Two Handed Warriors

film

What’s Your Cause, by Marc Erlbaum

What’s Your Cause, by Marc Erlbaum

It used to be that activism demanded significant energy and time. With the advent of the internet, however, we do not have to travel to the other end of the globe, or venture into dangerous situations closer to home, to witness the plight of those who need our help. It used to be that activism demanded significant energy and time. With the advent of the internet, however, we do not have to travel to the other end of the globe, or venture into dangerous situations closer to home, to witness the plight of those who need our help.

The Future of Faith in Film? Youth and Evangelicals Outstrip All Other Movie-going Audiences, by David Kinnaman

The Future of Faith in Film? Youth and Evangelicals Outstrip All Other Movie-going Audiences, by David Kinnaman

No one is surprised that 18-28 year-olds watch twice as many movies as any other age group. What is surprising is that the average number of movies self-identified ‘evangelicals’ saw in 2012 is larger than followers of any other religion. If Hollywood is listening then the future of movies could be greatly shaped by tastes of young Christ-followers.

It’s a Wonderful Life and the Courage to Live (and Create Art) Idealistically

It’s a Wonderful Life and the Courage to Live (and Create Art) Idealistically

Few of us will ever get an invitation to an early screening of our life’s work like George did. Yet we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. To be a two handed warrior is to live for that heavenly red carpet affair, not its pale imitation at the Kodak theatre. Part 3 of our annual repost of one of the most read THW series.

Capra’s Tale of a Depressed Idealist: It’s a Wonderful Life, Part 2, by Gary David Stratton, PhD

Capra’s Tale of a Depressed Idealist: It’s a Wonderful Life, Part 2, by Gary David Stratton, PhD

Part 2 of annual repost of most read series in THW’s brief history:
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) provides a wonderful expression of the complicated interplay between modern Physicalism and Idealism as life-interpreting stories in the life of its main character, George Bailey.

Shutter Island: Echoes of René Girard in the Films of Martin Scorsese, by Cari Myers

Shutter Island: Echoes of René Girard in the Films of Martin Scorsese, by Cari Myers

The themes of redemptive violence, scapegoating, mimesis, and feuding identities dominate both the films of Martin Scorsese and literary theory of Rene Girard. ‘Shutter Island’ (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo was Martin Scorsese’s second highest-grossing film ($128M), behind only Oscar-winner, ‘The Departed.’ What first appears to be a classic horror film (voted #7 on Business Insiders Highest Grossing Scary Movies of All Time), turns out to be so much more. A story of violent scapegoating of Girardian proportions.
It’s 1954, and up-and-coming U.S. marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to investigate the disappearance of a patient from Boston’s Shutter Island Ashecliffe Hospital. He’s been pushing for an assignment on the island for personal reasons, but before long he wonders whether he hasn’t been brought there as part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors whose radical treatments range from unethical to illegal to downright sinister. Teddy’s shrewd investigating skills soon provide a promising lead, but the hospital refuses him access to records he suspects would break the case wide open. As a hurricane cuts off communication with the mainland, more dangerous criminals “escape” in the confusion, and the puzzling, improbable clues multiply, Teddy begins to doubt everything – his memory, his partner, even his own sanity.