I’ve been watching a lot of episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess lately, and my favourite episodes typically are where the gods come down and mess with the main characters in some ways (though a lot of that is the awesomeness that is Kevin Smith as Ares and Alexandra Tydings as Aphrodite). Thinking back, I also enjoyed that same idea in movies like Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts, even though in those cases I think the gods just stay up in Olympus and mess with them.
Anyway, what are some other movies or television shows? Other adaptations of Greek myths are OK, but bonus points if someone can come up with some non-Mediterranean examples (I bet it’s common in Indian movies with their humongous pantheon, tho I’ve never seen any like that, and I bet using the Norse gods would be cool as well). As a matter of fact, I seem to remember a Chinese movie called Green Snake (starring my favourite, Maggie Cheung), which I think also would qualify (just as an example of something non-Western that I would also be interested in finding).
Well, there’s the always-historically-accurate Up Pompeii!
I know there’s a number of other Hong Kong movies that have gods interacting with mortals; unfortunately, it’s been years since I worked my way through the HK section at Scarecrow Video, so I don’t recall any titles offhand.
Star Trek “Who Mourns For Adonais?” has the Enterprise crew encounter the Greek god Apollo. Although to be fair, he isn’t so interested in messing with them as he is with building a society to worship him.
Q in Star Trek: TNG had god-like powers and was more into playing around with lesser beings.
The shows ‘Cupid’ and ‘Valentine’ had some of that sense, though in both cases, the gods have missions that they need to fufill, instead of just operating out of whimsy - they’re also portrayed as being much more ‘in the world’ than gods usually are.
I’m also reminded a bit of ‘Tru calling’, though in that case the gods, (if that’s what they are,) remain completely off-screen, and their influence is only felt in the unusual things that happen to Tru and Jack.
I haven’t seen the movie, but would “Bruce Almighty” count? Apparently, Morgan Freeman is “God” and he messes with Bruce (Jim Carrey) by giving him god-like powers.
There are a lot of Japanese anime involving gods interacting with humans; a few examples:
(1) Shinto Gods
Kamiuchu! (The central character is both a god and a middle-school student, and interacts with other students and with other gods)
Spirited Away. (A 10-year-old girl and her parents get trapped in a bath-house with gods as the customers)
(2) Norse Gods
My Neighbor Totoro. (I think this counts as Norse, because Totoro’s name comes from “troll”, but the gods really seem Shinto here)
Oh! My Goddess! (A whole bunch of series here, with a college student living with three Norse gods after he accidentally dials the Goddess Help Line while trying to order take-out)
(3) Buddhist Gods
All those series based on Journey to the West, including Dragon Ball and Saiyuki.
yes to Bruce Almighty and I guess the Steve Carrey sequel (haven’t seen the latter).
On the Judeo-Christian front, there is also Oh God and the sequels. I would also count Joan of Arcadia.
I haven’t seen enough non-Western film to have any offerings in that direction.
P.S. I’ve been watching Xena myself on Netflix Instant when I don’t have anything else to do/watch. I missed 'em the first time around … I agree that the Kevin Smith episodes are usually pretty good. It can be tough to watch them, though, because the thought in the top of my brain is “but he’s dead now.”
Well, looking at the recommendations so far, I’m intrigued by a number of suggestions:
I hadn’t thought about examples involving THE WESTERN G-D, but Joan of Arcadia is one of my favourite shows ever…but while I guess Bruce Almighty and co. count, I think cases where angels or demons would come down would be more what I’m after (think A Life Less Ordinary or the Spanish movie Don’t Tempt Me ) – I guess the difference there is that there is not just one single deity making things happen, but the difference could only make sense to me.
I’ve never seen either incantation of Cupid, but I’m sure it would count, as did Valentine (which I saw one episode of – did it last longer than that?) – the fact that they are in the human world doesn’t bother me that much. Q on TNG is a good suggestion as well. Supernatural is always something I hear about but have never seen.
As for anime, I don’t recall there being gods in Dragonball, but the others sound closer anyway. Also, there was some live-action Japanese movie, The Great Yokai War or something like that, which might count…
The OP already mentioned the two Harryhausen movies that show it most directly.
I’d add the 1997 TV version of The Odyssey, the one with Armand Assante (and produced by the King of TV Movies, Nicholas Meyer). It shows Athena and Hermes, Poseidon and Aeolus* interacting with Odysseus, who takes these Olympians in a wonderfully matter-of-fact way. It was a great contrast to the film Troy, which threw the gods out altogether, then made huge changes in Homer, some of them for no apparent reason.
*played by Michael J. Pollard. Even after all thesse years, I immediately thought of him as the bratty kid from the Star Trek episode “Miri”. So did Pepper Mill.
The trouble is that when the Japanese talk about “kami” they are sometimes talking about gods that westerners would identify as gods, and sometimes about non-human beings that westerners might call “spirits” or the like. So, for example, Son Goku in Dragon Ball is clearly not a human being, even if he’s humanoid in appearance, and is apparently some kind of extra-terrestrial, but he’s based on the character Sun Wukong, or the Monkey King, in Journey to the West, where he’s a monkey god in a story involving Buddhist mythology. But westerners have trouble identifying the Monkey King as a god, partly because he spends most of his time rebelling against heaven and against Xuanzang (also known as Tripitaka).
The Disney animated version of Hercules was actually pretty damned good, I thought. Zeus and Hades clearly have their own agendas that Hercules, Meg, Phil etc. are only partially aware of.
The subtle but unmistakeable backdrop to The Lord of the Rings is the divine, eternal struggle between good and evil. The dark lord Sauron is essentially Satan/Lucifer’s (Morgoth’s) lieutenant, while Gandalf is a disguised angel in Middle-earth.
Trelane in the original Star Trek episode “The Squire of Gothos” has godlike powers and enjoys messing with Kirk & Co. (some fanwankers have him pegged as a juvenile Q). Although not gods, the ultrapowerful Metrons in “Arena” pit Kirk against the Gorn, and the Organians just want to be left alone but nevertheless use their vast powers to avert war between the Federation and the Klingons in “Errand of Mercy.”
I’ve never seen The Odyssey you are referring to, but since my main problem with Troy was exactly what you are referring to, I’ll def have to check it out.
I may have to check out/ponder upon many of mbh’s recommendations as well…
God, the Devil and Bob was a TV cartoon in 2000 that re-told the story of Job. How they padded it out to multiple episodes, I forget, but they had a first-rate cast.