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Hello! First post 
Wanted to get some feedback on a video just clipped down, really love this persons analysis. But feel free to discuss your own films as sure we'll be getting into comparisons.
Dead Man Analysis - Psychedelic Western, Colonialism & Spiritual Purgatory [Mirrored Clips] [4]
(wups no links on first post, have to search on youtube)
The original contained a lot of unverified film theory which I think holds some weight, but also wanted to spread the really illuminating analysis contained within for quick viewing. Find original link in description of video for further character analysis, reincarnation theory and more detail on genocide theme.
An analysis on Dead Man and a theory on why William Blake is in purgatory.
~ Introduction and plot summary
~ Purgatory
- Who is Mr Dickinson and what do horses symbolize?
~ Stupid ****ing White Men
- Why does Nobody ask for tobacco? Themes of genocide. Themes of broken contracts.
~ Blake's Journey
- Peyote, spirit quest and new found reverence for culture.
So also, inspired by a great article by Brogan Morris titled - Calvary: A religious movie for atheists, [1] I wanted to ask what are some great films that gave you an insight into a religious worldview without smacking you over the head with it or pretending that it is the only way of finding inner-peace and way of going about acting morally?
I really loved the film Calvary, I would add to that Dead Man, The Revenant, True Grit and To Kill a Priest.
'Dead Man' for the surreal journey towards having a new found reverence for first nations culture.
'The Revenant' for a desirable relationship with nature where we learn to understand it in order to coexist and find strength.[2]
'True Grit' for the Protestant puritan's ability to find god's grace in simple pleasures and hard work
'To Kill a Priest' for the admirable collective will to publicly resist a murderous dictatorship they found in liberation theology.
And I'm looking forward to watching the film 'Silence' "that resolves itself into a single thought: if a believer is forced to recant, yet maintains a hidden impregnable core of secret faith, a hidden finger-cross, is that a defeat or not? God sees all, of course, including the way a public disavowal of faith has dissuaded hundreds or thousands from believing. Is the public theatre of faith more important than a secret bargain with a silent creator? It is a question kept on a knife-edge. Martin Scorsese’s powerful, emotional film takes its audience on a demanding journey with a great sadness at its end." [3]
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Reviews:
1. Calvary: A religious movie for atheists.
Following Darren Aronofsky's confused Noah, John Michael McDonagh's Calvary strikes miraculous middle ground for a religious movie.
I'm an atheist, though I'm loathe to use the word, referring to myself as an atheist seems like an admission that there's a god I'm choosing to ignore, that I'm some hipster who thinks a refusal to believe will go nicely with my vinyl collection and ill-advised body art. Atheist derives from the Greek word atheos, or godless, which makes people like me sound like chicken-killing heathens rather than what we are: people who believe in whats apparent rather than whats not, who believe that humankind created God the same way it created now-unfashionable deities like Bacchus or Wotan and not the other way around. But, for the sake of brevity, I suppose I'm an atheist.
As an atheist, Ive struggled with religious movies. I could never relate in the way that anybody can relate to, say, love stories.
As a result, Ive always struggled with religious movies. Its one of the very few sub-genres that can come across as eminently alien to people like me. Scorsese has always been one of my favourite filmmakers, but his religious symbolism, and especially the Catholic guilt felt by some of his lead characters, never made much sense to me. The meaning was lost, because I couldn't relate in the way that anybody can relate to love stories, for example. And films more overtly about faith, like Scorsese's own The Last Temptation of Christ, I outright don't understand.
Darren Aronofsky's recently released Noah, so eccentric a movie it might as well have just been called What?!, is only the first of what is apparently going to be a series of biblical blockbusters coming out of Hollywood. And if the Old Testament story of Noah wasn't unbelievable enough to someone like me, Aronofsky's Noah has such uncertain footing between appealing to those with faith and those without that it just comes across as some bizarre, confounding fantasy. I'm not too familiar with the story of Noah, but I'm almost positive scripture doesn't state that Noah and a gang of angelic stone monsters went to war with an army of bloodthirsty, cockney pirate-people.
Hear more on Noah: Its our take on the religious epic in the SR Filmcast
One standout scene in Noah sees the titular prophet tell the creationist story of how the Earth came to be, while Aronofsky simultaneously shows us images of a more scientifically verifiable history of our world, complete with the obligatory tadpole-to-monkey-to-person evolutionary steps. The director appears cautious to offend either Christians or The Godless Ones with his movie, but by offering two strongly opposing theories side-by-side, he ends up pleasing nobody. It makes the film an irrelevance Aronofsky's movie highlights the harshness of religious dogma (if youre a fan of infanticide, youll love Noah) at the same time as it panders to the neutral blockbuster crowd, through ludicrous battle sequences and vapid romantic subplots.
John Michael McDonaghs Calvary, on the other hand, is very different, he confirms to infidels like me that religion really does have a place in the modern world. This existential mystery, about a good Catholic priest threatened with murder in the confession box, respects the opinions of non-believers but firmly, quietly, retains its own Christian beliefs. It wholly recognises the age we live in, where people indifferent and even hateful towards the church brush shoulders with clergymen and their rapidly diminishing congregations. It gets that the world is losing faith. And yet, somewhat miraculously, Calvary confirms to infidels like me that religion really does have a place in the modern world.
Ostensibly a black comedy, Calvary is more often frightening than funny. Father Lavelle (a superb Brendan Gleeson) visits a former pupil-turned-cannibalistic serial killer (played to creepy effect by Gleesons real-life progeny, Domhnall) in prison, and asks what human flesh tastes like; he replies, icily, and with sickening relatability, like pheasant its very gamey. Later, the local doctor, in the form of old-reliable Aidan Gillen, relays the story of a procedure gone wrong, in which a young boy was put under a mishandled dose of anaesthetic for a routine operation and subsequently woke up blind, deaf, dumb and paralysed.
In the horror of a world like that our world Calvary doesn't treat some unseen force, one which it accepts not everyone can relate to, as the saviour. Instead, it is the good man at the heart of this wicked tale, a man driven by a moral code, who acts as the ultimate hero. Calvary makes the argument that the modern church lives not in the service of God, but in the service of people, and its a film that might even make sense of religion for atheists.
Ive not become born again after watching Calvary, but McDonaghs film succeeds where Noah didn't because it tolerates both believers and non-believers equally, and isn't as violently opposed one way or the other, in the way that, say, The Passion of the Christ was strictly for and PTA's cynical There Will Be Blood was vehemently against. It takes a long-overdue stand against loud, unglamorous media reports and counters that not all of religion is corrupted. Calvary is a stunning film, not least because it convincingly argues that there are still good people of faith out there, as it successfully speaks to both the religious and non-religious alike.
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2. The Revenant and the Spirituality of Man and Nature
Nature is of prime importance in Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant, it's not merely the setting of the epic survival story but upon closer examination the natural world can be seen as a pivotal character in the film.
It's through Hue Glass’s relationship to the wilderness around him that he's able to embark on and survive his physical, emotional and spiritual journeys. The natural world is present in every shot of the film, usually comprising more of the frame than the actors within it, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s use of wide-angle lenses helped capture the expansive nature around the characters, allowing the locations to become more than mere scenery but a part of the story telling.
His use of mostly natural lighting also emphasizes the omnipresence and significance of nature for the men of The Revenant, whenever we see the men - the high trees in the distance are towering over them from all sides lurking behind and around them in an almost threatening manner - the wilderness crowds the fur trappers into the centre of the frame, engulfing them and at times obstructing them from the cameras view as if a reminder of nature's dominance a warning to abide by mother nature's rules.
The film continually reminds us of this in multiple shots that open with only the bare wilderness, a creek bubbling calmly, a forest of trees standing tall and still, all untouched and placid until the camera slowly pans downwards or upwards to find the men traveling within them.
These moments remind us nature came first and then man leaves, along with the extreme wide shots of landscapes in the film further established the immense scale and the all-encompassing force and power of nature.
The fur trappers and native tribes are only specs within the natural environment, but in order to survive they must learn to coexist with it, the placement of the camera also characterizes Glass’s relation to nature by echoing the evolution of his journey through it. Rarely shooting glass at eye level the camera often hovers slightly above or below him in extreme close-ups of his body and face the angle suggests glass is constantly seeking something out of his reach as the extreme close-ups dislocate him from the nature around him.
We see this sense of longing when the camera shows his POV as he looks upward through the treetops, but what is he looking for? We finally learned this in a flashback as glass looks up through the trees he remembers his wife's death and envisions her floating above him in the forest instead of looking upward to receive a message from God, Glass finds his wife uttering words of wisdom. Here his love for her becomes the physical manifestation of his faith as his upward perception of nature comes to symbolize a release from suffering, his goal to survive and exact revenge ultimately evolves into a spiritual pilgrimage.
Glass’s visions of his wife hovering above him are strong allusions to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, most notably the levitating woman in the mirror, we can understand the images of levitation in both films as moments that represent the majestic and holy quality each woman holds in the eyes of the main male character. Glass’s love for his wife literally exalts her to a position above ground just as Aleksei in the mirror envisions his young mother floating in a dream sequence in in Inurito’s film Glass’s wife becomes the spiritual symbol of absolution, hope and strength.
But many of Glass’s visions also represent his internal struggle with cultural identity, unlike the other white fur trappers Glass is shown to have a deeper connection with nature, especially with the Pawnee tribe he once lived with, though in the eyes of Fitzgerald - Glass has betrayed his men by once killing a lieutenant - however glass shows that he holds some shame for his past, when he fails to stand up for his son Hawk and then angrily reprimands him in front of the other men it's clear glass is caught between two lives, the life of his Pawnee family in the past and the one of a fur trapper in the present.
This dichotomy is shown in Glass’s vision where he finds himself in front of a dilapidated church, the walls of the European church within the natural landscape reflect the duality of Glass’s cultural affiliations. The ruins mirroring the pain of his past. Here his identity as a westerner and his affinity with the Pawnee tribe merged in a dreamlike state filled with longing and grief.
This scene strongly recalls the final shot of Tarkovsky's film ‘Nostalgia’ in which Andre, a Russian writer, travels through Italy longing for his home country. Andre completes a journey across an empty pool with the lit candle, in the film's famous nine-minute scene, a testament to faith and perseverance that in ways reflects Glass’s own journey in ‘The Revenant.’ Afterwards Andre suddenly falls to his death and the last shot of the film finds him sitting in front of his Russian farmhouse as the camera slowly pulls back it's revealed Andre and his dacha are confined within the ruins of an old Italian Cathedral. Here Tarkovsky merges that of dreams and memory to show the unification of a man split by two countries, it captures the melancholic longing of nostalgia and the coexisting space of the past and present. Andre has reached a sense of spiritual resolution in his inner battle, though only in death, Glass is only just beginning his own.
The second Tarkovsky reference in ‘The Revenant’s church sequence provides a little more insight, the icon paintings on the church walls and the ringing bell above, strongly recall the Russian filmmakers Andrei Rublev. In the film's most memorable sequence, a young boy Briska attempts to cast the bell for a prince, though he has no idea how to, Briska does so on intuition and faith alone knowing that he'll be killed if he fails. The finished bell finally tolls loudly and triumphant, a powerful moment that stands as a testament to the young boys faith and an inspiration for the painter Andrei Rublev.
And Yuri too explores the power of faith in his dream sequence as well, though Glass embraces his son, the very next moment he's alone in the church hugging only a tree, the bell ringing above Glass’s head as he falls into the mud, similar to the overwhelmed Beriska. It’s a symbol of his continuing strength, a reminder of the hope that can follow loss. Glass may no longer have Hawk his last connection to the Pawnee people, but the one thing that does remain is the physical and spiritual presence of nature and how it can help him survive.
The dream sequence signifies a shift in Glass’s relationship to nature, one that moves away from the Westerners side of his identity, after awaking from the dream, Glass rescues a Cree woman from French fur trappers, then literally using the resources around him to survive, Glass climbs into the carcass of a dead horse, when he emerges the camera lingers on tranquil shots of the sun shining through trees around him, it's a shot largely reminiscent of Lopezkeys work with Terrence Malick, in which nature also has a spiritual element.
As he prepares to leave, the camera positions Glass in the background of the shot with a large branch emerging into the foreground, after laying his hand on the horse, Glass looks around and upwards as if giving thanks to the wilderness for saving his life, in this moment he's become more part of the natural scenery, no longer detached from it as implied by the disembodied close-ups earlier in the film.
Once glass has exacted his revenge, the killing of Fitzgerald begins to symbolize more than simply getting justice for his son. In defeating Fitzgerald Glass has also defeated the shame and the suffering of the past he's carried with him, once the Cree pass by silently acknowledging that he's not like the other ruthless fur trappers, Glass begins his ascent upwards, literally and metaphorically, he sees a vision of his wife ahead of him on the mountain and in turning away from him she grants him the emotional and spiritual absolution he's been seeking. In a final shot that again recalls nostalgia and the mirror, Glass slowly turns his gaze into the camera, no longer looking up at the view of the treetops with him, we finally meet his eyes as he finds peace in the flurry of the storm.
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3. Silence review: the last temptation of Liam Neeson in Scorsese's shattering epic
The silence of God – or the deafness of man – is the theme of Martin Scorsese’s epic new film about an ordeal of belief and the mysterious, ambiguous heroism involved in humiliation and collaboration. It is about an apparent sacrifice in the service of the greater good, and a reckoning deferred to some unknowable future time. The possibility of reaching some kind of accommodation with the enemy, and not knowing if this is a disavowal of pride or a concession to the greatest sin of all, is a topic that Scorsese last touched upon in The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988, in which Jesus sees a future of peace and ordinary comfort.
Silence is a drama about Christian martyrdom, and like all such films, from Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc to Fred Zinnemann’s A Man for All Seasons, it must address an atheist counter-sensibility aware that the Catholic Inquisition itself saw no difficulty in putting perceived heretics to death, and that arguably their own martyrs are therefore ineligible for lenient humanist sympathy. In fact, in this movie there is a fierce debate about the opposition of Christianity and Buddhism, of Europe and Asia, and about the relativism of faith.
Martin Scorsese film recalls martyrdom of Japan's hidden Christians
Read more
Silence is not without flaws. Perhaps the casting of its stars, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, could have been reversed, to place more emphasis on Driver as the stronger performer, though Garfield’s boyish screen personality becomes haunted and complex. There is something a little broad about the moments in which a priest sees visions of Christ in himself. Yet with ambition and reach, and often a real dramatic grandeur, Scorsese’s film has addressed the imperial crisis of Christian evangelists with stamina, seriousness and a gusto comparable to David Lean’s.
In 17th-century Lisbon, two fiercely committed missionary priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver), are told disturbing news by their confessor Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) concerning their much loved and admired mentor figure, Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Ferreira had journeyed to Japan many years before to challenge its brutal suppression of Christianity and to spread the word, but has now reportedly been forced to recant his faith under torture, and is living as a Buddhist with a Japanese wife and children. Astonished and outraged, the two young Jesuits refuse to believe it and demand to be allowed to travel to Japan to track him down and discover the truth.
Scorsese shows that their journey has something Conradian about it, and that Ferreira is a kind of Kurtz figure, albeit a Kurtz who has achieved nothing like a colonial kingdom. As the two men make their furtive landfall in Japan, they make tensely secret contact with fugitive believers who live in terror of being found out, and the priests entertain an orientalist stereotype of the supposed Japanese inscrutability: “Secrecy has made their faces into masks.”
Rodrigues and Garrpe seem like the proselytisers of the early Christian church, or even the apostles themselves. Driver’s gaunt and blazingly passionate face even makes him look a little like the traditional rendering of Jesus. But the examples of Judas the betrayer and Peter the denier are the ones that suggest themselves. Because everywhere, the authorities are crushing Christian communities, offering rewards for informers, and the priests’ mere presence brings their congregants into terrible danger. Suspected believers are ordered symbolically to trample a figure of Jesus underfoot: sometimes the inquisitor will be content with a relatively perfunctory step on the figure, but for more serious dissidents, spitting on the crucified Christ is needed. And there is the cruelty of torture and martyrdom: Christians can be lowered into a pit to bleed to death, or crucified in the surf for a quasi-drowning ordeal, or burned at the stake.
But Rodrigues is to come into contact with the sinuously calm, even almost charming Inquisitor Inoue and his interpreter (excellent performances from Issey Ogata and Tadanobu Asano), whose purpose is far more subtle: to show what torture looks like – rather as the Inquisition simply showed Galileo the instruments of cruelty – but then persuade the priest to renounce Christianity on rational grounds. Playing their strongest card, they produce poor, mortified Ferreira, who after years of threats and indoctrination has internalised his captors’ views, denying that the Catholic church was ever believed in that country, and claiming that the Japanese had simply followed a muddled, pantheistic sun-worship sect and mistook it for Christianity.
All the time, the priests are tormented by God’s silence, and the question of whether this is the same as absence, or if God’s refusal to intervene has become an unimaginable and intolerable cruelty. “How can I explain his silence to these people?” As the drama continues, the silence is broken for Rodrigues: but it is, ambiguously, a voice in his own head, giving him advice similar to that which he had himself given to cowering Japanese peasants early in the story.
Silence is a movie of great fervour that resolves itself into a single thought: if a believer is forced to recant, yet maintains a hidden impregnable core of secret faith, a hidden finger-cross, is that a defeat or not? God sees all, of course, including the way a public disavowal of faith has dissuaded hundreds or thousands from believing. Is the public theatre of faith more important than a secret bargain with a silent creator? It is a question kept on a knife-edge. Martin Scorsese’s powerful, emotional film takes its audience on a demanding journey with a great sadness at its end.
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4. Dead Man Analysis - Psychedelic Western, Colonialism & Spiritual Purgatory [Mirrored Clips]
Apologies for the auto-transcript errors, in the process of cleaning up now, but parts still unreadable.
Summary
Deadman is a film that was written and directed by Jim Jim Roos released in cinemas in 1995 it has been described as a psychedelic Western and throughout the years it has gained a cult audience who appointed its meaning in this video I will reveal the true meaning of dead man on the surface dead man tells the story of William Blake Blake travels to a remote sounder machine for an accounting job only to find out the company is no longer looking he befriends a prostitute who takes him back to her place and she shows him her flower collection her ex-boyfriend makes an unannounced visit and after being acquainted Blake makes a hasty getaway out of town nobody an American Indian finds adaiah Blake and unable to dislodge the bullet from him he realizes Blake's predicament stupid **** it wait man he decides to take Blake on a journey across America to the Pacific Ocean so the soon-to-be dead man's soul can be cleansed through a ship burial unfortunately for Blake the company owner mr. Dickinson was the father of the man he killed mr. Dickinson offers a large reward for Blake's capture dead or alive throughout the film nobody and Blake are pursued by law and three bounty hunters who are led by the notorious killer Cole after several Close Encounters they make it to the ocean where Blake has his ship Ariel only to witness her buddy and Cole shoot and kill each other fade to black I believe that dead man tells a tale of a man's journey through purgatory who is atoning for his sins in this video I'll break this idea down I'll also explore the symbology of the characters the animals and darker themes throughout the film to answer the major question what where Blake sins that caused them into purgatory
Purgatory
William Blake is a dead man before the film even starts and there are many lines of dialogue and suggestive shots that reinforce this idea the title of the film itself is the first hint given Wow that doesn't explain why you've come all the way out here all the way out here to hell this is a lie or a white man's trick oh I'm William Blake and you are a dead man bikes train ride to the tide of machine is the side of his hellish descent into purgatory the Train fireman is reminiscent of Chiron the very man of Hayes who carry the souls of the newly deceased into the world of the dead when Blake reaches the factory he's mostly ignored by the lost souls being punished through hard labor and the manager and bookkeeper of these Souls openly mock him mr. Dickinson surrounded by death and money appears supernaturally much like the devil would when Blake escapes machine on a stolen horse mr. Dickerson places a high priority on his recapture bring everybody and I want that bastard's head and make sure you include a full description of my Pinto I want that horse back not only that but he stole a very spirited and valuable horse a beautiful young Pinto that belonged to my personal family stable note how we refers to the horse as spirited throughout the film there are many instances of a horse reacting with a mutter or a whine when there is a mention of death we're killing committed on-screen some of these wines can be explained to a horse's shock of loud gunfire but often they occur a couple of seconds after the explosion or even when no bullet is fired at all I would kill for my now well ******* it I guess nobody gets you know **** me **** you but they hit me on the head with a rifle all went black my spirit seemed to leave me I was then taken east in this film a horse represents a person's soul the devilish mr. Dickinson wants to Saul back for himself well nobody wants the guy Blake and he sold safely to the ocean at the side of the film we can see the value of Blake soul
Tobacco
One of the recurring cryptic questions from nobody to Blake is do you have any tobacco in Native American culture tobacco is used for prayer to show respect to heal and give spiritual protection nobody wants place to collect tobacco as an offering to God bite safely to the spiritual world while also simultaneously questioning him are you ready to show respect to native culture by the end of the film Blake finally understands meaning of the tobacco question I replies directly that he doesn't smoke nobody cries in happiness nobody I don't smoke Phil is the first person to ask bike if he has any tobacco and this reinforces the idea that Blake is in purgatory from the beginning of the film hey Bill you got any tobacco anywhere no I don't smoke.
Journey
Soon after Blake comes across a wanted sign and finds out he is wanted for thales motor this is something that he angrily refuses I didn't kill Phil even though he has made great strides . . . He completely blocks out the possibility of it to the disappointment of nobody actions are useless. At night nobody takes priority and rejects place participation in it he still gives Blake advice to think back to his own visions of his files so we can realize why use in purgatory Blake Masson stance is advice and asked for his eyeglasses to help him see in the presence in his cryptic ways nobody draws lightning bolts on Blake's cheeks as a guide on what to think about the only other time Blake has seen a lightning bolt in this film was when nobody saved him from the fur traders soon nobody leaves and takes the glasses with him hoping that Blake will make a breakthrough on his own perhaps you will see more clearly with her the next day Blake is interrupted by two police officers and he kills them these two officers are little depictions of stupid white men they are forgetful loud and clumsy through their killing Blake has symbolically broken from the bondages of white man's law and all the deceit that comes from it he no longer is a stupid white man and his appreciation of nature and native culture continues to grow soon it is night again and he's still thinking about his past but he doesn't think back far enough he is still on his embarrassment at the Metalworks factory I'd like to speak with mr. Dickinson please the next day however he makes a major break for he has slept back far enough to his murders and this is represented by him finding the body of a kill the phone finally oh my elk relatives took pity on me and a young elf gave his life to me I never stopped the phone represents the murder of his fiancee and a sacrifice Thermax will bake in purgatory in this scene Blake remembers to the destruction and heinous calls and this is symbolically shown through the death of an innocent form during his journey in purgatory nobody has taught Blake the value of protecting those that are precious to him and as a result he now feels a sense of great remorse Blake lays with the Fallen asking for forgiveness for his past sins he has now accomplished a major step in his penance r3 is found penance he is tested again Blake walks upon what seems to be a mating bear who turns to attacking he tries to shoot his gun but by an act of God it doesn't fire it turns out the bear is nobody and Blake has failed this test this test once again had him interrupting two lovers and his instinct was still to fire his gun nobody's girlfriend berate sin and the next day he's woken up and called a liar by nobody he also spectacularly fails the tobacco question do you have any tobacco no I traded it for what I'm not telling lawyer this is the last time we see the fur traders horse perhaps this is a punishment for failing the test now he no longer can see his son soul at the missionary outpost nobody asks I see you've acquired a new weapon hmm oh yes a Winchester here take it no no really take it I took it off a dead white man did William Blake killers white man yes William blood kill the way nobody now knows that Blake has killed the stupid white man in himself and is moving on to last part of the spiritual journey we need a canoe in a trading post Blake kills the lying missionary in this site he has permanently broken from the racism the lies and the intolerant white man's religion his spirit has been freed and this is forever backed up with nobody's line "free the horses."
As established before Blake is punished a second time for the second motor he is committed in his past life on the canoe even though he spurred his frayed it is still scared for him for he still needs to complete the recipes journey through purgatory Blake is dragged through the Indian village and the elders accept him as one of their own we noticed because he has adorned in an outfit that is similar to the elder in the middle birth outfits have two patches of whales he is taken to the ocean by nobody and his journey is complete as he successfully made it onto the boat with his sins forgiven and his mind and soul expanded through native culture nobody weighs goodbye and Blake's journey through purgatory is over.
From longer version:
Dead Man Analysis - Why is William Blake in Purgatory?
An analysis on Dead Man and a theory on why William Blake is in purgatory.
~ Introduction and plot summary (00:00)
~ Purgatory (1:34) - Who is Mr Dickinson and what do horses symbolise?
~ Nobody (4:16) - Who is Nobody and how does he connect with Blake?
~ Cole Wilson (6:10) - Who is Cole Wilson and how does he connect to Blake and Nobody?
~ William Blake (8:06) - William Blake the philistine. Is Blake the reincarnation of the real poet? The connection between violence and poetry. Why is Blake in purgatory?
~ Stupid ****ing White Men (13:37) - Why does Nobody ask for tobacco? Themes of genocide. Themes of broken contracts.
~ Blake's Journey (16:57) - What did the three fur-traders represent? Blake and peyote. What did the dead fawn represent?
Nobody
Nobody is Blake's psychopomp here's a spirit guide providing a passage to blake into the afterlife as nobody leads blake across america he provides several tests for him to realize his sins so he can be forgiven for them nobody achieves this by giving cryptic advice to blake this advice will be looked at in more detail later but at the moment I want to show the deep connection between Blake and nobody this connection can be seen through the costume design and their overlapping histories in the first half of the film Blake is often seen wearing a boy striped suit when we first see nobody he has similar stripe face paint on nobody also tries on a couple of other clothing items of Blake revealing more links between the two he tries on Blake's had and he mimics him talking or not saying anything this symbolically suggests that at the time nobody believed that Blake had nothing worthwhile to say but it also needs to - through nobody's real name of X fish a he who talks loud and says nothing nobody tries on Blake's glasses just prior to this we have a very blurry point of view shot from him that suggests that he might actually need glasses as well the story that nerby tells of his childhood has many similar elements to Blake's journey in the film as a child nobody finds an up their sacrifices its life for him Blake later finds a note that also sacrifices itself for him nobody was traveling on a train trapped in a cage and this is reminiscent to the start of base journey were on the train he wears a suit that looks like a symbolic cage in England nobody discovered the poet William Blake and his verse encouraged him to escape to the great ocean to go back home and this film nobody is repaying this favor back to Blake taking him to the ocean so his spirit can go back home when nobody reaches America again he witnesses atrocities near the end of the film Blake shares this exact same vision nobody and Blake are bonded together in purgatory and their mutual understanding and love for each other grows throughout the film to a final poignant moment if nobody is a younger plague then Cole Wilson would be the yang on the surface Cole wants to catch a black for the reward but symbolically Cole represents Blake stark pass that wants to catch up and consume him there isn't as much history given in the film about Cole's background as there is with nobody but there are several notable connections that we can make between the three main characters at the metal Webb's Factory Blake is confused to be and referred to as mr. black look mr. black I'm a very busy man this is another example of a connection being made between two characters and their clothing like Blake Cole gets shot near the heart and he too survives the attack Cole and nobody are very contrasting characters where Cole can be seen to be the antithesis of nobody throughout the film nobody's shown to be deeply respectful of his religion while Cole shows that he has no respect for any religion looks like a ******* religious icon nobody recommends the benefits of fasting for a spiritual journey what Cole is an urn cannibal the correlation between the two characters goes further through nobody's name of ecstasy and Alliance broken by the kid keep in mind that exposure means he who talks early and says nothing I'm out here I'm out in the middle **** strike Noah told local pneumatics mondo said nothing no the one he wanted a stopgap on the surface this quote is referring to call and the talkative bounty hunter twirl but I believe that through this quote an ex officios named the field is actually referring to the duality between the outspoken spirit guide of nobody in the dark brooding paths that is Cole they are two sides of the same coin that is William Blake both of them has an end goal that involves Blake's staff but for contrasting reasons we're at the end of life's journey we can see the two characters meet and kill each other symbolically the struggle between the light side and the dark side is over for.
William Blake
Blake and his journey through purgatory is over William Blake doesn't fit into either native or white society he isn't adept at surviving in the wilderness he's laughed out of machines factory and clearly doesn't belong with the locals in the bar when nobody was telling his story it is revealed that he too did not blend into his societies however unlike Blake he attempted to buy over learning to be a great hunter where arti was captured by studying Blake does not seem to naturally possess the same desire of learning and when originally given advice he humors or ignores it cannot stop the class by the building of the ship what what did you say you know I've had it up to here with this Indian malarkey I hadn't understood a single word you've said since I met you not one single word he is indifference to learning culture can also been seen when he approaches the fur traders one of them asks what to Phillipsburg and as an answer Blake walks in as a physical embodiment of it nobody recognizes that Blake is a Philistine someone who's hostile to art and culture and he takes upon himself to teach Blake Native American culture so that he could be redeemed in the eyes of the Great Spirit one often asked question is is this William Blake supposed to be the reincarnation of the real Pollock in the film we can see that when nobody studied the poet he could clearly see an image of him on the front page of his book this portrait looks nothing like Johnny Depp on the surface of the film it seems that nobody is still convinced that Blake is a real poet and his scholars make Blake remember his poetry I don't believe that Blake is a reincarnation nor does nobody truly believe this but rather this is a method he uses for Blake to remember his past violence and sins before purgatory the connection between violence and poetry in the film is over don't understand but I understand William Blake you were a poet and a painter now you are a killer of white men that weapon will replace your tongue you will learn to speak Freud and your poetry will now be written with blood you wear your mic yes I am do not my poetry
Genocide
Another theme of the film is genocide numerous shots of IVA human skulls charred bodies or skeletons in them two sections of the film that caught my attention were the shooting government says the million over ask you're in this panning shot we see dozens of off those skulls and right at the end of it in the bottom right corner we briefly see human skulls I believe the placement was intentional so that the Buffalo and human skulls could be seen to be interchangeable when these two moments are looked at together the wanton murder of Buffalo symbolically revealed the genocide of Native Americans and there are other members the film that reinforces this idea of genocide you three are supposed to be the finest killers of men and engines and this year half of the world why do you add this cuz this is America once again I crossed the great ocean I saw many sad things as I made my way back to the lines of my people furthermore in the trading post the missionary tries to sell a pox-ridden blanket to nobody perhaps I could interest you in some beads or possibly a blanket blanket broken contracts are another overall theme in the story white men in the film are constantly sent away through contracts to gain advantage over another party at the sila film the fire man wants I wouldn't trust no words rip down a no piece of paper especially from no Dickinson out in the town of machine he is proven to be correct when the Metalworks batteries subsequently ignores the employment contract also the three bounty hunters thought they were the only company hunting black only to find out that's been might sir but we was hard at school he penis a golden advisor I love here I'm out in the middle should strike the missionary in the training post once place autograph on his wanted poster he is doing this as a deception to trick and shoot Blake when he is destructed symbolically this can be seen as Blake signing a contract with terms that he does not understand fortunately for Blake he manages to escape the deceitful trick in this film why men are represented to have no respect they are mass murderers and cheating tricksters it's no wonder that nobody refers to them as stupid white man
Film theory extras - Reincarnation and Symbolism
So nobody wants place remember you spa tree which is the violence he committed in these past life if you can get place to remember his sins but can then find penance to move on to the next stage of being but what was this violence and what worried sins that I've been alluding to to answer this question I believe that people will seen that reveals is is when black gets punished for the first time this is when he gets shot on the surface this scene is of a former lover of the Charles Dickinson who walks in and compromises to new levels and ends up in a shootout I believe that the scene is highly symbolic and reveals the scenes of bikes past I want to point out that both Phil and Blake a stool semi dressed so this is not an actual sex scene but rather a scene of comforting love between two people who does still representing the scene early in the film it's revealed that do you have the wife Mary no fiancee well I haven't split to change they'll represents the former fiancee a break in his past life but what our Charles back in the factory Blake was referred to as mr. black twice listen mr. black I've got a lot of work to do here and there's eight fine business I've already established the first mr. black as coal and I believe that the second mr. black is Charles Dickinson as he is also dressed in black attire throughout the scene whenever child speaks Blake has his mouth covered by a sheet symbolically Charles is speaking the words that we can't see Blake say when Charles is shot look at the reaction of Blake it's quite an extreme one it's almost as if he is experiencing the pain himself in this scene Blake is a voyeur of his own evil he is experiencing the murders that he committed before he died but if Blake is a witness in this scene whose position has a usurped from real life could it have been another unknown man I don't think it's as simple that unquestionably sacrifices herself for Blake also like has just taken off his boys two jacket and is hiding behind a blanket like a child furthermore throughout the movie we see I probably will he would thanks to god damn mr. dick and son huh Jesus go he's just a kid yes I believe that in his past life like motive he's fiancee and child he's traveling through purgatory to make amends for his horrific act in this scene he's a witness of his own atrocities and as a result of these acts he needs to be punished in this scene is punished for the first real-life motor and then later on the film when he's shot again he is punished for the second motor now that we understand why Blake is in purgatory and why he's being punished we can start to look at his journey with nobody and unpack the cryptic advice the symbolism and metaphors but before I do that I want to talk about some wider themes in the movie.
Now that we understand the major themes of the movie and why Blake is in purgatory we can look at his journey and redemption there are several key moments that I believe redeems Blake in the eyes of nobody and hence a great spirit I will go through them in order at the side of the film nobody soon realizes that Cole is following them and it gives the opportunity for Blake's input maybe we should what should we do the Hugo never lost so much time is when he's submitted to learn from the crop this is the first moment that Blake starts following nobody's advice and hence the sight of his appreciation for Native American culture the weirdest part of the movie involves the three fur traders on the surface it seems to be only included for a bit of humor but on a deeper level it shows the importance to the development of Blake's atonement before Blake sneaks up we see that the fur traders are reading Goldilocks and the three bears later in the scene there are other mentions of this book including a few lines where they talk about and caress Blake's locks by God it is soft I'm sorry big George I got some crude here that even Goldilocks never tasted this is not the first time base attention in this film at the side of this film Blake is reading from a honey journal and tall sleeps with a tiny teddy bear that immediately protects when it's going to be stolen from him all of these seemingly unrelated oddities brought up to this scene with the fur traders using Goldilocks and the three bears story it appears that the four actors were purposely dressed to represent a character from the story Billy Bob playing big George can be seen to represent the Papa Bear Iggy Pop dressed in a bib represents Goldilocks this other guy in the surfers represents mother bear and in walks back to initial quartet as a baby bear almost immediately the mother bear and papa bear jump up to take possession of the baby bear and it soon turns violent and dangerous this is when nobody appears and saves Blake in this action Blake learns through nobody what he should have done in real life nobody has protected him the baby bear and Blake should have done this with his baby son with his new knowledge Blake has grown and matured spiritually to represent this he ditches the boy a suit jacket and takes a Papa Bear furs which he wears for the rest of the film nobody in Blake also collects another horse this is another soul with symbolically shows that he has Sullivan and he has gained forgiveness one reason why Blake may be represented as a bear throughout the movie is because in Native American culture bears will believed to die but then were reborn again in spring this is comparable to Blake's journey through purgatory.
Wanted to get some feedback on a video just clipped down, really love this persons analysis. But feel free to discuss your own films as sure we'll be getting into comparisons.
Dead Man Analysis - Psychedelic Western, Colonialism & Spiritual Purgatory [Mirrored Clips] [4]
(wups no links on first post, have to search on youtube)
The original contained a lot of unverified film theory which I think holds some weight, but also wanted to spread the really illuminating analysis contained within for quick viewing. Find original link in description of video for further character analysis, reincarnation theory and more detail on genocide theme.
An analysis on Dead Man and a theory on why William Blake is in purgatory.
~ Introduction and plot summary
~ Purgatory
- Who is Mr Dickinson and what do horses symbolize?
~ Stupid ****ing White Men
- Why does Nobody ask for tobacco? Themes of genocide. Themes of broken contracts.
~ Blake's Journey
- Peyote, spirit quest and new found reverence for culture.
So also, inspired by a great article by Brogan Morris titled - Calvary: A religious movie for atheists, [1] I wanted to ask what are some great films that gave you an insight into a religious worldview without smacking you over the head with it or pretending that it is the only way of finding inner-peace and way of going about acting morally?
I really loved the film Calvary, I would add to that Dead Man, The Revenant, True Grit and To Kill a Priest.
'Dead Man' for the surreal journey towards having a new found reverence for first nations culture.
'The Revenant' for a desirable relationship with nature where we learn to understand it in order to coexist and find strength.[2]
'True Grit' for the Protestant puritan's ability to find god's grace in simple pleasures and hard work
'To Kill a Priest' for the admirable collective will to publicly resist a murderous dictatorship they found in liberation theology.
And I'm looking forward to watching the film 'Silence' "that resolves itself into a single thought: if a believer is forced to recant, yet maintains a hidden impregnable core of secret faith, a hidden finger-cross, is that a defeat or not? God sees all, of course, including the way a public disavowal of faith has dissuaded hundreds or thousands from believing. Is the public theatre of faith more important than a secret bargain with a silent creator? It is a question kept on a knife-edge. Martin Scorsese’s powerful, emotional film takes its audience on a demanding journey with a great sadness at its end." [3]
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Reviews:
1. Calvary: A religious movie for atheists.
Following Darren Aronofsky's confused Noah, John Michael McDonagh's Calvary strikes miraculous middle ground for a religious movie.
I'm an atheist, though I'm loathe to use the word, referring to myself as an atheist seems like an admission that there's a god I'm choosing to ignore, that I'm some hipster who thinks a refusal to believe will go nicely with my vinyl collection and ill-advised body art. Atheist derives from the Greek word atheos, or godless, which makes people like me sound like chicken-killing heathens rather than what we are: people who believe in whats apparent rather than whats not, who believe that humankind created God the same way it created now-unfashionable deities like Bacchus or Wotan and not the other way around. But, for the sake of brevity, I suppose I'm an atheist.
As an atheist, Ive struggled with religious movies. I could never relate in the way that anybody can relate to, say, love stories.
As a result, Ive always struggled with religious movies. Its one of the very few sub-genres that can come across as eminently alien to people like me. Scorsese has always been one of my favourite filmmakers, but his religious symbolism, and especially the Catholic guilt felt by some of his lead characters, never made much sense to me. The meaning was lost, because I couldn't relate in the way that anybody can relate to love stories, for example. And films more overtly about faith, like Scorsese's own The Last Temptation of Christ, I outright don't understand.
Darren Aronofsky's recently released Noah, so eccentric a movie it might as well have just been called What?!, is only the first of what is apparently going to be a series of biblical blockbusters coming out of Hollywood. And if the Old Testament story of Noah wasn't unbelievable enough to someone like me, Aronofsky's Noah has such uncertain footing between appealing to those with faith and those without that it just comes across as some bizarre, confounding fantasy. I'm not too familiar with the story of Noah, but I'm almost positive scripture doesn't state that Noah and a gang of angelic stone monsters went to war with an army of bloodthirsty, cockney pirate-people.
Hear more on Noah: Its our take on the religious epic in the SR Filmcast
One standout scene in Noah sees the titular prophet tell the creationist story of how the Earth came to be, while Aronofsky simultaneously shows us images of a more scientifically verifiable history of our world, complete with the obligatory tadpole-to-monkey-to-person evolutionary steps. The director appears cautious to offend either Christians or The Godless Ones with his movie, but by offering two strongly opposing theories side-by-side, he ends up pleasing nobody. It makes the film an irrelevance Aronofsky's movie highlights the harshness of religious dogma (if youre a fan of infanticide, youll love Noah) at the same time as it panders to the neutral blockbuster crowd, through ludicrous battle sequences and vapid romantic subplots.
John Michael McDonaghs Calvary, on the other hand, is very different, he confirms to infidels like me that religion really does have a place in the modern world. This existential mystery, about a good Catholic priest threatened with murder in the confession box, respects the opinions of non-believers but firmly, quietly, retains its own Christian beliefs. It wholly recognises the age we live in, where people indifferent and even hateful towards the church brush shoulders with clergymen and their rapidly diminishing congregations. It gets that the world is losing faith. And yet, somewhat miraculously, Calvary confirms to infidels like me that religion really does have a place in the modern world.
Ostensibly a black comedy, Calvary is more often frightening than funny. Father Lavelle (a superb Brendan Gleeson) visits a former pupil-turned-cannibalistic serial killer (played to creepy effect by Gleesons real-life progeny, Domhnall) in prison, and asks what human flesh tastes like; he replies, icily, and with sickening relatability, like pheasant its very gamey. Later, the local doctor, in the form of old-reliable Aidan Gillen, relays the story of a procedure gone wrong, in which a young boy was put under a mishandled dose of anaesthetic for a routine operation and subsequently woke up blind, deaf, dumb and paralysed.
In the horror of a world like that our world Calvary doesn't treat some unseen force, one which it accepts not everyone can relate to, as the saviour. Instead, it is the good man at the heart of this wicked tale, a man driven by a moral code, who acts as the ultimate hero. Calvary makes the argument that the modern church lives not in the service of God, but in the service of people, and its a film that might even make sense of religion for atheists.
Ive not become born again after watching Calvary, but McDonaghs film succeeds where Noah didn't because it tolerates both believers and non-believers equally, and isn't as violently opposed one way or the other, in the way that, say, The Passion of the Christ was strictly for and PTA's cynical There Will Be Blood was vehemently against. It takes a long-overdue stand against loud, unglamorous media reports and counters that not all of religion is corrupted. Calvary is a stunning film, not least because it convincingly argues that there are still good people of faith out there, as it successfully speaks to both the religious and non-religious alike.
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2. The Revenant and the Spirituality of Man and Nature
Nature is of prime importance in Alejandro Inarritu’s The Revenant, it's not merely the setting of the epic survival story but upon closer examination the natural world can be seen as a pivotal character in the film.
It's through Hue Glass’s relationship to the wilderness around him that he's able to embark on and survive his physical, emotional and spiritual journeys. The natural world is present in every shot of the film, usually comprising more of the frame than the actors within it, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s use of wide-angle lenses helped capture the expansive nature around the characters, allowing the locations to become more than mere scenery but a part of the story telling.
His use of mostly natural lighting also emphasizes the omnipresence and significance of nature for the men of The Revenant, whenever we see the men - the high trees in the distance are towering over them from all sides lurking behind and around them in an almost threatening manner - the wilderness crowds the fur trappers into the centre of the frame, engulfing them and at times obstructing them from the cameras view as if a reminder of nature's dominance a warning to abide by mother nature's rules.
The film continually reminds us of this in multiple shots that open with only the bare wilderness, a creek bubbling calmly, a forest of trees standing tall and still, all untouched and placid until the camera slowly pans downwards or upwards to find the men traveling within them.
These moments remind us nature came first and then man leaves, along with the extreme wide shots of landscapes in the film further established the immense scale and the all-encompassing force and power of nature.
The fur trappers and native tribes are only specs within the natural environment, but in order to survive they must learn to coexist with it, the placement of the camera also characterizes Glass’s relation to nature by echoing the evolution of his journey through it. Rarely shooting glass at eye level the camera often hovers slightly above or below him in extreme close-ups of his body and face the angle suggests glass is constantly seeking something out of his reach as the extreme close-ups dislocate him from the nature around him.
We see this sense of longing when the camera shows his POV as he looks upward through the treetops, but what is he looking for? We finally learned this in a flashback as glass looks up through the trees he remembers his wife's death and envisions her floating above him in the forest instead of looking upward to receive a message from God, Glass finds his wife uttering words of wisdom. Here his love for her becomes the physical manifestation of his faith as his upward perception of nature comes to symbolize a release from suffering, his goal to survive and exact revenge ultimately evolves into a spiritual pilgrimage.
Glass’s visions of his wife hovering above him are strong allusions to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, most notably the levitating woman in the mirror, we can understand the images of levitation in both films as moments that represent the majestic and holy quality each woman holds in the eyes of the main male character. Glass’s love for his wife literally exalts her to a position above ground just as Aleksei in the mirror envisions his young mother floating in a dream sequence in in Inurito’s film Glass’s wife becomes the spiritual symbol of absolution, hope and strength.
But many of Glass’s visions also represent his internal struggle with cultural identity, unlike the other white fur trappers Glass is shown to have a deeper connection with nature, especially with the Pawnee tribe he once lived with, though in the eyes of Fitzgerald - Glass has betrayed his men by once killing a lieutenant - however glass shows that he holds some shame for his past, when he fails to stand up for his son Hawk and then angrily reprimands him in front of the other men it's clear glass is caught between two lives, the life of his Pawnee family in the past and the one of a fur trapper in the present.
This dichotomy is shown in Glass’s vision where he finds himself in front of a dilapidated church, the walls of the European church within the natural landscape reflect the duality of Glass’s cultural affiliations. The ruins mirroring the pain of his past. Here his identity as a westerner and his affinity with the Pawnee tribe merged in a dreamlike state filled with longing and grief.
This scene strongly recalls the final shot of Tarkovsky's film ‘Nostalgia’ in which Andre, a Russian writer, travels through Italy longing for his home country. Andre completes a journey across an empty pool with the lit candle, in the film's famous nine-minute scene, a testament to faith and perseverance that in ways reflects Glass’s own journey in ‘The Revenant.’ Afterwards Andre suddenly falls to his death and the last shot of the film finds him sitting in front of his Russian farmhouse as the camera slowly pulls back it's revealed Andre and his dacha are confined within the ruins of an old Italian Cathedral. Here Tarkovsky merges that of dreams and memory to show the unification of a man split by two countries, it captures the melancholic longing of nostalgia and the coexisting space of the past and present. Andre has reached a sense of spiritual resolution in his inner battle, though only in death, Glass is only just beginning his own.
The second Tarkovsky reference in ‘The Revenant’s church sequence provides a little more insight, the icon paintings on the church walls and the ringing bell above, strongly recall the Russian filmmakers Andrei Rublev. In the film's most memorable sequence, a young boy Briska attempts to cast the bell for a prince, though he has no idea how to, Briska does so on intuition and faith alone knowing that he'll be killed if he fails. The finished bell finally tolls loudly and triumphant, a powerful moment that stands as a testament to the young boys faith and an inspiration for the painter Andrei Rublev.
And Yuri too explores the power of faith in his dream sequence as well, though Glass embraces his son, the very next moment he's alone in the church hugging only a tree, the bell ringing above Glass’s head as he falls into the mud, similar to the overwhelmed Beriska. It’s a symbol of his continuing strength, a reminder of the hope that can follow loss. Glass may no longer have Hawk his last connection to the Pawnee people, but the one thing that does remain is the physical and spiritual presence of nature and how it can help him survive.
The dream sequence signifies a shift in Glass’s relationship to nature, one that moves away from the Westerners side of his identity, after awaking from the dream, Glass rescues a Cree woman from French fur trappers, then literally using the resources around him to survive, Glass climbs into the carcass of a dead horse, when he emerges the camera lingers on tranquil shots of the sun shining through trees around him, it's a shot largely reminiscent of Lopezkeys work with Terrence Malick, in which nature also has a spiritual element.
As he prepares to leave, the camera positions Glass in the background of the shot with a large branch emerging into the foreground, after laying his hand on the horse, Glass looks around and upwards as if giving thanks to the wilderness for saving his life, in this moment he's become more part of the natural scenery, no longer detached from it as implied by the disembodied close-ups earlier in the film.
Once glass has exacted his revenge, the killing of Fitzgerald begins to symbolize more than simply getting justice for his son. In defeating Fitzgerald Glass has also defeated the shame and the suffering of the past he's carried with him, once the Cree pass by silently acknowledging that he's not like the other ruthless fur trappers, Glass begins his ascent upwards, literally and metaphorically, he sees a vision of his wife ahead of him on the mountain and in turning away from him she grants him the emotional and spiritual absolution he's been seeking. In a final shot that again recalls nostalgia and the mirror, Glass slowly turns his gaze into the camera, no longer looking up at the view of the treetops with him, we finally meet his eyes as he finds peace in the flurry of the storm.
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3. Silence review: the last temptation of Liam Neeson in Scorsese's shattering epic
The silence of God – or the deafness of man – is the theme of Martin Scorsese’s epic new film about an ordeal of belief and the mysterious, ambiguous heroism involved in humiliation and collaboration. It is about an apparent sacrifice in the service of the greater good, and a reckoning deferred to some unknowable future time. The possibility of reaching some kind of accommodation with the enemy, and not knowing if this is a disavowal of pride or a concession to the greatest sin of all, is a topic that Scorsese last touched upon in The Last Temptation of Christ in 1988, in which Jesus sees a future of peace and ordinary comfort.
Silence is a drama about Christian martyrdom, and like all such films, from Carl Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc to Fred Zinnemann’s A Man for All Seasons, it must address an atheist counter-sensibility aware that the Catholic Inquisition itself saw no difficulty in putting perceived heretics to death, and that arguably their own martyrs are therefore ineligible for lenient humanist sympathy. In fact, in this movie there is a fierce debate about the opposition of Christianity and Buddhism, of Europe and Asia, and about the relativism of faith.
Martin Scorsese film recalls martyrdom of Japan's hidden Christians
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Silence is not without flaws. Perhaps the casting of its stars, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, could have been reversed, to place more emphasis on Driver as the stronger performer, though Garfield’s boyish screen personality becomes haunted and complex. There is something a little broad about the moments in which a priest sees visions of Christ in himself. Yet with ambition and reach, and often a real dramatic grandeur, Scorsese’s film has addressed the imperial crisis of Christian evangelists with stamina, seriousness and a gusto comparable to David Lean’s.
In 17th-century Lisbon, two fiercely committed missionary priests, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver), are told disturbing news by their confessor Valignano (Ciarán Hinds) concerning their much loved and admired mentor figure, Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Ferreira had journeyed to Japan many years before to challenge its brutal suppression of Christianity and to spread the word, but has now reportedly been forced to recant his faith under torture, and is living as a Buddhist with a Japanese wife and children. Astonished and outraged, the two young Jesuits refuse to believe it and demand to be allowed to travel to Japan to track him down and discover the truth.
Scorsese shows that their journey has something Conradian about it, and that Ferreira is a kind of Kurtz figure, albeit a Kurtz who has achieved nothing like a colonial kingdom. As the two men make their furtive landfall in Japan, they make tensely secret contact with fugitive believers who live in terror of being found out, and the priests entertain an orientalist stereotype of the supposed Japanese inscrutability: “Secrecy has made their faces into masks.”
Rodrigues and Garrpe seem like the proselytisers of the early Christian church, or even the apostles themselves. Driver’s gaunt and blazingly passionate face even makes him look a little like the traditional rendering of Jesus. But the examples of Judas the betrayer and Peter the denier are the ones that suggest themselves. Because everywhere, the authorities are crushing Christian communities, offering rewards for informers, and the priests’ mere presence brings their congregants into terrible danger. Suspected believers are ordered symbolically to trample a figure of Jesus underfoot: sometimes the inquisitor will be content with a relatively perfunctory step on the figure, but for more serious dissidents, spitting on the crucified Christ is needed. And there is the cruelty of torture and martyrdom: Christians can be lowered into a pit to bleed to death, or crucified in the surf for a quasi-drowning ordeal, or burned at the stake.
But Rodrigues is to come into contact with the sinuously calm, even almost charming Inquisitor Inoue and his interpreter (excellent performances from Issey Ogata and Tadanobu Asano), whose purpose is far more subtle: to show what torture looks like – rather as the Inquisition simply showed Galileo the instruments of cruelty – but then persuade the priest to renounce Christianity on rational grounds. Playing their strongest card, they produce poor, mortified Ferreira, who after years of threats and indoctrination has internalised his captors’ views, denying that the Catholic church was ever believed in that country, and claiming that the Japanese had simply followed a muddled, pantheistic sun-worship sect and mistook it for Christianity.
All the time, the priests are tormented by God’s silence, and the question of whether this is the same as absence, or if God’s refusal to intervene has become an unimaginable and intolerable cruelty. “How can I explain his silence to these people?” As the drama continues, the silence is broken for Rodrigues: but it is, ambiguously, a voice in his own head, giving him advice similar to that which he had himself given to cowering Japanese peasants early in the story.
Silence is a movie of great fervour that resolves itself into a single thought: if a believer is forced to recant, yet maintains a hidden impregnable core of secret faith, a hidden finger-cross, is that a defeat or not? God sees all, of course, including the way a public disavowal of faith has dissuaded hundreds or thousands from believing. Is the public theatre of faith more important than a secret bargain with a silent creator? It is a question kept on a knife-edge. Martin Scorsese’s powerful, emotional film takes its audience on a demanding journey with a great sadness at its end.
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4. Dead Man Analysis - Psychedelic Western, Colonialism & Spiritual Purgatory [Mirrored Clips]
Apologies for the auto-transcript errors, in the process of cleaning up now, but parts still unreadable.
Summary
Deadman is a film that was written and directed by Jim Jim Roos released in cinemas in 1995 it has been described as a psychedelic Western and throughout the years it has gained a cult audience who appointed its meaning in this video I will reveal the true meaning of dead man on the surface dead man tells the story of William Blake Blake travels to a remote sounder machine for an accounting job only to find out the company is no longer looking he befriends a prostitute who takes him back to her place and she shows him her flower collection her ex-boyfriend makes an unannounced visit and after being acquainted Blake makes a hasty getaway out of town nobody an American Indian finds adaiah Blake and unable to dislodge the bullet from him he realizes Blake's predicament stupid **** it wait man he decides to take Blake on a journey across America to the Pacific Ocean so the soon-to-be dead man's soul can be cleansed through a ship burial unfortunately for Blake the company owner mr. Dickinson was the father of the man he killed mr. Dickinson offers a large reward for Blake's capture dead or alive throughout the film nobody and Blake are pursued by law and three bounty hunters who are led by the notorious killer Cole after several Close Encounters they make it to the ocean where Blake has his ship Ariel only to witness her buddy and Cole shoot and kill each other fade to black I believe that dead man tells a tale of a man's journey through purgatory who is atoning for his sins in this video I'll break this idea down I'll also explore the symbology of the characters the animals and darker themes throughout the film to answer the major question what where Blake sins that caused them into purgatory
Purgatory
William Blake is a dead man before the film even starts and there are many lines of dialogue and suggestive shots that reinforce this idea the title of the film itself is the first hint given Wow that doesn't explain why you've come all the way out here all the way out here to hell this is a lie or a white man's trick oh I'm William Blake and you are a dead man bikes train ride to the tide of machine is the side of his hellish descent into purgatory the Train fireman is reminiscent of Chiron the very man of Hayes who carry the souls of the newly deceased into the world of the dead when Blake reaches the factory he's mostly ignored by the lost souls being punished through hard labor and the manager and bookkeeper of these Souls openly mock him mr. Dickinson surrounded by death and money appears supernaturally much like the devil would when Blake escapes machine on a stolen horse mr. Dickerson places a high priority on his recapture bring everybody and I want that bastard's head and make sure you include a full description of my Pinto I want that horse back not only that but he stole a very spirited and valuable horse a beautiful young Pinto that belonged to my personal family stable note how we refers to the horse as spirited throughout the film there are many instances of a horse reacting with a mutter or a whine when there is a mention of death we're killing committed on-screen some of these wines can be explained to a horse's shock of loud gunfire but often they occur a couple of seconds after the explosion or even when no bullet is fired at all I would kill for my now well ******* it I guess nobody gets you know **** me **** you but they hit me on the head with a rifle all went black my spirit seemed to leave me I was then taken east in this film a horse represents a person's soul the devilish mr. Dickinson wants to Saul back for himself well nobody wants the guy Blake and he sold safely to the ocean at the side of the film we can see the value of Blake soul
Tobacco
One of the recurring cryptic questions from nobody to Blake is do you have any tobacco in Native American culture tobacco is used for prayer to show respect to heal and give spiritual protection nobody wants place to collect tobacco as an offering to God bite safely to the spiritual world while also simultaneously questioning him are you ready to show respect to native culture by the end of the film Blake finally understands meaning of the tobacco question I replies directly that he doesn't smoke nobody cries in happiness nobody I don't smoke Phil is the first person to ask bike if he has any tobacco and this reinforces the idea that Blake is in purgatory from the beginning of the film hey Bill you got any tobacco anywhere no I don't smoke.
Journey
Soon after Blake comes across a wanted sign and finds out he is wanted for thales motor this is something that he angrily refuses I didn't kill Phil even though he has made great strides . . . He completely blocks out the possibility of it to the disappointment of nobody actions are useless. At night nobody takes priority and rejects place participation in it he still gives Blake advice to think back to his own visions of his files so we can realize why use in purgatory Blake Masson stance is advice and asked for his eyeglasses to help him see in the presence in his cryptic ways nobody draws lightning bolts on Blake's cheeks as a guide on what to think about the only other time Blake has seen a lightning bolt in this film was when nobody saved him from the fur traders soon nobody leaves and takes the glasses with him hoping that Blake will make a breakthrough on his own perhaps you will see more clearly with her the next day Blake is interrupted by two police officers and he kills them these two officers are little depictions of stupid white men they are forgetful loud and clumsy through their killing Blake has symbolically broken from the bondages of white man's law and all the deceit that comes from it he no longer is a stupid white man and his appreciation of nature and native culture continues to grow soon it is night again and he's still thinking about his past but he doesn't think back far enough he is still on his embarrassment at the Metalworks factory I'd like to speak with mr. Dickinson please the next day however he makes a major break for he has slept back far enough to his murders and this is represented by him finding the body of a kill the phone finally oh my elk relatives took pity on me and a young elf gave his life to me I never stopped the phone represents the murder of his fiancee and a sacrifice Thermax will bake in purgatory in this scene Blake remembers to the destruction and heinous calls and this is symbolically shown through the death of an innocent form during his journey in purgatory nobody has taught Blake the value of protecting those that are precious to him and as a result he now feels a sense of great remorse Blake lays with the Fallen asking for forgiveness for his past sins he has now accomplished a major step in his penance r3 is found penance he is tested again Blake walks upon what seems to be a mating bear who turns to attacking he tries to shoot his gun but by an act of God it doesn't fire it turns out the bear is nobody and Blake has failed this test this test once again had him interrupting two lovers and his instinct was still to fire his gun nobody's girlfriend berate sin and the next day he's woken up and called a liar by nobody he also spectacularly fails the tobacco question do you have any tobacco no I traded it for what I'm not telling lawyer this is the last time we see the fur traders horse perhaps this is a punishment for failing the test now he no longer can see his son soul at the missionary outpost nobody asks I see you've acquired a new weapon hmm oh yes a Winchester here take it no no really take it I took it off a dead white man did William Blake killers white man yes William blood kill the way nobody now knows that Blake has killed the stupid white man in himself and is moving on to last part of the spiritual journey we need a canoe in a trading post Blake kills the lying missionary in this site he has permanently broken from the racism the lies and the intolerant white man's religion his spirit has been freed and this is forever backed up with nobody's line "free the horses."
As established before Blake is punished a second time for the second motor he is committed in his past life on the canoe even though he spurred his frayed it is still scared for him for he still needs to complete the recipes journey through purgatory Blake is dragged through the Indian village and the elders accept him as one of their own we noticed because he has adorned in an outfit that is similar to the elder in the middle birth outfits have two patches of whales he is taken to the ocean by nobody and his journey is complete as he successfully made it onto the boat with his sins forgiven and his mind and soul expanded through native culture nobody weighs goodbye and Blake's journey through purgatory is over.
From longer version:
Dead Man Analysis - Why is William Blake in Purgatory?
An analysis on Dead Man and a theory on why William Blake is in purgatory.
~ Introduction and plot summary (00:00)
~ Purgatory (1:34) - Who is Mr Dickinson and what do horses symbolise?
~ Nobody (4:16) - Who is Nobody and how does he connect with Blake?
~ Cole Wilson (6:10) - Who is Cole Wilson and how does he connect to Blake and Nobody?
~ William Blake (8:06) - William Blake the philistine. Is Blake the reincarnation of the real poet? The connection between violence and poetry. Why is Blake in purgatory?
~ Stupid ****ing White Men (13:37) - Why does Nobody ask for tobacco? Themes of genocide. Themes of broken contracts.
~ Blake's Journey (16:57) - What did the three fur-traders represent? Blake and peyote. What did the dead fawn represent?
Nobody
Nobody is Blake's psychopomp here's a spirit guide providing a passage to blake into the afterlife as nobody leads blake across america he provides several tests for him to realize his sins so he can be forgiven for them nobody achieves this by giving cryptic advice to blake this advice will be looked at in more detail later but at the moment I want to show the deep connection between Blake and nobody this connection can be seen through the costume design and their overlapping histories in the first half of the film Blake is often seen wearing a boy striped suit when we first see nobody he has similar stripe face paint on nobody also tries on a couple of other clothing items of Blake revealing more links between the two he tries on Blake's had and he mimics him talking or not saying anything this symbolically suggests that at the time nobody believed that Blake had nothing worthwhile to say but it also needs to - through nobody's real name of X fish a he who talks loud and says nothing nobody tries on Blake's glasses just prior to this we have a very blurry point of view shot from him that suggests that he might actually need glasses as well the story that nerby tells of his childhood has many similar elements to Blake's journey in the film as a child nobody finds an up their sacrifices its life for him Blake later finds a note that also sacrifices itself for him nobody was traveling on a train trapped in a cage and this is reminiscent to the start of base journey were on the train he wears a suit that looks like a symbolic cage in England nobody discovered the poet William Blake and his verse encouraged him to escape to the great ocean to go back home and this film nobody is repaying this favor back to Blake taking him to the ocean so his spirit can go back home when nobody reaches America again he witnesses atrocities near the end of the film Blake shares this exact same vision nobody and Blake are bonded together in purgatory and their mutual understanding and love for each other grows throughout the film to a final poignant moment if nobody is a younger plague then Cole Wilson would be the yang on the surface Cole wants to catch a black for the reward but symbolically Cole represents Blake stark pass that wants to catch up and consume him there isn't as much history given in the film about Cole's background as there is with nobody but there are several notable connections that we can make between the three main characters at the metal Webb's Factory Blake is confused to be and referred to as mr. black look mr. black I'm a very busy man this is another example of a connection being made between two characters and their clothing like Blake Cole gets shot near the heart and he too survives the attack Cole and nobody are very contrasting characters where Cole can be seen to be the antithesis of nobody throughout the film nobody's shown to be deeply respectful of his religion while Cole shows that he has no respect for any religion looks like a ******* religious icon nobody recommends the benefits of fasting for a spiritual journey what Cole is an urn cannibal the correlation between the two characters goes further through nobody's name of ecstasy and Alliance broken by the kid keep in mind that exposure means he who talks early and says nothing I'm out here I'm out in the middle **** strike Noah told local pneumatics mondo said nothing no the one he wanted a stopgap on the surface this quote is referring to call and the talkative bounty hunter twirl but I believe that through this quote an ex officios named the field is actually referring to the duality between the outspoken spirit guide of nobody in the dark brooding paths that is Cole they are two sides of the same coin that is William Blake both of them has an end goal that involves Blake's staff but for contrasting reasons we're at the end of life's journey we can see the two characters meet and kill each other symbolically the struggle between the light side and the dark side is over for.
William Blake
Blake and his journey through purgatory is over William Blake doesn't fit into either native or white society he isn't adept at surviving in the wilderness he's laughed out of machines factory and clearly doesn't belong with the locals in the bar when nobody was telling his story it is revealed that he too did not blend into his societies however unlike Blake he attempted to buy over learning to be a great hunter where arti was captured by studying Blake does not seem to naturally possess the same desire of learning and when originally given advice he humors or ignores it cannot stop the class by the building of the ship what what did you say you know I've had it up to here with this Indian malarkey I hadn't understood a single word you've said since I met you not one single word he is indifference to learning culture can also been seen when he approaches the fur traders one of them asks what to Phillipsburg and as an answer Blake walks in as a physical embodiment of it nobody recognizes that Blake is a Philistine someone who's hostile to art and culture and he takes upon himself to teach Blake Native American culture so that he could be redeemed in the eyes of the Great Spirit one often asked question is is this William Blake supposed to be the reincarnation of the real Pollock in the film we can see that when nobody studied the poet he could clearly see an image of him on the front page of his book this portrait looks nothing like Johnny Depp on the surface of the film it seems that nobody is still convinced that Blake is a real poet and his scholars make Blake remember his poetry I don't believe that Blake is a reincarnation nor does nobody truly believe this but rather this is a method he uses for Blake to remember his past violence and sins before purgatory the connection between violence and poetry in the film is over don't understand but I understand William Blake you were a poet and a painter now you are a killer of white men that weapon will replace your tongue you will learn to speak Freud and your poetry will now be written with blood you wear your mic yes I am do not my poetry
Genocide
Another theme of the film is genocide numerous shots of IVA human skulls charred bodies or skeletons in them two sections of the film that caught my attention were the shooting government says the million over ask you're in this panning shot we see dozens of off those skulls and right at the end of it in the bottom right corner we briefly see human skulls I believe the placement was intentional so that the Buffalo and human skulls could be seen to be interchangeable when these two moments are looked at together the wanton murder of Buffalo symbolically revealed the genocide of Native Americans and there are other members the film that reinforces this idea of genocide you three are supposed to be the finest killers of men and engines and this year half of the world why do you add this cuz this is America once again I crossed the great ocean I saw many sad things as I made my way back to the lines of my people furthermore in the trading post the missionary tries to sell a pox-ridden blanket to nobody perhaps I could interest you in some beads or possibly a blanket blanket broken contracts are another overall theme in the story white men in the film are constantly sent away through contracts to gain advantage over another party at the sila film the fire man wants I wouldn't trust no words rip down a no piece of paper especially from no Dickinson out in the town of machine he is proven to be correct when the Metalworks batteries subsequently ignores the employment contract also the three bounty hunters thought they were the only company hunting black only to find out that's been might sir but we was hard at school he penis a golden advisor I love here I'm out in the middle should strike the missionary in the training post once place autograph on his wanted poster he is doing this as a deception to trick and shoot Blake when he is destructed symbolically this can be seen as Blake signing a contract with terms that he does not understand fortunately for Blake he manages to escape the deceitful trick in this film why men are represented to have no respect they are mass murderers and cheating tricksters it's no wonder that nobody refers to them as stupid white man
Film theory extras - Reincarnation and Symbolism
So nobody wants place remember you spa tree which is the violence he committed in these past life if you can get place to remember his sins but can then find penance to move on to the next stage of being but what was this violence and what worried sins that I've been alluding to to answer this question I believe that people will seen that reveals is is when black gets punished for the first time this is when he gets shot on the surface this scene is of a former lover of the Charles Dickinson who walks in and compromises to new levels and ends up in a shootout I believe that the scene is highly symbolic and reveals the scenes of bikes past I want to point out that both Phil and Blake a stool semi dressed so this is not an actual sex scene but rather a scene of comforting love between two people who does still representing the scene early in the film it's revealed that do you have the wife Mary no fiancee well I haven't split to change they'll represents the former fiancee a break in his past life but what our Charles back in the factory Blake was referred to as mr. black twice listen mr. black I've got a lot of work to do here and there's eight fine business I've already established the first mr. black as coal and I believe that the second mr. black is Charles Dickinson as he is also dressed in black attire throughout the scene whenever child speaks Blake has his mouth covered by a sheet symbolically Charles is speaking the words that we can't see Blake say when Charles is shot look at the reaction of Blake it's quite an extreme one it's almost as if he is experiencing the pain himself in this scene Blake is a voyeur of his own evil he is experiencing the murders that he committed before he died but if Blake is a witness in this scene whose position has a usurped from real life could it have been another unknown man I don't think it's as simple that unquestionably sacrifices herself for Blake also like has just taken off his boys two jacket and is hiding behind a blanket like a child furthermore throughout the movie we see I probably will he would thanks to god damn mr. dick and son huh Jesus go he's just a kid yes I believe that in his past life like motive he's fiancee and child he's traveling through purgatory to make amends for his horrific act in this scene he's a witness of his own atrocities and as a result of these acts he needs to be punished in this scene is punished for the first real-life motor and then later on the film when he's shot again he is punished for the second motor now that we understand why Blake is in purgatory and why he's being punished we can start to look at his journey with nobody and unpack the cryptic advice the symbolism and metaphors but before I do that I want to talk about some wider themes in the movie.
Now that we understand the major themes of the movie and why Blake is in purgatory we can look at his journey and redemption there are several key moments that I believe redeems Blake in the eyes of nobody and hence a great spirit I will go through them in order at the side of the film nobody soon realizes that Cole is following them and it gives the opportunity for Blake's input maybe we should what should we do the Hugo never lost so much time is when he's submitted to learn from the crop this is the first moment that Blake starts following nobody's advice and hence the sight of his appreciation for Native American culture the weirdest part of the movie involves the three fur traders on the surface it seems to be only included for a bit of humor but on a deeper level it shows the importance to the development of Blake's atonement before Blake sneaks up we see that the fur traders are reading Goldilocks and the three bears later in the scene there are other mentions of this book including a few lines where they talk about and caress Blake's locks by God it is soft I'm sorry big George I got some crude here that even Goldilocks never tasted this is not the first time base attention in this film at the side of this film Blake is reading from a honey journal and tall sleeps with a tiny teddy bear that immediately protects when it's going to be stolen from him all of these seemingly unrelated oddities brought up to this scene with the fur traders using Goldilocks and the three bears story it appears that the four actors were purposely dressed to represent a character from the story Billy Bob playing big George can be seen to represent the Papa Bear Iggy Pop dressed in a bib represents Goldilocks this other guy in the surfers represents mother bear and in walks back to initial quartet as a baby bear almost immediately the mother bear and papa bear jump up to take possession of the baby bear and it soon turns violent and dangerous this is when nobody appears and saves Blake in this action Blake learns through nobody what he should have done in real life nobody has protected him the baby bear and Blake should have done this with his baby son with his new knowledge Blake has grown and matured spiritually to represent this he ditches the boy a suit jacket and takes a Papa Bear furs which he wears for the rest of the film nobody in Blake also collects another horse this is another soul with symbolically shows that he has Sullivan and he has gained forgiveness one reason why Blake may be represented as a bear throughout the movie is because in Native American culture bears will believed to die but then were reborn again in spring this is comparable to Blake's journey through purgatory.
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