Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies
Most books about "God in the movies" promote methods forfindingGod in the medium. This book instead illustrates thesearchfor God in film, a subtle choice Anker says he made to "avoid any note of the triumphalism that so often colors discussions of religion and film." It works well, allowing Anker, a professor of English at Calvin College, the freedom to address a pluralistic audience even while capitalizing on his connections from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Anker pores over more than 15 films, including theGodfathertrilogy,The MissionandAmerican Beauty. While not overlooking the importance of set design, lighting and other building blocks that make a film, Anker's passion is plot and character development, dissecting scenes that show rather than name the mystery we call God. These scenes become for Anker a window into the sacred, much as an icon functions for an Orthodox Christian. Readers will want to see the chosen movies in order to appreciate the analysis, since little plot summary is provided, and Anker gives no explicit guidance as to how readers might do such analyses on their own. However, anyone seeking a collection of rich reviews by a man devoted to film and its ability to point us to an awareness of God will be satisfied.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.