ABSTRACT
Angels have a long history in the movies, and how people picture them varies with time and place. As centuries ago, they are still God’s messengers, guiding, and helping humanity. Angels today are imagined more as ordinary people. There are helpful and avenging angels, and they take a wide range of forms. The basic notion of angels, as messengers of heavenly guidance or vengeance, has remained largely intact over the centuries, and in this sense there is nothing new in the religious imagination. But, the distinctly metaphoric nature of religious representations means the imagining process is open to influences of historical context and religious tradition. This chapter examines the different ways contemporary society represents religious ideas on the screen, from George Burns in Oh, God! to flashes of light in Fearless. To create a contrast with the meaning of death today Aries outlines the ideal of a more traditional death in the Middle Ages, what he calls the “tame death.”.
