bookshelves: good-children-teens, good-fantasy, worth-a-look
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bookshelves: currently-reading
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Jared
liked a trivia question:
In Emmuska Orczy's book, what is the Scarlet Pimpernel?
see if you know the answer »
In Emmuska Orczy's book, what is the Scarlet Pimpernel?
see if you know the answer »
bookshelves: currently-reading
Chapter 1 - The Power of Film
This chapter seemed really unnecessary. Johnston is preaching to the choir, no doubt about it, and he really overstates his case. I really like his use of concrete examples to demonstrate what he is talking about, but . . . First of all, I don't need 15 examples of how movies have changed people's lives. I get the picture. Secondly, I was surprised by how little he differentiated between film as a force for good or for ill. He seemed more interested in just establishing that it is, in fact, a force, which is a rather absurd thing to be arguing in the 21st century, akin to arguing that films are shot with movie cameras and projected onto giant screens in special venues where people pay to go and see them. The chapter concludes with examples of impacts that three specific films have had on three specific people, which is excellent. He could have cut everything between his introduction and this conclusion.
Chapter 2 - A Brief History of the Church and Hollywood
This is an excellent primer for anyone unfamiliar of the long and rarely cordial relationship between Hollywood and the church, particularly in America. Johnston keeps it brief, as promised, but starts at the beginning and delves into the ins-and-outs of the Production Code, what led to it, and how it finally disappeared. Everything is laid out clearly and simply, and there are no gaps left unfilled. He concludes with an excellent survey of the roles played by film and by the church in our society today, and the uses and misuses of film in church.
Chapter 3 - Theological Approaches to Film Criticism
A very dense chapter which outlines in great detail Johnston's model of five possible approaches: avoidance, caution, dialogue, appropriation, and divine encounter. He points out that the order represents a timeline of Christian responses to film, and he also places them in a line on a graph, moving from right to left (ethical to aesthetic responses) and bottom to top (discussions which begin with theology and turn to film, to those which begin with the film and turn to theology). Johnston quotes widely from a large number of critics and books on theology and film, and does a good job giving equal time to all approaches, though it is pretty clear that he favors some combination of the latter three. He is occasionally guilty in this chapter of "carpet-bombing" the text with a cluster of movie titles which may or may not mean anything to any given reader, but he never "name drops" in a similar fashion without explaining who he is talking about and giving a good idea of what they stand for. As a result, we get an excellent, broad look at the "state of the field." Johnston ends the chapter by demonstrating what each approach might look like when applied to "Saving Private Ryan" and then he takes a look at the actual range found in Christian reviews of "Sideways." I particularly liked the correlation between his model and H. Richard Niebuhr's five orientations between Christ and culture.
Chapter 4 - Why Look at Film? A Theological Perspective
As the title indicates, this chapter is all about justifying and exploring the link between the cinematic and the theological. The chapter seemed a bit technical to me, although it was not difficult to understand, and my assessment is likely the result of having studied film more formally than theology. Like the previous chapter, this analysis is quite long, covering the subject with breadth and depth. Johnston speaks beautifully and persuasively about the ways in which film and faith can inform each other. As usual, his method of discussion is to quote widely from as many diverse authorities as possible, fall back on concrete examples for illustration, and break down processes and perspectives into easily-digestable numbered lists (i.e. three different answers to the question of how God can speak through nonbelievers). There are too many important ideas in this chapter to summarize, but in particular Johnston spends a lot of time here doing two things: 1) Justifying cultural engagement and literacy as part of constructing a holistic theology, and 2) Showing how Christian theology has always been sketched with metaphor and drawn from narrative, and is (or ought to be) concerned with the everyday realities of human life.
Chapter 5 - Are Movies Art?
Titling the chapter with that question seems slightly disingenuous, especially at this point, as Johnston's answer is obvious. However, perhaps it says something about the state of film studies in certain circles that Johnston feels he needs to offer yet another apologetic for the subject of this book (having started off by arguing that films are influential, he now establishes that they have value). In this case, though, he quickly moves beyond the obvious and gets into a solid discussion of exactly how films function as works of art, playing with a few philosophical concepts about what art is and what it does.
Chapter 6 - In Film, Story Reigns Supreme
There are some nice insights into how film is constructed around narrative, and the various ways that audiences respond, sprinkled throughout this chapter. However, there is also a great deal of very basic information about the form and function of film criticism, including a few relatively lengthy segments of actual criticism by way of example. Overall, we have another building-block chapter aimed primarily at the complete newcomer.
Chapter 7 - Image and Music
Having explored movies as a literary form, Johnston turns his attention to non-literary elements involved in film (editing, framing, music, etc.). The insights are solid and informative, but continues to digress from the dialogue promised in the book's subtitle. Nevertheless, Johnston highlights some excellent films in his discussion, and tangentially touches on some more worthwhile ideas, but overall continues to speak exclusively to the novices of film study.
Chapter 8 - Becoming a Film Critic
Chapter 9 - Responding to Film Ethically: Moving Beyond the Rating System
Chapter 10 - Responding to Movies Theologically
Chapter 11 - An Exercise in Dialogue: The Movies of Peter Weir ]]>
Jared
took the never-ending book quiz.
| questions answered: | 4783 |
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Jared
read and liked
Jonathan's
review of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus:
""You go back and tell your crowd that I'm going to lose this election. I'm probably going to lose it real big. But I'm going to lose it my way."
In this magnificent book, Rick Perlstein details seemingly every skirmish, conspir...more "
""You go back and tell your crowd that I'm going to lose this election. I'm probably going to lose it real big. But I'm going to lose it my way."
In this magnificent book, Rick Perlstein details seemingly every skirmish, conspir...more "
Jared
read and liked
Jonathan's
review of Personalism:
"Highly rewarding. I'm not keen on the form of the book; I think it's too long and dull to be a manifesto, but too short and vague to be a satisfying treatise. However, it is a good introduction to Mounier's philosophy.
If you're not fa...more "
"Highly rewarding. I'm not keen on the form of the book; I think it's too long and dull to be a manifesto, but too short and vague to be a satisfying treatise. However, it is a good introduction to Mounier's philosophy.
If you're not fa...more "
bookshelves: to-read
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bookshelves: worth-a-look
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