Movie Bleg
Although most of us who teach are growing inexorably closer to the mountain of FALL exams we have to grade, we’re also thinking about our SPRING courses.
I’m teaching “Faith, Law, and Morality” this spring–which is about, well, faith, law and morality. In each section, I have them do some readings, and then try to show a movie that raises the questions in a vivid fashion. The first section of the course is devoted to looking at “faith, [mora] law and grace–and I have them read Paul and James, Aquinas, and Luther. (A good Lindbeck student, I have them see that Luther and Aquinas aren’t as far apart on faith and works as people think.). As for movies, I’ve been showing Babette’s Feast in this section. Can anyone think of anything else that would work?
on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:26 am
I’ve always enjoyed Groundhog Day. Once Bill Murray realizes there are no laws—no legal consequences for his actions—he revels in his newfound freedom…for a “day.”
You can even show it on February 2nd.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:40 am
If you want to bring the subject of social class into it, you might try “The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeoisie”.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 10:13 am
How about “The Lives of Others,” the wonderful movie about the Stasi and a man who could take it no longer — which won all sorts of prizes a few years ago. If you’re interested in Timothy Garton Ash on the subject, try this:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20210
But then, since I’m no longer in the business of preparing spring courses, I have the leisure to read such things.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 am
How about “Tree of the Wooden Clogs”?
on November 22nd, 2009 at 11:03 am
The Spitfire Grill–the audience award winner at Sundance some years back–has strong themes of redemption, mercy, judgment, law, and plenty of baptismal imagery.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 1:06 pm
This sounds like a wonderful course. Possible movies: Gran Torino and Amazing Grace.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
How about Woody Allen’s “Crimes and Misdemeanors”? I used it in a Faith through Fiction and Film class this semester, and the students and I had a great discussion
on November 22nd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Kind of grim, but The Road brings up themes of faith and justice and the law (or lack of law). The movie about St. Alexander Nevsky is interesting.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 3:35 pm
This is great. I’ve decided to break down and order Netflix! Apparently, they can come streaming through my dvd player.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm
District 19 – spaceship over South Africa. Parellal to the events of 1980’s and social status, treatment, and classification of blacks codified in law, politics, and police actions. Moral dilemma and crisis for the South African in charge of imposing martial law, separation of aliens, etc. when he realizes that they are people just like him.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:13 pm
Erin Brockovitch, Murder in the First, Class Action, Mississippi Burning, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Bonnie and Clyde go directly to law and morality, especially Murder in the First (Kevin Bacon, Christian Slater). The Road to El Dorado, Milagro Beanfield War, and Paradise Road, along with Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Blade Runner, Six Degrees of Separation, Wall St., First Knight and many others can be helpful with an imaginative and intuitive instructor like yourself connecting the subtle dots of faith in the broadest and deepest human sense, with issues of Justice and what it means to be a human person in relation to the laws of society. Of course the best for all of this is On The Waterfront, especially since Kelly at Fordham has recently come out with a book on the life of the Fr. John Corridan, S.J. on whom Karl Malden’s Fr. Barry is based. Moer after I give this some more thought. Good question. 5 min clips often make a lecture/discussion come alive in the classroom. – Rick Malloy, S.J.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Two suggestions:
1) Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s:
Vincent Canby of the NYT:
It is “so French and so Catholic—as well as so fine—that it should prove irresistible to certain Americans, especially to those of us who, having been raised in a puritan tradition, have always been a little in awe of the Roman Church’s intellectual catholicism…
“‘Ma Nuit Chez Maud’ is set in Clermont, a town of something over 100,000 citizens, southwest of Paris, where Pascal was born in 1623.”
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9D02E2DA1031EE3BBC4C51DFBF668382679EDE
2) Also there are films of the Poulenc opera Dialogues of the Carmelites — nuns struggling with faith, doubt and death in the French Terror.
A snippet:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en&hl=en&source=hp&q=dialogue+of+the+carmelites&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=SbkJS8TsEIa7lAerrdyeDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQqwQwAw#client=safari&rls=en&hl=en&source=hp&q=dialogue+of+the+carmelites&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=SbkJS8TsEIa7lAerrdyeDA&sa=X&oi=video_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCUQqwQwAw&qvid=dialogue+of+the+carmelites&vid=-1507544212288829024
on November 22nd, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Patrick Molloy:
You wrote,
When you spoke of the book by “Kelly,” did you mean the one by James Fisher? Or is there another one by a “Kelly” that I’m unaware of?
on November 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood’s version)
The Mission
Romero
(ok, the last two are obvious, but no one had mentioned them)
on November 22nd, 2009 at 7:32 pm
How about John Ford’s “The Fugitive” or John Huston’s “Wise Blood”? — although the faith message in these is certainly more direct than one might prefer.
Alternatively how about Fellini’s “Il Bidone” or even “8 1/2″?
on November 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 pm
The Devil’s Advocate — an excellent job by Pacino showing the insidious nature of evil, making quite a attractive argument that it is “the good” that is evil and that it is the “evil” which is good. The truth of evil is that it is often attractive. Satan, being a liar, would not appear to us as some cartoonish caricature with red skin horns and a tail, rather, he would appear quite good looking and sounding quite reasonable. Pacino does an excellent job with this (Keanu on the other hand . . . ).
A Man for All Seasons (of course)
Sophie Scholl – about the White Rose German resistance to the Nazis
Almost any film about other religious people who broke “the law” by fighting against the Nazis
Judgment at Nuremburg – demonstrating that there is a higher law to which all are subject
Almost any episode of The Sopranos and the whole Godfather trilogy is grounded in faith, law, and morality
Rope – about a Nietzschean anti-faith of a superior morality that is above law
The two trial scenes from The Passion of the Christ – before the Sanhedrin and (especially) before Pilate
on November 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with Avery Brooks
on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 pm
I have no suggestions but I do have a helluva lot of great films to add to my Netflix queue.
BTW, Netflix is great, and a great deal.
on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Gene Palumbo,
You’re right. James T. Fisher’s book. I’ve gotta quit firing off posts…. (LOL). Peace, Rick
http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Waterfront-Crusader-Catholicism-Twentieth-Century/dp/0801448042
on November 22nd, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Faith, moral law and grace? Are there movies that do not illustrate these things?
Many fine suggestions here. Lives of Others and To Kill a Mockingbird would top my list. I’d add:
Adam’s Apples
Chocolat
Harvey
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
[I am leaving out the basics, like Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, 400 blows, etc.]
on November 23rd, 2009 at 12:08 pm
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
A Thousand Clowns
Harvey
on November 23rd, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Shane. About vigilatees
Odd Man Out. About revolution (IRA?), and Charity Carol Reed movie.
The Bicycle Thief. Hungy man steals
on November 23rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, Werner Herzog’s Aguirre: The Wrath of God, and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight seem appropriate
on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Of course, most Westerns are nothing more than simple morality plays. Perhaps the best, High Noon, has faith, including the town’s Protestantism, Quakerism, and Gary Cooper’s fidelity to law and order, tons of morality or lack thereof, and, of course, it has Grace, in her first major role.
High Noon is perhaps the best microcosm of humanity ever captured on film.
on November 24th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
And along the Gary Cooper/Quaker lines, there’s always Friendly Persuasion, too, about a Quaker family on the eve of the Civil War.