Description
Book SynopsisWhy do we watch movies? If we read in search of more life, as Harold Bloom is fond of saying, then we watch movies, this book proposes, in search of wonder. We watch movies in search of awe-inspiring visions, transformative experiences, and moments of emotional transcendence and spiritual sublimity. We watch movies for many of the same reasons that we engage in religion: to fill our ordinary evenings and weekends with something of the extraordinary; to connect our isolated, individual selves to something that is greater than ourselves; and because we yearn for something that is ineffable but absolutely indispensable.
This book, through an exploration of some of the most intriguing films of the past two decades, illustrates how movies are partners with religion in inspiring, conveying, and helping us experience what Abraham Joshua Heschel refers to as radical amazement: the sense that our material universe and our ordinary lives are filled with more wonders than we can ever imagine, and that it takes spirituallyas well as cinematicallytrained eyes to uncover these ever-present ocular gems.
In addition to illustrating how films utilize religious themes and theological motifs to convey a sense of wonder, this book offers new interpretations of key films from canonical American directors such as Martin Scorsese, Terrence Malick, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, and the Coen brothers.
Trade ReviewThis book takes its readers on a fascinating journey through recent Hollywood films that illustrate the deep experiential similarities between cinema and religion in bringing together the heavenly and the human, the sublime and the mundane. The appreciative, but also analytical and critical, treatments of individual movies engage with Jewish and Christian themes and texts, and are punctuated here and there with excurses on the life and legacy of Roger Ebert and the image of Jews in Hollywood film. An enjoyable, informative, and inspiring read for all film-lovers. -- Adele Reinhartz, professor and chair, Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa
Goodman invites us into a conversation about film that stimulates the emotions and the intellect. He produces a rich fusion of insights from literary, philosophical, biblical, and rabbinic sources, while keeping the conversation light-hearted and accessible.
-- Claudia Setzer, Manhattan College
This is a serious book but it is fun to read. On page after page, it surprises us with new insights drawn out of old iconic screen moments. After reading Goodman, you will reverse the old adage. Instead of saying “I lost it at the movies,” you will say: “I found it (vision/divinity/global connectivity) at the movies.” Thank God and thank Goodman. -- Irving Greenberg, President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life
Table of ContentsForeword
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Also by Daniel Ross Goodman
Introduction
Chapter 1: To the Wonder
Chapter 2: Renoir
Chapter 3: The End of the Tour
Chapter 4: Nebraska
Chapter 5: Boyhood
Chapter 6: Exodus: Gods and Kings
Chapter 7: Ex Machina
Chapter 8: Adaptation
Chapter 9: Gravity
Chapter 10: Magic in the Moonlight
Chapter 11: Inside Llewyn Davis
Chapter 12: All is Lost
Chapter 13: Roger Ebert—In Memorium
Chapter 14: Hollywood, the Oscars, and the Missing Modern Jew
Chapter 15: The Great Beauty
Chapter 16: Grand Budapest Hotel
Chapter 17: The Big Short
Chapter 18: La La Land
Chapter 19: Blue Jasmine
Chapter 20: The Wolf of Wall Street
Chapter 21: Museum Hours
Chapter 22: Life Itself
Chapter 23: The Great Gatsby
Chapter 24: Tree of Life
Chapter 25: The Revenant
Bibliography
Index of Films Referenced
About the Author
