Evil versus Not-Evil
A couple of years ago, for Mythcon, I wrote a paper that discussed tendencies in apocalyptic fantasy fiction (that is, fantasies that deal with ultimate conflicts of cosmic powers). The theme of the...
View ArticleA World Of Meaning
I recently sat in on some discussions about world-building. It was geared primarily toward world-building for fantasy and science fiction worlds. When you are creating a totally different world, you...
View ArticleNoah And Messing With Mythologies
March 2014 saw the release of director Darren Aronofsky’s film, Noah, to much controversy and discussion. For many Christian members of the audience, the fact that a story from the Bible was being...
View ArticleDisengaged Hero, Disengaged Audience
I’ll start by saying I’m not familiar with the source material, or the earlier drafts of the film scripts. You could say I’m disengaged from earlier versions. I’m just working from what was achieved in...
View ArticleThe Power of Joy
When the film Guardians of the Galaxy opened during the summer of 2014, it rocketed up the box office returns as the “feel good” movie of the season. A light-hearted story, in the sense that it lifts...
View ArticleAll at Sea in a Winter Storm
In 2016, Walt Disney Pictures released the film The Finest Hours, about the 1952 Coast Guard rescue of sailors trapped on a broken and sinking ship. The rescue took place in the middle of a winter...
View ArticleThe Mission as Main Character
In 1977, MGM released the film A Bridge Too Far, about the World War II Operation Market Garden. Following the D-Day landing, the Allies were having a hard time pushing forward on continental Europe....
View ArticleChaos and Order in Harry Potter
In the Harry Potter films, every time we get to see Harry’s Muggle home in Little Whinging, we see the very tight order of the community. We know that Harry is not happy here, but the nature of his...
View Article
