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An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including the comparison of eroticism with Christian love; personal faith and institutional authority; and Christianity in cinema.

Copyright of International Journal of Sino-Western Studies is the property of Sanovan Press, Nordic Forum of Sino-Western Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

While Hail, Caesar! written, directed, and produced by Ethan and Joel Coen initially appears to be merely a light satire of classic Hollywood of the 40s and 50s, it also comments upon several kinds of faith, religious and otherwise. Most obviously, the film humorously critiques the Bible-blockbuster films of the era, as being fairly insincere, manipulative, and too conveniently reconciling of secular, Christian, and Jewish perspectives. But careful examination reveals that four different kinds of faith are dealt with in the film: 1) Christian faith, 2) communist faith, 3) faith in Hollywood, and 4) Jewish faith. The second of these is mercilessly mocked, but the first and third are dealt with more sympathetically. The Bible-blockbuster film, as well as the efforts of the studio fixer Eddie Mannix to cover-over scandas in the lives of not a few of the actors and directors, are both efforts to support a the 1950s cultural consensus. That consensus involves a good deal of hypocrisy, but the Coens present the best case they can for understanding those like Mannix who seek to maintain it, even if they show why it ultimately cannot be. Most interestingly, while the film does little to examine Jewish faith itself, it uses the classic Jewish prohibition of graven images to criticize both Christianity and the basic activity of Hollywood. The film illustrates why the 50s cultural consensus could not hold, and raises troubling questions about the long-term impact of cinema itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a close reading and analysis of the narrative and visual language used in Nolan's Batman trilogy, this article deconstructs the subtextual narrative of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, teasing out the themes of Christianity, psychopathology and capitalism. Furthermore, by investigating theories of capitalism, Christianity and psychopathology, this article elucidates the manner in which these seemingly mutually exclusive ideologies are reconciled in a post-9/11 contemporary culture. By perpetuating to the grand narrative of 'Terrorism', The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012), as a mode of popular cultural production, promotes a fear of difference and of social transgression. The Dark Knight Rises situates the corporation as angelic and the citizen as demon/terrorist and promotes this rhetoric to ensure our dependency on a capitalist system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literary criticism of the film "To the Wonder," by Terrence Malick is presented. It outlines the characters and explores the symbolic significance of these characters. It examines the overtly religious, particularly Christian, imagery, and themes of the film and its theological exploration of love and marriage.

Mary Poppins, the film based on the novel by Australian writer P. L. Travers, was one of Walt Disney's greatest successes when it first debuted in 1964, and its five Academy Awards (out of thirteen nominations), its Golden Globe Awards and Grammy Awards, and its astronomical sales at the box office prove it. The character Mary Poppins has received little critical attention in the past fifty years; however, Poppins can be viewed as a female Christ figure who comes to save the family. Through the song “Feed the Birds,” readers receive the powerful message of charity, which serves as the foundational message. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the transmediation of sacrifice in the Isuma “Fast Runner” trilogy, focusing in particular uponThe Journals of Knud Rasmussen(2006). In this film the impact of the introduction of Christianity upon traditional Inuit culture in the 1920s sets the stage for literal and metaphorical sacrifice, tied inexorably to the parallel threat of conversion and the transvaluation of traditional shamanistic beliefs. In the process, the film maintains a critical stance with respect to both the ethnographic perspective of the outsider, which it incorporates, and to its own preferred Inuit perspective. My reading of the transmediation of sacrifice inThe Journalsrests upon the relation between sacrificial substitution and the notion of communion, in both doctrinaire and more secular senses. I argue that the film presents the Inuit characters negotiating a necessary détente with Christian culture, both at the cost of traditional beliefs and in the form of the co-optation and transmediation of ritual within the film's story, a process mirrored in the appropriation of the digital video medium in the fictional re-creation of these events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gothic themes and settings permeated British sf and horror in the later twentieth century. The vivid horror films made by Hammer Productions drew influence from gothic novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and in turn influenced numerous gothic serials in the sf series Doctor Who. While Doctor Who's own creative personnel noted their debt to Hammer's distillation of the gothic, this article interprets one major point of departure between them, in terms of how they treat the sacramental efficacy of Christianity within gothic settings. It suggests that Doctor Who's gothic stories disparage rituals and holy items in contrast to Hammer's serious treatment of faith. The gothic in Doctor Who reflects the strain of sacramental scepticism in earlier gothic texts that Hammer films do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Information Sciences / Informacijos Mokslai is the property of Vilnius University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents criticism on Leo Tolstoy's film ''Anna Karenina,'' directed by Joe Wright. The author asserts that the film emphatically demonstrates the large influence of German and Swiss civilization on the Russian Empire between 1721 and 1917. The author discusses the themes of adultery, marital sovereignty and the Christian themes of charity and compassion in the film. The author emphasizes that the final scene of the film is a microcosm of both the Christian patriarchal and religious spirit found throughout the entire work.

The authors discuss the relationship between religion, spirituality, and film in Australasia, particularly focusing on the depiction of religious belief in visual media. They address the prevalence of Christian themes in Australian, Pacific Island, and Oceanic films, as well as comment on the increasing attention being paid to indigenous spirituality in Australasian motion pictures.

This article explores the 1992 film adaptation of David Mamet's 1983 satirical stage play Glengarry Glen Ross, particularly as the cinematic satire attacks the connections and similarities between fundamentalist Christianity and hegemonic masculinity. Since over a decade separates the stage play from the screen version, the writer employs an interdisciplinary American studies methodology that borrows from a variety of scholarship-history, literature, and religion-to argue that new insights can be gleaned by situating the cinematic adaptation amidst the rise of American fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity at the end of the 20th century. Through the addition of the screen character Blake (Alec Baldwin), who does not exist within the play and is not specifically identified by name within the film, the adaptation becomes an allegory for legalistic Christianity's unique narrative of history. Blake's overwhelming masculinity, as well as his sales success ultimatum, emphasizes the way both Christian fundamentalism and hegemonic masculinity rely upon binary definitions of faith and gender-Christian / non-Christian, masculine / feminine-respectively. In order to maintain an individual's participation in both domains, there is no almost category: one either is Christian or masculine or one is not. As such, the film functions as a postmodern satire that simultaneously attacks both domains without proposing any new system(s) to replace the reductive binaries proposed therein. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents criticism on the U.S. films "To Kill a Mockingbird," directed by Robert Mulligan, and "Sling Blade," starring Billy Bob Thornton. The author seeks to identify Southern Gothic literary elements in the films' portrayals of Christianity and, more specifically, Southern evangelical Protestantism. The author believes these elements help to connect Thornton's character Karl Childers with U.S. actor Robert Duvall's depiction of the character Boo Radley in "Mockingbird."