Buddhism and American cinema
By: edited by John Whalen-Bridge and Gary Storhoff ; foreword by Danny Rubin, screenwriter of Groundhog Day
Series: SUNY series in Buddhism and American culture; SUNY series in Buddhism and American culture
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Albany, NY]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 257
ISBN-13: 9781438453491; 9781438453507
Subjects: Motion pictures; Buddhism; Buddhismus; History and criticism; Kultur; Film; Buddhism in motion pictures
Description: In 1989, the same year the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a decade-long boom of films dedicated to Buddhist people, history, and culture began. Offering the first scholarly treatment of Buddhism and cinema, the editors advise that there are two kinds of Buddhist film: those that are about Buddhists and those that are not. Focusing on contemporary American offerings, the contributors extend a two-pronged approach, discussing how Buddhism has been captured by directors and presenting Buddhist-oriented critiques of the worlds represented in films that would seem to have no connection with Buddhism. Films discussed range from those set in Tibet, such as Kundun and Lost Horizon, to those set well outside of any Buddhist milieu, such as Groundhog Day and The Matrix. The contributors explain the Buddhist theoretical concepts that emerge in these works, including karma, the bardo, and reincarnation, and consider them in relation to interpretive strategies that include feminism, postcolonialism, and contemplative psychological approaches.
Notes: Title from cover

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-242) and index.

Filmography: pages 243-245.
Table of contents: title: John Whalen-Bridge: Some (Hollywood) versions of enlightenment; title: Representation and intention. Hanh Ngoc Nguyen and R.C. Lutz: Buddhism and authenticity in Oliver Stone's Heaven and earth; title: Eve mullen: Buddhism, children, and the childlike in American Buddhist films; title: Jiayan Mi and Jason C. Toncic: Consuming Tibet: Imperial romance and the wretched of holy plateau; title: Felicia Chan: Politics into aesthetics: cultural translation in Kundun, Seven years in Tibet and The cup; title: Allegories of shadow and light. Jennifer l. McMahon and B. Steve Csaki: Momentarily lost: finding the moment in Lost in translation; title: Richard C. Anderson and David A. Harper: Dying to be free: the emergence of "American militant Buddhism" in popular culture; title: Karsten J. Struhl: Buddhism, our desperation, and American cinema; title: Devin Harner: Christian allegory, Buddhism and Bardo in Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko; title: David l. Smith: "Beautiful necessities": American beauty and the idea of freedom; title: Postscript; title: Gary Gach: Afterword: on being luminous.