Religion and Film 2018

I really enjoyed the movie. I feel that if a movie can make you think and analyze it for days after seeing it that it is truly successful. There are many themes in the movie that stood out and made the film so unique. Creation was a heavily used ideal with the was that the shimmer mutated DNA and even created a replica of a person in the lighthouse. I believe that the shimmer was the personification of a life inside one's own mind. It seemed to use the idea of whatever you accept is what you will get. For example if a person can accept themselves for who they are, this is when they truly become their self. I love how deep and confusing the ending was because it leaves me wanting more and hungry for answers. When humans are looking for answers, we have a unique ability to search endlessly for it until we find something we believe we can accept. I also love the premise of aliens because they have always fascinated me. I find it very hard to believe that we are alone in the universe a...

Something that I thought I found interesting towards the beginning of the movie was that everything in the prism was unique. Flowers that came from the same stem were each different from one another which as Lena describes is impossible. Even the animals they encounter appear to be different and "unrealistic" as they observe an alligator that seems to be a hybrid with a shark. The alligator has different teeth in its' mouth which is not normal. When I saw this, I was thinking about how each person is made uniquely different from one another and I thought the prism represented that well. Their viewing of the video at the warehouse of Kane cutting open his partner and Lena's discussion with Josie about how "it" is inside of her made me think that whatever "it" was just happened to be in everyone who entered the prism. This reminded me of how Christianity teaches that we have an unconscious and nearly innate desire to have a relationship with God whet...

            Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the movie Thin Red Line was the way that the atrocities of war were interwoven with the beauty of nature. The movie takes place on a mountainous island in the pacific that is covered in dense forests and lush grasslands. This scenery is often showed in contrast to the horrible battles that are going on as the plot progresses. The local animals are often shown in these scenes and almost all of them were entirely impartial to the events that were unfolding and I think that this was done to demonstrate the similarities between nature and war.             The life of an animal in nature is a constant struggle for survival. Despite its beauty, nature can be filled with violence and other gruesome images that you do not see when looking at it in a large scale. When two animals compete for survival neither of them are inherently r...

Bunny The short film Bunny was something special. To tell a story that tugs at the heart strings and was able to incorporate numerous symbolism in only a few minutes was incredible to see. The first symbol seen is the moth itself. Moths are typically seen as a symbol of death. Though Bunny starts off on a light and comedic tone, this is overshadowed at the grim thought of Bunny being followed by death as she tries to bake. The moth is also shown continuing to fly into the light which could show a restless soul, in this case maybe Bunny’s husband, trying to reach heaven. At the end, she climbs into the oven to follow the light, which can be seen as the tunnel to the light to reach heaven. Harold and Maude One of my favorite scenes in Harold and Maude was when Harold scared his date into thinking he exploded. The camera focuses on Harold’s mother talking to Harold’s date but in the background, you can see a blurry Harold in a white sheet and pouring gasoline on himself. The white sh...

In The Thin Red Line,  war is portrayed in a way different than other films. It is raw and uncut and showcases the mental and physical stresses that occur on battlefields. This took me aback because I'm used to the filtered reality that's usually shown in movies like these. I found myself half way thinking, "is this fight ever going to end?" which I can only assume soldiers think a million times a day in actual battle. The film showed a juxtaposition almost every time a soldier was killed or was in their last moments. The camera would pan to a beautiful nature scene of something simple and calming. Such as a the many scenes where sunlight was peering through leaves, or the ending scene of a coconut tree. I personally took this as the director and filmmakers making a statement about nature not caring what we do/ how we choose to act towards one another. Hear me out, because that seems a bit contradicting considering I'm an Environmental Studies major. An article ...

The film, Thin Red Line , does a wonderful job at tying in chaos and peace. In the scenes that we watched as a class, we witnessed the never ending killing of American and Japanese soldiers. The scenes that were most violent, or riddled with death, the filmmaker would break off for a brief moment and focus on a serene and majestic aspect of nature, to counter all the violence. These majestic and peaceful scenes contained the beautiful swaying of tall grass, the trickle of a river, or a jungle animal. These moments of peace, which were enveloped in war, showed how even through dark times filled with death and terror, life continued to progress. This was especially prevalent in the very beginning of the film when the American soldiers were marching into the jungle when a lonesome indigenous fellow walks past them without a worry on his mind. The indigenous mans carefree walk through the jungle was the complete opposite of the Americans tense and timid march into the jungle, o...

The Thin Red Line was a deep and interesting film to me. I have always been a fan of a film that will show a realistic ugly underbelly of a situation, and this film surely did. I appreciate that this film was not reserved on the horror of battle psychologically and the death toll which was abundant in this bloody war. I emphasize the psychological aspect because the movie was actually very deep in addressing the stress and pressure that each soldier would be under in the heat of battle and the decisions they would be forced to make and carry out. In The Thin Red Line , we are showed multiple instances in which soldiers seem to lose pieces of their sanity and well being as the battles go on and the war progresses forward. Not many times in film do we have war portrayed as a mental health disaster, but as a valiant fight for freedom and safety of a country or people. Displaying this loss of sanity in the midst of chaos is helpful in drawing attention to the many effects and harms of wa...

In the film “The Thin Red Line”, there is a strong juxtaposition between the violent images of war and the sublime beauty of the nature. One minute, you could be watching soldiers getting slaughtered by their enemies, and then the shot switches to a beautiful, peaceful scene of the surrounding environment they were fighting in.   For instance, there was a tense scene when the soldiers were walking in a field, guns ready at their side, as they pass by an old man walking in the field opposite their direction. It appeared as if he had no idea there was a war going on because his demeanor was so peaceful and calm. The old man could be a representation of the transcendent reality of peace that man can have in his soul even in the midst of a war.             Another example of a transcendent reality in the film is how the characters handle death. The film exposes the journey of how soldier Whit is freed from the fear of death in ...

“The Thin Red Line” was a very interesting and heavy war film showing the struggles of war on both sides of battle, as well as showing life and religion during times of war. In the film, during times of war and battle, the scene would change to shots of life like some beautiful shots of animals, or trees in the sunshine, and change back to men being shot by an onslaught of machine gun bullets or being blown up by mortars raining down. It seemed that the movie was portraying that even though there was a struggle going on between two sides, life still went on in that place and in others. Birds still chirped, and the trees still grew. It also used the scenes of life to show that life and death coincide. At the end of the movie, when the surviving soldiers were on the boat, the film emphasized the waves being left behind by the boat. This could possibly signify what war does to a place. Like the water right behind the boat, war stirs up a place and damages it, but eventually, the water r...

            The film communicates the ideas of the sublime and the Holy in several ways. A primary way that I saw these ideas shown was through the prayer or meditation of the soldiers. There are several scenes that soldiers, both Japanese and American, can be seen praying or meditating, especially when the Japanese are captured. One scene that stood out to me was a Japanese man meditating in the middle of the chaotic warfare. This is such an interesting parallel because he is searching for this peace in the midst of war. Both sides participating in this prayer or meditation makes me think of it being just another factor that unites them and makes them both human. Another aspect of the film that communicates ideas of transcendent reality is the way the characters view suffering and death. Some soldiers do not find much meaning in their life or death as they comment, “What difference can you make? If you die it’s worth nothing.” T...