• Marcus Borg & N.T. Wright: The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions, HarperSanFrancisco, 1998. Four years ago, I had the privilege of interviewing Marcus Borg and N.T. Wright for this newspaper when they met for a dialogue — no one wanted to call it a debate — at Regent College. Both men are members of the Anglican church and historians who specialize in ‘the historical Jesus,’ but they have very different understandings of who and what Jesus was, and they... Read more
Just about every kind of disaster film has appeared on screens big and small in the past few years, so it was only a matter of time before some producer turned to the Bible for inspiration. The result is Noah’s Ark, a two-part mini-series produced by Robert Halmi Sr., the renowned showman who has made it his mission to bring literary classics such as Gulliver’s Travels, The Odyssey and Moby Dick to TV sets everywhere. Floods, volcanoes, meteors, tornadoes, shipwrecks... Read more
Revelation, the second in a proposed trilogy of end-times movies written and produced by Peter and Paul Lalonde, is that rarest of films: a sequel that improves on its predecessor in just about every possible way. Of course, such praise may sound faint when the previous film was Apocalypse, a tacky soap-opera-style collection of talking heads and recycled news footage that suffered from poor acting and cheesy ideas. But Revelation is a remarkably assured piece of filmmaking in its own... Read more
Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line is a brooding and introspective look at war, and with that in mind I’d like to start with a little brooding of my own. I have never known what to make, as a Christian, of war. I grew up in a nominally Mennonite, and therefore pacifist, environment, but I currently attend an Anglican church where the walls are decorated with memorials to parishioners who died — and killed — in battle. (more…) Read more
Movie sets often feature archaeological remains, but how often do they become archaeological sites in their own right? Parts of Cecil B. DeMille’s first version of The Ten Commandments were filmed on a massive set built in the sand dunes near Guadalupe, California. To prevent competitors from shooting their own films on the site and beating him to the box office, DeMille buried the set under the sand once he was done, and there it lay undisturbed for 60 years.... Read more
Moses is revered by three major world religions as a hero of the faith, a prophet, and a lawgiver. He is also a thriving part of popular culture. When the National Rifle Association recently elected Charlton Heston, who is best known for his portrayal of Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, as its new president, the NRA’s vice president said that it was “a way of saying, ‘Hey, Moses is on our side.'” And when Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder... Read more
While the show’s premise is rooted strongly in secular humanism, Star Trek is, at the same time, profoundly concerned with issues of truth and morality. But only to a point. Star Trek: Insurrection, the latest movie in this TV and film franchise, offers a striking case in point. In it, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (played by Patrick Stewart) discovers that the Federation is secretly planning to relocate an alien race, the Ba’Ku, against its will. This is in violation of the... Read more
Brazil has some of the most heavily populated cities in the world. It is also currently home to one of the largest religious revivals in the world. Central Station, the new film from Brazilian director Walter Salles, tells a familiar story — an old, cynical woman finds herself looking after a young boy and, in the process, she learns how to open her heart — but it makes use of its setting in an original and thoughtful way. (more…) Read more
Mike Hertenstein: The Double Vision of Star Trek: Half-Humans, Evil Twins and Science Fiction, Cornerstone, 1998. FOR A SHOW rooted so strongly in secular humanism, Star Trek has quite the Christian following. Theologian Stan Grenz has lectured on the TV series at Regent College, and Phil Farrand, author of the fannish Nitpicker’s Guide series, openly acknowledges his love for Jesus. Now that books on the physics, metaphysics, biology and meaning of Star Trek have become a literary genre in... Read more
THEY’VE BEEN making films about Moses since at least 1907, when the Pathé studio in France released Moses et l’Exode de l’Egypte. The Vitagraph company in America followed suit with J. Stuart Blackton’s five-part The Life of Moses, released between 1909 and 1910. Moses has popped up in movies ever since, from the all-black cast of The Green Pastures (1936), starring Rex Ingram as ‘de Lawd,’ to Mel Brooks’ randy satire History of the World Part I (1981). (more…) Read more
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