Abstract
The recent movie Stranger Than Fiction features a main character that can be seen as an example of a bodhisattva, a type of messiah, or hero, in Mahayana Buddhism. A bodhisattva aims to liberate all sentient beings. The distinctive nature of the film’s plot and characters make it more plausibly read in Buddhist terms than in Christian terms. The main character discovers that he is the main character in a novel. The Author can be seen as God, but certainly not the all-loving God of the Christian Trinity. This God is cruel, repeatedly killing Her novels’ protagonists. But the Hero, by willingly sacrificing himself, brings about a change in the Author, a blossoming of compassion, consistent with the Mahayana Buddhist view that not only Buddhas but also bodhisattvas are more enlightened than Gods.
Recommended Citation
Hutchinson, Richard
(2009)
"God and the Bodhisattva: A Buddhist Reading of Stranger Than Fiction,"
Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 13:
Iss.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol13/iss1/3