Revelation and Film

Abstract

Abstract How do we speak about the concept of revelation and film? Within the larger academic discourse on the relationship between religion and film, or theological approaches to film, systematic reflection on the concept of revelation, and how it might relate to film, is not a central theme. While some scholars have investigated how film might be an instrument of God’s self-revelation, only a few have put this scholarship into conversation with a more systematic account of the concept of revelation. In conversation with these scholars, this chapter offers an account of the revelatory function of film in terms of its capacity to empower the viewer to uncover and engage certain questions about God, oneself, and the world previously hidden from their view. It does so by drawing upon various interviews with Quentin Tarantino regarding his creative process, especially his self-professed aim to create characters and stories ‘out of which meaning can appear’. The chapter concludes with an analysis of how the story and characters in his feature films Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2 disclose hidden convictions and tensions in the viewer’s understanding of the nature of God, the human person, and the world they each inhabit.