At the 20 second mark we've got the arms of the Jesus the Redeemer statue in Rio De Janiero falling off and then the whole thing falling over completely.Well, it could be that the director just wanted to use the iconic nature of the Catholic Church to emphasis something. But, then you get this info:
34 seconds in you see like fifty thousand people with candles standing in St. Peter's Square looking up at the Pope who's looking down at them.
36 seconds in you've got a crowd of people all making the sign of the cross.
Then you get about 12 or so seconds of regular old fireballs from the sky type mayhem.
50 seconds there's an image of St. Peter's Basilica toppling.
52 seconds cut to Cardinals inside praying only to look up at the art on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to see it breaking apart and presumably crushing them.
54 seconds Those people who were praying with candles outside are now screaming and running. Why? Because the dome of St. Peter's is crashing down on top of them and then rolling over them crushing a few thousand people as it rolls essentially on top of the camera blacking everything out.
I don't like to jump to conclusions so I Googled Roland Emmerich, the director, who, according to numerous sources is openly gay and an activist liberal. But hey, it's Hollywood, who isn't?That is in addition to the crucified Jesus wearing a Wham t-shirt.
I wondered if this guy has some sort of distaste for things Catholic. And darn it but what do I find? I warn you this is kinda weird.
In a closet in his house, Mr. Emmerich has a statue of Pope John Paul II laughing while reading his own obituary. That's right. Pope John Paul II. In a closet. Laughing while reading his own obituary.
I know one movie to skip...
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4 comments:
So you've likely got a filmmaker who is anti-Catholic. Again, Hollywood--yadda yadda. But consider the tacit admission of the power and majestic beauty that is part & parcel of Catholicism. It's not Bob Jones Bible College that's falling down, you know? The very process of subverting an institution is testimony to the importance and significance of the institution itself. To the people who do see the movie, the destruction of iconic representations of Catholicism will be moments of horror and tragedy (presumably), not occasions for triumph, unless I'm misreading the context of the film. This is where considering the narrative context of the scene is useful, as sometimes the narrative as a whole can make a statement than the isolated examples of visual rhetoric. And often an author, filmmaker, etc., makes a very different impression than the one he might have been intending. Creativity is funny that way...
Marcel,
I agree that the trailer brings up raises some red flags, and that Roland Emmerich may be anti-Christian, but I'm not convinced that the movie itself was anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, or anti-religious even. First of all, a bunch of my campus ministry students went to a midnight show on Thursday night, and I talked several of them the next day. Many of them found a number of flaws in the movie, but none of them mentioned any anti-Christian leanings. I then saw your post above, and decided to go and check it out myself. I would say that overall Catholicism, Christianity and spiritual life in general was portrayed in a positive light. The only anti-religious statement made in the movie was about prayer, made by a very unlikable politician who (mild spoiler) chided the Italian prime minister for staying behind to pray with everyone in Rome. So his commented actually put Catholics in a positive light. To a person, the deeply religious characters in the movie were shown as self-sacrificing individuals who when faced with certain death accepted their fate and looked bravely forward to the life after death they knew would come.
Take care and God Bless,
Don Bagert
I haven't seen a positive portrayal of Catholicism in a work produced since the 60's. But I do see Catholics lapping up the counterfeits, the "Boondock Saints," "Dogma," episodes of "Family Guy" and even that one crappy episode of "Psych." Am I the only one who sees NOTHING of the Catholic experience in what I see out of Hollywood? It doesn't ring true for me at all...
But it is coming from somewhere, some experience, I get that. I wonder what Emmerich went through?
I think the best reason not to watch the movie is that watching clips of massive amounts of people dying just... because... can't be good for the soul.
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