GroshLink

Last night a friend shared his mutual interest in film.  This morning I continued the conversation by forwarding Groshlink's two most relevant threads, Speculative Literature/Arts and Reviews and Cliff Notes, along w/the post which I share most often when discussing film, In Search of Good Film Nine Signposts (Greg Veltman).

In the mail box this morning I received the March/April Edition of Books & Culture.  And what did I find? Two excellent articles on movies to add to the archive. Below's an excerpt from Roy Anker, professor of English at Calvin College and author of Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies (Eerdmans):

Humankind seems a patsy for this sort of thing, no matter how much conscience and brain tell us to prefer high-minded, and usually dire, realism. Simply put, (fairy) tales as disparate as Rocky and Slumdog play to another part of the self—the soul's deep thirst for repair of some small slice of the world's incalculable woe. Fair enough. -- by Roy Anker at Dickens In Mumbai: The Academy Award-winner for Best Film, posted 2/27/2009.

Peter T. Chattaway's article Dark Planet: Alien as messiah? touches down upon a genre of specific interest to me ;-)

The alien messiah is a staple of science fiction, and few have been as messianic as Klaatu, who came to Earth to deliver a message of peace and a warning of possible apocalyptic doom in the original version of The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). ... alien messiahs sure aren't what they used to be. -- by Peter T. Chattaway, Dark Planet: Alien as messiah?, posted 2/27/2009.