EXT. EARTH

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.