By Cordelia Fitzgerald … Lilies of the Field is a modest film with a comparatively small cast, simple plot, and a light load of English dialogue. Homer Smith, a traveling handyman, finds himself employed by some German nuns with a dubious revenue stream and consequently becomes invested in their (or rather, the Mother Superior’s) dream, which turns out to be the basis of the story. Again, it is a simple film – but it is a battle of wills.
Read More
By Ruth Amsden … Ebenezer Scrooge, a “tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner,” appears upon introduction to be beyond the reach of love, human or divine. Scrooge is an object lesson for St. Paul’s exhortation to St. Timot
Read More
By Amanda Pizzolatto … J. R. R. Tolkien has gone down in history as one of the greatest minds in literature. He single handedly created a brand new language, complete with the grammar and vocabulary rules. He then created a world for this language, followed by some myths and stories. But the one line that will forever be connected to him was “In a hole in the ground, there lived a Hobbit.” And the rest is, of course, history.
Read More
One of the satellite channels programmed a weekend of Audie Murphy cowboy movies. In my youth these were a Saturday afternoon staple down at the Palace Theatre, of happy memory, and I was pleased to revisit Destry (1954).
Read More
…tyrants don’t want people thinking for themselves. Books are dangerous to bullies, whether they are Hitler, Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, Vlad the Bad Putin, Chairman Xi, or the Ms. Grundy down the street.
Read More
“The Man Who Popularized the Modern Christmas”, or something along the lines of “The Man Who Defined Christmas Traditions”, would have been better a better title than The Man Who Invented Christmas. I mean, it’s not a bad title, but there are implications that can be, shall we say, that becomes kinda problematic. But besides that and the fact that this is obviously a fictionalized account of Charles Dickens writing the book of A Christmas Carol, the movie was actually pretty well done.
Read More
The Poets of Rapallo by Lauren Arrington (Oxford University Press) is a brilliant first draft; one looks forward to reading the completed work.
Read More
One of the most difficult things about being a Christian film critic (and a Christian film fan for that matter) is determining how badly a movie has to stray away from a biblical view of philosophy or ethics before it cannot be commendable to the Christian.
Read More
Fantasy General is one of the prolific titles that was produced by Strategic Simulations in the 1990s. Unlike their other games such as Panzer General or Pacific General, the game of is not meant to be a recreation for any historical period or particular type of warfare that actually occurred. Instead, Fantasy General offers a totally original setting and game system that allows for the playing out of large-scale warfare that involves fantastical beings, alternative technologies, and magic.
Read More
Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose (currently free on YouTube) begins on a somber note. We see a young Mamoru Chiba ascend a staircase to the roof of a hospital carrying a rose in his hands. He offers it to a small alien boy, who promises to bring Mamoru flowers in return before disappearing.
Read More
There are few novels that I have reread as many times as Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. It is a masterpiece of science fiction and is as intellectually stimulating as it is imaginatively engaging. Each time I have revisited the Terran Federation, its advanced power-armored soldiers, and their fantastically alien enemies, I have come away with a new appreciation for this classic work.
Read More
Growing up, I remember Palm Sunday being a particularly special event, mainly because the grand epic of The Ten Commandments came on TV. We always crowded around the TV to watch this grand masterpiece…
Read More
But why are wizards and witches looked on with suspicion, anyway? Are we not simply prejudiced against them? I think not.
Read More
I’m just going to come out and say it… I think that, on the whole, Ghibli Studios has a better understanding of true love than classic Disney.
Read More
As you may already know, Unplanned is the true story of Abby Johnson. She worked at Planned Parenthood for years, rising in prominence until she became the youngest clinic director in the company’s history. She was honored as their Employee of the Year. She had a husband and a daughter and what probably seemed to others as the perfect life. But, as the promotions say, what she saw changed everything.
Read More
“The Oasis Within” can be read solely as a story, and it would be both diverting and useful, but the thinking reader will also consider the many questions about the meanings in one’s life and the nature of the good, the true, and the beautiful.
Read More
Welcome to the future, where humans have colonized the moon, Mars, and much more. Where people are categorized based on the planet they come from. Where living on a spaceship for more than a month at a time is normal. Where crew becomes family.
Read More
If today you find yourself in the company of Texas Rangers, no matter who you are, you know that truth and justice will prevail. But it was not always so, and that is the thesis of Doug J. Swanson’s disturbing but well-documented book, Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers.
Read More
I eventually watched the movies. That’s when things really started to bother me. What was it with these movies and showing a colorless world? It irked me to no end for I truly enjoy a good splash of color.
Read More
There is much more to Hugh Lofting than conversing with rabbits and squirrels – after all, everyone does that. In 1942 Lofting wrote his one adult work, Victory for the Slain.
Read More
LogoSophia Magazine 