God, Man, and Hollywood

God, Man, and Hollywood
Author: Mark Royden Winchell
Publisher: Intercollegiate Studies Institute
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2008
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

It takes no great powers of observation to see that Hollywood has long been far to the left of the general American public. Even in stories that have no overt political content, the social and moral assumptions in films rated from GP to R are often at odds with the deeply held values of most of the viewing audience. But that's not the whole story, argues the literary and cultural critic Mark Royden Winchell in God, Man, and Hollywood. A surprising number of films articulate culturally unfashionable attitudes--and it is from these movies that we learn the most about our society and ourselves. Beginning with D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and ending with Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, Winchell reveals the politically incorrect notions at the heart of eighteen classic films, including Ben-Hur, Intruder in the Dust, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Patton, The Deer Hunter, A Clockwork Orange, Gangs of New York, and Gettsyburg. Along the way, he shows how a number of filmmakers, sometimes unwittingly, have produced unconventionally honest explorations of the nature and meaning of race relations, love, family, community, worship, and other aspects of our shared human experience. Winchell ends with synoptic assessments of an additional one hundred politically incorrect films, from About Schmidt to Zulu. The result is an indispensable film guide showing that sometimes even Hollywood has done better than we typically give it credit for.

Between Heaven & Hollywood

Between Heaven & Hollywood
Author: David A.R. White
Publisher: HarperChristian + ORM
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2016-10-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0310345952

Between Heaven & Hollywood is David’s inspirational journey from the wheat fields of his Mennonite home outside of Dodge City Kansas, to the bright lights of Los Angeles. This story of perseverance will assure you that your dreams aren’t frivolous. They might be the most important part of your life. White has starred in more than twenty-five movies and produced forty films, including the blockbuster God’s Not Dead. He serves as a Managing Partner of Pure Flix, the largest faith-based movie studio in the world. With his signature wit and sidesplitting hilarity, David’s story of faithfulness, grounded in the biblical truth that no dream is too big for God, will inspire you to relentlessly pursue your dreams, and in the process, bring the reality of God’s kingdom a little closer to the here and now. God has planted a dream in your heart that is both unique to you and essential to the world. White reminds us that there is no one too common, too uneducated, too poor, too inexperienced, or too broken that he or she cannot be used by God.

Hollywood & God

Hollywood & God
Author: Robert Polito
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 87
Release: 2009-08-01
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 0226673413

Hollywood & God is a virtuosic performance, filled with crossings back and forth from cinematic chiaroscuro to a kind of unsettling desperation and disturbing—even lurid—hallucination. From the Baltimore Catechism to the great noir films of the last century to today’s Elvis impersonators and Paris Hilton (an impersonator of a different sort), Robert Polito tracks the snares, abrasions, and hijinks of personal identities in our society of the spectacle, a place where who we say we are, and who (we think) we think we are fade in and out of consciousness, like flickers of light dancing tantalizingly on the silver screen. Mixing lyric and essay, collage and narrative, memoir and invention, Hollywood & God is an audacious book, as contemporary as it is historical, as sly and witty as it is devastatingly serious.

God on the Big Screen

God on the Big Screen
Author: Terry Lindvall
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 373
Release: 2019-08-13
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1479892610

Links film history with church history over the past century, illuminating America’s broader relationship with religious currents over time Moments of prayer have been represented in Hollywood movies since the silent era, appearing unexpectedly in films as diverse as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Frankenstein, Amistad, Easy Rider, Talladega Nights, and Alien 3, as well as in religiously inspired classics such as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments. Here, Terry Lindvall examines how films have reflected, and sometimes sought to prescribe, ideas about how one ought to pray. He surveys the landscape of those films that employ prayer in their narratives, beginning with the silent era and moving through the uplifting and inspirational movies of the Great Depression and World War II, the cynical, anti-establishment films of the 60s and 70s, and the sci-fi and fantasy blockbusters of today. Lindvall considers how the presentation of cinematic prayer varies across race, age, and gender, and places the use of prayer in film in historical context, shedding light on the religious currents at play during those time periods. God on the Big Screen demonstrates that the way prayer is presented in film during each historical period tells us a great deal about America’s broader relationship with religion.

Hollywood Heroes

Hollywood Heroes
Author: Frank Turek
Publisher: NavPress
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2022-05-03
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1641583533

Captain America assembles the Avengers. Iron Man battles Thanos. Luke Skywalker duels Darth Vader. Aragorn charges Mordor. Batman confronts the Joker. Superman destroys Doomsday. Wonder Woman defeats Ares. We are captivated. Why? We are entranced by stories that take us to a world where heroes fight evil and sacrifice themselves for a greater good because we long for our world to be free from pain, suffering, and struggle. That’s the real hope and promise of Jesus—when He returns to set things right. In Hollywood Heroes, you’ll see how: Your favorite movie heroes are patterned after the Ultimate Hero—Jesus of Nazareth Big screen stories parallel the real-world fight between good and evil Movies and characters can impart inspiring biblical life lessons on justice, purpose, courage, strength, sacrifice, faith, and love Hollywood Heroes begins with the true story of a US Navy SEAL who faced evil and sacrificed himself to save his teammates. Authors Frank and Zach Turek then use Spider-Man’s origin story to address the question: “Why would a good God allow evil?” You’ll then read how seven movie franchises—Captain America, Iron Man, Harry Potter, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Batman, and Wonder Woman—portray the battle against evil, providing a set of modern-day parables that reveal truths about God and His mission for us.

Faith in the Land of Make-Believe

Faith in the Land of Make-Believe
Author: Lee Stanley
Publisher: Zondervan
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2011-02-22
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0310325471

More than a narrative about a young man destined to accomplish the impossible, more than a chronicle of successful Hollywood writer, producer, and director, Lee Stanley’s unparalleled success that changed not only his life but also the lives of millions of others … Faith in the Land of Make-Believe is the gritty memoir of someone who was never taught how to be a man, a husband, or a father, and was scared to death somebody would find out. Now an award-winning filmmaker, author Lee Stanley learned early in life never to show a weakness. With a macho facade, womanizing ways, and hair-trigger rage, Stanley became his own worst enemy—an enemy that only Christ could defeat. Faith in the Land of Make-Believe is the powerful and brutally honest story of a man who learned how to become totally dependent on God. This is a book about passion, determination and a refusal to give up. Most importantly it is about fulfilling your purpose by never backing down, and always standing solely and completely upon the Word of God.

A Change of Affection

A Change of Affection
Author: Becket Cook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-07-30
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400212340

The powerful, dramatic story of how a successful Hollywood set designer whose identity was deeply rooted in his homosexuality came to be suddenly and utterly transformed by the power of the gospel. When Becket Cook moved from Dallas to Los Angeles after college, he discovered a socially progressive, liberal town that embraced not only his creative side but also his homosexuality. He devoted his time to growing his career as a successful set designer and to finding "the one" man who would fill his heart. As a gay man in the entertainment industry, Cook centered his life around celebrity-filled Hollywood parties and traveled to society hot-spots around the world--until a chance encounter with a pastor at an LA coffee shop one morning changed everything. In A Change of Affection, Becket Cook shares his testimony as someone who was transformed by the power of the gospel. Cook's dramatic conversion to Christianity and subsequent seminary training inform his views on homosexuality--personally, biblically, theologically, and culturally--and in his new book he educates Christians on how to better understand this complex and controversial issue while revealing how to lovingly engage with those who disagree. A Change of Affection is a timely and indispensable resource for anyone who desires to understand more fully one of the most common and difficult stumbling blocks to faithfully following Christ today.

The Ken Commandments

The Ken Commandments
Author: Ken Baker
Publisher:
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2017
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0451497953

The author describes how he re-embraced his Christian heritage and regained his spiritual center after abandoning it for twenty years in the fairy tale world of Hollywood.

Whom God Wishes to Destroy ...

Whom God Wishes to Destroy ...
Author: Jon Lewis
Publisher: Duke University Press
Total Pages: 212
Release: 1997
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780822318897

In March 1980 Francis Coppola purchased the dilapidated Hollywood General Studios facility with the hope and dream of creating a radically new kind of studio, one that would revolutionize filmmaking, challenge the established studio machinery, and, most importantly, allow him to make movies as he wished. With this event at the center of Whom God Wishes to Destroy, Jon Lewis offers a behind-the-scenes view of Coppola's struggle--that of the industry's best-known auteur--against the changing realities of the New Hollywood of the 1980s. Presenting a Hollywood history steeped in the trade news, rumor, and gossip that propel the industry, Lewis unfolds a lesson about power, ownership, and the role of the auteur in the American cinema. From before the success of The Godfather to the eventual triumph of Apocalypse Now, through the critical upheaval of the 1980s with movies like Rumble Fish, Hammett, Peggy Sue Got Married, to the 1990s and the making of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein, Francis Coppola's career becomes the lens through which Lewis examines the nature of making movies and doing business in Hollywood today.

From Hollywood to God

From Hollywood to God
Author: Kelly Granite Enck
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release:
Genre: Christian biography
ISBN: 9780615578842

How far would you go to find God? Some people go all the way... When Kelly loses her job at a Hollywood studio, she takes off around the world. Candid, funny, poignant—Kelly's journey takes her to surprising places. She's held hostage in Israel, taps into the energy of the pyramids in Giza, hikes in the Himalayas, meditates in the great cathedrals of Europe, winds up in the news in Rio—and finally raises hell in a Southern Bible college. The author takes us on a journey not just around the world, but into the center of the soul.