Religion and Film 2021

  Released in 1998, the film The Thin Red Line depicts soldiers fighting a battle on the Guadalcanal Island. Throughout the film, there are mass causalities, and many soldiers experience and witness death occur for the first time. One of the captains, Private Robert Witt, is afraid of death and greatly dislikes it. However, throughout the film, Witt experiences a change in heart. Witt’s change in heart due to overcoming the fear of death is similar to Arjuna’s path and the sublime. One of the warriors that serves under the Krishna, the Bhagavad Gita god, Arjuna is accused of hiding in fear when asked to participate in battle. Krishna orders Arjuna to complete his duty, similar to how Witt is asked to complete his duties as a Private and order his men to fight. Through his ability to overcome his fears, he encounters the sublime. Additionally, throughout the film, the filmmaker uses nature and war symbolically through the use of the scenery as aspects of the battle. As a part of the...

  The film Thin Red Line follows American soldiers who are fighting the Japanese and trying to take back the Guadalcanal. The American camp was starting to get very restless and uncertain of their future in this grueling war. The American soldiers were afraid of death and I believe this is because they felt they weren't right with God and they needed time after the war to get right. The film follows Private Witt, an uncertain soldier who is particularly afraid of dying in the war. Private Witt will constantly have flashbacks of watching his mother die and because of this he is very hesitant is engage in the ongoing battle. As the film progresses and Witt is exposed to his soldiers suffering injuries and dying; this leads to a realization or transcendence that he shouldn't fear death anymore. Witt was able to realize that there is life after death and man can be immortalized after they are gone. Once Witt had this realization, the smile he gave when he saw other dead people, the...

  The Thin Red Line, which I would describe as several hours of watching men be brutally murdered, was intentionally made so disturbing so as to encourage viewers to reflect on the gift of life. One of my initial reactions was "I'd be the worst soldier ever, I'd just hide in the grass the entire time" and "I'm so glad women aren't included in the draft". My gratitude for never having to go to war is probably fairly universal within viewers (as the director intended). By emphasizing human distaste for war through the film's graphic depictions of death, the director leads his viewers to the question of "what is worth the sacrifice of human life?" For Krishna and the Colonel, duty is the price of life.   The Thin Red Line was very difficult to watch, as I'm not normally someone who puts up with any type of blood and guts. I think the gore was intended to convey the sublime nature of war and life. By reminding viewers of how terrible th...

  Tyler Baldwin- Thin Red Line This movie was the second war movie the class has seen, and I think I see more of the holy in Apocalypse Now than I do in Thin Red Line. In Thin Red Line, we are confronted with images of peaceful nature alongside the horrors of war. This juxtaposition is jarring upon first inspection, but is not wholly so opposed as the first glance. The sublime shows through in this movie upon second inspection, realizing the awe the soldiers feel in both the violence of battle and the beauty of nature. The main protagonist is also confronted with something that inspires the sublime, which does not always have to be completely a positive experience, like how people who are struck with fear when experiencing a holy encounter. The main character, Witt, is confronted with his own mortality multiple times throughout the movie, something he fears and is awesome to him. This struggle on these beautiful hills is poetic and hard to watch as we watch the characters go throug...

The Thin Red Line shows the American point of view while fighting the Japanese to take back the Guadalcanal. The Americans started off with low morale and were afraid of death. Private Witt was especially scared of death, due to his flashbacks of watching his mother die. However, throughout the movie, we see he has transcended. In the beginning, we see how he was scared when he saw someone die but in the end, the smile, the look in his face showed how his perspective on death had changed. Instead of going AWOL again, Witt pushed forward and stepped up because he came to the realization of the immortality man has, even after physical death.  It was when Witt transcended, that it was the turning point for the Americans to push forward and gain control. The film constantly shows nature and war, even in the same frame. The whole movie shows war, with men firing guns and dying. In the middle of all of this war, the camera focuses briefly on the animal life in this environment, such as b...

 The film, Thin Red Line,  was a very unique film in the fact that they used nature so effectively throughout the film. Whenever a scene of trench warfare, it was very interesting to see the way nature was portrayed. The places that the American soldiers stayed were dirty and did not have a lot of color in their trench. I think this is a symbol of the negative morale that was displayed by the soldiers. When the American soldiers were going over to attack the opponents, they were slowly crawling through the long grass that was blowing in the wind. This is a symbol of the quiet and slow movement that the Americans were using. This also helps to represent the stillness of the holy and how silence can be found throughout the silence. The transcendent reality is shown when one of the soldiers came to peace with death. You can see the way that he transitions from fear of death to peace with death. Watching this character development was very interesting as well as seeing the differe...

     In the film Thin Red Line , we follow the stories of many soldiers fighting on the island of Guadalcanal to try and take it back from the Japanese. As with any war film this movie features a lot of blood, gore, and death. With this though we are confronted with questions about life and death, and state of being. Throughout much of the film the viewer often sees heavy battle scenes with gunfire and explosions, and then they are presented with a clip of an animal that may be caught in the middle of the battlefield. This could symbolize multiple things. These animals could represent death and the idea of reincarnation. Through this it would be showing a circle of life, so to speak, by seeing a result of these dying soldiers. In another sense, this could be showing the state of existence that these animals live in, as opposed to the war-hungry, blood-thirsty men around them. It could be showing the idea that in nature, we are not violent beings, but this idea of war and ...

The movie, Thin Red Line, was almost conveyed like a poem. Throughout the film, the dialogue spoke in riddles. We also saw imagery of peaceful animals and the passion of love in the midst of war. This imagery gave the viewer relief from the gore. Holy transcendence makes it into the film through the shots of tall trees and prolonged pauses on the ground where the sun has broken through. The film showed divine aspects when it showed Witt's mother dying. An angel of death held her close and comforted her. This image gave Witt the notion to be scared of death and what comes after it. He says, " I couldn't find nothing uplifting... about going back to God. I hear people talk about immortality. But I ain't seen it." He thinks there is no hope in seeing a loved one die. He hopes that he will go just as she did, at peace. I believe in the end, with gained immortality. No one from that mission will forget his bravery. Everyone he has touched will remember him.   In my rel...

In the Decalogue, there is a sense of mystery because we try to convey a story behind the films, but we are not given an exact meaning. The first film is about a man who is dependent on technology, but he separates himself from God in the process and without meaning to his son is also drifted away and is dependent on his computer. The first commandment states “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” but in the film, the computer is Krysztof’s god and he has lost his religious beliefs, unlike his sister. In the second film, the fifth decalogue “Thou shalt not kill” is seen when the guy kills the taxi driver. The films relate these commandments to a more modern time and actions we can more closely relate to ourselves. In the first film even though math and technology are not seen by most people as a god when you start depending on your everyday life it becomes your god. The second film shows a different side of a murderer because even after committing a cruel crime the protagonist still...

Bunny The first short film had a great twist at the end, At first, I thought the film was all over the place, I could not tell where the plot was going. As soon as I saw the picture hanging with the old bunny’s husband, I figured out the theme was going to be something related to the afterlife. It was also very interesting that there was no dialogue throughout the short film so attention to detail was very important. The music and sounds in the film were chaotic at some points, but it all smooths out once both the bunny and moth go in the oven and find a peaceful world which we can infer is the afterlife. The main concept I got from the film is that everyone finds peace in heaven. Harold and Maude This scene shows how everything looks the same from far away but once we get close and look at the details we see that not everything is the same, it all has to do with the perspective you look at things. When the camera is zoomed in we can see that all objects look unique in some type of way...

 Bunny:      At first I was skeptical about this film clip because I wasn't sure where it was going with its meaning, but I quickly gathered its significance after the scene played out. The main character, the old bunny, was simply trying to bake a cake, but a moth continued to be drawn to the lights around her. For a film without dialogue it was up to the camera and music to convey the story and feelings it was trying to evoke. At times the music made the viewer feel uncomfortable, while towards the end when the bunny goes onto "heaven" or the after life the music makes the viewer feel almost at peace. There is also major significance in the way the camera moves to show the couple picture hanging on the wall to tell its own story and when the camera changes angles at the end of the film to show "going up" to heaven. I found this film to be simply, yet full of significance.  Harold and Maude:     The scene in the clip we watched where Harold and Maude ...

  Bunny : In the first film, viewers watched an older bunny frantically bake a cake before falling asleep. At some point during her slumber, she was awakened by the oven and looked inside before climbing inside it. After she climbed inside, she was transported into an alternative universe before being drawn to the light. Eventually, the bunny transformed into a moth, similar to the one that was flying around her kitchen earlier in the film. The bunny, now moth, then was reunited with her husband in the afterlife. The religious elements connected to this film were the afterlife and what life is like after death. In addition, the music choices used throughout the short, known as clesmic music, added to the mysterious plot of it.  Harold and Maude : In this film, viewers are caught off guard with the context of suicide intertwined throughout the plot. Specifically, viewers watch gasoline poured all over an individual, before the scene cuts out. The music used throughout the short...

 Bunny:      This short film brought me joy. I have a rabbit at home and she just makes me smile every time I see her. I found it funny that the bunny in this film get agitated very easily, my own rabbit will go ballistic if  try to move her hay/shredded cardboard pile. Every time I clean her room she always goes in and rather quickly, rearranges all of the nicely stacked toys. The bunny in this film got annoyed with the moth and when she finally killed it and it fell into the cake batter, she got mad and started stirring aggressively. Some of the film techniques I found interesting that behind the picture frame, in the hallway, the paint was a bright cream color and the wall around the frame was a dull dusty brown. This was a great way to show the age of the bunny and the house. Another film technique I found cool was the inside of the oven. The speckled paint inside the oven, was also inside the tunnel leading to what I can assume is the "after life". The spec...

 Tyler Baldwin - 3/5/21 - Film Techniques Bunny The first and most calling piece of the Bunny film I found was the contrast. This was done by the fact the highlighting main feature of the film, light, was so juxtaposed by the grim and dark room the film existed in. I think this contrast is finally realized as the old bunny goes into the light in a spectacular contrast to the dark and dingy depressing room that she existed in before, back with her lover. Harold and Maude I particularly did not enjoy Harold and Maude as I think in today's world where Suicide is taken more seriously, in this movie it is seen as a lighthearted joke by both main characters, and only the side characters can see the horror of the play. I think the point of view was especially important in this clip due to the fact we could see the gasoline pouring and the Mother could not. Paris, Texas At first I didn't know what to think of this movie. I think that the perspective of the characters, or framing, was i...

Bunny: In the short film Bunny, there are numerous cinematographic techniques that convey and represent religious imagery. One the best examples of this is evidenced by the oven as it is a tool of transformation; thus, when the old woman bunny is lead into the oven by a strange light, it is inferred that she has passed on to the next life with a religious entity as she is being transformed and transcending by entering the oven. In addition, the beginning of the short shows a moth being drawn to a light, much like there are those who are drawn to religion; showing this shot with just these two items on the screen conveys that relationship. The moth also has a relationship with the woman bunny in the form of an 'angel of death' that is her guide onto the next path. Harold and Maude: In this movie, Maude is trying to teach Harold about the importance of life and how each individual is just as different as everyone else. This is specifically evidenced by the scene with the flowers ...

 Bunny: In the first film we watched, we are following an old bunny who is baking a cake and gets an unwanted visitor. The visitor turned out to be a moth that was attracted to her kitchen light. The film displays a scene of death in a very mysterious yet almost peaceful way. The light that the moth is attracted too the light that depicts the light leading into heaven. After chasing the moth around and finally catching it, the bunny throws the moth into the cake batter and throws it into the oven to bake. The oven is important as its the great creator, it turns liquid into a solid food. The bunny falls asleep and wakes up to the oven going crazy and showing a blue light inside. The oven is the portal from life to death for the bunny, her time was coming and the moth was the death angel coming. There is a slow grainy nature of the short film to show the age of the bunny and that death is near. Harold and Maude: This short film used contrasts of close and far imagery in the same spea...

  Bunny : In the short film Bunny we see the old rabbit in her kitchen trying to bake something. She begins to get frustrated as a bug continues to buzz around her kitchen and fly towards her light. We do not realize it at first but the focus on the light becomes important as the film continues and we realize the symbolism of it. The bug continues to find its way back in and continue annoying the old rabbit until finally she kills the bug and it falls into her cake batter. Then she goes ahead and puts the batter in the oven with the bug in it. We see her start to fall asleep as the oven starts to shake and rumble. The oven is focused on as a symbol of transformation in the same way that it transforms food that is put into it. The bunny goes to check the oven and we see multiple different angles focusing on the importance of this, and when she does we see her follow the bug into the oven which produces a bright light at the back of it. The bunny starts floating around with other bug...

Bunny: In the short-film Bunny, there is a moth that is constantly bothering the bunny and eventually guides her to her peaceful death. This moth could have been an angel of death showing her the way back to her husband. In the film, the angle of the camera did a great job of creating different emotions. There was one scene where the camera angle viewed the bunny from above while she was searching for the moth and it created more anger in the scene. You could feel the bunny's annoyance as she glanced all around her house for this annoying little moth.  Harold and Maude: In the scene of the mother and son in the flowers and graves, the camera does a great job of recreating what the mother and son are saying. The son is discussing how he feels like everything and everyone is the same and there is no uniqueness within individuals. During this, the camera is zoomed out from the flowers so they all look the same and you can not tell they are different. Then when the mother discusses how...

  Zachary Ferguson - Film Technique  Bunny:  In this film the writers did a great job of showing a scene about death and the afterlife in a very cute yet uncomforting way. The film depicts an older bunny who is clearly on deaths door. The bunny begins to follow a bug to a light she had on which resembles the light leading into the afterlife. The bunny then climbs into an oven which is the films way of depicting that she is moving on into the afterlife and passing on from this world. The films use of lighting and the granular nature of it makes it feel old. In doing so it provides a cozier feeling as the bunny is passing to the other side.  Harold and Maude:  This film uses close and far imagery in an excellent way to show the parallels between life and death. This is seen when Maude and Harold are in a graveyard and Maude is explaining to Harold the similarities between life and death. Maude begins by talking about the white flowers and the film is zoomed in on ...

  Bunny: In this short film, the moth was a sort of ‘angel of death’ guiding the old bunny to the light. The moth was more mischievous than nefarious. At one point, the moth banged into the photo of the bunny and her dead husband which makes me think that the moth could have been there to guide Bunny back to her husband. The film technique contributes to the moth as well-intentioned. The moth was frequently close to yellow light, which can symbolize comfort. There were also a lot of following shots of the moth which showed the importance of the moth to Bunny’s story. Harold and Maude: In Harold and Maude, Maude is teaching Harold about life. In the scene with the flowers, Maude tells Harold that part of humanity’s issue starts when humans see themselves as one ‘them’ instead of individuals. The angle of frame showed this idea when the shot started out above the flowers, so they all blended into each other. Then the frame came into shallow focus showing how different all the f...

  Bunny:  In this animated short, Blue Sky Studios does a fantastic job of presenting a charming yet uncomfortable sequence about death and the afterlife. The use of lighting and grain make for an intimate combination. When the short begins, the Bunny (who is the main character) notices a bug flying into a light she has on outside. She is an old bunny and it's clear that she's near the end of her life so when the light is introduced at the end when she climbs into the oven, it's clear she makes her way into the afterlife. The granular nature of the film adds an old, worm (and warm) feel to the short. At times this effect can provide a cozy feeling, other times an otherworldly one.    Harold and Maude:   This film does an excellent job of using close and far imagery to make parallels and convey deeper emotion. The first instance is when Maude and Harold are in a graveyard that has white flowers all around. The scene starts zoomed out on a large area of white flow...

Bunny In this short skit, the bunny got annoyed with a moth hitting her light inside, so she kicked it out of the house. It finds its way back in and as she kills it falls into the cake batter and she bakes it in the oven. We then see the oven shaking and a mysterious light shines out from it, all indicating something powerful. As we approach the oven, the camera tilts up and down to view the oven from different angles. The bunny goes into the oven, which is seen as the doorway to heaven. Just as an oven transforms batter into cake, it transformed the bunny into a moth/angel going towards the light, as what the moth was doing the entire time. As we witnessed the bunny transform and fly to the light, the camera tilts up and the light overfloods the screen from the exposure. The moth in the skit could be seen as the angel of death because it stopped at nothing, no matter what the bunny did to stop it, and it will lead and take her to the afterlife.  Harold and Maude In this movie we ...