For decades, filmmakers have continually tried to capture the profoundness and complexity of religion on film. The elusive nature of religion has continually been shown on screen in effort to visually depict something so wonderful and fantastic. In Daniel Leab’s Film and Religion, he explores Hollywood’s fascination with religion in film and has some very interesting conclusions. According to Leab, religious films are successful because of people’s desire to believe in something. Attending a religious film allows people to feel connected to some sort of higher power. Incidentally, because America is predominantly Christian, Eastern religious movies have not prospered as well as their Christian counterparts. Leab’s argument that people watch movies because they want to believe was very interesting to me. I had never thought of that. Seeking out films do fulfill this desire seems almost impossible. Not only is it very difficult to represent religion in film, understanding the magnitude of religion in a film seems almost overwhelming for any audience. Another question this article raises is which nationality can produce the most spiritual film? As we saw in Wings of Desire and City of Angels, the poetic feel was much more present in the former German film. On the other hand, was the mysterious feel of the German feel more spiritual to us American studies because of its unknown element? Would it be the same for German students when watching American films? The intercultural interactions that occur virtually when watching foreign films definitely helped the spiritual factor.
Leab, D. J. (2002). Introduction: Film and religion. Film History, 14(2), 119. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
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