On Watching Theology, Joe, Duke, and Melissa take a single film and examine it closely, looking at the assumptions and ideas in the story. Every episode considers the theological, philosophical and thematic elements of a film, listening closely to what the author has to say, and interacting with those ideas. (It's more fun than it sounds).

Joe watches too many movies. He grew up in central Washington, earned his B.A. in Education and Fine Art, an M.A. in Theology and is currently completing an M.A. in English Literature. He's smuggled film classes into each degree. He is interested in writing, theology and hopes to one day compose the ultimate Joe Versus the Volcano commentary track.

Melissa has a B.A. in History and an M.A. in English with an emphasis on Film Studies. She has taken classes on everything from silent to romance to post-colonial films and much in between. Her research and interests lie mainly in feminist film theory, women in film, Hitchcock and the studio era. At the end of the day, however, she just loves films; from Notorious to Die Hard!
Duke enjoys the way movies can tell stories like no other medium. He is an amatuer critic that loves the atmosphere of the theater and the taste of overpriced popcorn. He loves a good story and appreciates the effort and skill of good story tellers. He is a nerd at heart and a sucker for heist movies. He hopes to see every good movie and lampoon every bad movie ever made before he dies.

Contact the hosts at mail@watchingtheology.com for more information.

Show DescriptionWatching Theology

The Village (2004)

Watching Theology January 19th, 2010

wt_402_village.jpgPeople 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 the Watching Theology lens and ask, "What's the difference between a mythology of monsters and the Amish?" This episode is the second in "The Cave" series, an examinations of films that feature Utopias, Delusions, and Deceptions. [04.02]

Next Episode: "The Cave" part 3–Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998).

NOW AVAILABLE: Watching, a film book by Joe and Melissa Johnson (also available through Amazon)

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4 Responses to “The Village (2004)”

Obed January 19th, 2010

This was a good episode, fellas! Season 4 has been great so far!

Regarding the parallel of the village to the church, I can totally get it. Having spent most of my life in Evangelical circles, one major weakness we have is a tendancy to only (paraphrasing something Steve said once) read Christian books, listen to Christian music, watch Christian TV, eat Christian cookies, wear Christian underwear, etc. Thank God for folks like Steve Brown and y'all who understand that as long as we have a "stable metanarrative" there's nothing to fear "out there."

Davey Morrison February 2nd, 2010

One interesting aspect of this film, for me (I think I remember Richard Corliss pointing it out in his review of it, but I may be mistaken), is the subtle, intentional-or-not commentary on the Bush administration, creating a controlling system of fear through color. Not particularly profound, but an interesting political parallel.

Dustin February 17th, 2010

Anyone have a working e-mail address to contact Joe? The mail@ is not working for me.

Steve February 17th, 2010

I started with WTD (still listening to those) and now I'm listening to WTheology. Fascinating! Wondered if you'd condiered a discussion of Cool Hand Luke (1967)?

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