Anker, Roy M. Grand
Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2005. 402 + x pp. $28.99
(CAD). ISBN: 0-8028-2795-0.
[1] Among the numerous books published in recent years on
the subject of God—or religion—and film, Roy Anker’s Catching
Light: Looking for God in the Movies stands apart as a work
thoughtfully researched, well written, and thoroughly respectful
of the film as a work of art. While some other works in this
area fall short by either letting theology determine the reading
of the film or by allowing the film to determine one’s theology,
Anker successfully avoids both pitfalls, holding both his theology
and the work of art in delicate balance.
[2] Catching Light “looks for God” (from
a Christian framework) in nineteen films produced over the past
thirty years, and takes his cue from Frederick Buechner’s Telling
the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale (Harper
San Francisco, 1977); Anker discusses the films in four parts, three
of which correspond to Buechner’s categories. Part one
explores the reality of evil and darkness in life, the “Tragedy
of the Gospel.” Anker here presents cinematic stories
in which the “evil devises avenues of destruction by personal,
social, and cultural means” (20). He points to The
Godfather trilogy, Chinatown, and The Deer Hunter as
prime examples of stories in which evil wins and the reality of
evil in the world cannot be avoided.
[3] Light finally breaks through the darkness in the narratives
discussed in part two. Here, films with a specifically Christian
understanding “of the necessity of Light for human well-being
and understanding of life’s mysteries” (119) are given
a thorough and fair treatment. Tender Mercies, Places
in the Heart, The Mission, and Babette’s Feast are
presented as films that declare that light can and does break through;
the “Comedy of the Gospel.”
[4] Part three shifts emphasis to films with more of a fairytale
feel. A discussion of the first three Star Wars films
produced, Superman, and three different Steven Speilberg
films serve to highlight the otherworldliness of the Gospel. Anker
describes these films: “A farther stage of the comedy of Christian
grace is the radical surprise of the fairy tale, what is here called ‘fables
of light’. . . As narrative, these stories inhabit territory
somewhere between parable and fable. . . ” (215). He
claims that from films of this genre come “not only the most
popular stories of our time, but also some of the most potent religious
stories of modern culture” (217).
[5] Anker titles his final section “Found.” While
films discussed in part two arise out of a decidedly Christian framework,
and the characters within the cinematic world are able to see their
situations from within this framework, films in part four are markedly
different. Still exploring the theme of light breaking into
darkness, the difference for films such as Grand Canyon,
American Beauty, and Three Colors: Blue, is that when there
is an inbreaking of grace upon the characters’ worlds, “they
don’t know what to make of it because the culture no longer
provides either a fetching or cogent religious prism for viewing
their experience” (315). The end result in these films
is that “all these folks come to realize what in their lostness
has found them” (316).
[6] Anker, an English professor at Calvin College, understands
his subject well. His thorough research of these films, as
well as his enthusiasm for the cinematic medium, comes across in
his writing. Having taught on the subject since 1988, Anker
has compiled an impressive amount of material and insight on God
and the movies. The book is littered with small excurses that
provide information on each film: screenwriter, director,
principal actors, Academy Award nominations and wins, as well as
other films by the same writer or director. Further, abundant
information is given about the DVD editions of various films, highlighting
the quality of special features and the insight brought to the discussion
by filmmaker commentaries. Finally, Anker provides interesting
and important side discussions on subjects such as “Film as
Visual Medium,” “Film and Reality,” and “George
Lucas and Religion.”
[7] Catching Light differs from other books of a similar
genre in that Anker has chosen a wide variety of films for conversation. He
has not chosen the most popular films, films which have been over-discussed,
or even new films. Even in his treatment of movies which have
found places in other volumes, such as Babette’s Feast or Star
Wars, Anker’s insight and wit keep the discussion fresh,
consistently bringing something new to the table (his chapter on Babette’s
Feast is one of the best written). His commentary on each
film is exciting; for example, from his chapter on The Deer Hunter: “Nick,
lost in a psycho-spiritual catatonia resembling nothing akin to
an actual human condition of insanity or perdition, fails to recognize
him. Nick’s existential state is, within the film’s
terms, pure metaphor for what it means to be ensnared by and swallowed
up in the powers of death. His condition is pure anti-life,
the furthest pole from what he most valued before he ran head-on
into the blasphemy of war and Russian roulette” (110). While
at times the reader may feel as if Anker is over-narrating the film,
his narration is done well.
[8] In the book’s introduction Anker makes the claim
that cinema’s “greatest significance and promise lies
in its capacity to “shed light” on the world it portrays,
to see that world for what it is, illuminating its perils, sorrows,
and delights—and how all these tangle together” (3). Showing
the reader how film does this, and how these films in particular
do this, is this book’s great strength. I highly recommend Catching
Light to anyone interested in film and theology studies.
Casey Barton
Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology
caseybarton@gmail.com
