Film & Religion: An Introduction

Is there such a thing as too much historical context? Flesher and Torry, both academics, make an important point at the start of these loosely confederated essays about the religious themes of American major-release films since World War II: that it is crucial to understand films in the historical context in which they were written and released. Fair enough, but the execution can be clunky and obvious: historical overviews about religion in America could be more seamlessly integrated into the much better discussions of various films, ranging from the overtly religious (The Last Temptation of Christ ; The Ten Commandments ; Little Buddha ) to the prophetically spiritual (Field of Dreams ; Close Encounters of the Third Kind ). The book is worth it for the film discussions, because whether they are analyzing supernatural horror flicks like The Exorcist and The Omen or dissecting the surprising Hindu themes latent in The Legend of Bagger Vance , Flesher and Torry often have valuable and incisive observations about the ways films both reflect and shape religious culture. Though of use primarily for the college classroom (and with a teacher's preface to this end), serious students of film and religion will discover interpretive nuggets. (June)