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

WT03.07 Brigham City (2001)

Watching Theology December 23rd, 2009

Brigham CityGod'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 disrupts paradise. The Sheriff/bishop (played by Dutcher) has to reconcile two worlds, the spiritual and temporal, in an unusual film about the religious life in a secular world. Originally, we hoped to bring a review of Dutcher's Falling, but it remains unavailable on DVD.

See Davey Morrison's excellent interview with Richard Dutcher and his review of Falling.
Need Netflix to watch Brigham City? Click here for a free trial.

Coming in 2010: Watching Theology Season 4 and Fight Club.

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

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3 Responses to “WT03.07 Brigham City (2001)”

Davey January 25th, 2010

Hooray! I'm thrilled to see the "Brigham City" episode finally, and just as thrilled to see you guys are back in action. Coincidentally, yesterday I went to a 10th anniversary screening of "God's Army" at the LDS Film Festival, with a Q&A with Richard Dutcher afterwards. Great to hear some of your thoughts on "Brigham City"–I love that film.

I've been thinking of starting a blog or podcast or website or something with some essays talking about theological significance in specific films sometime in the next little while–I'll have to let you know if that happens. Keep up the great work.

Jared January 26th, 2010

WT,

Really enjoy the podcasts. Thanks for deepening the understanding of theology in film.

We'd love to hear the WT take on The Book of Jer3miah, http://www.jer3miah.com , the first LDS webseries. The NY Times gave a pretty interesting review of the show, http://tinyurl.com/nytimesjer3miah
but your perspectives on the show would be just as valuable.

Davey March 11th, 2010

Related to the "God's Silence" series, here's a brilliant, beautiful, insightful article on "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!"
http://www.reverseshot.com/article/its_the_great_pumpkin_charlie_brown

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