On Mon, 19 Apr 1993, Alex Rosenheim wrote:
 
> Carol,
>    I believe the term "Morality Play" refers to a play that has characters
> that represent archtypes of personalities even more than in normal theatre.
> You may have heard the phrase "Passion play" used in a similar manner.  This
> type of theatre is what the ancient Greeks thrived on.
>
>           I hope that clears things up a bit,
>                            Alex Rosenheim
 
 
On Tue, 20 Apr 1993, James Schamus wrote:
 
Alex:
Not to be too pedantic about such things....
"Morality Plays," or "Moralities," were medieval verse plays, such as
"Everyman", that personified or allegorized such things as Virtues
and Vices. They were  themselves later variations on the early medieval
"Miracle Plays," which were based more closely on sacred texts or lives of the
saints. "Passion Play" tends to refer to a Miracle Play that centers on the
events leading up to Christ's death and resurrection.
The history of the cinema is greatly indebted to these works, and a great
number of early films recorded performances of Passion Plays. Noel Burch,
among others, has written perceptively on these films. Contemporary
theater and video artists, such as David Gordon, have taken on aspects of
this type of theater to great effect.
James Schamus
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Thank you, James!  The main reason I asked Buck what he meant by
"morality play" was because of the medievalist usage of this term, and I
had (rightly) suspected that Buck didn't intend to use that term in the
same way.  I agree with you, that cinema is in debt to medieval drama,
and I would actually go further to state that film is in debt to
medieval literature and "storytelling" practices -- more on that later
(watch for a call for papers within the next week).  Back to Buck's
intriguing idea, sort of: I haven't seen this movie yet (now my head
hang's in shame), but it sounds like the Redford character, like Gatsby,
is a kind of Everyman.  In both the novel and the film, Gatsby strikes
me as one who is going through a rites of passage, only he doesn't
succeed -- reflection of American hard-boiled cynicism blending with
medieval hope in the next world.
Carol Robinson
Gallaudet University