Valerie Kalfrin

Film’s Visions of the Great Beyond

Connor Corum in ‘Heaven Is for Real’/Image ©2013 CTMG/Sony

Connor Corum in ‘Heaven Is for Real’/Image ©2013 CTMG/Sony

The film “Heaven Is for Real” opens in theaters in time for Easter Sunday, giving us another interpretation of what might occur in the afterlife. Based on the best-selling book of the same name, “Heaven Is for Real” shows what happens in a small Nebraska town after four-year-old Colton Burpo says he visited Heaven during emergency surgery.

The arts have long imagined what awaits for those who have “slipped the surly bonds of earth.” In my piece here, I check out several cinematic ideas as to what goes on in the great beyond from airplanes in clouds, smoky waiting rooms and mountain vistas created with still-wet paint.