Sacred Subtexts: Depictions of Girls as Christ Figure and Holy Fool in the Films Moana and Whale Rider

Christ figures and holy fools are familiar religious symbols often repeated and adapted in film making. They have historically most often been depicted as male, and among the slowly growing body of female filmic christ figures, they are usually depicted as adult White women. In this article, I consider two films, Niki Caro’s Whale Rider and Disney’s Moana, in which young Indigenous girls are depicted within this trope. I engage in close reading of the films, in relation to Anton Karl Kozlovic’s theoretical framework for structural characteristics of the filmic christ figure, as I focus my discussion here on the christological symbolism of the two female child figures in these films, while also folding this back to the long-standing religious and literary tradition of the holy fool. The aim of this article is to contribute to the growing body of critical and theoretical work about the representation and reading of women and religion in film.

The Passion in Film

In general film treatments of the Passion fall into a few categories or types. Obviously, these categories are general characterizations of approaches, and may sometimes overlap. (1) During the first fifty years of the genre’s existence, most “Jesus” films took a traditional religious approach, being more or less faithful to the Gospels. (2) In the latter part of the twentieth century films increasingly attempted to treat the Passion as a realistic narrative. (3) Others deal with the Passion as a historical narrative that also functions as a “myth” with universal significance. (4) The story of Jesus’ crucifixion may be combined with explicitly fictional elements. (5) The Passion is also represented in a theatrical context. (6) In a number of films the Passion of Christ figures as a secondary element in a story about another figure or event. (7) Finally, there are films not about the Passion itself but about portraying the Passion.

One Danger and Eleven Types of Academic Disquiet Whilst Hunting for Cinematic Christ-figures

Christ-figures increasingly permeate the popular cinema, but hunting for them is not necessarily a benign or unproblematic activity. Following a selective review of the film and religion literature, and a preliminary scan of the popular cinema utilizing textually-based humanist film criticism as the guiding analytical lens, one danger and eleven types of academic disquiet were explicated herein. Namely: (1) When Factual Minimalism Equals Certainty: Holy Hope, (2) Misidentification: When Something Supposedly “Christian” Was Something Else, (3) When Nothing Equals Something: Creatio Ex Nihilo, (4) Spiritually Negating Christian Iconography: Form Versus Substance, (5) Some Problems with the Secular-is-Sacred Argument, (6) Film is Not a Substitute for Faith, Religion, or God, (7) Rewriting the Film: Aesthetic Violence?, (8) Tenuous Links, Strained Associations, and Uncertain Correspondences, (9) Rejecting Overt Religion for Covert Religion: Distorting Theology and Misdirecting Faith?, (10) From Symbolism Fatigue to Symbolism Cynicism, and (11) Pattern Appeasement: From Being Uncritical to Narrative Insights. It was concluded that being cognizant of the inherent dangers and sources of academic disquiet is a valuable means of expanding one’s visual and intellectual imagination, and also useful for the postmodern church. Further research into the subtextual sub-genre of the religion-and-film field was encouraged, warmly recommended, and is already long overdue.

Dostoevsky

Focusing only on aspects of Dostoevsky’s work that relate to questions of religion, this chapter begins by examining the role of suffering in its manifold forms, including sickness and disease, social injustice, psychological disturbance, and violence. For Dostoevsky, deliverance from suffering must involve more than material betterment, and freedom must have a decisive role in any truly productive response. However, freedom must do more than protest, since humility and forgiveness also have a central role. Both question and response are figured in an exemplary way in the Bible, and Dostoevsky makes significant use of biblical figures such as Job and, especially, Christ. Several characters in the novels are often seen as Christ figures (Sonia Marmeladova, Prince Myshkin), though their roles remain debatable. More generally, the question is raised as to whether Dostoevsky’s ‘weak’, kenotic Christ has power to save, although Alyosha’s dream in The Brothers Karamazov also hints at the glorified Christ in heaven. Russia has a particular providential role in salvation in Dostoevsky’s journalism and also, though ambiguously, in the novels. Despite possible perceptions of narrow nationalism, Dostoevsky was from early on seen as speaking to the universal-human condition (thus Soloviev), and his work has been positively received in the West as contributing to a theological response to the crises of modernity.

Robert Wise’s The Day the Earth Stood Still Part I: A Religious Film?

ROBERT WISE'S THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL Part I: A RELIGIOUS FILM? AbstractScience fiction (SF) films have frequently been the home for subtextual biblical characters, particularly Christ-figures. Crafting these sacred subtexts can make the difference between an ordinary film and an exceptional one. This investigation intends to explore the religious and other dimensions of the 1951 SF cult classic The Day the Earth Stood Still directed by Robert Wise. In Part 1 of this analytical triptych, the film's reception as a UFO film with political, artificial intelligence (AI), police and philosophical dimensions was canvassed. It was argued that Wise's film contains all of the above genre dimensions; however, it can be more fully appreciated as a profoundly religious film wrapped in contemporary scientific garb. The forthcoming parts will explore the factual elements of this proposition in far greater analytical detail. Introduction: SF and Sacred StorytellingHistorically speaking,...