Includes bibliographical references, filmography and indexes.
Contents:
Introduction: Biblical film studies / Richard Walsh -- Apocalypse noir: the book of Revelation and genre / Michelle Fletcher -- Counting errors or understanding filmic history: historiophoty and Bible films / Anne Moore -- In the creator's image: divine and mundane self-reproduction in science-fiction films / Christopher Heard -- Murderous archaeologists, doubting priests, and Mesopotamian demons: the Bible in horror and adventure cinema / Kevin M. McGeough -- Comedic films and the Bible / George Aichele -- The first seventy years of Jesus films: a canonical, source-critical history / Jeffrey L. Staley -- Justice, empire, and nature: deliverance, covenant, and new creation in East Asian cinema / Sze-kar Wan -- Biographical approaches to Jesus films: prospects for Bible and film / Dwight H. Friesen -- Frames and borders in Deuteronomy and films on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict / Brian Britt -- "Blessed are the peacemakers": the deployment of Jesus in American and German cinema during and after the First World War / David J. Shepherd -- German Jesus movies / Reinhold Zwick -- Once upon a time in the West...the fate of religion, the Bible, and the Italian Western / James G. Crossley -- A return to form: Bible, film theory, and film analysis / Laura Copier -- Seven stations of affect: religion, affect, and Mel Gibson's The passion of the Christ / Robert Paul Seesengood -- Rock me sexy Jesus?: gender and sexuality in biblical films / Rhiannon Graybill -- "Sooner murder an infant in its cradle": wisdom and childlessness in The sweet hereafter / Jay Twomey -- Son of Man: a case study in translation, postcolonialism, and biblical film / Hugh S. Pyper -- American slavery, cinematic violence, and the (sometimes) good book / Rhonda Burnette-Bletsch -- Deleuze on film, and the Bible / George Aichele -- There's a new messiah in town: the messianic in the Western / Robert Paul Seesengood and Richard Walsh -- Lars von Trier's Dogville as a cinematic parable / Matthew S. Rindge -- Can we try that again?: the fate of the biblical canon on film / Matthew Page -- Reversing the hermeneutical flow: Noah's flood in recent Hollywood films / Adele Reinhartz -- A genre(s) approach to The prince of Egypt / P. Jennifer Rohrer-Walsh -- "What child is this?": reflections on the child deity and generic lineage of Exodus: gods and kings / Richard Walsh -- "What shall we do with the tainted maiden?": film treatments of the book of Esther / Deborah W. Rooke -- Desert tales: Mark and Last days in the desert / Tina Pippin -- A revolutionary passion film: Giovanni Columbu's Su re (The king) / Lloyd Baugh -- A deadly daughter?: Salone's cinematic afterlife / Caroline Vander Stichele -- Belief is in the eye of the spectator: beholding the other actor's reaction / Jon Solomon -- Ben-Hur (2016): Jesus finds a voice / Larry J. Kreitzer.
Summary:
The first decades of the twenty-first century saw a resurgence of the biblical epic film, such as Noah and Exodus: Gods and Kings, which was in turn accompanied by a growth of biblical film criticism. This companion surveys that field of study by framing it in light of significant and recent biblical films as well as the voices of key biblical film critics. Non-Hollywood and seemingly "non-biblical" films also come under investigation. The contributors concentrate on three points: "context", focusing on the 'Bible in' specific film genres and cultural situations; "theory", applying theory from both religion and film studies, with an eye to their possible intersections; and "recent and significant texts", reflecting on which texts and themes have been most important in 'biblical film' and which are currently at the fore. Exploring cinema across the globe, and accompanied by extended introductory essays for each of the three sections, this companion is an important resource for scholars in both film and biblical reception.-- Publisher's website.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.