Hannah Long – The Night of the Hunter

Is ‘The Night of the Hunter’ a Christmas movie about spiritual warfare?

Brent talks to Hannah Long about the classic 1955 movie starring Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish and directed by Charles Laughton.

Hannah is a passionate cinephile.  She writes cultural commentary and film criticism for a number of publications including ‘The Dispatch’, ‘Angelus News’, ‘American Consequences’ and ‘American Cinema Production’.

Hannah’s article ‘Why the Night of the Hunter is a Christmas Movie’ is published In ‘First Things’.      

• (1:05) What is ‘The Night of the Hunter’?
• (5:30) A Christmas movie;
• (7:35) The movie and spiritual warfare;
• (10:30) Why has the movie been seen as ‘anti-Christian’?
• (12:45) The culture of Appalachia;
• (17:30) Robert Mitchum;
• (20:15) Evil as both powerful and ridiculous;
• (23:30) What the movie has to say about children;
• (26:30) Apples.

Links mentioned in this episode:

/www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2024/01/why-the-night-of-the-hunter-is-a-christmas-movie

letterboxd.com/hannah_long/films/

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