Sacred Realms has released our latest podcast recording, a discussion of the latest Superman film by James Gunn. This is easily our best one yet. I just gave it another listen, and I enjoyed it almost as much as I did recording it.

Poster image for James Gunn's "Superman"

Rabbi Andrew Pepperstone, Pastor Travis McKee and I are all back in fine form, bringing our distinct religious perspectives to bear on a film that we really enjoyed. We compare this Superman to previous iterations. We appreciate the cartoony comic-bookiness of it, and Gunn’s willingness to show Superman’s flaws while leaning hard into his basic decency and goodness. Rabbi Pepperstone takes the opportunity that Superman provides to do some midrash, which is always a joy. (Abraham’s superpower is monotheism!). We discuss nostalgia and timeliness, as well as how each generation has to take beloved stories and characters and find things in them for today. We also ponder the socio-political resonances of the film, and what it has to say about aliens, home, belief, and choices. We spend a lot of time considering what the film has to say about one’s identity. Conversion, as embracing a new family, comes up. “Family is not biological, but ideological.” In this movie, Superman has to reject his Kryptonian legacy, and the Kents become his real parents. “Family is sexy again.” Rabbi Andrew and I spend a few minutes remembering time living in Israel. And of course we talk about the themes of the age old struggle between good and evil.

My Two Cents' Worth

My two major take-aways from the film:

1. In this movie, what makes Kal-El an alien isn’t the fact that he’s from Krypton, but that he is from Kansas. (This Kansas farm boy loves that!).

2. This is really a movie about how Superman is a decent person who uses his powers for good because of his formation in the Kent family. I deeply appreciate this message, and the focus it shines on the importance of the nuclear family, including adoptive nuclear families like Clark’s. However, there is one glaring missed opportunity; the Kents’ involvement in church isn’t even hinted at. In the comics, they are devout Methodists. In the home-movies showed at the end of the film, I would have loved to have seen Clark dressed as a shepherd for a Christmas play, or singing in the church choir. (Rabbi Pepperstone thinks that it would have been fun for him to accidentally break the windows with his voice). Gunn needn’t have spread it on too thick. Just a simple acknowledgment along those lines would have filled Clark’s upbringing out just enough.