Mentioning the book "Shoes of the Fisherman" in another thread got me thinking - can you think of some other examples of "pop culture" dealing with Eastern Catholic/Orthodoxy?

Besides "Fisherman" (whose main character is a Ukrainian Catholic who is elected Pope), the only other one I can think of off the top of my head is the Seinfeld episode in which George becomes a Latvian Orthodox (for purely selfish reasons, of course!).

Can anyone think of any other books, movies, TV shows?

Dear Theist Gal,

The 'Big Fat Greek Wedding' ofcourse!


Alice

Dear Theist Gal,

Also, 'Nicholas and Alexandra' and 'Katherine the Great'....(anything about Russian history ofcourse!)

Alice

Oh yeah, I forgot about the wedding!! (and the Tsar!)

So what else?

The people in the film The Deer Hunter were Orthodox.

Latka and Simka from Taxi were Orthodox, and half the characters in Doctor Zhivago

WHo could forget the scene of the Orthodox wedding in the Deer Hunter (which was filmed at St Theodosius Cathedral in Cleveland)??

Also, ' Captain Corelli's Mandolin' with Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz...filmed on the Greek island of Cephallonia. There was a religious scene of the feast of of St. Gerasimos, the patron saint of that island.

Alice

Alice,

That is one of my favorite movies, though my dear departed Mother scoffed at it, I guess it was due to her Sicilian bloodlines.


james

Andy Warhol was Byzantine.How about My Big Fat Greek Wedding.The monks of New Skete put out a dog training book.

I realize they are high above pop culture, but how about the novels of Fyodor Dostoyevsky? Dostoyevsky's "Brothers Karamazov" is a very Orthodox oriented novel.

In Christ,
Anthony

Francis Ford Coppola's film, Bram Stoker's Dracula, has Drac as an Orthodox nobleman marching off to defend Constantinople and fight the Turks. Upon his return he discovers his beloved had committed suicide, and the bishop tells the count her soul has been condemned.

In NYPD Blue, their is one episode that has a scene that deals with Sipkowitz' (sp?) infant son's being "churched" in the Orthodox Church. The mother was an Orthodox Christian (she was the DA or PD character). I happened to catch it while channel surfing. The complete rite of Churching was shown with the priest intoning the prayers in English.

Kojak was an Orthodox New York City police detective. There were a number of episodes in which Orthodox clergymen were highlighted and Orthodox Churches featured prominently.

Steve

In "Babylon 5", the 2nd in Command in "Babylon 5" (I think her name was Ivanovna). Apparently, she even had an icon (on or desk or in her room)!

Also the wedding scene in Coppala's Dracula which is set in the chapel of a Romanian monastery. Frequently I have seen Eastern Europeans depicted as being Roman Catholic, most writers probably don't know the difference.

Any examples of a depiction of a married Eastern Rite or Orthodox priest in popular culture? A few years ago one of the soaps (I think it was One Life to Live) had a recurring charecter who was a married Episcopal priest and called "father" by the charecters; the network recieved so many complaints from Roman Catholic viewers who were offended at the idea of a married man being a priest the scripts were altered to identify the character as an Episcopal "minister".

UGH! Don't those soap viewers know about Anglo-Catholicism????