Romero’s 1968 cult hit Night of the Living Dead. “You Give Death a Bad Name” is another intimate folk song, inspired by another horror film, George A.
The music is appropriately spooky and ethereal, ending with a mysterious refrain that gives voice to Pinhead’s diabolical inversion of Christian sacraments: “Drink the blood of my wine.” Despite the hellish content in the film and in the lyrics to the song, the music is anything but.
#SONG SOMEWHERE BETWEEN JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE MOVIE#
From what I’ve read, the movie is about the attempt to resurrect the demonic Cenobite, Pinhead, so that he may usher in hell on earth. “The Pillar of Souls” is a haunting song based on Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth, the third of ten films in the Hellraiser supernatural horror franchise, none of which I have seen. Stevens and De Augustine sing, “Get it right, follow my heart.” There are a lot of layers of instruments on this track, and the chorus is infectious. To this day, every time I see a green object, I imagine touching it and saying, “Oz!” This song, like the film, is an anti-gaslighting statement that Christians should bear in mind with dignity: We can’t let people question our sanity because we do not accept the broken world as it is. No one who has seen it will forget the Wheelers, Mombi’s heads, or the talking chicken that saves Oz from tyranny. Starring Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale, this film haunted my imagination as a child. It is inspired not by the 1939 Hollywood classic, but instead by the dark 1985 fantasy sequel, Return to Oz, written and directed by Walter Murch. “Back to Oz” is my favorite track on the record from a musical standpoint. The lyrics are a strong indictment of what Bishop Barron calls the “ego-drama” taking precedence over what Hans Urs von Balthasar calls the “theo-drama.” The music is an easygoing folk-pop arrangement that calls to mind the Wilco spinoff band Autumn Defense.
Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine sing “evil hid in glitz and glamor,” and the song’s title indicates that wicked ambition curses its possessor in the end. The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, an aging Broadway star shoved out of the limelight by the conniving Eve Harrington, played by Anne Baxter. “Lady Macbeth in Chains” is inspired by All About Eve, the 1950 classic directed by Joseph L. Eliot’s similar emphasis in the line “I have a memory of a time and place where history resigned.” The music is delicate and bright like a Simon and Garfunkel song. Stevens has contemplated the Incarnation in his lyrics many times through the years, and on this track, we hear echoes of T.S. And for the theologically savvy, the film is a strong affirmation of the Incarnation of Christ, and the nature of humans as the pinnacle of creation. The depiction of invisible guardians watching over people in the crowded, divided city of Berlin is magnificent. Like almost every film about angels, Wenders’ angelology is flawed - but not entirely so. “Reach out” is based on Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire, a late Cold War masterpiece about an angel, played by Bruno Ganz, who chooses to become mortal. Here’s my reflection on each track, with a bit about each film as well. Their movie selections are eclectic, and the result is a gorgeous collaboration that touches the soul deeply. For this album, the two men holed up together in a house in upstate New York and set themselves the task of watching fourteen films and writing fourteen songs based on what they watched. Stevens’ past records include lots of overtly Christian content, and De Augustine is clearly a disciple of Stevens’ songwriting style.
It is a treat when I get to encounter films, music, and theology all in one package, and this combination is precisely what Sufjan Stevens and Angelo De Augustine have provided on their new album, A Beginner’s Mind. An important part of my beat here at Word on Fire is interacting with films and music, identifying enriching theological content in various cultural offerings and finding connection points between the Church and a world that needs Jesus.
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