Academy Award | Two Handed Warriors

Fiddler on the Roof: Worldview Change and the Foundational Power of #Torah

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Like Tevye, the stories of Scripture provide not only fertile soil for nurturing reinterpretations of our philosophy and culture for a new generation, but also irresistible bedrock for grounding the story of our own life in the mind of God.

Casablanca and the Four Levels of Worldview: Why Everyone Meets at Rick’s

Sunday, February 26, 2012

. Here’s Looking At You, Kid Casablanca — MOVIECLIPS.com .. . Casablanca, 1942 Academy Award-winner for Best Picture (originally entitled, Everyone Meets at Rick’s), provides a clear example of how character (both cinematic and moral) is “constructed” from the ground up. Our unexamined presuppositions about reality form a worldview that guides our life in ways [...]

Why Films with ‘Deep Culture Impact’ are so Rare #Oscars

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Part III in series: Deep Culture Impact: Is an Oscar a Reliable Indicator of a Truly Great Film? by Gary David Stratton, PhD A century of motion picture production has generated a remarkably small cannon of films that have achieved true “deep culture” impact. (See, Films with ‘Deep Culture’ Impact.) Even if you know that [...]

Oscar Week 2011: Why Achieving ‘Deep Culture’ Impact is so Elusive

Thursday, February 24, 2011

In the past 25 years only THREE Academy Award-winning films have managed to break into the coveted top 50 all-time box office earners.

Joel and Ethan Coen Spill Their Screenwriting Secrets to the Hollywood Reporter

Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Oscar winners' unorthodox, but highly effective approach to screenwriting by Tim Appelo in The Hollywood Reporter.

Using Worldview to Create Academy Award-winning Films (Series Introduction)

Friday, November 5, 2010

Striving to attain mastery as a Two Handed Warrior occasionally results in some very enjoyable if unintended consequences. Learning to “reverse engineer” Academy Award-winning films in order to teach worldview (see Teaching Worldview Through Film) somehow led to my inadvertently developing a unique skill-set for analyzing how filmmakers create Academy Award-winning films. A true script [...]

Worldview and the Power of Story

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

One of the primary reasons why Academy Award-winning films are so effective for exploring worldview (see Teaching Worldview through Film and Using Worldview in Filmmaking) is that a worldview is often best expressed as a story. Students tend to accept this as a self-evident starting point, but it is not always instantly obvious to others. [...]

Teaching Worldview Through Academy Award-winning Film (Series Introduction)

Monday, October 25, 2010

I woke one morning with the blinding realization that there was at least one common experience that nearly all my 18-year-old students shared: something I could use to build a bridge that might make worldview concepts come alive for them... It was Hollywood (dahling)!