Comments for THE BIG QUESTIONS

Comment on 2-Film Comparison Topic by Anastasiya

Anastasiya — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:06:11 +0000

I would like to talk about Ferngully and the chronicles of narnia. these two films are set around the woods and there are a lot of interesting things about these two films that are interesting to compare and write about.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Denise Barclay

Denise Barclay — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:01:06 +0000

The film “A Walk To Remember” is a really fantastic film. A Walk To Remember is about a girl whose father is a pastor, this young girl who is always walking with a bible and quoting bible verses meets a boy who has no religous back ground. This young man begans to tease this girl every day for being so religous, until he finds out that she is not all that bad of a person. They actually began to fall in love with one another. This young man also, becomes interested in learning the bible as well. When he learns that his girl he has fallen in love with has become ill with a terminal disease, he begans to pray for her that God could keep her well. I recommend you to see this film, it is a very touching movie.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Anastasiya

Anastasiya — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:48:31 +0000

the passion of the Christ is obviously a religious film! It is a very close to the real story but has some parts to it that are not out of the bible. the part with the saitan is overdone and not from the story out of the bible. It is a movie that is portraying catholisism. it has a lot of Catholic viewpoints and beliefs. It is defenatly a movie that makes people stop and think a litle about their lives.
Star dust is another movie that i saw. it has a lot of fantasy in it like matrix does but they are totaly different kinds of fantasy. It has a strugle of two different worlds in it. The good and the bad. Tristan is the main character that is faced with good and evil in life. we are always surounded by spiritual world. we do not see it but we know its there… or some might not know. Tristan got to face the evil world and the good world. this movie is also great. A lot can be seen as real in this film. The stragle of good and evil is real and its around us. This movie could also be seen as religios.
Wiker park is another great movie. it is a film that could also be seen as a religious. from taking this class i understand that almost any movie could be seen as a religious film if you put some thought in it. Wiker park is a movie that showes the qualities that people should not have. Alex is a reflection of evil in this film. She ruines lisas and matthews relationship buy manipulating others. She pretends to be lisas friend but she is really not she is her enamy. Alex is jelous because lisa has a nice guy like matthew. Since she is jelous she does everything posible to ruin their relationship. This film shows people how not to act. Its a great film of all times. i love it.
The chronicles of Narnia is another great movie that is seen as a religious film. it has a lot of parts in it that support this idea. One of the things is that it has a lion in it! It is a portrait of the christ. if you read the bible you can find that He is described as a Lion. I will get more in to to this in my paper. i want to write my comparision review on this film.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Anastasiya

Anastasiya — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:08:52 +0000

The notebook is a great film that i watched and in my opinion it has very deep christian ideas behind it. Marrage is a wonderfull thing and it has to be caried on through the whole life in happines and pain, helth and sickness, wealth and powerty etc. But in our society and during our days it does not seem to work that way. People divorse eachother to the left and right. The bible states clearly that there sould be no divorces and the two people need to live together to the day death parts them. In the notebook Noah loved Allie till the very end. They even both died together. Noah did a lot for Allie till the very last day. He tried to do everything he could to help her remember the past which she did not remember. He read their love story to her everytime he saw her and it did not help. the main point of the film was to show the love that couples should have till the day death parts them. it is a great film.

Comment on 2-Film Comparison Topic by Tan Mai

Tan Mai — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 03:24:26 +0000

I want to review “The Matrix” and “Equilibrium”. “Equilibrium” deals with a world where mankind is kept under control by suppressing emotion inducing art such as literature and music. Basically the people in Equilibrium are not allowed to feel emotions. I want to compare the two main characters of the film, Neo from the Matrix and John from Equilibrium. Both these characters are seen as Christ figures in their own rights. Here is my working thesis.

These two films portray a world where mankind is enslaved but is set free by a Christ figure that appear different at first but ultimately have a lot in common.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Kelly Hartman

Kelly Hartman — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:46:48 +0000

It’s a Wonderful Life is a story about George Bailey who is about to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. He is saved by his guardian angel, Clarence, who shows George what a good person he has been all his life, and just how dire a situation the town would be in had he never been born. The most important aspect of the film is the transformation of George from his bitter life in which he feels unappreciated and taken advantage of, to a more self-realized state. He eventually has the ability to see how he has touched people and that his good deeds have not gone unnoticed. Although the film is heavily Christian themed, I also saw the Buddhist concept of Karma. It was almost as if George’s guardian angel was trying to show him that good has come to those around him because of all the good that he had done in his life. By the end of the film, George is also saved by the good life he has lived.
The final film I reviewed was Crash. Crash is an involved plot with many different stories simultaneously occurring, with all of the characters lives eventually coinciding at one point or another. Most of the characters exhibit racist attitudes either overtly or implicitly in the film; however each one is also faced with a moral choice. For example, the character of Anthony is a car thief who believes black people are unfairly discriminated against. He uses this as his reason for stealing and carjacking white people’s cars. By the end of the film, he inadvertently steals a van full of illegal immigrants, and he is offered money for each one. He refuses, lets the immigrants go free, and gives them the last money he has. One film review suggests that the impetus for each character’s actions is fear. Fear causes some characters to do the morally right thing while others find their morality compromised.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Cristopher Salamanca

Cristopher Salamanca — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:23:11 +0000

“The Da Vinci Code”

Based on the novel, the film “The Da Vinci Code” may not directly use religious themes but it does, however, present many controversies surrounding Christian doctrines. The two main characters Robert (Tom Hanks) and Sophie as they try to solve a riddle about the whereabouts of the Holy Grail in order to keep it’s secret from the world. In turn, a Catholic organization called Opus Dei wants the Holy Grail to regain support from the Church.

The controversy surrounding the novel and film stems mainly from its statements about Mary Magdalene’s relationship to Jesus and that they created a bloodline that was in turn kept secret by a secret society. I think the popularity of the novel and film are because of these controversies in that so many Christians today are becoming more open and secular and also because it’s basic human nature to enjoy a scandals and to believe in rumors. However, as a Catholic I do not take the film’s statements as fact and viewed the movie purely for it’s entertainment value rather than boycotting it because of it’s potential blasphemous remarks about the Church.

“The Fiddler on the Roof”

A film adaptation of the Broadway musical, the film “The Fiddler on the Roof” is a story about Tevyre, a Jewish milkman, and his family in Russia. His family and the rest of the Jewish community in the town are living tough lives in Russia set in a time during the Russian Revolution in the early 1900’s. In the beginning, Tevye says that the Jews in Russia can be likened to a fiddler on the roof, trying to play music without hurting himself, I saw it as the Jewish struggle to live in Russia at the time.

The film also deals with getting away from certain traditions such as arranged marriages. Tevye sees his eldest daughter choose not to marry the wealthiest bachelor in the town, rather she chooses to marry a tailor whom she loves. His other daughter Hodel also decides to marry without his initial consent and finally his daughter Chava elopes with a non-Jew, which he never really consents to. In the end, the entire town is forced to leave by the Russian government in depicting the outcome of many Jewish families in Russia at the time.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Andrew Ruggles

Andrew Ruggles — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:02:01 +0000

My last movie is Life of Brian. This movie is a satire. The films main character, Brian, is a Christ like figure. His every little decision breaks up his followers into ever smaller sects. He does not ask to be followed, and really does not want to. At one point there are followers of his left sandle and his right sandle. Brian was born in a stable next to Jesus. And when people were looking for the messiah, he fit the description. He in one way fit it better than Christ himself. He wanted to overthrow the Romans, which is what most Jews thought the messiah’s purpose was. This movie shows the somewhat absurdity of religion. You can always find someone to believe in any religion, no matter how crazy it is. These followers will fight over the most minute detail. Religions get caught up in things that do not matter, and forget their true purpose. They tend to spend more time fighting with each other than they do living out their beliefs. Religions lose themselves in rules and in trying to make other people follow them, end up breaking them there selves.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Ian Wristbridge

Ian Wristbridge — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 17:06:16 +0000

The final outside film I watched was Wall-E. For an animated movie with very little dialogue, this proved to be surprisingly entertaining. The story takes place in the distant future where a lone robot named Wall-E has been left behind to clean up a mess that drove humans from Earth. His daily routine is to organize a garbage landscape into small blocks with which he builds massive trash skyscrapers. Using these unconventional building blocks, the amiable little robot nostalgically attempts to salvage a civilization of the past. This nostalgia also fuels his desire to collect toys, old movies and even common household items. All of this is done with a sense that the robot loves humanity and longs for their return to him.

A religious perspective of this film relates to Wall-E’s love for humanity. Certain aspects of Wall-E’s identity are completely distinct from humanity- most obvious of which is the fact that he’s a robot. However, Wall-E is also shown as possessing compassionate, selfless and idealistic traits which introduces a strange dichotomy. Much like the traditional view of Christ, this dichotomy promotes an understanding of the human experience while simultaneously providing a means through which salvation is attained. In scripture, full atonement of humanity is only achieved through a sinless Christ, an attribute unique from humanity. In a similar way, the fact that Wall-E is a robot allows him to tolerate the harsh conditions of Earth, clean it of its filth and also save mankind.

Comment on Films with Religious themes or ideas that I recommend by Daitza

Daitza — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 16:22:48 +0000

The Pianist
This is a memorable film that portrays the surviving account of a Polish-Jew who survives WWII. Before the war he was a pianist for Polish radio but soon after the war broke out he had to flee for safety. His survival story is made possible in part by the people who risked their life to feed him and hid him. I think this film is true to most of the survival account of Polish-Jews and Jews in Poland that were part of the larger Polish society without any stigmatization. But that during hostile times, their position reverse and their ethnicity was all it mattered. Just the fact that people were willing to accommodate him in an unsafe environment shows that while evilness surrounds there is always someone advocating for justice and peace in some sort o form.