God Is In The Celluloid

If one were so inclined to look up the reviews for “The Exorcist” on IMDb, you would find thirty or so negative reviews. Some claim that it is plain old bad stylistically. Some find that it is too scary. Some, however, feel it is not good, not because it deals with demonic possession, but rather because there is no such thing as demonic possession. The point of “The Exorcist” isn’t to make you believe in demonic possession for the rest of your life (even though I am sure this was the effect on many audience members.) The point of “The Exorcist” is to make you believe in demonic possession for those two hours. Just like most people will not consider changing their religious views to include the colourful characters of the ancient Greek pantheon after viewing “Clash of the Titans,” one is not required- or expected- to become Roman Catholic after seeing any of the religious-themed horror films of the sixties and seventies, or their revivalist counterparts. The movies are not the Inquisition. 

Perhaps unfortunately, religion has a dogma already attached to it, and the truth is, religion is not taken seriously in Hollywood. Gone are the days of Charlton Heston brandishing a papier-mâché staff, and splitting a Technicoloured sea to the marvellous score of the world’s greatest composers. Filmmakers of the twenty-first century must take a decidedly less tactful route when showing the Almighty on celluloid.

Religious films of the past- be they the epics of Cecil B. DeMille, the poignant character dramas such as “Barabbas”, or Bergman’s bleak and powerful “The Seventh Seal”- simply had a different impact than they do today. The spectacles that were “The Ten Commandments” or “Ben-Hur” or “King of Kings” filled cinemas, delighting the audiences and Hollywood bigwigs alike, bringing in a revenue that could equal the gold of Solomon.

While film was in its groundbreaking infancy, movies were often little more than filmed theatre productions. By the time the biblical epics appeared on screen, they were already starting to take on a life of their own, as a highly specialized art form. Yet, these epics were filled with over-the-top acting: booming monologues, introspective dialogues between pharaohs and a silent god. While some disagree, it is my belief that they managed touched back on their earlier roots while still moving forward at a steady pace, if not always technologically then certainly stylistically. Clearly, the biblical epic was here to stay.

Yet, as mysteriously and suddenly as it came, as if descending from Heaven itself, it disappeared. Films with a religious mood were made, just as they had been before. Perhaps the deaths of the producing greats can be to blame- the replacements for such men were a new generation who did not share their forefathers’ religious beliefs. Or, if they did, they did not dare show it on the silver screen.

While the world outside proved to become even more treacherous, with new wars and new political crisis, one would be inclined to think that the people would want to see tales of salvation. Yet the escapism of the seventies was almost as bleak, if not more so, than the news reports. It seemed that people had forgotten all about God, all of a sudden. In days gone by, the audience went in knowing that God existed, at least in the world of the movie. When Christ walked through the barren landscape, the audience- regardless of their own beliefs- knew that the Christ they were literally seeing on the screen was the Son of God. Yet, Hollywood seemed to notice that the mood of the average filmgoer had changed. “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Exorcist” dominated the box office. Religion in film now had to be proven as wholly as it did in the corporeal world. People wanted to be convinced that the devil inside the little girl was indeed the devil, and not her own mind, where years before, in the Dutch film “Häxan”, the witches and demons on the screen were very real- not necessarily in the minds of the film going public, but they were willing to suspend their disbelief and take in the horrors of the black mass being projected before them.

It is Hollywood’s need to prove that they are changing with the times that is killing the genre. So afraid are they that someone might think them a bigot, producers will not give the greenlight to a project that commits the cardinal sin of taking something as medieval as religion seriously. The fact that “The Passion of the Christ” brought in hundreds of millions proves nothing to them- that was little more than a sensationalized snuff film. Movies are released in legion about demons and Hell, and often the deepest theological insight is a hackneyed conversation between the leads, during a lull in the apocalyptic action, about the nature of God that the screenwriter forced into the script from Googling “religious theory”.

The epics of the forties and fifties didn’t force religion down people’s throats nearly as much as these modern films force the view that it’s good to avoid such topics. People are intelligent enough to make up their own minds, and when Hollywood realizes this, they can return to that promised land- a golden age where the religious blockbuster serves as entertainment first, and doctrine second, if at all.

Film has many layers. If an audience member walks in wanting to watch it superficially, he will leave with a superficial experience. If he wants to leave with questions about faith and the nature of man, then he will.

That’s the beauty of it.

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