Images of the Passion: The Sacramental Mode in Film

The Christian faith has had a powerful impact on every sphere of art in the West. While the Church, particularly in the United States in the 20th Century, cautions against the potential dangers of film as a corrosive influence on society, films emerge which are recognized as masterpieces of Christian art. In this original new book, Peter Fraser analyzes sacramental films, where the narrative has been disrupted and redeemed by a divine presence, in an analogy to Christian liturgical and devotional patterns. This presence transforms the film's narrative into the most recognizable of all Christian narrative patterns: the Passion.

Fraser examines the films which best portray Christ's Passion, and he provides a theoretical discussion of this unique and neglected genre of filmmaking. Chapters offer a close reading of important films with spiritual content, including On the Waterfront, Diary of a Country Priest, Hardcore, The Mission, Andrej Rubl^Dev, Black Robe, You Only Live Once, and Rome, Open City. Fraser concludes with a chapter on the development of the Biblical epic.