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Saturday, February 25, 2012

Movies and the seven deadly sins

The British Jesuit site Thinking Faith is having a series for Lent on the seven deadly sins and movies that are good representations of them - The Seven Deadly Sins .....

During the penitential season of Lent, Thinking Faith will be reflecting upon the ‘seven deadly sins’ by relating each to an illustrative film. In this introductory article, Nicholas Austin SJ looks at the powerful thriller Seven and examines the history of the seven deadly sins, asking what accounts for their perennial attraction.

What accounts for the perduring fascination of the seven deadly sins? Pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth: throughout the ages, this list of vices has occupied and preoccupied theologians and philosophers, pastors and penitents. These twisted qualities of our characters have captivated the imagination of great poets and playwrights. They have even occasioned T-shirt designs and product names. What is the reason for our permanent love/hate relationship with these seven capital vices? .....


The first article in the series is now up - The Seven Deadly Sins on Film: Envy - which uses the film Amadeus as an example. I'm looking forward to seeing what movies are chosen for the other six sins.

I tried to think up some movies examples of the seven sins too. Here's what I came up with -
* Anger: Mad Max. One man's dedication to revenge.
* Envy: The Prestige. Magicians allow one-upmanship to destroy them and those who rode into town with them.
* Gluttony: sorry - just couldn't think of any movie for this sin.
* Greed: The Insider. The despicable lengths to which the tobacco companies have gone for the sake of mammon.
* Lust: Alfie. This movie was actually kind of sad.
* Pride: At Play in the Fields of the Lord. This explores the hubris of Christian evangelization of the third world.
* Sloth: Leaving Los Vegas. Despair destroys a life inch by inch.


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