Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Reviews / Votes

This book takes its readers on a fascinating journey through recent Hollywood films that illustrate the deep experiential similarities between cinema and religion in bringing together the heavenly and the human, the sublime and the mundane. The appreciative, but also analytical and critical, treatments of individual movies engage with Jewish and Christian themes and texts, and are punctuated here and there with excurses on the life and legacy of Roger Ebert and the image of Jews in Hollywood film. An enjoyable, informative, and inspiring read for all film-lovers. -- Adele Reinhartz, professor and chair, Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa Goodman invites us into a conversation about film that stimulates the emotions and the intellect. He produces a rich fusion of insights from literary, philosophical, biblical, and rabbinic sources, while keeping the conversation light-hearted and accessible. -- Claudia Setzer, Professor of Religious Studies, Manhattan College This is a serious book but it is fun to read. On page after page, it surprises us with new insights drawn out of old iconic screen moments. After reading Goodman, you will reverse the old adage. Instead of saying "I lost it at the movies," you will say: "I found it (vision/divinity/global connectivity) at the movies." Thank God and thank Goodman. -- Irving Greenberg, President of the J.J. Greenberg Institute for the Advancement of Jewish Life