Film: Where Light Pierces Darkness

"And so they are linked, cinema and religion, two grand designs conjuring light out of darkness"

- John Updike

Gandalf fights Balrog

Religions are meant to give people out of body experiences that connect with the soul and give new light and life to every day experiences. In a similar way, films take people from their daily schedules and transform the world around them into a fantasy of color, sounds, and movements. Many films even take the next step and find ways to subtly, or blatantly, alter myths that people know to fit their own purposes.

Whether it be the slow downwards pan from the cosmos to the real in Star Wars, echoing the beginning of the world according to Genesis, or the death of Gandalf after fighting the Balrog, quite literally a demon of fire, and his resurrection shortly after, mirroring Jesus' death and resurrection, films find ways to give moviegoers a new take on religion. Like religions, they take people out of the physical realm and put them into the metaphysical, where light conquers darkness and the most unlikely of characters save the day.

The Life and Authenticity of Cinematic Myth

The Life and Authenticity of Cinematic Myth

     When a myth is portrayed in the audio-visual format in a cinematic setting, the story being told goes through a process unique to this medium of storytelling. The most distinct effect film has on myth-telling is the tangible life the stories are given; being able to engage our sight senses in a story allows the audience to absorb the tale to a new level unattainable by other forms of storytelling. For example, devout followers of the Star Wars film series are able to deeply connect to the mythology, and each other, because they are able to see uniform evidence of the scenery, individuals, and objects in the myth, rather than leaving those details up for their own imaginations. Without the visual aspect, audience members all interpret the story differently because of the diversity of their individual imaginations: visual imagery allows everyone to see and comprehend exactly the same thing.
     However, while cinematic story-telling gives myths more "tangible" life, it hinders their authenticity. Part of the beauty of reading, and verbally telling tales over generations is the act of wishful wonder they inspire. Stories that are told verbally, or read, follow an "innocent until proven guilty" principle. Because there is no physical evidence for why these stories couldn't have occurred, there is just as much evidence for why they may have actually occurred. Myths told in the audio-visual format lose that sense of wonder because the story unfolds right before the audience's eyes, exposing the story's fraudulence.