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A Pledge of Allegiance: In Search of Beauty at Good Letters

A Pledge of Allegiance: In Search of Beauty at Good Letters

Last updated on: January 18, 2013 at 11:59 am by Jeffrey Overstreet

A Pledge of Allegiance: In Search of Beauty at Good Letters 2013-01-18T11:59:40-07:00 Jeffrey Overstreet

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today, Good Letters — the blog published by Image at Patheos — posted my reflections on Empire of the Sun, a Steven Spielberg film that I love more and more as the years pass.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to write about it for Good Letters, as I’m grateful for the whole four-year experience there.

As I wrote earlier, I am taking a long sabbatical in order to focus on other projects. Here is an index of all of the Good Letters posts I turned in. Some of the time I offered reluctantly at the deadline, as I still wasn’t quite satisfied after half a dozen drafts. Others I wrote in one swift draft and was completely satisfied. But overall, when I look back at two decades of film reviews, this is the body of work that best fulfills the goals I’ve set for myself as a reviewer.

And as I think back through these columns, I’m struck by how rarely my post was ever actually about “critiquing the film.” It was more about testifying, bearing witness to what the film reflected back to me about my life, the world I live in, and all of the ways in which I still need to grow.

These are my favorites…

Man on Wire

The Muppet Movie – Part 1, Part 2

Moonrise Kingdom

Chariots of Fire – Part 1, Part 2

A River Runs Through It

Empire of the Sun

Pina

The Arts and Faith Top 100 Films

The Arts and Faith Top 25 Horror Movies

The Master

Where the Wild Things Are

And here are the rest of the adventures…

“The Actor in Question”: On Talent and Celebrity

“The Mystery in Materials”: On the Value of the Real and the Handmade in Movies

Fast, Cheap and Out of Control

Films About Women – Part 1, Part 2

Films of 2008: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Films of 2009: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Films of 2010: Part 1, Part 2

Films of 2011: Part 1, Part 2

First Position

Holy Motors

Honeydripper, Be Kind Rewind

Inception – Part 1, Part 2

Inglourious Basterds – Part One, Part Two

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky – Part 1, Part 2

Mine

Mirrormask

Munyurangabo

My Kid Could Paint That

My Week with Marilyn

On Sequels, Nostalgia, and Redundancy

Sound Designer Pete Horner – Part 1, Part 2

Stone

Summer Hours

Synecdoche, New York

The Adjustment Bureau

The Cave of Forgotten Dreams

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The Fighter

The Films of Jim Jarmusch – Part 1, Part 2

The Five Obstructions

The Gleaners and I

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Kid With a Bike

The New World

The Road, The Girlfriend Experience

The Secret of Kells – Part 1, Part 2

The Secret of the Grain

The Social Network

The Taste of Tea

The Tree of Life – Part 1, Part 2

The Wolfman

Times and Winds

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

War Horse

Waste Land

Watching Movies at the Glen Workshop

Win Win, Another Year

Previous Post

January 15, 2013

A Late Addition to My 2012 Top 10: "The Queen of Versailles"

Next Post

January 22, 2013 Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book," Directed by Wrong Howard?

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