Terry Lindvall | NYU Press | 2019

Reviewed by Sam Gelman

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Hollywood is often painted as a cheap and godless industry that has completely embraced the secular progressivism of the 20th century, full of films containing salacious content, explicit violence, and crude language. But as Terry Lindvall, the C.S. Lewis Chair of Communication and Christian Thought at Virginia Wesleyan College, argues in God on the Big Screen: A History of Hollywood Prayer from the Silent Era to Today, this would be a hazy and incomplete picture, as God, religion, and prayer have always been central tenets of the film industry. Having gathered hundreds of clips across all genres and time periods, Lindvall shows that “films embedded practices of prayer on a regular basis… as both incidental and salient moments.” Lindvall defines prayer as “spiritual communication with God, a mode of discourse expressed through speech, music, contemplation, journaling, poetry, music, and other arts,” expanding his library of content to choose from beyond what is uttered in the pews. But while the book does explore various aspects of prayer in film, including the demographics of the one praying, the function and efficacy of the prayer, and its centrality to the overall plot, the book limits itself to Christian—specifically Roman Catholic and Protestant—prayers, leaving little room for Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Mormon worship, among others. While this may be able to be excused in the early chapters that focus on Hollywood’s older films—when pluralism was, to put it mildly, lacking—their omission from later chapters is glaring. This does not necessarily take away God on the Big Screen’s detailed historical sweep of Christian prayer, which covers dozens of films across over 100 years and contextualizes their trends in history. Lindvall begins his analysis with the silent pictures of the early 1900s, which showcased “candid and comic” prayers. Movies such as Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid (1921) took a more amusing angle to prayer, while the French Forgive Us Our Trespasse (1912) portrayed a more standard view of talking to God, demonstrating “that one could be a man of God and speak candidly or humorously with God.” However, this era would not last. The 1920s saw a division between the Church fundamentalists and progressives. At the same time, the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties left little public interest for religion in film, which is usually most sought out in times of crisis. This led to the Motion Picture Production Code, which restricted portrayals of the Church and religion in general to positive depictions only. Fearful of penalties and controversy, Hollywood limited religious behavior to children and clergy and only featured generic prayers. Still, cinematic prayers remained vital to the American psyche, as Hollywood utilized them in the films of World War II to assure nervous Americans that “God was on the allied side.” The late 1950s and 1960s brought an erosion of faith, as the influence of the mainline churches began to decline and secularism began to rise. This did not necessarily remove prayer from film entirely, but it gave it a more universal tint, as demonstrated by Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977), which adopted the Zen-like spirituality in the form of the Force. The abandonment of the Motion Picture Production Code also opened the door for the more critical, profane, and hypocritical prayers of the modern era, perhaps best demonstrated in the Grace scenes of Meet the Parents (2000) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006). Those who are not well-versed in the films of the last several decades may find parts of the book tedious, as much of the text is dedicated to summarizing scenes and plotlines from movies that were meant to be seen on the big screen, not described in a text. And while not necessarily lacking, more historical context and hard data on American religious trends, especially in the early chapters, would have brought more balance to the work. But the vast array of cinematic prayers covered here is also vital, as it suggests that Americans still share a religious language, one that understands basic ideas of confession, giving thanks, and seeking forgiveness. However, as biblical literacy and faith in the public square continue to decline, one can’t help but wonder how long before, instead of Hollywood imitating prayer, prayer imitates Hollywood. To read more Straus Center book reviews, click here. You can learn more about the Straus Center and sign up for our newsletter here. Be sure to also like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram and connect with us on LinkedIn.