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Messianic Cinema of the West: Antichrist and Psychological Condition of Society

My article will discuss the messianic cinema of the West. This kind of cinema is rather often in the past decade, and it needs a decent review and critique. Also, we should consider that it has almost one hundred year roots. Considering that main movies released by Hollywood and so called independent (arthouse) movies‘ producers dealing with Messianism, are rather satanic, we should investigate it thoroughly.

Mindaugas Peleckis
2015 m. Kovo 05 d., 09:26
Skaityta: 126 k.
In, for example, A.Balabanov‘s film „Brother 2“, which gained cult status in Russia, the main hero fights for justice trying to help his brother going from Russia to America. He is not Messiah, he doesn‘t pretend to be such, although one can think so. Danila – the main hero – saves a man‘s life, brings justice back, punishes sinners and goes home. The last song of the film has the lines „Goodbye, America“. Here, America is portrayed as a symbol of devilness, Antichrist, in which only money rules
In, for example, A.Balabanov‘s film „Brother 2“, which gained cult status in Russia, the main hero fights for justice trying to help his brother going from Russia to America. He is not Messiah, he doesn‘t pretend to be such, although one can think so. Danila – the main hero – saves a man‘s life, brings justice back, punishes sinners and goes home. The last song of the film has the lines „Goodbye, America“. Here, America is portrayed as a symbol of devilness, Antichrist, in which only money rules

Cinema of the West makes not only big money but also works as a big propaganda machine. Once, Lenin said, that cinema, films are the best way to make propaganda. This truth was understood by Nazi Germany and now is used by American Hollywood.

On the other hand, apocalyptic movies that deal with psychological dimensions of human being (like Danish film-maker‘s Lars von Trier‘s „Antichrist“ and „Melancholia“), show us in what psychological condition West now is. Knowing this propaganda, we can see a really big scale of moral self-destruction in the West. To compare it with Messianic Art of Iran and other Islamic countries, we can clearly conclude that West paves itself the way to total self-destruction.

The purpose of this analysis of the messianic cinema of the West is to deconstruct it from the very beginnings to the year 2012, when lots of Westerners wait for their imaginary „Messiah“. Unfortunately, they do not wait for Imam Mahdi (a.s.), but rather for the false cinema „Messiah“. Why? This is one of the main topics to discuss now.

In my humble opinion, the main „religion“ of the West now is „scientific atheism“, especially propagated by so called scientists as R.Dawkins, S.Fry, J.Kevorkian, S.Hawkins etc. And this „religion“ makes big impact to the messianic (sometimes called apocalyptic) cinema and whole art of the West.

It is fascinating the the first messianic (apocalyptic) movies of the West appeared about one hundred years ago (for example, „The End of the World“, 1916, a Danish science fiction drama film that depicts a worldwide catastrophe when an errant comet passes by Earth and causes natural disasters and social unrest). Now, the history repeats itself and we have 2012-panic, which is also depicted in lots of movies of the West (and in miriads of books).

However, the Westerners movie makers do not wait for Imam Mahdi (a.s.). They either wait for a catastrophe (and do not explain its cause or just talk about „Mayan prophecy“, „asteroid“, „comet“ etc.), or speak about technological breakdown. Human soul and belief in a better world is rare in Western cinema, especially in Hollywood.

Despite of this, we can find more true Messianic cinema in so called post-soviet countries including Russia. Such films as Andrey Tarkovskiy‘s created a new school of cinematographers, who create messianic cinema which is not technology-and-catastrophe based but dealing with spirituality. I should mention 2006 Russian biographical film „Ostrov“ („The Island“) about a fictional 20th century monk, „Siberia, Monamour“ (2011, Russia) and lots of other movies that show us the clear message: spirituality is not totally lost until Islamic and post-soviet cinema (also, some independent Western film-makers) will continue to produce cinema for the heart and soul, but not for money and empty show.

„Metropolis“

Probably the first well-known and still actual messianic movie of the West is „Metropolis“ (1927; filmed in 1925). It‘s German expressionist science-fiction film directed by Austrian-American Fritz Lang (1890-1976). The film‘s scenario is set in a futuristic urban dystopia, and follows the attempts of Freder, the son of a wealthy intellectual, and Maria, a worker‘s daughter, to overcome the vast gulf, separating their two classes. The story is rather simplistic and naïve, but film‘s messianic message (as well as technical achievements) was very clear and important. The main influence of „Metropolis“ is metaphor of Tower of Babel, well-known visually from Brueghel‘s 1563 painting. Also, F.Lang was impressed by his first sight of New York skyscrapers in 1924. Biblical story of the Tower of Babel highlights the discord between the intellectuals and the workers. Also, a delusional Freder imagines the false-Maria as the Whore of Babylon, riding on the back of a many-headed dragon. Joseph Goebbels was very impressed and took the film‘s message to heart. In a 1928 speech he declared that "the political bourgeoisie is about to leave the stage of history. In its place advance the oppressed producers of the head and hand, the forces of Labor, to begin their historical mission". After about 100 years, film critic Roger Ebert noted that „Metropolis“ is „a work so audacious in its vision and so angry in its message that it is, if anything, more powerful today than when it was made“. „Metropolis“ was ranked No. 12 in „Empire“ magazine‘s „The 100 Best Films of World Cinema“ in 2010.

It is interesting that one of the main characters of „Metropolis“ is Maschinenmensch (German for „machine-human“) – first robot, named Maria, ever depicted in cinema. Maria has several other important names – Parody, Ultima, Machina, Futura, Robotrix, false Maria, and, what‘s the most interesting, Hel. Maschinenmensch is an archetypal example of Western degradation, as it was showed in such characters like Frankenstein and Golem.
In „Metropolis“ there are such words: „There can be no understanding between the hands and the brain unless the heart acts as mediator". F.Lang‘s intention for the epigram in „Metropolis“ was to set up our expectations that some great conflict would be resolved by a savior figure or messiah. The basic idea of a messiah is a person who leads others to salvation, or saves people from a terrible state of being. Lang uses a few characters as messiahs, Freder and Maria, and he even has an Antichrist figure in the robot Hel. Lang doesn't use his "mediator" in the purely religious sense of salvation unto heaven, but as a socio-economic salvation between the upper and lower classes. Freder is the son of Joh Frederson, „Metropolis“'s chief designer or "the brain." This fact allows F.Lang to use Freder as an allusion to Christ in that Freder is the son of this city's God. Freder has a hallucination of a metaphorical pagan god, Moloch, eating workers marching as if they were just another part in the machine. Freder's mission to help people is complicated because of the Antichrist-like actions of Hel. The Antichrist is supposed to be the "adversary of Christ while resembling him in a deceptive manner," and Hel is that in spades. F.Lang uses Hel's status as the Antichrist as a metaphor for the excessive rationality in machines and their destruction of the heart. Hel is being depicted as the Whore of Babylon. Hel seems to be drunk with her power, or with her knowledge of destroying the children of the workers, when she is being carried to the stake to be burned. We can see Hel bask in her glory as the destroyer of the new Babylon, even while the workers are clamoring to burn her, some even trying to tear her apart. In the end of the film Hel tells: "Lets watch the world go to the devil".

Lars von Trier‘s Messianism and A.Badiou

Although there are thousands of Hollywood movies about apocalypse and almost none about coming of Messiah, one person is a very interesting one. Danish film director Lars von Trier (1956) created at least several films that could be called psychological messianic-apocalyptic movies. Especially interesting are two his last films – „Antichrist“ (2009) and „Melancholia“ (2011), however, much more earlier there was „Europa trilogy“ and two films called „The Kingdom“, which showed our world as something approaching to an end. Lars von Trier didn‘t promise happy end, contrary to that – he always showed not the brightest side of man and humanity.

It‘s interesting that „Antichrist“ is dedicated to the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. We will talk about him a little bit later, but now we should admit that he probably understood the real coming of Messiah in the best way one can find in the Western / Russian cinema.
French philosopher Alain Badiou (born in Rabat, Morocco, 1937) is one of the most prominent figures in an anti-postmodern philosophy. One of the main concepts that A.Badiou uses, is that philosophy is suspended from four conditions – art, love, politics and science, which in this age become inaesthetics rather that art, metapolitics rather than politics, ontology rather than science etc. Here, talking about Western cinema, we should use A.Badiou‘s phrase „inaesthetic“, which refers to a concept of artistic creation that denies „the reflection/object relation“. For A.Badiou art is „immanent“ and „singular“ – that means, the truth is given in its immediacy in a given work of art, and the truth is found in art and art alone. Philosophy and art become one.

So, if we use this A.Badiou‘s concept, all Western cinema talking about messianism, apocalyptic times is not only art (let‘s pretend that it‘s all art), but also a specific philosophy which shows us the psychological condition of Western civilization. Films reflect society. And if we see calmness and deep thinking in, for example, Iranian cinema (Abbas Kiarostami, Majid Majidi etc.), in Western cinema we won‘t find it. It‘s always in a rush, neurotic, psychotic, depressive and approaching to insanity.

So, it‘s not strange now, that in 2007 Lars von Trier announce that he was suffering from depression. After that he made „Antichrist“, which could really be classified as a horror film. Before filming started, the main actors were shown A.Tarkovsky‘s „The Mirror“ (1975). It‘s not a coincidence, as we remember the best A.Tarkovsky‘s movies, they always dealt with Messianism, only with subtle touch, which now is lost in Hollywood filmmaking machine. In „Antichrist“, probably the main phrase becomes words of the fox: „Chaos reigns“.

This could be the start of talking about the last movie of Lars von Trier – „Melancholia“. This is truly apocalyptic film, reflecting fears of the big part of Western society, which is afraid of the end of the world, unfortunately, not thinking about coming of Messiah, but waiting for a catastrophe. 2012 year hysteria is much more bigger that millenium hysteria and it started at least two years ago. „Melancholia“ just showed people‘s fears. In this film Earth is about to collide with an approaching rogue planet, called Melancholia. Film‘s hero Claire is very fearful and believes the end of the world is imminent. She finds that Melancholia‘s movements around Earth are like „dance of death“. Claire thinks that Melancholia finally will collide with Earth. Her husband John commits suicide because of that. Destruction of Earth will mean the end of all life, and people lost their hope. Finally, collision occurs, destroying Earth.

Lars von Trier didn‘t try to create a disaster film, but he wanted to examine the human psyche during a disaster. Depressive people tend to act more calmly than others under heavy pressure.

The idea of a planetary collision was inspired by websites with theories about such events. Trier decided from the outset that it would be clear from the beginning that the world would actually end in the film, so audiences would not be distracted by the suspense of not knowing. Much of the personality of the character Justine was based on Trier himself.

Russian Messianism in the cinema

Russian cinema tend to become more and more religious in the last decades. Films „Muslim“ (1995), „Coming back“ (2003), „The Island“ (2006) show not only Russian way to go back to God after lots of years of communism, but also remembers first Russian movies that were religious. For example, „Bezhin Meadow“ (1937) by Sergei Eisenstein was the movie which told the truth about communism and was forbidden by Joseph Stalin himself. The film is rich in religious symbolism and became the focus of academic study. Communists, i.e. Soviet leadership claimed that S.Eisenstein „confused the class struggle with the struggle between good and evil“ and presented the conflicts of the film in Biblical terms. S.Eisenstein later said that murder of Stepok by his father in the film was „reminiscent of Abraham‘s sacrifice of Isaac“.

Another religious movie, shot in Soviet times, was A.Tarkovsky‘s „Ivan‘s Childhood“ (1962). 12-year-old Russian boy Ivan wakes up and crosses a war-torn landscape to a swamp from which he makes his way across the river. The boy is like a symbol of peace which is so fragile in a war time.

Russian philosopher Sergei Bulgakov in the beginning of the 20th century wrote, that death of spirit can become a beginning, a dawn of spiritual rebirth. This messianic idea through Pravoslavie (Russian Orthodoxy) came into Russian cinema and stays until now. To compare with Hollywood, Russia produces also pretty much Hollywood-like films, but there is a small, but stable set of movies who deal with traditional spirituality. That‘s why, in my humble opinion, Russian cinema has the future as messianic cinema, and Western / Hollywood one has very little hope of that.

Russian film directors like A.Tarkovsky, P.Lungin, A.Sokurov, A.Balabanov, A.Uchitel and others tend to search for Messiah with their own film language. In, for example, A.Balabanov‘s film „Brother 2“, which gained cult status in Russia, the main hero fights for justice trying to help his brother going from Russia to America. He is not Messiah, he doesn‘t pretend to be such, although one can think so. Danila – the main hero – saves a man‘s life, brings justice back, punishes sinners and goes home. The last song of the film has the lines „Goodbye, America“. Here, America is portrayed as a symbol of devilness, Antichrist, in which only money rules.

Apocalypticism is common to a Russian man‘s mentality, it showed itself in revolution, and appears again and again. To compare it with Western catastrophe-phobia, this apocalypticism is messianic, spiritual and has hope.

 

messianic cinema

islam

iran

west

russia

antichrist

psychological condition of society

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philosophy

mindaugas peleckis

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