Music is the language of the soul and no one can ever know what a song means to another person never mind a nation. In 1967 a young Detroit man named Sixto Rodriguez recorded a single that led to an album in 1970, “Cold Fact”. This son of Mexican immigrants, who came to the U.S. in the 1920s, had the soul of a poet who “took the agony and pain of life and transformed it.” After another album... Read more
Cindy Green (Jennifer Garner) is a guide at a pencil museum. Her husband, Jim (Joel Edgerton), is a manager at the small midwestern town’s key industry: a pencil factory. They meet with adoption counselors to express why they would make good parents. When Cindy and Jim learn that their efforts to have a child fail, they are crushed. To heal, they write the characteristics of their dream child on small pieces of paper, place them in a box, and... Read more
“Our hearts are restless, O God, until they rest in You.” The story begins at the end of St. Augustine’s life, in 430 A.D. The aged bishop (Franco Neri), philosopher and theologian talks to his niece as he tries to negotiate peace with the Vandals as they lay siege to the city of Hippo in Northern Africa. Flash back to about the year 371 A.D. when a young Roman leaves Thagaste (in what is now Algeria) to pursue studies in... Read more
After eight years, Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) has finally rid Gotham of its criminal element, but he conspired to cover up deceased District Attorney Harvey Dent’s crimes and implicated Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) in his murder. Bruce has spent these years as a recluse at Wayne Manor. Now, Bane (Tom Hardy), a masked mercenary, has come to rid Gotham of the dominance of Wayne Enterprises and replace the city’s new civic order with anarchy. Bane targets a nuclear reactor... Read more
When I first heard of the Game Show Network’s idea for a new game show, I wondered: How is it no one ever thought of it before? There is so much material in the scriptures that if the producers play it right, they could have many seasons. It could be a way to bring Christians together around the Word. On the set of Game Show Network’s “The American Bible Challenge” with host Jeff Foxworthy. ((c) GSN)This hourlong show that tests Bible knowledge... Read more
My “On Faith and Media” column in the September 2012 issue of St. Anthony Messenger Erma Bombeck (1927–1996), the popular Catholic humorist, captured a Christian attitude about the afterlife: “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.’” Bombeck also had a keen sense of what often drives cinema’s storytelling about aging: “Seize the moment. Remember all... Read more
2012 is turning out to be a banner year for films with significant female lead characters: warriors, weapons and all. With an estimated budget of $185 million, the new Pixar/Disney 3-D animated feature, “Brave,” opened June 22 and grossed $66 million. Made on half that budget, “The Hunger Games” opened March 25 with a box office of $152.5 million and has brought $400 million in North America and nearly $650 million worldwide. (The DVD is due out Aug. 18.) “Snow... Read more
Looking at movies and the stories they tell through the lens of faith and spirituality is one of my favorite ways to pray. If you cannot make it to a retreat house you might consider making a living room retreat in your own home. In the July issue of St. Anthony Messenger (I have been reviewing movies for the magazine since June, 2003) I offer a what, why, and how approach to making room for God during the “dog... Read more
I had been looking forward to “The Dark Knight Rises” for months. Of all the comic-books-into-movies I like director/writer Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of the DC comic character that first appeared in 1939. The second film of Nolan’s franchise, “The Dark Knight” (2007), is possibly the best sequel ever. It’s mature and deep. I was hoping for another film just as good. Then I woke yesterday morning to the news of the midnight shooting in a theater showing “The Dark... Read more
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