List of Recommended Films for Study
Jesuit Spirituality
Fr. Bart Geger, SJ
If you wish to write about a film that is not listed here, I must approve it first. It should be a film that I
have already seen, otherwise I will have no way of judging the content of your paper.
Most of these films are available in the Regis library. I also have a copy of most, which I am willing to lend
for 24 hours.
Groundhog Day (meaning of life, despair, redemption)
About Schmidt (meaning, despair, redemption)
American Beauty (meaning, analysis of experience, wonder and awe, redemption)
2001: A Space Odyssey (meaning, wonder and awe, relationship btw science and faith, redemption)
Signs (discernment, self-deception, finding God in our experiences)
Field of Dreams (discernment, vocation, finding God in our experiences)
Blackrobe (Jesuit missionary work, inculturation, finding God in all things.)
The Mission (Jesuit missionary work, inculturation, finding God in all things)
Good Will Hunting (discernment, vocation, self-knowledge, meaning of life)
12 Angry Men (discernment, self-deception, self-knowledge)
The Exorcist (effects of sin, discernment)
The Unforgiven (effects of sin, analysis of experience, forms of prayer)
Pleasantville (effects of sin, allegory of original sin, discernment)
Braveheart (meaning, vocation, “The Call of the King” in the Spiritual Exercises)
Superman (1979) (vocation, Christian allegory from the fall of the angels to the incarnation of Christ)
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Christian allegory: Christ as priest, prophet and king)
The Passion of the Christ (the Third Week of the Exercises)
The End of the Affair (the effects of sin, concupiscence, redemption)
Death to Smoochy (Christian allegory from the Fall of Man to the final Glorification of all Creation)
Romero (vocation, self-deception, personal conversion, social justice)