I saw I Am Legend last week. I've never read the book, so I didn't really know what to expect. It was pretty good, though not great. And whadya know, it contained religious imagery. It became particularly noticeable near the end. Now, I can imagine you saying: "You must have been happy to find a relevant topic to blog about!"
Well... The religious themes struck me as rather heavy-handed. In fact, near the end one is fairly beaten over the head with it. I don't want to give anything away (just watch for posters, crosses, churches, and characters talking about God and having epiphanies.) I've checked, and apparently this material was not in the original book. An uncharitable interpretation would be that A) the moviemakers didn't know how to wrap up their story, so they introduced a deus ex machina, and B) that they wanted to cash in on the 'Christian market' that Hollywood discovered after The Passion of The Christ did so well.*
The charitable explanation would be that the filmmakers were merely tapping into widely known, archetypal religious stories (like the trials of Job, and the self-sacrificing Saviour) to give their story more symbolic resonance. I suppose one could argue that point of view. Overall, I do think the movie was worth watching.
But I still think there's a difference between the judicious use of evocative symbols on the one hand, and religious product placement on the other.
*Maybe it's a conspiracy theory, but it does help explain the clunky religious imagery in recent movies like Superman Returns. And I recall getting a pretty blatant e-mail that was doing its darndedest to market the latest Rocky movie to churches... and I've heard that they wanted to do the same thing with Rambo. Rambo! RAMBO!!! What hath Rambo to do with Jerusalem?! (This is a rhetorical question. The only answer I'll accept is "Nothing at all, sir!")
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12 comments:
heh, check out the "God still loves us" angle (http://godstilllovesus.org/). i stumbled across that when i was researching the film.
on a side note, "omega man" (one of the other films based on the novel) also played with the messiah angle as well.
There's apparently a lot of religious imagery in Rocky because it's about Rocky being saved (and redeemed in the boxing world as well) because Stallone converted to Christianity. The newest Rambo is about him saving a group of Christian missionaries, and possibly putting his guns aside for Jesus. Iunno about that; the trailer is about as violent as they come. Apparently it's Stallone's doing, though, not some nebulous "Hollywood".
i actually really like "rocky balboa." though it definately had it's weak points, i appreciated the maturing rocky (and stallone) shows in this film. i'm curious to see what stallone does with rambo, if he "redeems" that character, too. but i agree with you, michael - that trailer is VIOLENT. which will keep me from actually seeing the film most likely.
I only recall seeing the last scene of Omega Man—with Charleton Heston dying in a position reminiscent of Christ's position on the cross.
"The religious themes struck me as rather heavy-handed."
I'm glad it wasn't just me who thought this.
And yeah, those themes were not in the book. Jared just read it and when we did a comparison of what was in the movie versus the book he almost had a heart-attack. :P
I really don't know why they didn't just stick to the original plot of the book - it would have made things much more interesting and complex. I mean, in the book version the lines between good and evil are grey, rather than black and white like in the movie.
In the book, not all of the infected humans have become monstrous vampires - and yet the main-character kills them all indiscriminately, thus turning into a "legend" - a monster they fear and hate.
Overall, I give it a 3 out of 5. The only reason it gets a 3 is for the first half, which I thought was pretty good. The last quarter sucked and I hated the whole deux ex machina ending. It would have been much better as a dark tragedy.
Oh, you want EVERYTHING to be a dark tragedy. ;-P
No I don't! :P
Yesterday I watched The Purple Rose of Cairo and hated its disappointingly sad ending!
"You must have been happy to find a relevant topic to blog about!"
...i actually said this to you, as th credits were rolling - dork
I also saw this movie. Being non-religious myself I can only chalk it up to realistic interpretation. Of everyone was dying from a "Plague", I would expect religion to play a dramatic role in peoples lives because that would be what comforts them in an apocalyptic time.
Don't see anything wrong with it.
Wow, this is really revealing. This shows that non-religious people go to REALLY great lengths to actively search for religious themes in entertainment. It's no wonder they complain so much about religion in entertainment, because they're OBSESSED with it.
Anyway, as a Christian myself, I didn't find anything religious about the movie. It was a poor movie, anyway. I did see the religious imagery in Superman Returns. I think you people need to get over religion.
Err, I certainly don't object to religious symbolism in entertainment as such. Most of this blog is a critical but appreciative look at that sort of thing. I just think there's skillful ways of handling it, and clumsy ways.
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