The Binding of Abraham: Inverting the Akedah in Fail-Safe and WarGames

This article draws upon Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Jacques Derrida's The Gift of Death to trace how two exemplars of atomic bomb cinema reinterpret the Binding of Isaac (Akedah). Released during the twin peaks of Cold War tension, Fail-Safe (1964) and WarGames (1983) invert...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dukes, Hunter B. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: [publisher not identified] 2015
In: The journal of religion and film
Year: 2015, Volume: 19, Issue: 1, Pages: 1-29
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Lumet, Sidney 1924-2011 / Fail-Safe / Badham, John 1939- / WarGames / Genesis / Kierkegaard, Søren 1813-1855, Frygt og bæven / Derrida, Jacques 1930-2004, Donner la mort
IxTheo Classification:HB Old Testament
VA Philosophy
ZG Media studies; Digital media; Communication studies
Further subjects:B Fail-Safe WarGames Cold War Cinema Atomic Bomb Cinema Akedah Aqedah Genesis 22 Sacrifice Abraham and Isaac Fear and Trembling Kierkegaard Derrida The Gift of Death Norman Morrison George Segal
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:This article draws upon Søren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling and Jacques Derrida's The Gift of Death to trace how two exemplars of atomic bomb cinema reinterpret the Binding of Isaac (Akedah). Released during the twin peaks of Cold War tension, Fail-Safe (1964) and WarGames (1983) invert the Akedah of Genesis 22. In both films, an act of sacrificial patricide accompanies or replaces the sacrifice of an Isaac-like son. When viewed in the context of Cold War cultural politics—events such as Norman Morrison’s Abrahamic self-immolation and Kent State’s rejection of George Segal’s sacrificial memorial— the inverted Akedah emerges as a subversive reflection of its traditional form. If, as some scholars argue, the traditional Akedah has been used during wartime to justify sacrificial filicide and further nationalist fervour, its inversion becomes a trope of resistance and protest against the intergenerational annihilation of global nuclear war.
ISSN:1092-1311
Contains:Enthalten in: The journal of religion and film