Outside Reading 3- Buddy Powers

In my extra curricular reading I’ve been enjoying a book called Wisdom Sits in Places by Keith H. Basso. It is a modern commentary on the landscape and language of the Western American Apache. Many of their linguistic customs are applicable to our exploration of religion in film, particularly when comparing western films with European ones. For the Western Apache conversation is a form of ‘voluntary cooperation’ in which all parties concerned are entitled to communicate respectfully. One of the most important values in regard to respect in Apache language is not speaking too much. “In other words, persons who speak too much insult the imaginative capabilities of other people,” explains the author about Apache narrators. This perspective is applicable to our study of religion in films because there is a definite difference in cinematic styles between east and west. In the west, directors lean on the side of clarity, resolution, and imagery to tell their stories. Where as in the east ambiguity and imagination dominate most film’s style of story telling. I found a great example of this from recent classes in our viewing of “Far Away So Close, Wings of Desire” in comparison to the American knock-off “City of Angels.” The first film is European, the director plays with black and white and color shots, and the dialogue is more mysterious, possibly deeper, and certainly leaves room open for interpretation. In the later, American movie, the director guides to you through the story implying specific meanings to the overall cinematic experience. It is clearly a love story between an angel and a woman, and the dialogue leaves little room for confusion or ambiguity. Now you might think that the Apache style of conversing would apply to the American version of this angelic story because it is has less dialogue and is clear and direct in its representation of the story. But in fact the European style, while it is certainly less frugal with its dialogue, is actually more appropriately in line with the Apache conversation style. The Apache keep the dialogue brief not to keep the listening from being bored, but because it aims to not insult the understanding of the listener. The job of the story teller is to convey what happened, specifically where and how, and hint at why it could have happened, leaving the interpretation of the information up to the listener.