I am working on a new course for next spring entitled "Screening the Anthropocene." The course will concern various depictions in film of the relationship between human beings and nature. So, for instance, in The Day After Tomorrow (2004) one can see nature represented as a monstrous and terrifying threat to humanity, while in Avatar (2009), one can find a conflict between two competing views of nature (as, say, divine source of life on the one hand and as exploitable resource on the other). Yet another view is presented in Into the Wild (2007), with nature a sort of inscrutable and indifferent Other.
I would very much welcome other suggestions of films that prominently thematize the relationship between human beings and nature. Of particular interest are films that represent the relationship in ways that are distinctive or novel, or that are especially clear or compelling. One specific request would be for films that approach this issue from a Judeo-Christian perspective, such as by manifesting the tension between the "stewardship" and "dominion" narratives in Genesis. (I think, for example, that The Mission [1986] could work in this context.)
As suggested by my examples, I am mostly looking for films that a general undergraduate audience in the U.S. would find accessible, but that's not to say that other suggestions would be unwelcome.
Thanks in advance for any and all thoughtful replies!
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