EXT. EARTH

So, I know that this is pretty much a sin as a film student, but I finally watched “Schindler’s List” for the first time a couple weeks ago.  … I really don’t know what to say.  This will forever be a pillar to me as to what film and story can do.   After making this film, Steven Spielberg became so passionate about the story and preventing another Holocaust that he started an entire organization.  He went around, collected as many eyewitness testimonies as he could from surviving Jews, and now these accounts are available to students across the world.  They were all brought together and now make up the basis for the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.  The testimonies are played most in German schools.   http://college.usc.edu/vhi/  In the film, Schindler was one man.  But he saved hundreds.  I think this hit Spielberg hard and that’s why he started this foundation.  Steven Spielberg is one man.  But through his work and efforts millions have seen the frailty of human nature and the terror of the Holocaust.  Millions have seen what should never happen again, and have a base for how to go about creating change.

Now I look at myself and wonder what God will accomplish through me.  It makes me realize that through Him I have a purpose that requires all that I am.  And what kind of action or passion have I put into that purpose?  Most of all, I need to remember that through God my purpose is not film although that may be a part of it.  It’s something greater that does not require money, recognition, or a camera.  Only a willing heart with His direction. 

The last thing I want to touch on with “The Fountain” has nothing to do with the fundamental ideas of eastern religions, but with how the views of these religions are depicted and conveyed.  As a Christian it’s sometimes frustrating, but I can handle films depicting different religions.  ”The Fountain” on the other hand, goes much further than just depicting eastern religions.  It glorifies them.  After I got done watching “The Fountain”, I wanted to be able to see death that way.  It was just all so attractive on screen.  In fact it looked like such a magical way to go that I lost sight of the fact that this wasn’t at all what I believed.  The final scene in the film was breath-taking, fantastical, awe-inspiring, and completely wrong. 

Once again, I’m not saying the film should be outlawed.  I, for one, still enjoy it quite a bit.  I’m just saying that the religious views of the film didn’t mix with my own at all, and it changed the way I felt about it.  This is a good example of how film can sway peoples’ thoughts about things.  From product placement to persuasion on the afterlife and eternity, film has a huge power.

Another thing that became evident to me after watching “The Fountain” for the second time was the strong encouragement of the idea of reincarnation.  After the first time, I really had no idea why the tree seemed to be alive and react to Jackman’s affection and attention.  It was one of those things that I just let go over my head the first time around.  But things have connected a little more now.  At first glance in the film, it just seems like Jackman’s talking to a hairy tree, but when you see him plant the seed at his wife’s grave it all starts to make sense.  He plants the seed from the Tree of Life at her grave so she will be reincarnated and live in the tree.  That’s why the tree at the end seems to react to Jackman’s touch and presence.  This is a huge idea adopted by most eastern religions.A thing I love about the film is the shot symbolism found throughout.  Examples are the two extreme close-ups of Jackman speaking to his wife and then speaking to the tree.  In both shots you see only his lips in the right side of the frame speaking and the hair on his wife’s neck (aka hair on the tree) flexing with his words and breath.  This really helped me connect her to the tree.  Aronofsky does a brilliant job in “The Fountain” of using shot symbolism to connect and help the audience understand the film’s complex structure.

I just saw Darren Aronofsky’s “The Fountain” for the second time last night, and I was surprised at how I felt about it.  This blog will make more sense to you if you’ve seen “The Fountain” before… just a heads up.  At first, I absolutely loved the film.  I didn’t understand everything about it, but I still thought it was amazing.  The second time around was different.  This time I caught more little things in it, and I don’t like some of what I realized this time.  Don’t get me wrong, I still think it’s an incredibly made film, but I have a different view on it now. 

                                            The second time through, the eastern mysticism and eastern religious ideas in the film really came out to me.  All of his yoga-like routine and his meditation pose as he jumps out of the tree’s bubble at the end are eastern religion meditation techniques.  And when he meditates at the end, it’s as if he becomes a god in the midst of the guardian with the flaming sword.  The guardian bows down before him, and Hugh Jackman takes in the sight as he levitates in a cross-legged pose before the guardian.  All this time there are sharp rays of light coming out from behind him.  This whole episode very much parallels the ideas in some eastern religions that Jackman has finally reached a sort of nirvana and enlightenment and is now ready to become a god of sorts himself.  The movie never comes out and states any of these things, but the implications are there.   This clip from the film isn’t exactly what I wanted, but it’s the best I could find that would illustrate this point of mine.

 Just last night I saw the film “Amazing Grace” for the first time.  The film is about a Christian member of Parliament named William Wilberforce who tries to abolish the slave trade in England.  Now, I must admit that I was a little weary about watching it from the git-go.  Sadly, “Christian” film has gotten a horrible reputation over the years, but it’s not necessarily undeserved… *cough* “Left Behind” *cough* “Facing the Giants” *cough*.  But this film, along with a couple others recently like “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” and “Luther”, have softened me up a bit to the ideas of blatant Christian themes in films.  I haven’t really figured out much for myself about it yet, but I’m starting to see a bigger part for blatant Christian films in the mainstream industry.  I just know that you have to be careful about how you do it.  VERY careful.  I’ll look into this more in later blogs, but for now I just want to get out how my thoughts on the idea are changing.  I think Christian films have their place but must be done delicately and with painstaking thought.  I admire those who take on the challenge of making an effective “Christian” film, but for now the idea is pretty nerve-racking for me.

Whether it be subjectivity over objectivity, existence preceding essence, or freedom, “The Truman Show” so blatantly radiates existential ideals that it’s hard to ignore once you know about it.  As a film major, it’s a good thing to know that all the actions on screen begin to speak so much louder than what’s on the surface.  They begin to project ideas, values, morals.  Even worldviews.  The power of film in our culture is tremendous, and it’s good to know what we’re putting into our subconscious before we just start absorbing everything.  “The Truman Show” is just one of many examples of how worldviews can sneak their way into media and have a definite effect on how we start to view the world around us.

Lastly is the fact that “The Truman Show” perfectly illustrates existentialism’s ideal of being free of all restraints.  Free to choose and live as you wish from person to person.  I found some very fascinating writings about this.  In what I’ve researched, Seahaven can be viewed as Eden, and leaving Seahaven as the act of taking the fruit and rebelling against God.  When Truman decides to leave, it’s because he’s sick of someone else (God) having control over his life.  He wants to be free from all authority.  Christ’s name is even paralleled in the cruel show producer named Christof.  Probably not a coincidence.  Then, finally at the end Truman is freed, Christof is done for, and everyone’s incredibly happy about everything.  But if we look at this as Christians, it can be seen in a completely different light.  Truman is walking away from this perfect home (Eden) that Christof (Christ) has given him, and he’s walking into the freedom to believe anything and to live any way he wants.  Sound like existentialism at all?  The Christ figure and idea of being controlled by a higher power is looked on as something horrible, and freedom and free choice are the saviors of that “restricting” world.  There’s no doubt that existential freedom plays a huge part in the shaping of “The Truman Show”.

 

   “The Truman Show” does a very good job of supporting the existentialist idea of existence preceding essence as well.  We as Christians believe that the opposite is true.  We believe that God knows everything about us before we are conceived and that our soul purpose in life has already been decided:  To love God with everything that we are, forever.  This film has a different outlook.  All the way up until Truman becomes a grown man, he goes with the flow.  He accepts everything the way it is, but feels in a way that everything that he knows himself to be isn’t quite right.  Truman has what we would all think to be a good life, but he feels that there’s something missing.  He somehow can’t help but feel that he’s not the person he wants to be.  Throughout the rest of the movie Truman thinks and acts in ways that completely warp the person who he thought he was.  Instead of following the rules and regulations, he rebels and decides to create his own future for once.  He creates his essence after existence.  Up until the very end it’s all about recreating himself and when he walks through the door at the end, it’s his ultimate act of defining himself through experiences and choices.

                                                                                                                                                                   After watching the film, talking with friends, and reading up on the themes in “The Truman Show”, I have come to some interesting conclusions about the film.  It has a message of existentialism that is quite easy to see if you look at all of the elements. First off is the conflict between objectivity and subjectivity.  Meet Truman.  He lives in Seahaven, has a wonderful wife, and has a good paying job.  He even has the white, picket fence.  Everything in his world and life has always been in order, and the rules have always been very clear and organized and everyone follows them.  In many ways, this is like the objectivity (not the perfection unfortunately) in law and commandments that we have as Christians.  We have our orders, and there’s no way around things like murder and coveting.  They’re sins, and that’s just the way it is.  Truman lives in virtually the same world of morals and standards. It isn’t until he starts to find out that the world he’s living in is a fake that he starts to plot and scheme and rebel.  He’s breaking away from commands and law.  He’s breaking away from obedience into rebellion and risk.  He’s crossing over from objectivity to subjective thinking.  The ideas of freedom and self-determination are sinking into his brain, and he’s acting on them with no second thought.  I also want to bring to light the fact that objectivity is perceived as the bad guy throughout all of this, and subjectivity is Truman’s saving grace.  The horrible television executives and actors on “The Truman Show” are out to get him.  The movie wants you to feel a hostility toward law and morals.  It’s all part of the existentialist way of thinking.