Category Archives: Movies

Salmon Fishing in Yemen and The Little Engine that Could

In the film, Salmon Fishing in Yemen (2011) Sheik Muhammed of Yemen’s unlikely dream – salmon fishing in Yemen- comes true due to the efforts of Dr. Alfred “Fred” Jones, a fisheries expert, and the sheik’s British agent, Harriet Chetwode-Talbot. The film has been praised as a film about “faith.” But what kind of faith? …

November 14, 2012 – 10:38 am | By Paul | Posted in Movies, The Gospel of the Kingdom | Comments (0)

EAST OF EDEN (1955): Life without God

 ”I can’t believe your fickleness – how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message!  It is not a minor variation, you know; it is completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God.” St Paul, Letter to the Galatians[i] Even …

September 25, 2012 – 3:50 am | By Paul | Posted in Books, from Paul, Men and Women, Movies, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theology | Comments (0)

MARGARET (2011): Life without Law

Margaret isn’t a character in Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret (2011). Lisa is the name of the main character in this film. Margaret characterizes Lisa by contrasting the Margaret of Gerald Manley Hopkins’ poem “Spring and Fall” (1880) to the film’s Lisa. Lisa is a student at a posh New York private school. In her English class …

September 18, 2012 – 4:16 am | By Paul | Posted in from Paul, Movies, Poetry, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theology | Comments (1)

THE WINGS OF EAGLES: God’s Presence in Absence

The title is an audience’s first experience of a play or film. The title conjures images and sets up expectations for what will follow. Søren Kolstrup writes, the title is “a means for guiding our reception and our interpretation”.[i] But phrase “wings of eagles” does not exist in the film. So when about to view …

August 24, 2012 – 5:37 am | By Paul | Posted in Movies, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theology | Comments (0)

“AMY’S WISH” Heads to Chicago Film Festival

“Amy’s Wish”, a screen adaptation of James Caputo’s award-winning short play, has officially been selected to screen in the 2012 Midwest Christian-Inspirational Indie Film Festival taking place September 28-30, 2012. The Festival location is the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State Street in Chicago, Illinois. Directed for the screen by Bates College Professor Paul …

August 3, 2012 – 5:37 am | By Paul | Posted in Art, from Paul, Maine, Media, Movies, Uncategorized, Videos | Comments (0)

Providence and The Beaver

Watching a man struggle with clinical depression makes a powerful psychological story rarely seen on stage or screen. In The Beaver, Walter Black, president of the JerryCo toy company founded by his deceased father, suffers from a form of severe depression known as Anhedonia, characterized by the inability to experience pleasure or to desire to …

July 12, 2012 – 1:21 pm | By Paul | Posted in from Paul, Movies, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theology | Comments (0)

LIFEBOAT: Alfred Hitchcock’s Parable of the Strong Man

  The ship is sinking. The seas are rough. The only lifeboat can hold no more than six. Eight people climb aboard. Who should stay? Who should go? Many group discussions of ethical dilemmas begin with scenarios like this one. Partially to spur American entrance into the world war against the Nazis, Alfred Hitchcock appropriated …

June 29, 2012 – 5:06 am | By Paul | Posted in History, Men and Women, Movies, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theology, Uncategorized, World Affairs | Comments (0)

Life or Death in Black and White

Debates between the Christian worldview and the secular world view seem very popular at the moment. Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens frequented the debate circuit. Currently on stage, Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis square off in Mark St. Germain’s  Freud’s Last Session. Recently cable television weighed in with HBO’s abbreviated  film version …

June 2, 2012 – 11:12 am | By Paul | Posted in from Paul, Movies, Television, The Gospel of the Kingdom, Theater, Theology, Videos | Comments (0)

Can You See Your Shadow?

Groundhog Day reminds me of the movie of the same name. The finest analysis of the movie was done by Michael P. Foley: “Groundhog Day is the story of Phil Connors, an obnoxious weatherman at a Pittsburgh TV station who must cover the celebration of Groundhog Day in rural Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Phil (masterfully played by …

February 4, 2010 – 7:43 am | By Paul | Posted in Movies, Theology | Comments (0)

At the Gideon’s Flame Christian Film Festival

A New Life has been invited to Manila’s Gideon’s Flame Christian Film Festival. I was invited to speak briefly before the screening. Here is what I said: Thank-you for selecting “A New Life” for inclusion in your film festival. When I was in film school I attended a book reading group at a local Baptist …

October 30, 2009 – 10:45 am | By Paul | Posted in from Paul, Movies | Comments (0)