Religion and Film 2020

Since other people are discussing this, I thought I'd join in as well. I think now is the time we need to remain cautious and prepared, but I don't think it's the end of the world. Compared to the Spanish Flu from 100 years ago, Covid 19 is not nearly as bad. However, that odes not mean we can do whatever we want. It's still a pandemic, just not one that will destroy the fabric of our society. Thanks to modern technology, I think everyone is handling this crisis rather well. there are s few unhappy people and those that cause problems here and there, but that is to be expected. The majority of people are doing the right thing and staying safe and healthy. Hopefully by the end of all this, the nation will have a new found respect for all healthcare works, and reward them with pay increases and other benefits instead of just calling them heroes. I think that would be a great outcome from this crisis. We don't know how long the tunnel is, but I think that there is a li...

If there's one thing I learned from the anime "Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood", it's that no one like their version of God. Even if he basically gave them the ability to do magic so long as they pay an equal price, he still sucks. The protagonists hate him for not allowing them to resurrect their dead mom. Their dad hates God because he's forced to live forever due to his magic rules. Other side characters think the rules of magic are too restrictive and unbending. The villains all think God is not doing enough, so they might as well try to overthrown/merge with him. Everybody hates God. In the end, it turns out that this Western style God is in fact more based in Eastern tradition. he's not a single entity, but it's made up of everything and everyone, and everything is made up of him. which is emphasized whenever he appears on screen, as he looks like a blank copy of whoever he is speaking with, as he also mimics their voice. He's the very concept of...

In the video-game series "Dishonored", there is an Cthulhu-like being who is a God (or at least has God-like power) and an Empire largely under the influence of a dogmatic, fundamentalist state-religion. It turns out thought that the state-religion in no way worships this entity, called the Outsider. In fact, the whole point of the religion is to hate on him. The religion preaches that the Outsider is the cause of all sin, and that all must reject his evil offers for power. I find that fascinating. Instead of following a God, the religion is centered on hating on him. It's the equivalent of the Catholic church focusing solely on denouncing Lucifer, with no mention of God or Jesus in any way. That's a really interesting take on religion to me. Meanwhile, the Outsider is in no way malicious. He's just really bored. He basically lives in Purgatory and is omniscient, and has nothing to do. So he gives people fractions of his power as a form of entertainment. What they...

You should go watch "Westworld" on HBO. It asks a lot of questions about the idea of sentience, what makes someone alive, and the paths humans take during their lifetimes while also being a good drama. The first season is some of the best television I've seen. Whenever Anthony Hopkins shows up, it feels like you're seeing God, and that it's truly impossible to understand him, which is terrifying. However, the second season is not as good as the first. It has some interesting concepts and plot-lines, but doe not really go anywhere with them. Characters felt more bland and the show just went into navel-gazing territory. It was like the writers were saying, "Look how smart we are for bringing up these philosophical ideas" while ignoring the actual plot. Season 3 is better so far. It feels more like Blade Runner. Some of the characters still feel bland, but I'm interested in where the overall plot goes. Still, I don't think it's going to top seas...

I thought "The Two Popes" was an interesting film. However, it wasn't an entirely accurate film. The actual interaction between the two Popes and their relationship is fictionalized, while the history that surrounds them wasn't. I think that's fair. You can take the interactions as something that could have happened instead of definitely happened, or at least get the idea behind why these interactions could have occurred. It's much like how the actual Bible probably didn't occur literally, but the stories are more metaphorical. I enjoyed the interactions, even knowing they were fake. And even if the history is also dramatized, I still think it gets the broad strokes correct. Considering I new almost nothing about the past of the current Pope, I think that means I still learned something new from this film. 

I think "Blade Runner" was my favorite film out of all the one's we saw in class. I can understand why it's seen as a scifi classic. The setting is amazing. It's really fleshed out and feels alive, even if you only see some parts of it for a single scene. I can really see people living in that city. I can't imagine the number of hours it took to make it. The various themes that were explored were also interesting, as the film kept throwing new ideas at just the right pace. Some easy were easy to spot, like Roy being a metaphorical Jesus, and other's were a bit trickier, such as the symbolism of the robotic owl. The only thing I didn't like about the film was the plot and characters. I felt like the introduction to Deckard is rushed, then you watch him try to find Replicants in a monotone voice for over half the film, then he finds and kills them in quick succession, and then the climax occurs. I didn't feel any attachment to him. I think the Replic...

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is such a depressing film. I did not like it at all. The main leads came off as awful people to me. However, I can't find the exact reason why I think so. Maybe it is because of how they treated each other that rubs me the wrong way? They are in a fairly toxic relationship after all. Or it could be that I'm just being biased, as I don't normally like romantic comedies or Jim Carrey ever since I learned he was an apparent anti-vaxxer. However, how several of the scenes were shot definitely bum me out. It's like there is a grey overlay they put on the camera that sucks out all the color. I'm sure that was done on purpose for the more dramatic scenes where their relationship is on the rocks, but it does not make me want to watch or enjoy the film in an way. In the end, I think I don't like the film because it's a little to real. I watch movies as a form on escapism. A dying romance happens way too often in real-...

I always wondered what Dr. Kip Redick would be like as a professor. Anytime I would see him on campus he always looked as if he didn't have a care in the world. That he was living life as best as he could. I was excited to take this class with him this semester. I come from a religious family where everyone is catholic except for my dad. I have sort of shied away from the religious classes here at CNU because I always heard how difficult they were. However I was intrigued to see the kind of movies we would be watching in this class and try to understand them deeper. The dekalogues specifically spoke out to me because it was the 10 commandments in a real live setting. It gave a true meaning to what each of these commandments truly mean. How we shouldn't idolize technology like in blade runner as well. In Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind from what I understood was that we need to love our partner for both the good and the bad memories. I always felt as if dinner with families ...

I have always wanted to take a class from Kip Redick because I have always heard that hes an awesome professor that wears Hawaiian shirts and walks around barefoot. I was sold from that. But this class was especially fun and surprising to me. I went to catholic high school and have always been catholic and gone to church, but Ive struggled at times to find a connection.  I always felt like why are these things happening then? whenever bad things would happen. This class has allowed me to see a different side of religion and spiritual themes. By viewing seemingly non religious movies but applying religious themes to them, I saw how religion can be placed into non religious spaces.   Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind resonated to me in the way our age handles relationships, the ability to delete people of social media, and the idea of having to seem "perfect" when everything really isn't. Big Fish reminded me of sitting with my late grandparents.  Somet...

When all the news of the virus was breaking. My girlfriend (Patty Ohanian) and I, had a very genius idea to re-watch the movie "Contagion" starring Matt Damon and Gweneth Peltrow. Now we had both seen this movie before but it had been awhile and what better time to watch it before the outbreak of a pandemic. The entire time during the movie, we kept saying things like "is this what were about to go through?". So far the answer is no, the death toll itself I think speaks for that. However it was very alarming to us that this is allegedly how this pandemic got started. It was rumored to have started in a live food market. Where the virus had started there, from an uncooked animal. I think this movie should have opened the worlds eyes a little bit to a virus like this happening. Still, we were not prepared.

Groundhog Day  was the first film we viewed in this class this semester.  Its about a weather reporter who is trapped in Pauxestawney, Pa to report on the Groundhog on whether or not he saw his shadow.  To his surprise he ends up repeating the day over and over, and over, again. At the beginning of the film, hes apathetic and unhappy in his life. He doesnt treat people well, he doesnt live life to the fullest, and he doesnt think he deserves to experience the true happiness he sees all around him. But as the day repeats and repeats, he begins to live his life in a different way. At first, he does whatever he wants, some good and some bad.  But as it continues, he decides he really wants to be a good person, he works on what he needs to, spends time with those he cares about and finds the true meaning of his life. Maybe there is a similar underlying meaning to the coronavirus. Maybe, despite the horrible effects of this virus, there is a silver lining. Maybe peo...

After watching "Eternal sunshine in a Spotless Mind" the relationship Joel and Clementine experienced reminded me of another relationship from a TV show that is sort of similar. Jan Levinson is Michael Scott's boss at Dunder Mifflin. They accidentally fall in love because they are not supposed to be together. It would be deemed as unprofessional. They love their relationship at first because it is wrong and fun. However, when Jan gets fired and moves in with Michael, their relationship starts to become something that it is not. They fell in love with each other because their relationship was strictly physical and it was wrong. Once they began living together they realized that they had an enormous amount of differences and began to resent each other. Their relationship was built on good times and good feelings and wanted to leave each other behind because they could not deal with the bad.

Sitting here, writing these blogs, I am trying to think of all of the "religious" themes that I could use to connect movies and themes from this class.  The obvious from which we have studied comes to mind; sacred and profane, chaos and cosmos, sacred time, sacred journeys, symbolism, heirophanies. But I start to think of other movies that dont necesarily have those exactly obviously, but still have these "religious" themes. For example; the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games is a book trilogy but movie foursome that takes place in a dystopian universe, similar but different, to where we are today. Katniss Everdeen takes the place of her younger sister to compete for here colony in the Hunger Games, an annual fight to the death that includes one child from each colony. This movie shows oppression, from the capital to the colonies. Value of a human life, killing these children in order to remind people of the power of the capital. Injustices and Consequences, Katn...

These movies are about James Bond, a 007 Great Britain special operator who fights against those who are trying to harm people all across the world. James Bond finds himself in love multiple times as well as in life threatening situations. He does however find a way out of every impossible situation through his tactical skills that he knows through his training. Overall all of these movies are filled with a lot of action and suspense. Every movie seems to have an ending that calls for another movie to follow. The movie is filmed in many great exotic places. This movie is also a hit all around the world because it tends to seem more so realistic than a Sci-Fi per say. What I love about these movies is the really cool clubs, bars, and exotic places they go. There seems to be no value of money as if the concept "money doesn't just grow on trees" does not exist. I love the "clout" of James Bond and how he is well known even in the movies character. Overall I love al...

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/moments-matter/201708/locus-control This reading discussed the notion of internal and external locus of control So many times we live in fear and let the though of being unhappy ruin us from living in the moment and often feel as if we have very little control over  our  lives. This is very similar to the idea of internal and external locus of control and those who have a theory of external locus of control often are less happy because they feel that they are at the mercy of the universe and whatever might happen to them. One lesson I have personally learned is that when you fail to recognize your own power you treat yourself like a victim. Life becomes meaningless and often very unhappy. In our own country however, we see that the U.S encourages individualism in its citizens and a sense of internal control. Meaning you create your own destiny.  People here are encouraged to live out th...

Langer, Susanne Katherina Knauth.   Philosophy in a New Key: a Study in the Symbolism of   Reason, Rite, and Art . Harvard University Press, 1980. Through this reading I was able to learn more about symbolism and the  significance it has in films. As we learned films cam be seen as works of art, they create an experience for the audience that encourages them to embark on their own spiritual journey. Symbols are used therefore, to get the audience to think even more deeply and to really search of the meaning and purpose of the film. Often things are much more than what meets the eye. For instance, a dove can be seen as a symbolism for peace and purity. This reading encourages us all to look deeper into a film and its imagery to find the higher meaning!!

Below are Notes from my reading of this book: “In Like Water for Chocolate, food is used to communicate….” Emotions (love, heartbreak, nostalgia, passion, anger, jealousy, maternal love) Cultural Traditions ( 3 Kings Bread, Chiles that look like Mexican Flag) Religious Rituals (Wedding) Memories At the very end of the novel, the narrator says,  “Tita…will go on living as long as there is someone who cooks her recipes” (246).    Recipes  in this novel are often symbolic of memories, relationships, and people who impacted the main character’s life.  Tita ate the candles- Tita eats the candles in order to reignite the flame that died within her as Pedro died. Dr. John- the inner fire that is lit by your soul mate Tita and Pedro both die, revoking the flame, but….. they will be together forever. Recipes in this book have a similar, spiritual purpose to that of food. They are filled with the love passion and for food...

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is a book that discusses “Medicine and What Matters in the End” as Gawande states on the cover of the book. Gawande explores how healthcare for elders has evolved as time has passed. The elderly were merely a burden on society and their loved ones before World War II. Hospitals were more custodial institutions, then came World War II, this is when hospitals were equipped with monitoring systems and antibiotics to treat people. When this took place the elderly were considered a pain for the nurses and doctors which led to the granting of funds by the Federal Government for a separate wing for the elderly. This wing then developed into what we call the nursing home. While even then these nurses and doctors could and sometimes would treat these elderly or terminally sick patients poorly. This led to the development of government inspections and regulations in order to maintain a proper nursing home. Overall this book discusses the development of elderly h...

Rudy is a true underdog story about a kid whose name is Rudy Ruettiger and he has always wanted to play football for Notre Dame. He does not have the money or the grades to get into the school. Rudy triples his efforts in the classroom and in working out and in the steel mill to be able to afford Notre Dame. Throughout the movie you see Rudy get knocked down whether it be physically or mentally and he continues to make his dreams a reality. He finally gets into Notre Dame and then gets on the football team as a walk on. He eventually makes his family proud by accomplishing all of this and playing in his last game at ND his senior year. This is a great movie that involves so many great elements.

I really enjoyed the films Like Water for Chocolate and Babbett's Feast. These two films used the power of food to convey love and spirituality in every day life. Food is often what brings people together. In reference to  Like Water for Chocolate,  we even see how much of a role emotion plays. Hence today, why many cooks say the secret ingredient is love! I think food is associated with love because it is the one time we all can come together. Thanksgiving, Christmas Dinner and Easter Brunch are all times when we use food as a way to bring us together. Many people even use meals as a time of prayer, my family included. Therefore food brings us together in a matter of love and allows us to cherish our friends and families.We share memories, laughter and love over a meal and use it as a time to see our loved ones.

My favorite movie that I watched in this class was Big Fish. This film really opened up my eyes to seeing that not everything has to be viewed in black and white. I have always been someone who views things as one way or the other with little in between. This has often made it difficult to grasp concepts because I fail to see a middle ground or grey area. This movie showed me though, that sometimes a grey area is needed. Sometimes we all need a little magic or a little fantasy to bring our world to life and give it a greater meaning. I have always felt that this has related to spirituality, as we all turn to something unearthly and even a little "magical to bring us a deeper meaning".

        Jamhavi Gangisetti’s Ted Talk discusses the flaw of the school systems and how a student's intelligence is measured by numbers. Jamhavi mentions what the creator of standardized testing says about his own creation, “Intelligence is too broad of a subject to be determined by standardized testing” (Ted Talk, 2019). This flaw is degrading adolescents  because they may learn differently than the way the curriculum teaches. Jamhavi talks about a way to possibly fix this flaw with the removal of technology in the classroom. Jamhavi does acknowledge how beneficial technology is for communication and possibly even learning, but she states, “If we are spending so much time on technology outside of school then why bring it into school” (Ted Talk, 2019). In the Ted Talk Jamhavi states how technology takes away from the person's experience with the physical world, which is the majority of life's interactions (Ted Talk, 2019). The point Jamhavi gets to is the real r...

Until taking this course I only saw movies as a form of entertainment and a way to relax. Most times when watching movies, I don't pay attention to the symbols used or even religious aspects incorporated. This course has taught me however, that there does not need to be a direct reference to God or religion for spirituality to take place.   I have surprised myself now by how I view movies and even watch them on my own. Symbols, colors and scenes all quickly come together and I am able to relate many things to the Bible and our discussions in class. I have observed that most movies convey a problem or disruption to the everyday life (chaos invading cosmos) and it is often needed and really a starting point to connecting with a higher being and finding your true self. I have reflected this in my own life now. I have learned not to see problems as a negative and instead an opportunity to grow, to find a higher purpose and to connect me to something on a divine leve...

The Philosopher in the Kitchen (1825), Aphorism ix. “The discovery of a new dish does more for the happiness of mankind than the discovery of a star”.  From my perspective, this aphorism reiterates the argument that society focuses way too much on food. There is a common saying, “Eat to live don’t live to eat”. This however, has become a difficult standard to live by when the average consumer is constantly bombarded by advertisements, social media posts, commercials, and television shows that revolve around eating. Marketing for major food brands has increased overwhelmingly in the last decades. One can hardly make it to the next intersection without seeing a Starbucks, McDonalds, Burger King, Chipotle, Red Robin, or Panera on every street corner. Professional athletes are also seen consistently promoting drinks and fast food chains on television and social medias, causing an even greater emphasis to be on put on food. Baking contests and reality cooking shows such as Cake...

        We are Marshall is about the University of Marshalls football program and how one of the teams is on their way back from a road game and their plane crashes. This crash killed all the coaches and players that were aboard. The few redshirted players and the injured were left to an empty program. This true story is begun by a new coach coming in and trying to completely rebuild this program and do it for those who passed away. The university attempts to shut the program down but the fight of the new coaches and few players keeps the door open. While they did not participate in games the first season back they did however practice and begin their comeback. This movie is all about the fight of the program and the history about Marshall University football.

Overcomer is a movie that follows a young girl who finds her way through knowing Christ. Hannah grew up with a hard life. No parents to guide her, young Hannah lives with her Grandmother who is hardly ever around to mentor her. Hannah picks up some bad habits such as lying and stealing, but when she meets John she soon starts to turn over another leaf. John begins to coach track for Hannah at her high school and the two form an immediate bond. John provides Hannah with the support and love she needed and soon leads her to the teachings of Christ. As Hannah becomes more spiritual she becomes more grounded and even does better in her track meets. Her meeting with John was the catalyst that sparked a spiritual journey where she was able to gain more knowledge and understanding of her past life while finally making peace with it.

The express is a football movie that dates back in the early 60's that tells the story about Ernie Davis, a football star out of New York. He ends up fighting segregation through his football performance. He looks up to Jim Brown, a Hal of fame running back that played for the Cleveland Browns. Ernie is beaten down by the racial comments and hate towards his kind as he goes on to play for the Syracuse orangemen. He plays in a very pivotal game against Texas when administration tells him not to play because of how racist they are down in Texas. Ernie refuses to let the hate of white men keep him doing what he is best at. Ernie makes a point and shows his fellow black Americans that no white man can stop you from being great by beating Texas and then getting drafted by the Cleveland Browns. Earnie has defeated the biggest hates of them all but later passes away due to cancer. This movie is a great athletics movie as well as a motivational film against racism.

The Lion King is a very well known movie that also has many spiritual references included in it. Simba starts out as a young lion that loses his father. Simba then retreats into the jungle for years, scarred by the fact that he might have been to blame for his father's death. He then returns to battle Scar and rule the kingdom once more. Simba's retreat in the jungle can be seen as sacred time and it was sparked by the chaos that entered his life when his father died. Such a traumatic event caused Simba to be led on a spiritual journey where he leaves the profane to find himself and his true purpose. Once he finds his ultimate truth, he returns to take care of those who need him most.

        The 4th Bad Boys movie was about two Miami PD partners who have been fighting crime from the time they began working for the Police Department. One of the individuals is a married man and is ready to retire now that his grandchild is born. The other partner is an older gentleman who could be considered the playboy cop, a man who fights crime in style and is stuck in his past. These two are complete opposites but have become family to each other. They suit one an another very well and now are doing it for one last time since the playboy cop got shot. They help one another get back at the cartel that tried to have the playboy cop killed and in the midst figure out a lot about the playboy cops possible child. It is a very fast pace movie filled with a ton of action and mild violence.

Unbroken is a movie that follows the story of a U.S. solider in World War 2 who is captured by the Japanese and forced to live under horrific conditions in a POW camp. Louie transforms immensely as a character through out this film as he learns to control his anger, out smart his enemy with his mind, and most importantly forgive. Louie never loses his hope and faith through out this film and truly believes he will survives and make it home. He practices visualizing what his family is doing and even the foods his mom would be making. Louie uses the time in the POW camp as a spiritual journey where he learns his ultimate purpose. He makes peace with his captors and his situation and uses his faith to keep him hopeful. This movie is a true inspiration of all teaching us that we can always make the best of any situation and use it to better ourselves.

Cultural relativism is the interpretation of an individual's practice of beliefs that are understood by the individual's own culture, where in other cultures it is interpreted wrongly because of one’s different views and perspectives. Antonio Brown, National Football League Wide Receiver, has been misunderstood and has been in the spotlight for the misinterpretations of the actions that have taken place over the past year. When individuals are considered public figures they immediately are put into the spotlight of today's society. These individuals are not granted the freedom of a normal human being. When mistakes are made they are twisted however the media portrays it. Cultural relativism is evident in the world of professional athletes today as they personally are misunderstood, leading publicists to attempt to compare them to the average person and criticize them more harshly. Antonio Brown has been noted for being misunderstood due to his ability to get a rise out ...

The United Kingdom’s approach to the worldwide spread of the coronavirus is very unique compared to the majority of the countries. Other countries have issued state of emergencies, shut down all public establishments, and set curfews for their citizens. These actions have alarmed millions and maybe even billions of people across the world, causing many economies and markets to crash or suffer. Healthcare professionals are being pushed to their limits while the healthcare establishments are being over-capacitated. The United Kingdom's approach is to prevent the suffering of their economy, over capacitated healthcare facilities, and national panic. Citizens within the same country but from different geographical locations in that country are encouraged to avoid relationships and contact with one another. This contact is considered the contact zone and is prohibited in majority countries except for the United Kingdom. Prime Minister Johnson said they as a country are avoiding social d...

Green Book explores the relationship between two men, Dr. Shirley and Tony Lip. Dr. Shirley is a black musician who hires Tony Lip to provide security for him as they travel deep into the south for his tour. The two men both achieve a transformational journey as each experience the other's world as chaos interrupts cosmos. Racism circled around segregation during this time as blacks and whites struggled to get along. Both of these men take a whirlwind journey together as their eyes are opened to the world around them and they are forced to live from each other's perspectives. Their experience is seen as sacred time interrupting the profane to lead both to a higher purpose.

In just six years Ritesh Agarwal has gone from a college dropout to one of India’s richest men at the age of 25. Ritesh Agarwal has fought an uphill battle since birth, coming from India where the majority is below poverty. Ritesh at the age of 19 founded a budget hotel chain OYO which he has developed over the past six years to have 35,000 locations and over 20,000 employees. The siblings of Ritesh had broken the norm of intercultural neo-essentialism as well, which is when an individual's behavior is influenced by the national culture in which the individual is developed/raised in, by going to college to study engineering and business. A society of intercultural neo-essentialism can be broken through the social action theory which asserts the independence of individuals to negotiate the cultural resources available to them. The tendency for individuals raised in struggling nations is to fall into the norm, stepping outside the norm is what Ritesh Agarwal has done. 

Philip Knight, owner and inventor of Nike has made his brand one of the biggest in the world since the early 70s . Nike’s way of marketing and doing business has had to change over time due to the innovations of our society and world. This change can be referred to as mutability, “meaning subject to change. This, then, refers to the belief that human nature can be changed by society”. Nike’s mutability began when Philip Knight decided he wanted to be global in the 70s. Philip Knight had to change his branding because of the societal changes, which ties back into the term “mutability”. The world wide market for athletics has since then exploded. Nike began to take advantage of this world wide market by sponsoring athletes all across the globe like Neymar, from Brazil, Ronaldo, from Portuguese, and Wayne Rooney, from the United Kingdom . Because of the sponsorships of sports leagues, big name athletes, and sporting events, fans want what is popular. This leads into materialism, “-the be...

The movie The Green Book is about Tony "The Lip" a well known, New York, do it all tough guy who drives around an African American performing arts doctor named Don Shirley in the 1960's. This movie shows many different perceptions on race, love, and family as the two tour down south for Doctor Shirley to perform for white folks. Doctor Shirely could have performed up north for people who do not segregate people by color; he decides to take the tough route to make a statement. This statement Dr. Shirely decides to partake in is filled with physical, verbal, and emotional abuse that is experienced when watching this film. The connection of chaos and cosmos, love, eros and agape are presented in the movie Green Book in a segregated time period where love and acceptance was not welcomed but chaos flourished. Overall the movie was really informational and entertaining.

Though many Disney movies seem like a simple love story or cartoon show with mystical creatures, I encourage everyone to take a deeper look. Though these fantasies are make believe they are applicable to everyday life and often incorporate religion in multiple ways. Aladdin’s moral of the story can be seen as teaching us that it is what is on the inside that matters, but in reality there is a much deeper message. When chaos enters your life take it as an opportunity to connect the divine on a higher level to find a deeper meaning. We see in  Aladdin  that good and evil will always test you and temptations will arise. However, it is how you choose to live your life and what you choose to value that opens the doors for a spirit awakening.  Aladdin  is a film filled with love, passion, transformation and spirituality that encourages us all to look further than our exteriors and what is offered to us on earth.

Now that I am officially done playing football, I have a lifetime of memories that I can reflect on. While this year turned out to be pretty bad finishing 2-8, I got hurt, and the overall feeling of just being done with football, I would never go and try to get my memories from this past season deleted. Like in Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, to me, the memories that are bad in the current moment, turn into good memories overtime. The early morning runs which were usually punishments, all the laughs had at practice, and road trips. Even though we had a bad season, I would never want to lose those memories because that's what made it for me.

The movie Northfork is about the town, Northfork, Montana, that is going to flood.  There are many plots that coincide in this movie.  Majority of the plot is about different residents who have yet to leave for some reason even though they know it will flood. This semester I was also in a geography class that was about how some groups are more suseptible to natural disasters than others, which makes natural disasters not so natural and more specific to certain groups.  The people who did not want to leave Northfork all had what they thought of as a good reason, similar to why people in, say, New Orleans did not want to leave for Hurrican Katrina. People in the movie and in real life place so much emphasis on things that dont really matter that much to anyone else, but it does to them.  This meaning puts them at risk. Its interesting to see how people interact with certain places, certain sacred places in such a way, that they are willing to risk their life for i...

During this time of Quarantine I have been able to focus on a few different things. One being my family, usually I am very good about visiting my parents, calling my brothers and grandparents a few times a week. During this year however I had been pretty bad recently. Not keeping up to date with everyone. For me, I elected to move back home from my apartment because I wanted to be around my parents. With all this free time on my hands I've been able to help them around the house with yard work, dish washing, cleaning out our house from old junk, and even open up a few old games we used to play when I was younger and spend some quality time with them. Something I am thankful for looking back on this. I have been communicating with my family more now and it is truly a blessing. Something that I have to keep in mind now for future references once this is all over. Family is very important to me and I think this time has given me a chance to reflect on that and regroup to being closer ...

When I watched Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I felt some sort of deep connection to it. Like it was a book I had already read or a dear story close to my heart. Now that I have had some time to think about it I know why, Our generation has the habit of deleting. We break up with someone we delete, block, report, remove, photoshop. We have a fight with a friend we delete, block, report, remove, photoshop. We have a part of our life that is painful, we have a time where we gain weight, where we have acne, where we had an awful haircut, where we were crying, where we didn't match; delete, block, report, remove, photoshop. Our generation has the unique ability to delete, block, report, remove, photoshop everything we want out of our virtual lives... out of our mind. We only want to save the memories that are spotless . Maybe this is why our marriages don't last, our relationships are materialistic, and our friends are more about likes than about conversations, tr...

Jake Peralta is the star of NBC's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a fictinal show about a young detective is very cocky, arrogant, but talented at solving crimes. Babett's feast is about a French woman who is a refuge and is hired as a cook for two sisters. These two don't seem to have a connection but I am looking at the connection of love. Jake in the show later marry's detective Amy Santiago who Jake believes is his nemesis for a long time. They work together and Jake is always messing with her, playing jokes on her, and trying to embarrass her in front of coworkers and the public. However, we can see that these represent Jake's feelings for Amy because he consistently gets upset whenever she meets a new guy and goes on a date with them. He will never admit his feelings to her because he is in denial that he loves her. In Babett's Feast, Babett shows her appreciation, gratitude, and love for the people she cooks for by preparing a very expensive French meal. She shows h...

Over the Coronavirus "Vacation", I had the pleasure of viewing the movie The Black Swan.   The Black Swan is about a ballerina who is competing to star in a new version of Swan Lake that includes both a white swan and a black swan.     The White Swan is the good version of her, she is happy, hardworking, enthusiastic.  But, as the movie progresses and the competition between the two ballerina's becomes more fierce, she starts to wear darker clothes, harsher makeup, the backdrop becomes more gray and black.  She begins to fall down the hole of terror and becomes more like the black swan.  This film provides a, literally, black and white stark difference between the meaning of color in this film.  White=good, happy, Black=evil, sad. This use of color reminds me of Clem's hair color in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.  She even says, "She applies her personality in a paste". Her hair colors include blue, green, red and orange. Her...

Threat Level Midnight is an action home movie created by Dunder Mifflin Regional Manager Michael Scott (Steve Carrel). The film technique is very poor as we see in the film. It is a lot of quick shots, rapid story line, and not much of an overall plot. While it is a very entertaining film, a film critique sees many flaws. There is a good amount of action but the audience can tell that it is incredibly fake. Golden Face (the villain) shows up just about everywhere and there are no transition scenes. The movie is a copycat of the James Bond movies and looks like a 12 year old remade it. That being said it was a very entertaining film but won't generate a lot of revenue in the box office.

Over the quarantine I have been able to finish Narco's Mexico and I see some relation to apocalypse Now, a movie we watched in class. CIA operatives are in Mexico hunting down drug cartels for one, because Americans in the 19080's were very committed to stopping drug trade in America. Two, because DEA agent Keke Camerana was captured and killed by the Mexican Cartel. The CIA wants justice for Keke and to stop the drug trade once and for all in Mexico. CIA is going into foreign territory, trying to understand the culture that Miguel Felix has created. They want him because he is responsible for killing Keke. In Apocalypse Now it is the Vietnam War that is taking place. They are trying to find Colonel Kurtz in a foreign territory where has not been seen in many years. He captures the members looking for him and tells them what he's building and how he is a God to these people.

The Americans is a series that is now complete but available on Amazon Prime.  It is about a couple, Philip and Elizabeth, who are spies for the Soviet Union under cover as travel agents in the Northern Va area during the cold war. I see similarities in the way that people became slaves to technology in both Blade Runner and this series. In Blade Runner, the people have become more technology like and the robots are the ones who are searching to have a human experience.  There is almost a fight between the robots and the humans for who should be allowed to act as humans, because the humans themselves are taking advantage of the gifts they are given, In the Americans, both the Russians and the United States are supposedly fighting for "what is right".  They both argue that both sides are doing what is evil and shouldn't be allowed.  For example; biological warfare is something they both said they would never do, but they are both currently trying to steal biologica...

In Harry Potter, a sacred and profane can be directly seen throughout these movies. Although not intending to contain religious themes or even be  considered a religious movie, this is a common theme that we had discussed in our class. The sacred I believe is Hogwarts The School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This is where witches and wizards learn magic, manners in the wizarding world, and certain witchcraft trades in which profession they may choose to enter. The profane to me is Voldemort. He is an evil wizard who once attended Hogwarts but wants to use his magic for evil and become the most powerful wizard of all time.  Harry's purpose in these films is to protect the sacred while Voldemort's purpose is to convert it to his teachings or simply destroy it.

Barstool Sports Dan "Big Cat" Katz like many sports fans has taken a major hit with no sports being on television. While yes re watching old games can be fun but its nowhere near as exciting when you don't know the outcome and can't live bet on it. As a sports journalist, Big Cat thought he would struggle to find new content to keep his podcast "Pardon My Take" co-hosted by PFT Commenter. However he has found new creative and perhaps teenage ways of entertaining people. In his basement, every night at 6:57 pm eastern time, he runs an electric horse race track calling it "The Cat Cave Derby". Thousands of people tune in on a live twitter stream to watch this 30 second debacle. giving the horses a different name, creating, and selling T-shirts for these horses bringing in money to Barstool during this time. He did a charity race the other night where each horse raced for a different charity and Cash App would pay $10,000 for charity. Secondly, he h...

It would be hard to have gone this break without at least hearing about "Tiger King", and pretty much impossible to not have watched it or heard of it. I cant watch this show with any anticipation of what was to come next.  It seemed like with every new twist and turn in the plot of this theatrical documentary I travel down another hole into an aspect of the story I didnt even think possible. These include (but not limited to): a three person couple, a suicide, a girl getting her arm bitten off, a hire for murder, swingers, drug use, a local election, tigers and other exotic animals, a disappearance (most likely a murder), just to name a few. You cant help but experience mysterium tremendum while watching. Now I am not trying to saw that the show Tiger King is at all similar to God, but I think this idea is how the show was able to captivate so many people, so quickly, so deeply.  People have a fascinating connection to things that they cannot expect.

ESPN's new documentary "The Last Dance" starring Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls team is the closest thing we've had to live sports. The 10-part documentary series follows Michael and his teammates during their last year of supreme dominance. The documentary mainly stars Michael and his reign over the NBA for almost two decades. He can be identified as a hero because he is still the greatest basketball player of all time. He had many trials and tribulations to earn hat title and to get to where he is now. Winning 6 NBA titles and becoming the greatest basketball player of his generation and still even today.

The movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind elicits the tbeories of Existentialism because the lovers go through an entire relationship just so that when times get bad they give up on each other and erase each other from their memories at the end.  It seems to be the idea that "eternal sunshine" (happiness), only comes from a "spotless mind" (untainted, perfect, no issues).  This kind of makes me think of playing sports, when people say you just need to forget about the strike out you had last at bat in order to be mentally prepared for your next one. I disagree with this and I have  never really taken on this mindset. I believe that in a relationship, like with Joel and Clem, they couldve come to an even better relationship had they worked through their issues and come out even stronger.  Thats the same way I feel about sports. I prefer to have a chip on my shoulder from the strike out, work on what I need to do, get up there and hit the s*** out of the bal...

Michael Graves article on what makes a spiritual journey states that,  the Michael Graves article on the Spiritual Journey states that there are seven things intertwined into a spiritual journey narrative.  First, a young woman looking for direction.    Second, a wise old man.  Third, the idea of wondering.  Fourth, tests of the spiritual journey.  Fifth, the idea of object.    I believe that the movie Wild can be characterized as a spiritual journey under Michael Graves definition.  Wild is about Cheryl Strayed, who was completely lost in life and decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail in order to be "found".   Cheryl is the young woman looking for direction.  There are many "wide old man" characters.  Not just men, but wise old people.   Cheryl is constantly wondering why she is there, what she is doing, what she is looking for.  Cheryl is tested many times, questioning if she should quit, missi...

With all of this news, cancellations and that life style changes that have come with the corona virus, people have been locked up in their homes. With no ability to work, meet with friends and family, or even go grocery shopping like you normally could. This unforeseen circumstance has made people across the world have change the way in which they live. With the cancellation of sports across the world, many people have gone crazy. The NFL Draft however took a step in the right direction. While it was still virtual, it gave us a sense of humanity, intimacy, and a level of normalcy telling us that the world has completed stopped. This was a much needed interaction to see players surrounded by their families, listen to their stories and why they have worked so hard to accomplish their dreams, and to watch their reactions live when their dreams come true. It gave the world a much realer feeling that while we are going through an incredibly tough time, the world is still spinning. We are st...

The movie Babetts Feast and Like Water for Chocolate both discuss the idea of food as a means of love.  This really makes me think about the trip I took to Italy for new years.  I was in Italy for two weeks travelling from Rome, down to Sorrento, to Capri, up to San Gimignano, and over to Rome again.  It was the trip of a lifetime, and all the while my parents and I were eating, drinking, laughing, sharing, and loving.  I looked around in all of the coffee shops and I saw other families doing the same.  Families that were local Italians, travelers from China, South America, France; you name it they were there.  It makes me wonder, is food so important to us, because no matter where you are from, what language you speak, how much money you have, food is a communal language?  We can all experience exactly the same thing by tasting something.  No language barrier or misinterpretation.  Is this similar to the way we experience God?  Cathol...

I wanted to address this topic because I believe the current crisis we are going through can be related to the sacred and the profane in the sense of what we discussed in class.  Our lives before this turmoil I think were becoming sort of mundane.  I believe that most people took everything we had for granted in a sense.  Then, coronavirus happened, and our entire lives were completely uprooted.  Sports, school, concerts, family gatherings, birthdays.  It was a complete break from the reality of our normal life.  Almost like the sacred breaking into the profane?   This time, no matter how boring or repetitive it is, is also giving us the ability to focus on what really matters.  It seems like maybe this is an opportunity for all of us to take a forced break from the profane and experience a sacred time for self reflection and family.

Spirited Away is one of my favorite movies. Seeing it again after this class allowed me to notice more of the symbolism shown throughout the movie. Water is relevant throughout the whole movie in one way or another. When Chihiro tries to run back to the car, she steps in water which represents her being trapped in this unknown world. She then works at a bathhouse where water is the source of the income. There are two river spirits in the film as well (don’t want to give too much away. Also when Chihiro travels to see Yubaba’s sister, she must walk along the train tracks in the water. Here the water symbolizes her freedom and potentially being closer to escaping this alternate world. Gold is another symbol in the movie. There is a spirit that hands out gold to everyone, but Chihiro declines to take any. Yubaba take some of the gold and eventually it distracts her from realizing that something very precious to her has been taken away. When she realizes her baby is gone, the gold turns ...

Monster’s Inc. surprisingly has a lot of symbolism in it. It is interesting how the monsters in Monsters Inc are all expected to scare. This can be related to stereotypes that we experience in real life, whether that be for race, religion, sexuality, etc. Certain people are “supposed” to behave in a certain way or they are considered the weird ones. The monsters exhibit that well.  Also, the doors symbolize a transformation between the world of the monsters and the real world. It is also a change of mindset in the fact that these kids are all scared of monsters but in the monster’s world, that is their job to power the city; not even all monsters scare for a living. This is an interesting movie to think about having any deeper meaning because it has always been a light, kids movie that I have enjoyed. Realizing there are deeper meanings allows me to give it a new purpose.

Immortals is loosely based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur and the Titanomachy. The movie follows Theseus as he journies with others to find a sacred bow before the king does, as the king wants to cast the Gods out of Mount Olympus and take over the world. Theseus travels with a virgin oracle who has visions of the future. She is who sees the king doing these things and knows he must be stopped. The oracle is an interesting part of the film. The oracle is one woman who travels with three others so no one except them know who the real oracle actually is. She is eventually found out when she runs away with Theseus when they are ambushed by the king’s men. Overall, this is one of my favorite movies. You get action, interesting plot, and a little romance all in one place. 

Love, The Coopers is a movie about a family is who trying to get together for Christmas. Each member of the family has their own issues and things that they try to hide from the rest of the family. One daughter is tired of her parents always asking why she is single, so she brings home a guy she meets at the airport. While at the airport getting to know him, the topic of religion arises. He is Catholic and she does not consider herself to be anything. They have a small conversation about this. This scene reminded me how great it is to be able to discuss religion openly, whether or not you agree with the other person. This is a super cute, feel-good movie that I recommend. It is on Amazon Prime!

Constantine is about a man with the ability to communicate with half angels and half-demons while he seeks salvation from eternal damnation in hell. Constantine exorcises demon back to hell to earn favor in order to get into heaven. The plot of the movie is Constantine helping a woman learn the truth about her twin sister's death. The idea in the film that you can earn your way back to heaven after it's already been decided you're going to hell is interesting. However, Constantine's actions make you wonder in certain parts of the film whether or not he actually wants to go to heaven or not.  There is a scene in particular where Constantine does a special ritual and he is able to go visit hell for a short period of time in order to look for something. This is such a cool scene in my opinion because it is always interesting to see how different movies depict what hell looks like. In this case, hell is completely in flames and there are dead people everywhere that try to...

Apocalypse Now at first seems like your typical war movie that I assumed I was not going to enjoy very much. But digging deeper into the film, I realize there were deeper aspects than just the fighting that was happening. For example, the river that they travel on throughout the majority of the movie symbolizes a literal and metaphorical journey. At one point one of the characters screams to never get off of the boat because that's where they're safe. It's not necessarily true, but it is safer than wandering off the path that they're supposed to be on.  At times there is a lot of fog that puts more emphasis on the fear of the unknown. This is interesting to dive into as well because it correlates with the fogginess that sometimes happens in life. It's not always up to you to be able to clear that fogginess but you need to be able to navigate in it.

We started off with the short animation of "Bunny". This is a film showing an elderly rabbit trying to kill a pestering moth in the home. Light is used in this short film as the attraction to the moth, which is bright and colorful, yet the bunny is so dull. The film turns to mainly grays and blacks after the bunny climbs into the over to follow the pesky moth. Paris Texas was a film that used scenery from the beautiful American South. We are introduced to a man walking through a desert following telephone lines. This meaning communication, but the scenery so beautiful and wonderful. We also see communication played out in this story when the character is talking to his wife through the telephone, as she is in the box looking out through a one way glass. When looking into this box, we see crazy views, but looking out towards the window, we see the reality that it is just a set and the drywall isn't even finished with insulation showing.

This is another movie that we only saw clips of, but I found it relevant for it to receive its own post here. The Wall is a movie by Pink Floyd that plays a lot of their songs and shows some pretty interesting scenes.  The most interesting scene/song that was played was “we don't want no education”.  this song combined with this scene was very impactful but the meaning of it sort of confused me.  The depiction in the movie was children on a conveyor belt and showing kids at school.  The kids on the conveyor belt slowly worked their way towards getting dropped into a meat grinder.  I took this symbolism as that the education system keeps you on a conveyor belt of what the status quo wants you to do in society. It encourages kids to break out of the mold and stand up against the man. What I thought contradicted this was the common saying that knowledge is power. I see doing the stereotypical school as a means to get the position in order to fight for what ...

Do any of the visuals of the films work as symbols that bridge the gap of understanding? How? I believe that the computer in the first chapter was the strongest symbol of bridging the gap. This computer can do calculations as fast as anything on the planet, but yet is unable to answer the question the boy poses about his mother's dreams. A machine that is so unbelievably brilliant, yet is unable to answer a question shows the limitations of devices. Also, calculations aren't all that they are cracked up to be, as we see upon the boy's death. The computer tells us that it is safe to go onto the ice on the pond as it will be thick enough, yet wrongfully computes and ultimately leads to his son's death.

Midrash works through this movie because the different chapters that we were able to see were based on commandments from the Christian Bible. Our interpretation of the biblical text is one way we experience Midrash. Our interpretation of the different chapters of the Decalogue does the same. Biblical text can be left to interpretation, but so can these different chapters. We are the ones to think for ourselves and figure out the deeper meanings behind these dark films.

This was a film that we watched a lot of clips in a class when we were discussing film techniques. The introduction of this film was weird because at the time we did not have any context.  The man that we see seems to be stranded in the desert and he just keeps walking following the telephone lines. The telephone lines end up becoming a pivotal part of the story and symbolize that's the way home. When he goes to talk to his wife through the two-way mirror oh, there's a lot of good film shots of her through the mirror and his reflection. When she realizes that it is him there's a shot where his face is directly on top of hers and she finally turned off the lights in her room and is able to see through the two-way glass back at him. It's interesting to see the room from her point of view versus what the people that pay see. The walls are unfinished and you can see the insulation. Whereas the people paying get to see a pretty room that looks finished from their point of vi...

After writing my paper on "The Princess Bride", I have been opened up to many different religious aspects in the movie. The timeless classic true love fairytale of Westley and Buttercup is such a great film. Buttercup is forced into a marriage to Prince Humperdinck that she does not want as her one true love is her farm hand Westley. After dying and resurrecting, Westley shows Prince Humperdinck who is boss by telling him how little of a man he truly is. Overall, this film is quite "Incontheivable"!

The Thin Red Line was a super long film that I honestly got bored in during some points. The overall visuals were also really dark which made it difficult to see many of the details happening at times. My mam=in big issue in this film was when Captain Staros is told that he is being relieved from his position. He'll get all these awards and things but not what he wants most which is his position still. Even his men were upset about it and he told them all to not do anything when they wanted to retaliate. A concept I liked was that no war can conquer or put out love. Although Bell's wife wanted a divorce,you could argue that it was not real love, to begin with then. Although it may have been from his side, she was not willing to wait for him to return home.

An absolutely true nail-biter of a story in which the coach of the 1980 Olympic hockey team, Herb Brooks, defies all odds to beat the "unbeatable" USSR squad in Lake Placid. After years of hard work and training, the team bands together in ways that are unmeasurable. From small beginnings of great hockey players who have nothing in common to a team full of studs that band together in unimaginable ways. My favorite scene in this movie is after a preliminary game of losses and screwing around, Herb takes the dead tired team onto the ice and whoops them into shape by making them skate suicides across the ice until one player stands up and screams that he plays for the United States of America. This is the turning point of the movie and is a slippery slope of banding together.

I was really excited to watch this film for our class. I had seen it before since it is one of my sister's favorites, but this viewing gave me the opportunity to take a closer look at the meaning. What stood out to me was that after their memories were wiped, both Clementine and Joel felt compelled to travel to the same beach on the same day and neither knew why. They ended up at the beach where they first met, a sacred space for the two, and met again. There was some sort of higher power that drew them to the beach. Maybe it was fate that wanted them there. It is also interesting to think about, then, what that means for those who try to change fate. Clementine and Joel erased the memories of each other, making it so the relationship practically never happened, but clearly they were meant to keep that experience. Whether that meant they stayed together in the end or not, I think that they were supposed to learn something from each other. When they got rid of that, the higher power...

Joe Exotic, the star of a new series on Netflix called "Tiger King", is a man of many questions. A power hungry, egotistical, wanna be star who owns a zoo made up of all exotic animals but mainly tigers. In this instant classic, it shows the background to a crazy life and a hostile environment at the zoo. Joe hates a woman named Carol Baskin who has been trying to shut his zoo down for years. After a sudden disappearance of Carol Baskin's husband, Joe runs with it and calls her on her bluff and believes that she has killed her husband and fed him to the tigers. This show is almost indescribable as to how crazy it gets at some points and I wouldn't want to spoil it if you haven't seen it, but I highly recommend you find out what happens to Joe in the end.

Harold and Maude This was such a weird film from the clips that we saw. I do not understand why his mother wanted to set him up so badly with a wife. That being said, the film technique was very clever. The angle of the camera varied from each scene of the clips that we saw. There were a lot of times when she was looking at her son in a certain way and he would not be looking at her. But, as soon as she looked away he would smirk the camera or look at her with a smirk on his face. The looking at the camera made the viewers feel as if they were a part of the decisions he was making, or apart of the “in-group” with him. It also seemed as if he was seeking validation from the audience, hoping to get some laughs or positive response that would encourage him to keep behaving the way he does. Northfork These were interesting clips. So many of them revolved around the scenery in the background of shots. They were always very visually appealing and it made me sad for the people being ...

The Mighty Ducks is a movie about a lawyer on top of the world who is involved in a DUI and is forced into community service by law. He takes up coaching a local hockey team in the league in which he used to play in. The Ducks, the team in which he is coaching, is a team made up of mainly degenerate kids who aren't good at hockey at all. Gordon Bombay, the coach, finds himself in the end learning to love the kids, after a rough start, and in the end coaches the team to victory. An absolute classic for the hockey world and a must see (even if it is a bit outdated and slightly poor quality)!

God Friended Me  is a TV series on CBS in which a mysterious "God Account" tells a man how to help others via social media. He often receives a notification about an individual with little other information, and he must figure out how that person needs help. Usually that help involved finding meaning in their life or reconnecting with someone important. This show plays on the idea of God as a transcendent being. He is unknowable, yet he knows everything. The protagonist, Miles, trusts in what the God Account tells him to do, and while this is an example of God outright speaking to Miles, this interaction with God is something in which many believers put their trust. People often pray to God, and while they may not get a direct answer, they feel that they are given a sign in some way to take a certain path. I hear stories all the time of people claiming that God told them that they were meant follow a certain career path or that God told them to talk to someone who, it turned ...