By Nate Marshall
So this is the introduction. I will be spending a lot of time on this topic as I have been developing multiple posts on this topic. This post will outline what I want to talk about and the breadth of the discussion as I have planed currently. But as my philosophy requires I will be change focus as the discussion requires.
Let me start with a little bit of a retraction. “How to read a film” is a bad way to think of this but since it is the way most commonly spoken about how to watch film I will use it still. in reality reading a film is not al that we want to do. After reading a bit of a great book “Reframing Theology and Film” I was affirmed in my belief that there is more than just “reading” a film.
What I want to emphasize is the idea if critical analysis. Watching a film involves more than just careful watching and a sincere intention to understand it. It takes an entire shift in our thought process. So the big deal of watching a film is the attention to all the elements that come into making a film. Since film is made over possibly years and by hundreds of people and all over the world we have a lot to analyze. there are so many issues to look at from the basic story, sound and Image all the way to budgets, buisness and cultural issues. We should be examining political, sociological, phisiological and historical issues. So maybe we should be reading books like films or more likely we are terrible at both and need to be beter educated.
So next time I will be talking about the first thing that we should look at when learning how to watch a film properly. We will start discussing how to prepare for a film and what to do when you watch the film.
see ya on the next reel!
By Nate Marshall
Just go see it.
I have never cried at a rap song before. This made me do it.
I have never felt so much anger in a theatre
I have never felt so ashamed of myself and my reactions to life before
I have never prayed for someone in a theatre before
I have never understood how powerful the words of scripture could be
I have never realized how grace can change so many lives so EASILY
I have never understood the Psalms until I heard the song Kim wrote and sang.
I have never been so frustrated and felt so helpless on such a large scale
As my favorite quite says I sat huddled in the dark and looked at those in the light so they could show me what it is to be Human.
go see it. please.
By Nate Marshall
yea lots of personal email about this one so I cleared a few things up. I hope that this makes things a little easier to understand.
http://cinemamarshall.com/blog/2008/07/different-types-of-pornography-sneaky-porn/
By Nate Marshall
Wow. Let me tell you this movie was a real surprise! I thought I would be walking into something rather simple and lame. I thought it was going to be advertising for Nappa. What I found was a really quaint histo-drama on a very special unique time for California and for America. It was kind of like Seabiscuit without the national pride. Now that I think of it that doesn’t surprise me. It is a movie about selfish people trying to make a difference without knowing how. It is typical of how California thinks of itself in terms of the country it is part of. The fact that on their site they compare this moment with the moon landing and 1980 hockey win seems a bit of a non-sequitor. But I digress from my thoughts on the film.
So this film was pretty amazing in one spectacular detail. I have been researching to see how true the facts are but have found squat, so I will just go with it an hope that it is based on real events.
Spoilers follow: as in total spoilers:
So as I walked out of the theatre I felt way better than I should and as David Wilcox would say “I was bugged for metaphorical reasons.”
You see I had just saw something really beautiful and didn’t know why it was beautiful. It wasn’t until 2 days later that it struck me. Christ was the entire focus of this film he was the driving story the reason these people were in community and he taught them about love life and how to be better human beings. He even was a perfect creation that died and rose again in this film. And it was because it was perfect that it HAD to die and rise again.
Now by no means am I saying that this is a Christian Film, I would never condemn a film like that. :) what I think is that these filmmakers knew the power of Christ imagery and of the story that so much of the world is familiar with that it became their story. I am sure a lot of it was coincidence or just playing on tradition western storytelling, but it is there.
Ill be short with the explanation then let you play with it a bit on your own.
The grapes and wine are Christ. OK for all you sacramentals out there you say “Of course Marshall!” I hope so beacuse this movie mad me want to take communion ASAP. so the one quote about wine from Galileo “Wine is sunlight held together by water” is ever so meaningful. That image Christiologicaly is very cool.
If Christ is the wine in this story some things need to be there. Well the wine is brought into the world by the unequipped and unprepared. People society would never imagine a savior coming from. It should be prophesied. It should polarize people. It should die. it should rise again. and finally it should save people’s lives because of the death and rebirth.
In the film the wine does all these things and more. it even goes through a 3 day death and rebirth. AND durring its death it is still sweet and beautiful. In fact the reason for its necessary death is its perfection. and it literaly saves a “nation.”
By Nate Marshall
Yea lots to do…oh and insomnia is lame. I had 10minutes last night before the alarm went of. Grrrrr.
Tomorrow I’m free all day after school so the posts will be flying.
