The Resurrection of the Religious Film

            In Sacred Matters, Laderman discusses the prominence of religious themes and imagery in all kinds of mainstream films. As seen in class, even movies that seem secular often contain some sort of religious or divine imagery, which occur as early as a studio logo during the opening credits. For example, we examined the motif of a pan down from the cosmos to the actual story in Star Wars. While this is an example of a religious image, there are also deeper religious themes throughout the movie. The most obvious seems to be the idea of “The Force”, which is some sort of spiritual power that permeates the universe. Sayings such as “May the force be with you” and the zealous belief that the force will make things right are strikingly similar to the role of God in Judeo-Christian religious stories. The broad idea of the “light side” versus the “dark side” is similar to the battle between good and evil, and more specifically God and the Devil. Even further, the lure of “the power of the dark side” that Darth Vader and the Emperor continually try to push onto Luke Skywalker is reminiscent of the snake in the Garden of Eden. Underlying themes such as these can be seen in countless Hollywood films, including Disney as Laderman discusses. However, currently there is an interesting trend in popularity for openly religious mainstream films.

            Recently, there has been an increase in (blatantly) religious Hollywood movies. For example, in March Darren Aronofsky’s Noah opened number one in the box office and globally was a booming financial success. Future movies such as Exodus (based on the story of Moses), and Mary, Mother of Christ further illustrate this shift from overtly religious films traditionally being independent productions to big budget Hollywood movies. It is interesting to consider why, in the face of rising secularism, religious movies are becoming more mainstream. Is this reactionary to this rising secularism, or are we as a society simply enthralled with traditional religious stories regardless of belief?