Playing with Paradigms: The Christ-figure Genre in Contemporary Film

As many commentators have noted, numerous mainstream films feature a plot line loosely based on the Gospel narrative and a protagonist who has some Christ-like features. This paper will argue that in many films the Christ-figure motif is not a minor element; rather, Christ-figure films constitute a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Australian religion studies review
Main Author: Reinhartz, Adele 1953- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: AASR [2008]
In: Australian religion studies review
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Volltext (doi)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
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Summary:As many commentators have noted, numerous mainstream films feature a plot line loosely based on the Gospel narrative and a protagonist who has some Christ-like features. This paper will argue that in many films the Christ-figure motif is not a minor element; rather, Christ-figure films constitute a genre in their own right. This paper will provide a brief overview of the Christ-figure film, as illustrated by The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and then engage in an analysis of two movies - the Quebecois film C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005) and the American film Stranger than Fiction (2006) - that explicitly and humorously demonstrate the interplay of convention and innovation, familiarity and novelty that is the salient characteristic of the genre film.
ISSN:1744-9014
Contains:Enthalten in: Australian religion studies review
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/jasr.v21i3.298