Sacred Spectacle: Spiritual Development, Religious Motifs, and Transcendental Style in Contemporary Musical Cinema

Sammanfattning

This study explores how contemporary musical cinema might employ audio-visual strategies and religious motifs in the depiction of character development, focusing on the examination of Les Misérables (2012), The Greatest Showman (2017), and The Color Purple (2023). By applying the ritual theories of Ronald Grimes, Christine Bell, and Victor Turner, the musicals are viewed from the perspective of ritualization and sacralization. Paul Schrader’s concept of transcendental style and the interdisciplinary framework of cine-ritualism are used to observe how certain moments may evoke spiritual experiences. Close readings reveal that the imagery, narrative, and musical elements turn embodied gestures and themes into sites of transformation. Being structurally similar to rituals, these sequences underscore the character’s development by establishing a contrast to the everyday through liminality. This reconfigures ethical orientation on both the diegetic and extradiegetic dimensions, inviting contemplative participation. These findings demonstrate that while musicals often are seen only for their entertainment value, they hold existential depth through motifs such as grace or redemption. In addressing this notable gap in film scholarship, the paper argues that musicals can operate as a modern ritual medium and contributes to academia by illustrating how film might offer space for meaning-making in a postmodern age.