Welcome to the second episode of Pop Culture Matters, a discussion with Dr. Christine Evans of UBC on the 1955 movie, The Night of the Hunter. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC.

Christine Evans brings a wealth of knowledge about film and is a captivating speaker. How did we come to speak about The Night of the Hunter and not a more recent film? Martin Strong invited me to see the film in the VIFF Pantheon series and I went along with him one Sunday to watch it. Prior to the film, there was a short lecture scheduled, and I groaned a little inside. A lecture before the film? But it was Christine Evans and she is a master teacher. I was enthralled by how she placed the film in its historical context, explained its use of cameras and light and shadow, and how she prepared us to watch the film. This is the only film directed by Charles Laughton, and it stars the great Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish, and while it did not do well at the box office, it is now seen as a great American films, one of the Pantheon. Martin and I will soon discuss more recent films, but it was essential I thought that we discussed this film in all of its fogginess, vulnerability, and tension.

Once the film started that day, I was surprised to find that it began with passages from the Sermon on the Mount and that the biblical themes and passages ran throughout the film. Not only that, but the biblical themes were related to my own area of research: children in the Bible. We talk about these biblical passages in our conversation, but I also return to some of these passages at the end of the podcast as not all of them fit in the context of our conversation.

If you haven’t watched the film yet, track it down. I watched the film two more times on the streamer Kanopy after viewing it at VIFF, a free streaming service which I have through my local library, but I am sure it is available in other places too.  You can listen to the podcast before watching the film, just as I heard Christine speak about it before I saw it, and you will gain a lot from listening. 70 years on, as Christine said at VIFF, there are no real spoilers, but if you can see it before you hear this discussion that could help you understand our conversation more fully. On the other hand, even after watching the film three times, you will hear Christine explain elements of the film that I completely missed – she is the expert – as well as hear me mispronounce Zizek, which might lead me to hand in my academic card.

So, thanks to Martin for making this conversation happen and to Christine Evans for helping us make sense of the movie The Night of the Hunter.

 

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @biblejunkies. Or email me at [email protected]. Let me know what you think.

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John W. Martens