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Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:49:34 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Call it satire, call it an allegory, but The Truman Show is about something. In this production-delayed episode Duke and Joe look over Peter Weir's oddly prophetic take on television. Join us as we examine how Jim Carey represents a helpless philosophical captive striving for enlightenment, a brave seeker battling ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/the-truman-show-1998/ People respond to trauma in different ways. Some find religion. Others re-evaluate their priorities. Some people, like those in M. Night Shyamalan's The Village, put themselves into an isolated 19th century town hiding away from the world. In this edition, Duke and Joe look at Shyamalan's parable of fear through ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/the-village-2004/ [NOTE: Explicit Content] New season. New series. New co-host. Same Watching Theology wisdom (sorry). Season 4 begins with an all-male look at twentieth century masculinity according to Pitt, Norton, Fincher, and Palahniuk. Joe is joined by Duke Senter to listen to Fight Club and ask what it means to be ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/fight-club-1999/ God's Silence Series: no. 5. In the final installment of the "God's Silence" series--and the last of WT Season 3--we look at Brigham City, Richard Dutcher's third film. Brigham is a little community in Utah, a Mormon town with two police officers and no crime. But a series of murders ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0307-brigham-city-2001/ God's Silence Series: no. 4. When Bess married Jan, it united an outsider and an insider, an oilworker and a member of a strict religious community. Their marriage was a happy one: sensual, fun, passionate. All that ended when Jan returned to his oil platform and Bess was left alone. ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0306-breaking-the-waves-1996/ God's Silence Series: no. 3. [NOTE: Explicit Content] Sometimes God is silent. Sometimes he's shut out of the conversation. In Martin Scorsese's breakthrough film Mean Streets, Charlie is trying to find his own way to stay out of Hell. He is the saint of Little Italy, just not the ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0305-mean-streets-1973/ God's Silence Series: no. 2. In part two of the "God's Silence" series, Watching Theology considers the profound link between ethics and God's existence. If God exists, He must care, and if God cares, He must punish. So if Martin Landau were to, say, kill Anjelica Huston, you might expect ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0304-crimes-and-misdemeanors-1989/ God's Silence Series: no. 1. Ingmar Bergman's films have become synonymous with existential terror. In 1962's Winter Light, Bergman explores what could be a typical Sunday for a struggling pastor, except that this pastor may not believe in God. Winter Light is the first episode in a 5 part series ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0303-winter-light-1962/ It's a tale as old as time. On this episode, WT turns it's careful gaze to the waters of the Amazon, watching Jack Arnold's Universal Monster classic Creature from the Black Lagoon. In those dark waters, we find an evolutionary story of Beauty and the Beast and a few bizarre ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0302-creature-from-the-black-lagoon-1954/ In this first episode of season 3, Joe spends a few minutes with Clark Gregg's Choke. This latest adaptation of a Chuck Palahniuk novel is far removed from the David Fincher Fight Club adaptation, but a few threads connect them. Of course there is a fascination with vulgarity and the ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0301-choke-2008/ Not that you don't have something better to do with your money - like giving to Key Life. But for those listeners who can't get enough movie stuff, the fine folks at Watching Theology offer a collection of film readings. Watching is a mixed collection of articles, papers, reviews and ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/watching-reading-reading-watching/ [NOTE: Explicit Content] If all you want for Christmas is Muppets and Miley Cyrus, avoid this show. But, if you don't mind a little sex, violence, and f-words in your eggnog, we have the gift that keeps giving. On this special (and rare) edition of Watching Theology, we turn our ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0210-a-watching-christmas/ God, evolution, the rise of a living machine, theology, humanism and a Vulcan named Spock. It's all in Robert Wise's adaptation of Star Trek mythology. On this episode, Joe does a solo take on what might be the real meaning of the players and ideas behind the first feature of ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0209-star-trek-the-motion-picture-1979/ Nothing says caring like a close community of Christian believers, compassionate co-workers and a life-like "love doll." Lars and the Real Girl is the story of a lonely man who becomes so gripped by the contrary forces of fear and love that he suffers from the delusion of believing that ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0208-lars-and-the-real-girl-2007/ Yes, the podcast still exists. And it will return soon. Here's the quick rundown on some adjusted program dates (and listen to the audio for a preview of some other upcoming shows): Lars and the Real Girl (July 11), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (July 18), Rear Window (Aug 1) http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt-update/ With the long awaited fourth movie in the Indiana Jones series hitting theaters, it seemed to be a good time to revisit our childhood and our collective social consciousness with an adventure. On this episode we go back to the beginning with Harrison Ford, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0207-raiders-of-the-lost-ark-1981/ Considered by numerous critics and film organizations to be the greatest film ever made, Citizen Kane is large in legend even without our brief examination of the movie. But even Orson Welles – as Charles Foster Kane and director – is not beyond our arrogant ramblings about life and meaning. ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0206-citizen-kane-1941/ [NOTE: Explicit Content] Whether or not there's a huge government/corporate conspiracy to take over every liberty – to enslave and control us – there's always time to think about reality. Fortunately, in Philip K. Dick's and Richard Linklater's vision of the near future, we're provided with ample examples of how ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0205-a-scanner-darkly-2006/ Somewhere on an island outside Scotland, Christopher Lee has built the perfect neo-Pagan civilization. There you will find fertility rites, folk music and a frolicking Britt Ekland (and her body double). You will also witness a clash of civilizations that hasn't been seen since St. Patrick brought Christianity to the ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/wt0204-the-wicker-man-1973/ [NOTE: Explicit Content] It may never have occurred to you before, but James Bond is a troubled old man. Being a glossy hit man may have some drawbacks, such as the inability to keep a conscience and a slightly troubled Freudian nightmare of a view on women. We put Casino ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/casino-royale-2006/ What do the frontier revival evangelists have in common with pre-War, classic Disney animation? Perhaps a lot more than many of us may have considered. It seems that Pinocchio has more to say about good behavior and the problem of succumbing to the devil's devices - gambling, drinking, smoking, etc. ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/pinocchio-1940/ You don't see a zombie every day, but if you did, would it change your life forever? On this episode - the first of season two - we spend time with some nobody named Shaun, who is having a very bad day. It seems that everyone around the poor guy ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/shaun-of-the-dead-2004/ Despite our attempts to keep an occasional show posted - our best laid plans to keep Watching Theology alive - we've failed miserably. Quite a few opportunities have come and gone. So, left with the reality of seeing the show disappear altogether, we've decided to salvage it from the littered ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/watching-theology-season-2/ [NOTE: Explicit Content] Since Huxley's Brave New World, novels and films have flowed with a bleak view of the not-too-distant future. Alfonso Cuaron's adaptation of P.D. James' Children of Men doesn't depart too far from this perspective. But it does offer some new thoughts to the genre. Join us ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/children-of-men-2006/ 1950's science fiction is a wonderful place for finding heavy-handed propaganda. The stories are often parables and metaphors with shiny gadgets and planet-size catastrophes. 1956's Forbidden Planet is an example of great moral lessons buried in the luster of special effects and lasers. Forbidden Planet also has the distinction of ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/forbidden-planet-1956/ Some films are clear - you know exactly what you're getting and exactly what you're supposed to learn. Then there's Barton Fink. In the midst of a bad case of writer's block, the Coen Brothers scripted this tale of a talented playwright with his own unusual case of writer's block. ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/barton-fink-1991/ [NOTE: Explicit Content] Religious movies sure have a way of making religious people angry. Kevin Smith's 1999 film, Dogma, is no exception. Fearing death threats - from the "Thou Shall Not Kill" folks who ought to know better - Smith went as far as putting a disclaimer at the beginning ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/dogma-1999/ A few summers ago, while most of us were out camping or having a bar-b-q, Timothy Treadwell and his girlfriend were being killed and eaten by a starving grizzly bear in Alaska. One of our most significant working directors, Werner Herzog, picked up his video footage and compiled a documentary ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/grizzly-man-2005/ Somehow, Stanley Kubrick managed to entrance two generations of movie-goers with his adaptation of an Arthur C. Clarke short story. From the famous defensive appeals of a computer named HAL to the birth of some cosmic star child, 2001: A Space Odyssey created more interpretations and questions than any kind ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/2001-a-space-odyssey-1968/ Keanu Reeves is no stranger to roles with significant theological and philosophical impact: Neo, Buddha, Ted "Theo-dore" Logan. In this edition, we look at him as he fights the forces of good and evil, once again coming face-to-face (remember The Devil's Advocate?) with Satan. On this episode, we follow Reeves ... http://stevebrownetc.com/podcasts/watching-theology/constantine-2005/