullet Time". Hollywood was forever changed. But the film was far more than a visual spectacle. Filmmakers, Lana and Lilly Wachowski, produced an action film that was also deeply intellectual, playing with allegory, religion, and philosophy in new ways. In so doing, it prompts age old questions on the nature of reality, and what it means to be mas...

How do we remember the people of the past? And what does it mean to enact that remembering through the medium of film? Joan of Arc (b. 1412-d. 1431) has been depicted on film more than most historical figures. The broad outlines of her life certainly provide the basis for good drama, as she went from peasant girl to successful military leader to heretic, burned at the stake, all in under 5 years. A complicated figure in her own time, Joan's story became all the more enthralling when she was eventually given sainthood by the very Church that martyred her. Still...

When you imagine the distant future, what do you see? Some, like Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, envision a future utopia, where humankind has finally worked through their differences, solved hunger and poverty, and have united in a mission of peace and discovery. For many others, like HG Wells, author of The Time Machine, the future is a post-apocalyptic dystopian nightmare of our own creation. In his 1965 novel Dune​, Frank Herbet envisioned a future that has advanced as much as it digressed, rebuilding the feudalism of our past in far off galaxies. Dune clearly doesn't present a utopian future. Bu...

On a cold Parisian night in October 1988, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the St. Michel cinema, seriously injuring thirteen people; it was just one of a number of violent protests against Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. What was it about this film that caused so much anger? What was behind the uproar it inspired worldwide? In this episode we revisit and rethink the controversy, and ask: Was the outrage warranted, or is the film actually a deeply pious and personal exploration of faith? In his attempt to understand the dual nature of Christ, we see Sco...

On a cold Parisian night in October 1988, a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the St. Michel cinema, seriously injuring thirteen people; it was just one of a number of violent protests against Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ. What was it about this film that caused so much anger? What was behind the uproar it inspired worldwide? In this episode we revisit and rethink the controversy, and ask: Was the outrage warranted, or is the film actually a deeply pious and personal exploration of faith? In his attempt to understand the dual nature of Christ, we see Sco...

In many ways, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring perfectly demonstrates most of the tropes of a "Chosen One" type: An ordinary person chosen for an extraordinary task, guided by a mentor-type figure, and aided by a loyal support system. But who is the chosen figure in this film? Is it the hobbit, Frodo, or Aragorn, the king to be? In this episode we debate who has been chosen, and what biblical imagery may be present in our two potential chosen one characters. We also look at two of the primary influences on JRR Tolkien's wr...

We kick off our "Chosen One" season in the last years of the Cold War to talk about James Cameron's second-best film in the Terminator franchise, The Terminator (1984). Is it a sci-fi nativity play, ushering in hope for a new future? Or are we witnessing a Revelation-style final battle? Come join us as we learn about the nuclear-anxiety film genre, why apocalyptic stories are all about looking backwards, and which character Arnold Schwarzenegger originally was intended to play.

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Episode Credits:

Many thanks to Dr Michelle Fletcher for her time and expertise.

Dr F...

Welcome to Gods & Moviemakers, a new show all about how religion and the bible (as well as myths, folklore and belief) shape the stories we tell on screen. Our inaugural season is all about "The Chosen One". Why were they chosen? Do they want to be chosen? And why are we so attracted to these sorts of stories? Listen and find out!

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