In Popular Culture
Largely because of its association with missionaries of various types, the song is sung in a number of movies and television programmes. The 1939 film, Stanley and Livingstone, depicts Dr. David Livingstone (played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke) spiritedly leading a choir of African people in this anthem; Henry M. Stanley is played by Spencer Tracy in the movie. The piece appears in several other films, including Major Barbara, Mrs. Miniver, A Canterbury Tale, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, M*A*S*H, Taps, Striptease, The Bushbaby, Walker, Androcles and the Lion, and Flyboys. It is also sung or played in episodes of TV series, including Little House on the Prairie, The Simpsons, Little Britain and Dad's Army.
Onward Christian Soldiers is the title of a 1984 album and song by the British anarcho-punk band Icons of Filth. In the book Sins of the Assassin by Robert Ferrigno, the song is the national anthem of the fictional Bible Belt. In Christopher Webber's 1993 play Dr Sullivan and Mr Gilbert, the hymn is used with new words about Sullivan's rise to fame, and the artistic compromises that entailed.
"Christian Zeal and Activity", a 1973 work by American composer John Adams, is an arrangement of Sullivan's tune. The hymn's tune has also been used as the basis for many parodies, including Lloyd George Knew My Father and Like a mighty tortoise, / Moves the Church of God; / Brothers, we are treading / Where we've always trod.
Read more about this topic: Onward, Christian Soldiers
Famous quotes containing the words popular and/or culture:
“And all the popular statesmen say
That purity built up the State
And after kept it from decay;
Admonish us to cling to that
And let all base ambition be,
For intellect would make us proud....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, that a man has a range of affinities through which he can modulate the violence of any master-tones that have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor him against himself. Culture redresses this imbalance, puts him among equals and superiors, revives the delicious sense of sympathy, and warns him of the dangers of solitude and repulsion.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)