Stereotypes In Bullet To Heaven

The film watched was Ticket to Heaven filmed in 1981. The topic of this paper is the difference between Lynn Neal’s paper “They’re Freaks!” and Sean McCloud’s paper “New Religions in the Media” compared to the film “Ticket to Heaven.” The articles “They’re Freaks!” and “New Religions in the Media” talk about new religious movements (NRM) and how they are portrayed in a series of different media platforms. The film, “Ticket to Heaven” predominantly shows stereotypical features of NRMs that can also be described in “They’re Freaks!” and “New Religions in the Media.” This paper will first discuss what the film “Ticket to Heaven” portrays and then compare the film to the articles previously mentioned above. The film, “Ticket to Heaven,” follows

The film, does in fact, show a glimpse at what is normal or abnormal; as well as shows Neal’s statement, the “constitute a powerful force in defining and policing the boundaries of religious legitimacy in American culture” (Neal). In the film, they show David’s family concerned and in distress because they are unaware of where he is, what he is doing, no communication with them, etc. before Larry confronts them and tells them he’s [David] is in a cult. There are also scenes when they [cult members] interact with people outside the commune to sell flowers to raise money for their leader (whom remains unknown and mysterious throughout the film) and when David is out of the commune and is eating at a diner. “Ticket to Heaven” shows the cult members lying to people on the street or scamming them to get money, which is linked to how other media outlets portray cults, such as in “They’re Freaks!”, “three of five shows, the main characters expose fraudulent practices of the cult leaders- their greed is revealed, their insincerity clear, and their beliefs false” (p. 87, Neal) but, in the film, it is more so the members following blindly and doing the fraudulent practices compared to the

The film, presumably, takes place in the late 1970’s, early1980’s considering when the film was released in 1981 and considering the style of clothing can be linked to similar fashion at that time. This film reinforced the NRM/cult scare that appears in the 1950’s and continues through today. As Neal stated, “in the 1970’s, with the rise of cult scare and intense media scrutiny of NRM’s, nineteen fictional television shows employed elements of the cult stereotype” and “Ticket to Heaven” follows just that, NRM should be something to be afraid of because they brainwash their members and make them into people they are not. The film “Ticket to Heaven” shows stereotypical content that portrays New Religious Movements as negative, brainwashing, evil religious groups that are labeled as cults. They share common stances that are seen in print and digital film media in the 1970s-1980s, as shown in Lynn Neal’s article and Sean McCloud’s article. To conclude, the film, “Ticket to Heaven” predominantly shows stereotypical features of NRMs that can also be described in “They’re Freaks!” and “New Religions in the