Tag: Film
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Job
First we worked through the dialogues of Job and God. The groups then had to imagine they were making a movie based on the book and the producer was not satisfied with the canonical ending. They were supposed to rewrite, omit, or defend the ending to their producer. This provided great conversation on the purpose of…
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Isaiah
I show the students the call scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I then ask them to read Isaiah 6:1-12, Jeremiah 1:4-10, and Exodus 3:1-15. I ask them as a group to come up with the shared elements in these passages and the Python scene. As a class we put together their list…
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Solomon
In their groups, they had to put together a movie pitch based on the biblical narrative of the life of Solomon. All movie options were open to them. They were told to decide: style of movie (drama, animated, modern adaptation, etc) market (children, adults) theme of movie (tragedy, comedy, etc) characterization (what’s Solomon like?) what elements of…
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Settlement
A few years ago the book, “Blue Like Jazz, ” was adapted into a movie. The director, Steve Taylor, made a number of intentional changes from the print material when bringing the story to the big screen (with Donald Miller’s collaboration). After listing the changes, I asked the students if the movie told a “true story.”…
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National Beginnings
As a class we watched three scenes. The “Chicago Way” scene from The Untouchables, The Lex Talionus verses from Exod 21, and the redemption scene from “The Mission.” I then asked them in their groups to discuss which of these scenes best represented God in the story of the Exodus. The exercise worked very well.…
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Formation of the Canon
I had the students select their three most “significant” movies (without defining what I meant by significant). They then found a partner and selected a consensus three movies. They then formed groups of four and selected a consensus four movies. They then formed groups of eight and selected a final, consensus list of the five…
