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Reel Revelations: Apocalypse and Film

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In the last decades, writers and directors have increasingly found the Book of Revelation a fitting cinematic muse for an age beset by possibilities of world destruction.

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In the last decades, writers and directors have increasingly found the Book of Revelation a fitting cinematic muse for an age beset by possibilities of world destruction. Many apocalyptic films stay remarkably close to the idea of apocalypse as a revelation about the future, often quoting or using imagery from Revelation, as well as its Old Testament antecedents in Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah.

The apocalyptic paradigm often instigates social criticism. Kim Paffenroth examines how zombie films deploy apocalyptic language and motifs to critique oppressive values in American culture. Lee Quinby shows how Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales critiques not only social and economic crises in the USA but also Revelation’s depictions of Good versus Evil as absolute oppositions. Frances Flannery points out how Josh Whedon’s Serenity deconstructs the apocalypse precisely by using elements of it, depicting humans as their own created monsters.

Jon Stone notes how apocalyptic fictions, while presenting nightmare scenarios, are invariably optimistic, with human ingenuity effectively responding to potential disasters. Mary Ann Beavis examines the device of invented scriptures (pseudapocrypha), deployed as a narrative trope for holding back the final cataclysm. John Walliss studies evangelical Christian films that depict how the endtime scenario will unfold, so articulating and even redefining a sense of evangelical identity.

Richard Walsh analyses the surreptitious sanctification of empire that occurs in both Revelation and End of Days under the cover of a blatant struggle with another ‘evil’ empire. Greg Garrett examines how the eschatological figure of ‘The Son of Man’ is presented in the Matrix trilogy, the Terminator tetralogy, and Signs. Elizabeth Rosen shows how a postmodern apocalyptic trend has been working its way into children’s fiction and film such as The Transformers, challenging the traditionally rigid depictions of good and evil found in many children’s stories.

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table of contents

Lee Quinby and John Walliss Introduction Kim Paffenroth Apocalyptic Images and Prophetic Function in Zombie Films Lee Quinby Southland Tales, The Film of Revelation: Richard Kelly’s Satire of American Apocalypse Frances Flannery Post-modern Apocalypse and Terrorism in Joss Whedon’s Serenity Jon R. Stone Apocalyptic Fiction: Revelatory Elements within Post-war American Film Mary Ann Beavis Pseudapocrypha: Invented Scripture in Apocalyptic Horror Films John Walliss Celling the End Times: The Contours of Contemporary Rapture Films Richard Walsh Sanctifying Empire: The Hopeful Paradox of Apocalypsia Greg Garrett ‘I saw one like a son of man’: The Eschatological Savior in Contemporary Film Elizabeth Rosen ‘More than meets the eye’: Apocalypse Transformed in Transformers

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Reviews

  1. Eric Repphun, Relegere: Studies in Religion and Reception.

    There are a number of superb essays in Reel Revelations: Apocalypse and Film, a short collection on the intersection of the biblical book of Revelation and contemporary film … In the excellent first chapter …, Kim Paffenroth uses the zombie films of George Romero to bring out [the] capacity of end-times narratives to make trenchant social criticisms … Mary Ann Beavis’s ‘Pseudapocrypha’ … is … an interesting challenge to reception history in that it deals with the ways filmmakers have employed apocryphal religious texts to create imaginaries of the end times. … John Walliss, venturing refreshingly far from the Hollywood mainstream, explores the neglected area of films made by and for evangelical Christians in the United States.

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Book information

Editors
John Walliss, Lee Quinby
List Price
£50 / $90 / €60
Series
Bible in the Modern World, 31
Scholars' Price
£25 / $45 / €30
ISBN 13 hardback
978-1-907534-08-9
Format
Hardback
Page Extent
viii + 179
Publication Date
Oct-10
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