Ingmar Bergman
Arguably one of the greatest directors of the 20th century, Bergman was raised in Sweden and the son of a Lutheran pastor. Bergman’s upbringing shaped his theology, which in turn, shaped his film making. In his movies Through a Glass Darkly (1961), Winter Light (1962), and The Silence (1963) explore the theme of people living in search of comfort and guidance in the absence of God. For example, Winter Light is about a Swedish pastor who continues to worship even though he has lost his faith and is faced with the death of God all around him.
In The Seventh Seal, we see that the main star in this film at many places is death personified. Furthermore, the journey of the main character, Block, is meant to represent Bergman’s own journey in which he is searching for a silent God in the midst of death and human love. Therefore, what we see is that through his filmmaking, Bergman is able to probe the human psyche with profound theological questions.
Francis Ford Coppola
Coppola is best known for his Godfather movies, and it is his theological expression in these movies that I want to focus on. Coppola has an Italian heritage and was raised a Catholic. We see this influence explicitly in the Godfather (1972). One of the most notable scenes in this movie (no, not the horse head in the bed) is the baptism sequence. In this scene, Michael Corleone becomes a godfather in the church and in this we here the language of repentance, the threefold renunciation of Satan, and the confession of faith, which are shattered in the light of the violence that proceeded.
We also have several dramatic ironies in the movie. There is an intercutting between the scenes that creates some of the visual ironies. For example, a priest’s hand crosses a baby with water, which then cuts to a barber anointing his gangster customer with shaving cream, thus preparing him to go out and murder. The point of the Godfather was to make a harsh statement about the mafia, but instead of finding Corleone repugnant, audiences were quite attracted to him. The other two Godfather sequels are Coppola’s attempt to drive this point home.
George A. Romero
Known as the Godfather of zombie movies, Romero is the founder; the pioneer, of modern horror films. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) was one of the most influential horror films ever made, and broke with the established tradition of the genre at that time. One of the things that made this film so legendary was, for the first time, an African-American male had the star role. The film is a social commentary on racism. Ben, the main character, is the only one to survive until morning, in which he is then mistaken for a zombie and shot- by a white man. The film not only set new standards for horror, but also made huge statement on racism during a turbulent time in America.
Romero’s other movies are no less satiric. In his second zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead, four survivors take up residence in a shopping mall in order to survive the zombie outbreak. With all of the affluence that these survivors have in the mall, they quickly become bored. To make matters worse, a gang of bikers show up and demands that they be given whatever they want. Romero is issuing a scathing critique on American consumerism. His point is that we are so addicted to consumption that even in times of crisis, we will not be able to let it go. It has become such an integral part of our lives, and has sadly, at times, become the main purpose of our lives. This consumerism could very well lead to the downfall of our country. One of the most scathing visuals is seeing that the zombies stumbling around the shopping mall with their blank stares are no different than the humans they are replacing. As with Romero, Jesus also had a lot to say about the love of material possessions.
It is worth mentioning that two other Romero zombie movies are loaded with social commentary. Day of the Dead seems to be a study of the conflict between the military and science, while Land of the Dead examines the idea of social class conflict. Overall, what we see is that Romero was not out just to make a good horror movie. He was making a point; a point about society and its decadence and foolishness.
Martin Scorsese
At the age of 8, young Martin was very adamant about becoming a priest. This led him to eventually go to seminary. Scorsese was raised a Catholic in New York, and thus we see that his upbringing, desire, and theological training comes through in his films. Ironically, however, Scorsese is no longer a practicing Catholic, but the themes of sin, violence, and redemption come through in all of his films. This is true with Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Cape Fear (1991). In his movie Mean Streets (1973) we see that the main character struggles with what he hears and does in church, with what he finds on the streets. Scorsese also did his own rendition of the life of Christ in the Last Temptation of Christ, in which we can see that Scorsese really wrestles with how to understand the nature of Christ’s humanity.
Mel Gibson
The goal here is not to get into the tumultuous person life of Mel Gibson, but to focus on the theology that comes through in his films, especially the Passion of the Christ. Before it was even released, the film was riddled with controversy. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization which was formed to defend Jews being negatively stereotyped in films, joined forces with some other Jewish and Catholic theologians to make sure the film did not include any anti-Semitism. But this was only a foretaste of the controversy to come.
Many well meaning Christians and theologians reacted negatively to the extreme violence in the beating and crucifixion scene. In response to this criticism, Gibson told Diane Sawyer in a Primetime interview on February 14th, 2004, “I wanted it to be shocking…And I also wanted it to be extreme. I wanted to push the viewer over the edge…so that they see the enormity- the enormity of that sacrifice – to see that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness, even through extreme pain and suffering and ridicule.” I don’t have the space to fully express my thoughts on this, but I can’t help but wonder if those who ridiculed Gibson over this have any idea what crucifixion entails. Or better yet, maybe they find a blood splattered, suffering savior offensive.
Finally, Gibson also received criticism for his theology of substitutionary atonement that comes through in this movie. Gibson’s theology is made plain in the film- Jesus’ death was a sacrifice for sin. Along with his substitionary theology, we also see hints of Catholic theology, along with theology from an Augustinian German nun and mystic, Sister Anne Emmerich.
Orin Peli
Peli is one of the best known modern horror directors. He made a name for himself when he released the low budget, found footage film, Paranormal Activity. Since the release of this movie in 2007, there have been three more movies to follow in the series. Peli also teamed with the creators of the horror movie franchise, Saw, to produce Insidious – one of the most unique haunting movies of all time.
Peli does not claim to be a Christian, but he does have an interest in the supernatural. This interest comes across in all his films. Peli’s fascination with the supernatural was spurred from such films as The Exorcist and The Entity. In an interview with Mekado Murphy of the New York Times, Peli claims that these films scared him so bad as a kid, that he refused to watch anything scary for the rest of his childhood. Peli also claims that he has had his own experiences with the paranormal, which led him to set up cameras in his house to try and record the phenomena. These two experiences led him to make the Paranormal Activity movies.
In this same interview with Murphy, Peli states, “The thing I find really scary about ghosts and demons is that you don’t really know what they are or where they are. They’re not very well understood. You don’t know what they want from you. So it’s the kind of thing you don’t even know how to defend yourself against. Anything that’s unknown and mysterious is very scary.” Such a statement obviously shows that Peli does not have an understanding of how Christianity views such things, and the hopelessness and defeat of the characters in the Paranormal Activity movies play out this belief on screen.
In closing, what we see is that many directors use film to relay their theological understanding (or lack thereof) and personal experiences with God and the supernatural. For the Christian and theologian, these films can become a dialogue partner or a springboard in which theology and things spiritual can be discussed.
In the next post, I will discuss why certain movies, such as the Paranormal Activity franchise, have been so successful, and what that says about our culture. In this same post, I will then address what this means for Christians and our cultural engagement.