Movies/Scenes
Representing Rebirth/New Life from Old Things
- The Shipping
News (2001)
- Great movie on transformation, resurrection, clinging to the past, resisting transformation . . .Main character has experience of "drowning" in childhood with uncaring father that effects his life, is able to find new life in new place, is able to see how the past gets "drug" into everything and finally how to break free of that past. Great moive on so many themes. I plan to buy it for my collection. Watch it! (Rebecca Herring)
- The wake, during which Jack arises, is found at DVD ch 17. This entire movie is the story of rebirth for many characters, especially Quoyle, who is portrayed as the walking-dead. He finds life through confronting the "demons" of his past, and through finding community and relationship in a village in Newfoundland.
- A Beautiful
Mind (2001)
- The "resurrection" of John Nash's humanity. Being lost in the land of schizophrenia - his losing (almost) his wife and son. The recognition eventually of his essence - of his gifts. (Joanna Christian-Tipple, Catskill, NY)
- Chocolate (2000)
- The Count De Reynaud (the mayor of the city and control freak about town), after the Easter Sermon and the chocolate festival in the town square after church, was "strangely released". For him, everything was changed. He no longer saw his job as ridding the town of immorality and any threat to tranquility and tradition. (Carla Thompson Powell, Livonia, MI)
- Cast Away (2000)
- "One day logic was proven all wrong because the tide lifted, came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I'm back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have *ice* in my glass. And I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I have to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"
- The
Hurricane (1999)
- Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a champion middleweight boxer, is imprisoned for life for murders he did not commit. After exhausting every possibility for appeal, he tells his wife that he wants her to divorce him and to move on with her life, saying, "I'm dead. Forget about me." The Hurricane uses his prison time to read, study, and eventually write a book about his life -- a book that is published and becomes a best seller, but which is then soon forgotten. Years later, a Black teen from the ghetto finds a copy of the Hurricane's life story at a used book sale, and buys it for a quarter. Moved by what he read, the young man, Lesera Martin, writes a letter to the prisoner, and begins a relationship and a process that eventually leads to the overturning of the conviction. At a pivotal moment, the Hurricane notes that it was "no accident" that Lesera had come across that book. He quotes Genesis 49 about himself, "Reuben, my firstborn . . . pre-eminent in pride . . . Unstable as water, you shall not prevail." He then contrasts his name to that of Lesera, a form of the name Lazarus, the one raised from death. The Hurricane tells Lesera that hate had killed Reuben and buried him, forgotten, in the prison walls, but Lesera's love had raised him and given him life once again. (Mark D. Johns, Instructor of Communication/Linguistics, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa)
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Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
- 'Bringing out the dead' by Martin Scorsese is about the power of man to make others live, and about the question by which means man can find peace for his soul. It's about resurrection as well. (Dr. Matthias Walter)
- Fantasia
2000 (1999)
- Resurrection themes or "new beginnings" are visited in the segment for The Firebird Suite. (Kirk VanGilder, Campus Minister, Gallaudet University)
- The Confession (1999)
- Bleakie "self-destructs" - sacrifices his career and all he's lived for, in order to find himself and be regenerated as a moral man.
- The Bone Collector (1999)
- Lincoln Rhyme's life is resurrected and even redeemed through his relationship with Amelia.
- American Beauty (1999)
- "...the catalyst to Lester's transformation from a nearly dead sad sack to a liberated man who is not afraid to express his emotions comes in the form of Angela, a blonde teenage cheerleader." (Spiritual Rx Review)
- The Matrix (1999)
- Neo is asked to meet the Rebel group under the "Adam" Street Bridge. This meeting happens just before they take the electronic bug out of him. Slightly later, Neo's "baptism/rebirth" (if you will) occurs. Consider the following scripture and its relationship between "Adam" (all human beings) and "The Christ" (Neo in the movie) 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (Tim Robertson)
- At First Sight (1999)
- The movie "At First Sight" from a few years ago, on the overwhelming power of the resurrection to totally reorient someone from one kind of life to another. While it might desirable for someone who is blind to be able to see, if one is accustomed to functioning and thriving as a blind person, gaining one's sight can be totally disorienting. It can even make one dependent and not able to function as before. Discontinuity between the past life and new life. (Allen Schoonover)
- Patch Adams (1998)
- traditional medicine is lifeless. Patch discovers that spirit must be involved.
- Bed of Roses (1996)
- "Bed of Roses" was a movie I saw while on a women's retreat. A romance, and yet a story of grace. A florist delivers flowers to a young woman he sees at night crying at her window. From there, a romance buds and grows to the point of his asking her to marry him. However, the young woman in the film has not just a "shady" background, but a "shadowy" background, as she never knew who her parents were. she eventually learns to accept the florist's "unconditional love". A movie full of wonderful imagery of new life and rebirth using "nature in the city" (a florist shop full of flowers), and especially in a scene of the florist's own private roof-top garden, we get a picture of the "new heavens and the new Earth" with garden (of Eden?) in the foreground, and the city (of Revelation?) in the background. (Mary Organ, Kent Presbyterian Church)
- Spitfire Grill (1996)
- Townspeople worried about the future of their grill become involved in a 'contest' to give the grill to someone interested in its reputation and benefit to the community. The idea comes from an outsider, with a 'bad' reputation. Some stand up for her. Some seek to 'sink' her. The 'contest' needs the participation of nearly everyone. The 'winning' selection serves a new purpose for the community. In their concern for healthy community they are healed of the former grill owner's 'secret by the offering of the 'outsider' and discover new purpose looking beyond their private interests. They give a new life to the 'winner' and find they have 'won' new common benefit and reputation--a new life. (Dennis Sylte)
- A Walk in the Clouds
(1995)
- A vineyard that has existed for generations is destroyed by fire. Yet, there is hope, because the root of the original vine is still alive. From it, the vineyard is regenerated. I think this would be a great illustration for the Root of Jesse. (Kris Sallee Pleasant Plains, IL)
- The Shawshank Redemption
(1994)
- The scene when Andy was in solitary confinement for telling the warrden that he could have a chance to have another trial. The warrden goes to talk to Andy after a month had passed and when the officer opens the door Andy shuns his eyes, (allegory of the cave). The warrden tells Andy that Tommy Williams has died. Then the warrden gets up tells the officer that he is to give him another month in the confinement, and leaves. (Patrick W., Memphis TN)
- The Stand (1994)
- Larry and Nadine walk through the tunnel of death and horror and are reborn from New York City. (DVD pt. 2, ch 9)
- Fearless
(1993)
- Max survives a plane crash and his post traumatic stress plays out in a feeling of invulnerability. This is a very deep and layered film, and that invulnerability eventually has to be dealt with. But while he has that feeling, he is very much similar to Paul when he speaks of the cross (death) and how in the cross he has been crucified to the world and the world to him. There is a freedom he has (although eventually it is somewhat misguided) because he has, in his mind, already passed through death. So too in the cross (and baptism) we have passed through death and in many ways, as Paul says, we have been crucified to the world. The trick is to find the new life that shows that reality. (Darrel Manson, Artesia Christian Church, Artesia, CA)
- Six Degrees of
Separation (1993)
- Paul gives hope, though it is through his own dishonesty. "He opened up a whole new world to us. That's all anyone wants, isn't it?" (DVD ch 20)
- City of Joy (1992)
- A wonderful movie about a man (Swayze) searching for meaning in his life. It is only in his giving up his life that he starts to live. To live for God. To truly live. (Nancy Russo)
- Strictly Ballroom
(1992)
- Scott and Fran's rebellion sparks new life in the Competitive Ballroom Dancing adherents.
- Regarding Henry (1991)
- Dead Poet's Society
(1989)
- Through Keating's enthusiasm and "evangelism", the Dead Poet's Society is re-formed.
- Raising Arizona (1987)
- Gale tunnels out of prison (rebirth), pulls brother out into the rain. (MHenderson, Center Sandwich NH)
- Overboard
(1987)
- Goldie Hawn plays a spoiled rich woman, Kurt Russel a single parent carpenter / commoner. She abuses him in the beginning as lower than whale feces while he reinvents the closet on her yacht to accomodate her superfluous wardrobe. He kind of dreams about her (she is beautiful) but her jarring rudeness is more for even lust to overcome in fantasy, I think. She gets thrown overboard during a party at night (by accident) and strikes her head. Kurt Russel finds her and tells her she's his wife, mother of three boys (the boys cooperate). She can't believe it, of course, but ultimately learns to love and respect this odd lot family she's now a part of (unwillingly). Kurt (who never takes advantage of her, as far as I can remember) finally tells her (I think, or someone else does and he was going to). The rest is vague. I suppose she storms back to her yacht, absolutely can't stand to live without him and the kids, and rushes back into his arms when he and the kids show up to say they can't live without her. (Rev. Michael Phillips, Berwick, Pennsylvania)
- First, it wasn't during a party that she was thrown overboard, it was while trying to retrieve her jewelry left on deck earlier that day. (She lost the gold and gained a life?) Most important -- her husband came back to get her (after he had stranded her in the hospital months before), and she got her memory back in a flash. She went off with him back to the yacht, but with her experiences as a poor mother of 4 fresh in her mind, she realized how selfish and superfluous her former life (and her mother, husband and shrink) all were, and told the captain to turn the ship around. A battle with her husband ensued, and, with Kurt Russell and the kids following in a coast guard yacht (courtesy of some friends), she was close, but not close enough to go back to the poor life, the one with values. Kurt Russell jumps overboard, then Goldie Hawn jumps overboard, and they end up together in a life raft, and it all ends happily ever after. SHE changed, and that's what makes the story a valid one for it's place in this directory. (Sharon Pajak)
- The NeverEnding Story
(1984)
- In "The NeverEnding Story" all of Fantasia has been destroyed. All that is left is a grain of sand. Out of that grain, all of Fantasia can be reborn, if Bastian will only believe, and wish for it. (Bette Sohm)
- One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
- In the concluding sequence, it is obvious that McMurphy has empowered at least one of his disciples to do what was once unthinkable. "Chief" hurls a limestone bathroom fixture through the window and escapes the hospital, personifying a resurrection similar to that of the closing scene in Cool Hand Luke. ("The Messianic Figure in Film: Christology Beyond the Biblical Epic," Matthew Mc Ever, Journal of Religion and Film, 1998)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
- Cool Hand Luke (1967)
- Luke is gunned down by the spiritually blind "man with no eyes," a guard who wears reflective sunglasses throughout the film. "Dragline" (George Kennedy), Luke?s companion, attacks the guard and his trademark glasses are crushed, suggesting that Luke?s death has liberated the inmates once and for all. ("The Messianic Figure in Film: Christology Beyond the Biblical Epic," Matthew Mc Ever, Journal of Religion and Film, 1998)
- On the Waterfront
(1954)
- See Theresa Shetler's paper, "'I?ll Be Back!' The Battle continues?On the Waterfront: Art Reflects Culture."
