Religion and Film

In Religion and Film: The Basics, Jeanette Reedy Solano offers an enthusiastic crash course on this growing field in religious studies. She makes a strong case for valuing film as a cultural site where people live their religious and spiritual identities, as well as for using film as a lens for studying religion. She also imagines that this volume could be used as a textbook in universities and seminaries. The tone of the book is upbeat, with a kind of missionary zeal for all the possibilities offered by combining the study of religion with the study of film.

Solano’s book is one of the latest in the Routledge series The Basics, which now includes upwards of 200 titles that aim to “provide an overview of the fundamental principles of a subject area in a jargon-free and undaunting format,” even “an ideal starting point for students seeking to understand a subject area.”

Religion and Film opens with a succinct historical account of the engagement of religion and film, coupled with an overview of scholarly attempts to map the two. The importance of scholarly work done in the American Academy of Religion is mentioned, including the creation of the Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group in 1997. Solano then introduces four methodologies for analyzing religion in film: theological-biblical approaches, along with religious studies, cultural studies (including reception theory), and film studies methods. In the end she endorses a hybrid toolkit she calls “methodological bricolage.”

One compelling feature of the book is the way it provides multiple entry points into the field. Readers interested in a traditions-oriented approach will find an overview of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each paired with an analysis of contrasting films. For Buddhism, for example, she recommends the Japanese film Departures (2008) and the Coen brother’s cult classic The Big Lebowski (1998). The goal is to gain some awareness of religious both beliefs and practice (how practitioners actually live out their religion). The chapter ends with thoughts on how film can foster inter-religious relations.

An alternative approach is offered next, one that focuses not on religious traditions but on major genres: sci-fi, horror, comedy, drama, documentary, and pilgrimage/quest films. The final chapter analyzes some key religious tropes explored in film, namely evil and suffering, sex and gender roles, race and racism, redemption and reconciliation, karma and reincarnation, death and afterlife. Each section includes close readings of paired films.

Solano has put a lot of care into selecting the thirty-nine films fully analyzed here. They include independent art-house films and Hollywood blockbusters, with years of release ranging from 1915 to 2020, although a majority are from this century. Global variety is also emphasized: sixteen films are from the US, eight from Asia, seven from Europe, four from the Middle East, and two each from Africa and Latin America. Of the sixteen from the US, several are by Black or Latinx filmmakers. All are readily available on DVD or through streaming services. The majority of films discussed here are mostly lauded. The only two to receive criticism from Solano, interestingly, are Jesus Camp (2008) and God Loves Uganda (2013), both American-made documentaries whose filmmakers’ agendas produce overly simplistic portrayals of the politics of evangelical Christianity, whether in the southern United States or in Africa.

Building on critiques made by Melanie J. Wright and S. Brent Plate, Solano acknowledges that the field of religion and film has been hampered by the tendency of religious studies scholars, most of whom lack backgrounds in film studies, to treat movies mainly as narratives while gliding over the formal elements of cinema. Her own readings in chapters 3-5, though, have little to say about the formal aspects of the films she analyzes. We don’t get much sense of what sort of payoff to students this kind of analysis can provide.

From my own experience teaching religion in film, I know how difficult this is. Assigned films tend to be complex, rich in terms of narrative alone, and my students are required to view  a bunch of them. To identify their themes and unpack how they engage religion is often more than enough to focus on in an undergraduate survey course, especially when students lack a grounding in the fundamentals of religion. With such limited time, it can feel like a distraction to also highlight formal analysis of film: the nuances of mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing, sound, and so on.

This volume illustrates the challenge of finding a textbook for a course on religion and film. The books I’ve used either provide detailed analyses of particular films, which are mostly wasted on students who are not watching them, or mention a great many films—a kind of filmic lit review—which become a blur of unfamiliar names and titles to students. With hundreds of possible films to choose from, the chances of assigning a film analyzed in any single textbook are relatively small. After about a decade, I’ve worked out a rotation of films that work well individually and  collectively. These don’t fully align with Solano’s selections, or those of any other textbook I‘ve seen. So any single text will provide students with a lot of detail about films they won’t be viewing. Another problem with the sort of film readings Solano provides is that they take too much of the interpretive burden off students, who will likely just embrace her admittedly compelling analyses wholesale. Part of the joy of teaching film is enabling students to find their own interpretations.

One option, of course, would be to scrap my current syllabus and create a new one based on Solano’s suggestions, a tempting thought. (I’ve already resolved to find a spot for Lois Weber’s astonishing Hypocrites [1915]). But there would still be a need for selection, to winnow the 39 down to a reasonably number for a semester. And I’d miss many of my current films: Passion of Joan of Arc, Wadjda, Tree of Life, Princess Mononoke, A Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood, After Life, Devi, Groundhog Day, and all the rest. Maybe in another life. For those who are creating new courses in religion and film, however, this volume could serve as an excellent guide, both for selecting films and leading students’ engagement with them.

David W. Stowe is a professor of religious studies at Michigan State University.

David Stowe

Date Of Review:

February 29, 2024