|
| |
Movies/Scenes
Representing Rebirth/New Life from Old Things
 | The Shipping
News (2001)
 | Great movie on transformation,
resurrection, clinging to the past, resisting transformation . . .Main
character has experience of "drowning" in childhood with uncaring father
that effects his life, is able to find new life in new place, is able to see
how the past gets "drug" into everything and finally how to break free of
that past. Great moive on so many themes. I plan to buy it for my
collection. Watch it! (Rebecca Herring) |
| The wake, during which Jack arises, is
found at DVD ch 17. This entire movie is the story of rebirth for many
characters, especially Quoyle, who is portrayed as the walking-dead. He
finds life through confronting the "demons" of his past, and through finding
community and relationship in a village in Newfoundland. |
|
| A Beautiful
Mind (2001)
| The "resurrection" of John Nash's humanity.
Being lost in the land of schizophrenia - his losing (almost) his
wife and son. The recognition eventually of his essence - of his gifts. (Joanna
Christian-Tipple, Catskill, NY) |
|
| Chocolate (2000)
| The Count De Reynaud (the mayor of the city and control
freak about town), after the Easter Sermon and the chocolate festival in
the town square after church, was "strangely released". For
him, everything was changed. He no longer saw his job as ridding the
town of immorality and any threat to tranquility and tradition. (Carla
Thompson Powell, Livonia, MI) |
|
| Cast Away (2000)
| "One day logic was proven all wrong because the
tide lifted, came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I'm back.
In Memphis, talking to you. I have *ice* in my glass. And I've lost her
all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful
that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I
have to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows
what the tide could bring?" |
|
| The
Hurricane (1999)
| Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a champion
middleweight boxer, is imprisoned for life for murders he did not
commit. After exhausting every possibility for appeal, he tells his wife
that he wants her to divorce him and to move on with her life, saying,
"I'm dead. Forget about me." The Hurricane uses his prison
time to read, study, and eventually write a book about his life -- a
book that is published and becomes a best seller, but which is then soon
forgotten. Years later, a Black teen from the ghetto finds a copy of the
Hurricane's life story at a used book sale, and buys it for a quarter.
Moved by what he read, the young man, Lesera Martin, writes a letter to
the prisoner, and begins a relationship and a process that eventually
leads to the overturning of the conviction. At a pivotal moment, the
Hurricane notes that it was "no accident" that Lesera had come
across that book. He quotes Genesis 49 about himself, "Reuben, my
firstborn . . . pre-eminent in pride . . . Unstable as
water, you shall not prevail." He then contrasts his name to that
of Lesera, a form of the name Lazarus, the one raised from death. The
Hurricane tells Lesera that hate had killed Reuben and buried him,
forgotten, in the prison walls, but Lesera's love had raised him and
given him life once again. (Mark D. Johns, Instructor of
Communication/Linguistics, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa) |
|
|
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
| 'Bringing out the dead' by Martin Scorsese is about the
power of man to make others live, and about the question by which means man
can find peace for his soul. It's about resurrection as well.
(Dr. Matthias Walter) |
|
| Fantasia
2000 (1999)
| Resurrection themes or "new beginnings" are visited in
the segment for The Firebird Suite. (Kirk
VanGilder, Campus Minister,
Gallaudet University) |
|
| The Confession (1999)
| Bleakie "self-destructs" - sacrifices his
career and all he's lived for, in order to find himself and be
regenerated as a moral man. |
|
| The Bone Collector (1999)
| Lincoln Rhyme's life is resurrected and even redeemed
through his relationship with Amelia. |
|
| American Beauty (1999)
| "...the catalyst to Lester's transformation from a
nearly dead sad sack to a liberated man who is not afraid to express his
emotions comes in the form of Angela, a blonde teenage cheerleader."
(Spiritual
Rx Review) |
|
| The Matrix (1999)
| Neo is asked to meet the Rebel group under the
"Adam" Street Bridge. This meeting happens just before they
take the electronic bug out of him. Slightly later, Neo's
"baptism/rebirth" (if you will) occurs. Consider the following
scripture and its relationship between "Adam" (all human
beings) and "The Christ" (Neo in the movie) 1 Corinthians
15:20-23 (Tim Robertson) |
|
| At First Sight (1999)
| The movie "At First Sight" from a few years
ago, on the overwhelming power of the resurrection to totally reorient
someone from one kind of life to another. While it might desirable for
someone who is blind to be able to see, if one is accustomed to
functioning and thriving as a blind person, gaining one's sight can be
totally disorienting. It can even make one dependent and not able to
function as before. Discontinuity between the past life and new life. (Allen Schoonover) |
|
| Patch Adams (1998)
| traditional medicine is lifeless. Patch discovers that
spirit must be involved. |
|
| Bed of Roses (1996)
| "Bed of Roses" was a movie I saw while on a
women's retreat. A romance, and yet a story of grace. A florist delivers
flowers to a young woman he sees at night crying at her window. From
there, a romance buds and grows to the point of his asking her to marry
him. However, the young woman in the film has not just a
"shady" background, but a "shadowy" background, as
she never knew who her parents were. she eventually learns to accept the
florist's "unconditional love". A movie full of wonderful
imagery of new life and rebirth using "nature in the city" (a
florist shop full of flowers), and especially in a scene of the
florist's own private roof-top garden, we get a picture of the "new
heavens and the new Earth" with garden (of Eden?) in the
foreground, and the city (of Revelation?) in the background. (Mary Organ, Kent Presbyterian Church) |
|
| Spitfire Grill (1996)
| Townspeople worried about the future of their grill
become involved in a 'contest' to give the grill to someone interested
in its reputation and benefit to the community. The idea comes from an
outsider, with a 'bad' reputation. Some stand up for her. Some seek to
'sink' her. The 'contest' needs the participation of nearly everyone.
The 'winning' selection serves a new purpose for the community. In their
concern for healthy community they are healed of the former grill
owner's 'secret by the offering of the 'outsider' and discover new
purpose looking beyond their private interests. They give a new life to
the 'winner' and find they have 'won' new common benefit and
reputation--a new life. (Dennis Sylte) |
|
| A Walk in the Clouds
(1995)
| A vineyard that has existed for generations is
destroyed by fire. Yet, there is hope, because the root of the original
vine is still alive. From it, the vineyard is regenerated. I think this
would be a great illustration for the Root of Jesse. (Kris Sallee
Pleasant Plains, IL) |
|
| The Shawshank Redemption
(1994)
| The scene when Andy was in solitary confinement for
telling the warrden that he could have a chance to have another trial.
The warrden goes to talk to Andy after a month had passed and when the
officer opens the door Andy shuns his eyes, (allegory of the cave). The
warrden tells Andy that Tommy Williams has died. Then the warrden gets
up tells the officer that he is to give him another month in the
confinement, and leaves. (Patrick W., Memphis TN) |
|
| The Stand (1994)
| Larry and Nadine walk through the tunnel of death and
horror and are reborn from New York City. (DVD pt. 2, ch 9) |
|
| Fearless
(1993)
| Max survives a plane crash and
his post traumatic stress plays out in a feeling of invulnerability. This is
a very deep and layered film, and that invulnerability eventually has to be
dealt with. But while he has that feeling, he is very much similar to Paul
when he speaks of the cross (death) and how in the
cross he has been crucified to the world and the world to him. There is a
freedom he has (although eventually it is somewhat misguided) because he
has, in his mind, already passed through death. So too in the cross (and
baptism) we have passed through death and in many ways, as Paul says, we
have been crucified to the world. The trick is to find the new life that
shows that reality. (Darrel Manson, Artesia Christian
Church, Artesia, CA) |
|
| Six Degrees of
Separation (1993)
| Paul gives hope, though it is through his own
dishonesty. "He opened up a whole new world to us. That's all
anyone wants, isn't it?" (DVD ch 20) |
|
| City of Joy (1992)
| A wonderful movie about a man (Swayze)
searching for meaning in his life. It is only in his giving up his life
that he starts to live. To live for God. To truly live. (Nancy Russo) |
|
| Strictly Ballroom
(1992)
| Scott and Fran's rebellion sparks new life in the
Competitive Ballroom Dancing adherents. |
|
| Regarding Henry (1991) |
| Dead Poet's Society
(1989)
| Through Keating's enthusiasm and "evangelism", the
Dead Poet's Society is re-formed. |
|
| Raising Arizona (1987)
| Gale tunnels out of prison (rebirth),
pulls brother out into the rain. (MHenderson, Center
Sandwich NH) |
|
| Overboard
(1987)
| Goldie Hawn plays a spoiled rich woman, Kurt Russel a
single parent carpenter / commoner. She abuses him in the beginning as
lower than whale feces while he reinvents the closet on her yacht to
accomodate her superfluous wardrobe. He kind of dreams about her (she is
beautiful) but her jarring rudeness is more for even lust to overcome in
fantasy, I think. She gets thrown overboard during a party at night (by
accident) and strikes her head. Kurt Russel finds her and tells her
she's his wife, mother of three boys (the boys cooperate). She can't
believe it, of course, but ultimately learns to love and respect this
odd lot family she's now a part of (unwillingly). Kurt (who never takes
advantage of her, as far as I can remember) finally tells her (I think,
or someone else does and he was going to). The rest is vague. I suppose
she storms back to her yacht, absolutely can't stand to live without him
and the kids, and rushes back into his arms when he and the kids show up
to say they can't live without her. (Rev. Michael Phillips,
Berwick, Pennsylvania) |
| First, it wasn't during a party that she was thrown
overboard, it was while trying to retrieve her jewelry left on deck
earlier that day. (She lost the gold and gained a life?) Most important
-- her husband came back to get her (after he had stranded her in the
hospital months before), and she got her memory back in a flash. She
went off with him back to the yacht, but with her experiences as a poor
mother of 4 fresh in her mind, she realized how selfish and superfluous
her former life (and her mother, husband and shrink) all were, and told
the captain to turn the ship around. A battle with her husband ensued,
and, with Kurt Russell and the kids following in a coast guard yacht
(courtesy of some friends), she was close, but not close enough to go
back to the poor life, the one with values. Kurt Russell jumps
overboard, then Goldie Hawn jumps overboard, and they end up together in
a life raft, and it all ends happily ever after. SHE changed, and that's
what makes the story a valid one for it's place in this directory. (Sharon
Pajak) |
|
| The NeverEnding Story
(1984)
| In "The NeverEnding Story" all of Fantasia
has been destroyed. All that is left is a grain of sand. Out
of that grain, all of Fantasia can be reborn, if Bastian will only
believe, and wish for it. (Bette Sohm) |
|
| One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
| In the concluding sequence, it is
obvious that McMurphy has empowered at least one of his disciples to do
what was once unthinkable. "Chief" hurls a limestone bathroom
fixture through the window and escapes the hospital, personifying a
resurrection similar to that of the closing scene in Cool Hand Luke.
("The
Messianic Figure in Film: Christology Beyond the Biblical Epic,"
Matthew Mc Ever, Journal of Religion and Film, 1998)
|
|
| 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) |
| Cool Hand Luke (1967)
| Luke is gunned down by the spiritually
blind "man with no eyes," a guard who wears reflective
sunglasses throughout the film. "Dragline" (George Kennedy),
Luke’s companion, attacks the guard and his trademark glasses are
crushed, suggesting that Luke’s death has liberated the inmates once
and for all. ("The
Messianic Figure in Film: Christology Beyond the Biblical Epic,"
Matthew Mc Ever, Journal of Religion and Film, 1998) |
|
| On the Waterfront
(1954)
|
Index of Movie Titles
Index of Movie Themes
|
