Gary Cooper's Craneshot.

August 1, 2022 6:18 PM

I'm looking for articles, examples, etc. of the Sun as symbol/ allusion or motif in film. (includes 'tv')

Rather broad request and books or paper articles are fine. personal takes on a film would be cool, like a western or sci-fy. Narrowing, The Walking Dead is the what I'm aiming for research wise.

posted by clavdivs to Media & Arts (4 answers total)

Best answer: The sun is an important symbol in King Hu's A Touch of Zen (1971), particularly in introductory and climactic scenes involving a Buddhist abbot. Google Scholar turns up numerous sources that explain it on its own terms, e.g. this one, and probably others that also find a connection to spaghetti westerns, because--just googling at large and finding a bunch of people likewise mentioning resemblances between films by King Hu and Sergio Leone--that seems like a plausible connection to make. I don't know if that helps directly as much as it illustrates that I would mostly use Google Scholar to hunt for this.
posted by Wobbuffet at 7:58 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Might be a bit on the nose, but Danny Boyle's Sunshine (2007) is a memorable sci-fi take on this. Nominally about a mission to reignite a dying Sun, it starts off beautiful but treats it more and more like a mind-warping Lovecraftian horror the closer they get. No spoilers, but imho that angle really helps redeem a third act twist that a lot of folks complain about.
posted by Rhaomi at 8:18 PM on August 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

"Training Day" comes to mind immediately. There are stylized shots of the Sun throughout the movie, IIRC. Not only does the Sun mark the passage of time during the eponymous Training Day, but the way it's shown implies heat and pressure, symbolizing the main character's ordeal during the day.
posted by Stuka at 9:11 PM on August 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

There’s the incredibly famous and oft-parodied sun-beats-down shot in Lawrence of Arabia.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:37 PM on August 2, 2022 [1 favorite]