"Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truth, passed on from age to age, modified by individual genius, but never abandoned." William Butler Yeats
“It used to be about trying to do something, and now it's about trying to be something,” Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep) says to a young female admirer of her accomplishments; Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Ladyis doing something. Just as Britain's first woman Prime Minister freed England from “the shackles of Socialism,” this “biography” reminds government officials the important—and hard—lessons Thatcher learned about rejuvenating a weak economy and embracing free market capitalism.
While The Iron Lady does honor Margret Thatcher, it is only a veiled biography and I mean that in a good way. History films are never about history, as I have often said, and biographies are never biographies; the lessons and struggles certain people lived through and experienced, are the larger-than-life lessons and vehicles for discussions of how things should be done today; biographies are catalysts, but they are not biographies; they are vehicles for dialogue, but they are not biographies. I'm quite shocked by the accusations of the film being a "musical," so I would like to contend with that first.
"Napoleon called us a nation of shop keepers and I take that as a compliment!" Margaret's father tells a crowd. The young Margaret, above, sweeps the sidewalk at her father's grocery store and this is genuinely where she learned the lessons that Oxford might refine for her, but reality taught her first, and The Iron Lady clearly shows that, while it was hard for her growing up as a worker, instead of her more fashionable friends, these were the days that made her and the reason she had the courage to look her English contingency in the eye and convince them that she knew exactly what was important to them and how to get a healthy economy back for England, Britain and the world.
"The music has stopped," John Tuld (Jeremy Irons) dramatically remarks in the economic thriller Margin Call about the devastating loss their company is going to take in the fire sale and how it will effect everyone else... in the world. The "music" refers to the sound of sales at the cash register, brokers on Wall Street, loan officers saying "Yes!" and crisp bills being passed from one hand to another; that music has stopped. In The Iron Lady, musicals are used, but they are used effectively to correlate with J.C. Chandor's Margin Call and to remind us today that, in Thatcher's time, the "Music had stopped," but because of her devotion to solid economic policies and her courage to carry through with economic reforms, the music started back up. (For my review of Margin Call, please see Deconstructing Volatile Risk: Margin Call).
After a lost campaign. The blue ribbon she wears is saved by her husband, Dennis. This shot reflects the simple, but consistent use of color in the film to convey her "state of mind" and heart. In this shot, she wears a brownish/gray suit, which is accurate because she's very humble at this point and a novice.
In the opening scene of The Iron Lady, we first see the great woman who helped end the Cold War buying milk at her local grocery and being shocked at how much the price has gone up; from the beginning of her life as the daughter of a grocer, to her zenith as England's prime minister, she always kept in touch with the basic commodities and how price fluctuations effected people's daily lives. That Thatcher specifically buys milk symbolizes the nourishment of a mother to her children; who are her children? Us. The wise child accepts the nourishment of what can be gained by letting go of the past, getting rid of socialist programs, freeing the market; nourishment is taking the medicine that needs to be taken, regardless of how bitter, because it's the only way the patient will get well.
Young Margaret and young Dennis talking about marriage. When they first meet, it is at a dinner and a dish is served that the outsider Margaret doesn't know how to eat (I don't even know what the dish was). Dennis leans over to her and whispers, "Start at the outside and work your way in," talking about the dish, of course, and how to eat it, but that was also the brilliant lesson he gave her about her political career, and he stuck by her.
And then there is a second reference to motherhood: eggs.
At her apartment, she boils two eggs for her and her husband Dennis. Because eggs symbolize new life, they represent the children to whom she will give new life because of the dialogue they will have with her administration and the difficulties, challenges and responses of her policies as a result of this film and the demands of this period in history requiring the same type of strategy to the world market which both Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan employed to re-build their economies.
The Iron Lady, like My Week With Marilyn, deals with trade unions, and very boldly. The unions are striking and there is a total break-down of society, trash piled up everywhere and all utilities shutting down. The Parliament is in a meeting and the lights go off; a flashlight suddenly lights up the room and who but Mrs. Thatcher has it? Thatcher's purse is very much like Mary Poppins' carpet bag from which she pulls out everything she needs, notably, all the lessons from history to "illuminate" the crisis at hand (please see Mary Poppins: Frankenstein & Animal Farm for more).
This is the point of her sitting down to autograph a stack of biographies on her; she signs, signs, signs and then, instead of writing Margaret Thatcher, she writes “Margaret Roberts,” her maiden name, and she goes back to the bombing raids during World War II when she and her family were grocers, they are being bombed, and she forgot to put the glass cover over the butter; this corresponds later in the film when her own party is “bombing” her as she is about to go to a palace ball and she's being fitted in her gown and even though she is prime minister, she can still show her party that she's not out of touch with reality, she knows the price of every single brand of butter on the market. Why is this important? Because in our daily lives, butter is important, and before she was Prime Minister Thatcher, she was the grocer Roberts' daughter.
One of the many times Thatcher has to face riots because of her devotion to a genuine capitalist economy and her courage to not "embrace Socialism" when the temptation turns up over the staggering 3 million unemployed. Thatcher refuses to create a weakened or prolonged recovery period by implementing programs that will suck money out of the economy instead of make money for the workers and factories and the riots of 2011 in England are the direct reason this film was made, as a reminder of what pitfalls to avoid and what road to stick to.
After buying milk, Thatcher returns to her apartment and has breakfast with her husband Dennis (James Broadbent); then we realize she has been hallucinating: Dennis died years ago from cancer. We could say that image is consistent with politicians today, talking to an economy that died years ago from various forms of economic cancer, hallucinating that it's still alive and thriving. Whenever there is amnesia or dementia, any kind of “forgetting” disease, it's representative of culture and society, so the point is to try and figure out what it is that we are hallucinating about, what it is that we are forgetting.
James Broadbant as Dennis Thatcher, her husband and best friend.
Many appropriate symbols are employed through the film, and emphasis is placed on shoes, and how Thatcher wears a very different shoe than all the men in Parliament and her husband Dennis not wearing any shoes at all. As always, the feet symbolize our will, and shoes provide us with commentary on what guides a character: Thatcher's feminine shoes set against a “universe” of men's dress shoes, brings out in clear relief her dramatically different approach to government affairs; it's not that she's “out of step” with what's going on, it's that she's walking a different step and a different beat. It's also because she has a feminine will, rather than a masculine will, that she is able to abolish old institutions that are no longer serving their purpose because her purpose isn't her party's purpose. Similarly, when she's young and sweeping the sidewalk, and the upper-class girls walk by, the camera takes care to provide us with a shot of their fashionable shoes, and contrast it with young Margret's plain shoes: what Margret Thatcher did wasn't ever a matter of fashion, because her will was determined by what was practical.
The "make-over" scene, when Margret Thatcher is given the hair and make-up that will take her to the prime ministry. What is it about this? Do men get make-overs like this? Um, no, but that doesn't mean that she's being prepped for sex appeal, it doesn't mean that she's putting on a social/political mask to hide her true self beneath an expedient image, rather, it's like a highlighter, bringing out what is best and important about what it is that she is saying, so that people will listen and Thatcher will have confidence in herself to say what she believes.
The IRA bombs the Grand hotel where her and husband Dennis are staying, and after the explosion, we see Dennis holding his shoes in his hands. In some ways it's a bizarre gesture until you realize the motivation of love which prompts him to do it: not wearing any shoes, nothing hinders his will, his will is naked for all to see and nothing has coerced his decision to be with her, at that moment, and he wouldn't change any of it.
It's not just about "being different" for the sake of being different, or not compromising just to be stubborn and make others bow before you in a psychedelic power trip; Thatcher doesn't run with the crowd when the crowd is running over a cliff and the crowd gets upset with her when she won't. The point is that her courage and fidelity to proven economic models and solutions worked when the others said it wouldn't and her refusal to compromise and her refusal to condemn the models as false that she knew were not only accurate and correct, but the very best models for the economy.
In another scene, as Thatcher is off to her first day in Parliament, she looks in the car mirror; seeing her red lipstick on her teeth, she wipes it off with a black gloved finger. The red lipstick symbolizes the appetites and is doubly enhanced by being on her mouth which also symbolizes the appetites; wiping off the lipstick, symbolizes her femininity and womanhood, with a black, gloved finger, is symbolic of her strength (the hand) coming from a lack of ambition (dead to worldly ambition) and her desire to be a public servant. This is important because before she runs for prime minister, Dennis accuses her of ambition, but it is her genuine desire to serve the state that is the vehicle (her driving in the car) of her career.
The Iron Lady doesn't hesitate to let the audience know what happened as a result of Thatcher's economic policies: people got rich. The economy boomed and everyone profited. The specific poll tax which she sought to pass equally on all members of society was a highly controversial aspect of her policies and she is still negatively remembered for it.
At the same moment she pulls out from her house to go to her first Parliament, her two children, Mark and Susan, chase her car and beg her not to leave. The Iron Lady points out the double-strand of pearls Thatcher wears and calls, "My twins," because Dennis gave them to her after the birth of their children. It's because she was a mother to her children, the future, that she could be a mother to her country, and the wisdom the pearls symbolize, symbolizes that "double-strand" idea of one begetting the other. I can say, as a woman myself, that while Feminists consider Margret Thatcher to be an "enemy" who did little or nothing to advance women in politics, that is precisely why I adore and honor Thatcher with all my heart: it was never about being a woman, it was about doing the right thing, and that's why I like her so much.
"The perfect blend for your next tea party," the banner reads in fine print at the top of the poster, which may be a direct reference to the American political movement called the Tea Party trying to get conservative politicians back into government (since Thatcher herself was a conservative).
At the end of the film, when Thatcher has finally decided to “clean out the cupboards,” it's going back to when she was young Margaret Roberts first running for public service and she told “the big boys” that economizing in tough times is a matter of “good housekeeping,” which she takes upon herself in doing that which is so emotionally and psychologically painful to her: removing those things to which she clings but are no longer needed. This lesson is what the film demonstrates for us that our own governments need to be doing, namely, not worrying about their careers as politicians and worrying instead on doing what is necessary to get the economy going again, and that means housekeeping.
The Falkland Islands was quite brave of Thatcher, really, because it would have been far easier to "negotiate" the return of the Islands, or tell the handful of British citizens there, "You're just a relic of Empire that is too bankrupt to come to your aid, so long!" Not only her own cabinet, but Washington opposed her in her decision to fight to get the Islands back, and those opposed to Thatcher liked to chalk it up to her militarism that she did it, rather than that it was the right thing for Britain to do.
The Iron Lady doesn't give us former Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, it doesn't give us her economic program, it doesn't give us a history lesson and it doesn't give us new insight into a meaningless relic of Cold War politics; it begins the dialogue for us with a past remarkably similar to our current situation, and provides for us well-illustrated examples of failure and success, on many levels. In many ways, the "iron lady" is Great Britain herself, but there seems to be more rust on her than usual these days, and if the lessons from Thatcher's time aren't heeded, the situation will grow worse with time. The Iron Lady is not Mrs. Thatcher living in the past, rather, it's us forgetting the past.
In the beginning of the film, Thatcher's closet is opened and it is full of blue suits and dresses (blue is the color of wisdom). It's interesting to watch the film because they do a solid job interpreting her in terms of the color of clothes she wears. When her party has started getting tired of her for "not listening," she's wearing red, not the blue she has worn up to that point, because to her party at least, she is appearing ambitious and lustful of power. The night before her party overthrows her and elects John Major (whom no one today remembers) she wears a black dress, because politically (even though the Cold War has just ended and she's in Paris celebrating it) she's dead. The return to blue, in her late years, is not the same blue as she wore in her younger years: the blue of her youth was wisdom she received from others and believed in, but the blue of old age is the wisdom of experience, her experience, and if we are wise, we will listen and learn.
Post Scriptum: If you would like to know more about the Falkland Island war, I can't think of anyone better to inform you about it than Peter and Dan Snow. Below is one of six parts on the Falkland Islands:
To watch the rest of the show, please visit 20th Century Battlefields: The Falkland Islands where the rest of the show can be watched!
As a devout Catholic, I thought going into William Brent Bell's (writer and director) The Devil Inside would be about renegade priests going against the Vatican to do exorcisms, making up their own morality as they went along; it is about those things, but The Devil Inside also makes it clear that Fathers Ben (Simon Quarterman) and David (Evan Helmuth) have opened themselves up to possession because they have failed to exercise humility and obedience, and that's why critics and non-Catholics have hated the film, because it's so Catholic! We see many twisted bodies in unthinkable positions, bones breaking and utter disfigurements, and those are fabulous parables for what Frs. Ben and David (actors playing priests) are doing in “twisting” the body of teaching of the Church on exorcism. Bell artfully employs a variety of symbols and accurate depictions to convey to the audience the "state of the soul" of not only the (supposedly possessed) victims, but the priests, as well.
For my non-Catholic readers, please permit me to preface: there are people inside the Church who make mistakes and have even committed terrible sins and then tried to cover up those sins (the sexual abuse of children is obvious) but what the individuals in the Church do is different from the Church as the Bride of Christ, the visible Presence of Christ on earth for His flock. The Holy Spirit guides Christ's Church and it is only because of Jesus Christ that the Church has any power; for unity, Jesus invested His Authority to the Church and it is by that authority the Church can/is capable of casting out demons so the Church is careful how it delegates that authority. If you are interested in exorcisms, you can go to the film's website, The Rossi Files, and click on "Exorcisms," and you can also watch most of the "found footage" of the film here as well.
From the opening, at the "exorcism" of Maria Rossi in 1989, her basement. This is the body of a dead nun found by police at the scene of the attempted exorcism. The film makes it clear that the two priests and this nun, performing the exorcism on Maria Rossi, had not received permission from their bishop/the Vatican to do so. The priests were murdered just as brutally as the nun, still clutching her Rosary.
Having said that, the first few statements on the screen tells us that the Vatican in no way participated in the making of the film, after it tells us that the attempted exorcism of Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley) took place on October 30, 1989 and was not approved by her bishop or the Vatican. What's important about that? It's yet another film reaching back to the 1980's (Paranormal Activity, Killer Elite, The Thing, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, the upcoming Rock of Ages). The film is very good at playing off the public perceptions of Vatican ineptitude and bureaucracy and this is the laying out of that foundation, so it can trap us in it later.
Maria Rossi being taken away from the scene of exorcism and murder.
The police arrive, October 30, 1989, at Maria's home: to say the least, it is a hoarder's home. There is "disarray" everywhere (piles and piles of stuff, they can barely walk through the house), and the ill-kept state of the home reflects the ill-kept state of Maria's soul: she's held onto everything, has not cleaned anything and doesn't know how to discard what should not be kept which is a parable for her soul's inability to discern. A further interesting aspect of the "exorcism" is that it took place in the basement: symbolically, the basement is the place of the lower appetites, the place of our animal instincts and nature. It's not just Maria's animal instincts, but the lower passions of the clergy members as well that must be examined because, again, there was no authority to have this exorcism. (This is a relevant fact because the first victim, a priest, was found in the stairway--trying to gain a higher ground of thought, symbolically--but was attacked before he could escape; this same kind of thing is reflected in the ending with Father Ben and Isabella).
To read the article, please click on the image and it will expand for easier viewing. This is from the film, not an actual newspaper clipping, providing the synopsis and basis of the film. Maria Rossi's daughter, Isabella (Fernanda Andrade) has not seen her mother since she was 6 years old. She travels to Vatican City with film maker Michael to document what has happened to Maria and her current condition. While in the Vatican, Isabella goes to the Apostolic school for exorcism and meets Fathers Ben and David who are ordained priests and exorcists, but they have been conducting exorcisms on cases that have been expressly reviewed and determined not to be demonic possession and, therefore, not candidates for exorcism; Fathers Ben and David take it upon themselves to "heal" these cases by performing exorcisms without permission and authority from the Church; further, they take Isabella and the camera crew with them, thereby breaking even more canonical laws which forbid filming or recording exorcisms.
Why is authority necessary to perform an exorcism?
First, consider it a second opinion on the condition of a person. Priests are human beings who make mistakes; having to receive the approval of one's bishop is designed to insure the priest has not overlooked the possibility of mental illness or other physical/physiological condition. Secondly, when an exorcist/priest is allowed to use the Authority of the Church, that is the sending out of the Church's whole arsenal of weapons (the president, for example, has to have permission of Congress to send out the army) to do battle and the priest has to be spiritually advanced enough to know how to use those weapons and the counter attacks the demon(s) will use to remain inside the victim; the priest(s) also has to be able to endure the battle.
Michael Schaefer (Ionut Grama) who is the documentary film maker going to Italy with Isabella to research her mother's condition. Through most of the beginning of the film, we don't see Michael because he's behind the camera recording, but he contributed to a video diary before he and Isabella attend their first exorcism with Frs. Ben and David and doesn't seem to be "a believer" of the unseen world. Behind his right shoulder, the poster for Cracked, was his first film he made, but that never comes up in the film. As a film maker who records the unauthorized exorcisms, he is breaking canonical laws prohibiting the recording of exorcisms and I will discuss why that is important below.
But the most important reason is that the priest displays humility when he asks for permission and obeys the ruling of the bishop/ the Vatican even if the authority is wrong. If a priest is not willing to be obedient to the Church, the special power which comes to the Church through Christ's obedience, loses its power because the priest is then guilty of pride, and it is the priest's soul which is then endangered by performing an exorcism and becoming possessed himself.
This is what happens in The Devil Inside.
Father Ben Rawlings (Simon Quarterman) and Father David Keane (Evan Helmuth) in Rome, talking with Isabella about her mother and exorcisms. Although they have been attending the Vatican's official school for exorcism, they have been doing unauthorized exorcisms based on their own judgments. Father Ben's uncle was a priest and ordained exorcist and in the interview with cameraman Michael, he talks about his uncle telling him when he was a teenager that he was an exorcist and Fr. Ben said that was like finding out his uncle was superman; Ben was ordained an exorcist at age 27. Fr. David is a priest in one of Italy's many parishes and has training as a doctor which he uses in the "exorcisms" he and Ben perform.
If a priest does not respect the Church enough to respect its authority and decisions, he is not sufficiently advanced spiritually to do battle, and if he doesn't respect the Church, what in heaven does he think the demon is going to respect that will make him leave the victim when the priest is saying the prayers? This crosses into the priest believing in his own authority and power, not in Christ and the Church. In The Exorcist of 1973, Father Karras (a trained psychologist from Johns Hopkins) isn't even spiritually advanced enough to conduct the exorcism by himself, and even Father Merrin, an experienced exorcist, succumbs to the battle and dies. The Devil Inside references The Exorcist (the film makers know that the audience watching their film has probably seen The Exorcist as well, and unconsciously or not, we are drawing on that body of knowledge we attained from The Exorcist) during the exorcism of Rosa (Bonnie Morgan, who, by the way, is an expert contortionist and stunt woman, pictured below); the demon supposedly possessing her says, "The pig is mine," which varies only slightly from The Exorcist when Regan's demon says, "The sow is mine" (for more, please see my post The Exorcist: Absent Fathers).
Isabella Rossi (Fernanda Andrade), the daughter of Maria Rossi; Isabella hasn't seen her mother since she was 6 years old. She tells Michael that it was only a couple of years ago that her father revealed it was during an exorcism that her mother killed those three people, then her father died three days later. A priest being interviewed (an actor, not a real priest) tells us that Maria Rossi has had seven different diagnoses of what her condition is. In this shot, Isabella is about to enter the Centrio Hospital for the criminally insane in the Vatican and see her mother. After Isabella sees her mother and is unable to "connect" with her, she visits the Apostolic Academy where the Vatican's school for exorcism is.
Isabella goes to the hospital for the criminally insane in Italy to see her mother. What happens? Dr. Costa, who is Maria's primary doctor, shows Isabella footage of Maria walking to a wall and banging her head against the wall so violently that she causes herself to start bleeding. After warnings and describing how heavily sedated they have to keep Maria to keep her calm, Isabella (with Michael on camera) enter to see Maria. Within Maria's room, you instantly notice the beautiful drawings she has done (rather like Hannibal Lector in his prison cell in Silence of the Lambs). The drawings are all of beautiful elements of medieval Church architecture: capitols and arches that verify Maria knows what a good Catholic is (the building of the Church symbolizes the soul of the devout and faithful, strong in their knowledge of Christ) but cannot bear to hear any talk of religion or faith without flying into a rage.
Maria Rossi in the hospital when Isabella visits her. There is something interesting about Maria: she's still wearing a wedding band, so, at least symbolically, she's "wedded" to something.
The footage of Isabella's visit is important because that's what Frs. Ben and David use to determine for themselves that she is possessed and neurological science can't help her. Maria, although Isabella never told her this, tells Isabella, "You shouldn't have killed your child, its against God's will you know," and Isabella confides later that she terminated a pregnancy after the doctor told her she couldn't carry the baby to term; Isabella isn't married, so this means that she was having sexual relations outside marriage and she is using the doctor has an excuse not to confess her sin of abortion so Isabella's in a state of mortal sin and this is why Isabella can become possessed herself, she's not in a state of Grace.
Father David with Isabella (far left) and the medical equipment he uses.
This is the reason why the Catholic Church does not permit the recording of exorcisms. As Isabella and Michael leave Maria's hospital room, Michael says, "Oh, that was great stuff." The condition of Maria is being sensationalized according to a standard Michael has of what is "great stuff" (like the trailer teasing audience members with "great stuff" of supernatural encounters) and, not only does this invade Maria's privacy, it invites the commentary of the uninformed like Frs. Ben and David who want to decide for themselves. Demonic possession, when it is real, is a dirty, dirty war, and the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, which inspired the writing of The Exorcist, details how the devil will use any means to win and spread possession, which is exactly what happens in The Devil Inside.
St. Gianna Beretta Molla pictured with her two children. The Catholic saint was also a doctor and, when she became pregnant and was told by her doctor that either her or the baby would not make it through the delivery, Gianna told the doctor to save the baby instead of herself. This is the standard for Catholics but not what Isabella does, killing the baby and sacrificing it and then not even confessing it.
Meeting up with Frs. Ben and David after seeing her mother, they review the footage and Frs. David and Ben decide that Maria is probably possessed although her doctors and the Vatican will not perform an exorcism, Dr. Costa claims she has brain pattern disturbances and is a very "complex patient," not having had any violent outbursts in seven years. Isabella, on the other hand, is basically determined to get her mother an exorcism.
Footage of Rosa viewed in the exorcism class (because an exorcism wasn't taking place, it was allowed to film her behavior); although her basic criteria fulfilled all 4 prerequisites for possession, the Vatican ruled that she was not possessed and would not authorize an exorcism. This is the girl (below) whose exorcism Isabella attends.
Frs. Ben and David explain that what they are doing is not sanctioned by the Vatican and Rosa was not approved for exorcism. Why would the Vatican not approve someone for exorcism who was showing signs of demonic possession? Two reasons: first, while a demon might be harassing a person, that doesn't mean they are actually possessed and two, it is the Lord who determines who will be exorcised and who won't. Jesus said to the Apostles, there are some demons who can only be cast out by prayer and fasting; not only is the abstinence from food/drink fasting, but humility is a form of fasting (you abstain from doing your will), and these two “priests” have failed to recognize that, using instead the more obviously powerful weapons, the sacramentals (Holy Water, Crucifix, their stoles, etc.). If the priests don't have faith in God to save His own people, they don't have faith in God; God will maximize a situation to bring the greatest good possible from it, and that includes to the priest's soul as well.
Rosa (Bonnie Morgan) a young woman who Frs. Ben and David believe is demonically possessed although her application for exorcism was denied by the Vatican; they have been attempting to exorcise her and bring Isabella and Michael. Her twisted and deformed body is an apt illustration for what Ben and David do in twisting the teaching of the Church to justify going on their own.
The Devil Inside claims there are over 800 satanic cults in Italy alone (I am researching this number but have not been able to verify it). Introducing satanic cults is important because, as in The Exorcist, it brings up the issue of the "victim" inviting the devil to take possession of them and, in the exorcism of Rosa, it appears that this MIGHT be the case. When Rosa is being "exorcised," she begins profusely bleeding between her legs, as if she's having a heavy menstrual cycle or, even that her hymen has been broken; this is pure speculation, but the demon "possessing" her calls her a "pig," which means Rosa has been giving into some appetite and it could be sexual. It's possible (again, this is purely speculative) the bleeding results from an incubus; an additional possible factor of this is, like Maria's exorcism in the opening, Rosa's exorcism is taking place in the basement (in The Exorcist, it was in the basement that Regan was contacting Captain Howdy).
Father Ben and Isabella when they tell her that they have been doing exorcisms without authority and invite her to Rosa's exorcism. On the board behind them are photographs of people who have been rejected as candidates for exorcism by the Vatican and Ben and David are trying to help.
It's doubtful that Ben, David and Isabella become possessed at this point, but Ben entering into conversation with the demon is the breaking of one of the cardinal rules of an exorcism, because that gives the devil control (if the devil is in fact present). If the priest is guilty of one sin, he is probably guilty of others, and this all comes out when they decide to "exorcise" Maria.
Trying to exorcise Maria Rossi.
While Ben, David, Michael and Isabella try exorcising Maria, she falls asleep during the exorcism. Ben says that this is the first time that has happened to him, but the truth is, the devil can sleep because Ben, Michael, David and Isabella have all ready done the devil's work for him. It's at this time that the four of them become possessed by the four demons supposedly possessing Maria (well, it's not as clear if Ben is actually possessed the way the other three clearly are). At this time, Father David and Isabella start showing signs that they are possessed (demonic transference, supposedly, the demons have left Maria and entered into David and Isabella). I think it's to Ben that Maria says, "You don't get back into God's good graces after what you did," and the question is (but never answered), what did Ben do? It might be the exorcisms, but it could also have something to do with his uncle, who had been an exorcist.
At David's and Ben's apartment, David's nose starts bleeding, supposedly from the stress of them being found out, yet the bleeding nose may also symbolize the "stench of sin" rising up in David's soul because he's possessed at this point. Isabella walks into a dark kitchen and sees David at the table eating, in the dark. After she exits the kitchen, Fr. David turns the light back off and continues eating. Symbolically, it's really not him eating in the dark, rather, it's an illustration that something within him is eating on him in the dark places of his soul. This is consistent with what we know of demons: they seize on a sin (the darkened place of a soul) and use it to their own advantage. This clip below is after Father David has become "possessed" and is supposed to baptize an infant, nearly drowning it instead (you might not want to watch it at all):
After the murder/baptism that Michael had been filming, Isabella is alone in the apartment and she has turned on one of Michael's cameras and talks to it: "I would like to turn this camera around," Isabella says, "and ask Michael what was it like when your mother f***ed your father's best friend" and so Isabella now demonstrates (by having knowledge of something Michael probably never told her about) that she is demonically possessed. At that moment, Father David and Michael come in and David goes "upstairs," and Michael tells Ben and Isabella about the baptism. They hear a loud crash and the lights go out.
Father David worrying about the consequences of what they have done and losing his job when the Vatican discovers what they have done because Ben wants to show the Holy See the video they took in Maria's hospital room.
Symbolically, we can say that the “crash” is the noise of warning not to go ahead with unauthorized exorcisms which the group had been doing; the lights going out is the Light of God leaving them because they went their own way not His Way which is the way of lowliness and humility. Fr. Ben, Isabella and Michael go upstairs and see Fr. David, his eyes rolled back into his head and his arms bleeding (slashed or punctured, it is hard to tell which). The reason his eyes are completely white is in juxtaposition to the earlier “exorcisms” when Frs. Ben and David were measuring pupil dilation to determine if the victim was in a supernatural state. Because Fr. David failed to “see” what his intellect and training in the priesthood told him, he lost the ability to see completely. His arms are bleeding because arms symbolize strength, and his strength was the Church, its Teachings and his obedience to Jesus Christ; in foregoing all these things by conducting unauthorized exorcisms, he lost his strength.
Father David in a state of possession.
The three of them run back downstairs as police arrive to arrest David for attempted murder of the infant and they go up, armed, to try and take David and David gets one of their guns, putting it inside his mouth. David tries praying the Our Father but forgets the rest of the words (it's important what part of the prayer David can't remember, but I was so upset I couldn't watch) then, before pulling the trigger, David says to Ben, "He says to say thank you," and he pulls the trigger and instantly dies. "He" of course is "the beast" they speculated on was possessing Maria and the reason he says "thank you" is because, instead of delivering people from the devil, Ben and David have delivered people to the devil.
Father Ben. It's important to note that both Frs. Ben and David smoke; it's an act of knowing, self-destruction (the inhalation of tar) and it references that, just as smoking kills, so doing unauthorized exorcisms gets you ex-communicated.
Isabella goes into a seizure and Ben and Michael get her to the hospital. Ben then has his moment of "going up the stair way," like I mentioned at the beginning of this post: he calls his exorcism instructor, Fr. Gallo and asks for help, but it's too late, Isabella is in a hospital room and she has all ready killed a nurse. Ben and Michael get her out of the hospital and into the car and are trying to get to Fr. Gallo's, and it is clear that Isabella is possessed. Isabella, in the car, tells Ben about David, "You wanted him to die, you know me, everyone knows me," and as Isabella and Ben struggle in the back, Michael, who has been driving, takes off his seat belt, accelerates and wrecks the car, killing all three passengers.
And that's where it ends.
Ben and Isabella in the backseat before they wreck. A bit earlier, when Isabella found out that Rome would not release her mother to return to the states, Isabella couldn't find her keys, symbolically, she lost the "keys of the kingdom," and this is the real moment when Isabella decides to go against the Church (which has the keys given to St. Peter) and do whatever she sees fit to "help" her mother.
Michael, the cameraman, is literally the "driving force" of these exorcisms because, deep down inside, they want their victories recorded and documented and the authorities over them to be publicly embarrassed and shown up (Ben says that he can have Maria's exorcism video online and a 1,000 people on the Vatican lawn the next day protesting that they won't give her an exorcism). You're probably saying, if the Vatican is right and Maria isn't possessed, then how did demonic transference take place to David, Ben, Isabella and Michael? Again, the devil can appear in a situation even though he's not possessing someone (think in terms of battle strategy) and because each of these people, in their own ways, had opened themselves up to being possessed, the devil can enter without ever having been in possession of Rose or Maria.
Audiences have actually been booing the ending of the film, which had a record opening weekend but has dropped off severely in sales since last week; why? Given the popularity of exorcism films coming out, including The Exorcism of Emily Rose and The Rite (neither of which I have seen), it appears that people want a taste of the supernatural without going to Church on Sunday; it also appears, that given how orthodox The Devil Inside is, general audiences have a definite idea of how fantastic they want their exorcism films to be and who the hero should be. If you are Christian, especially Catholic, don't fret that the film is heretical because it's not, and that's what has audiences and critics so upset.
This weekend I saw The Devil Inside and it wasn't what I thought it was going to be at all, and I mean that in a very good way! I also saw Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady and, let me tell you, it was a sold out showing on a Saturday afternoon (which I was not expecting) and I wasn't even the youngest person in the audience (which I was expecting); it was wonderful, and even though I am not a fan of Meryl Streep, she was fantastic! She received the Golden Globe for her performance and she truly deserves it! I have those two reviews done and will be getting them up today and tomorrow!
Well, these are just selections of the Best of the Best: when there is a lot of divergence amongst the various awarding groups (as there have been so far thus) it demonstrates, again, all the incredible films which have been released; the nominations for the Oscars will be announced January 24 and I will post them asap, but you can tell that the differences between the Golden Globes--even just in the body of nominations--differs radically from the Critics Choice awards so it will be very interesting to see what is nominated for Hollywood's top honors!
The Tree Of Life testifies to the great potential of a writer also getting to direct their material and realize his complete vision as Terence Malik does in this extraordinarily deep film. What's so great about it? That finally, the abyss of silence is being tapped by film makers and being given a leading role in modern art.
The film opens with the quote from Job 38: 4, 7: Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? . . When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? If this verse turns you off, then don't watch the film; if this verse inspires you, and you haven't seen it, watch it as soon as you can, but be prepared for an unorthodox film experience, because this is one of the most experimental (but still mainstream) films I have ever seen. And I mean "experimental" in the very best, theological sense: the images, the sounds and the conflicts all work to build a definite but intimate and real theology, a genuine encounter with God and each other, especially those who have hurt us.
The O'Brien family (part of it): Jessica Chastain as Mrs. O'Brien (Mother), Brad Pitt as Mr. O'Brien (Father) and Hunter McCracken as young Jack O'Brien (as his adult self he is played by Sean Penn). Jack has two younger brothers, R.L. and Steve, and R.L. dies when he is 19.
Many critics have had a difficult time "describing" the film, mostly labeling it (in positive and negative reviews alike) as "aesthetic." This is partly true, our spiritual state is mostly subjective, however, the film definitely climbs, like a vine, upon the sturdy framework of theology and the common teachings of Christianity. Mr. O'Brien (Father, Brad Pitt) clearly shows us the path of "nature" and the appetites; his desire is for wealth and recognition, to "be loved because his is a big man" and an important man and these desires create for him a disposition difficult (to say the least) for his sons to live with.
Jessica Chastain as Mrs. O'Brien (Mother). Her husband calls her naive.
The diametrical opposition to Mr. O'Brien is his wife, played by Jessica Chastain, who gives us the picture of a life of grace, a hard life, but a life that seeks to unite itself with God. A somewhat startling indication of this is when we see Mrs. O'Brien floating beneath a tree, being raised up and lifted, whirling around. Many critics have focused on this scene as a perfect example of why the film is "weird," yet it's perfectly in step with tradition: a heart not burdened by sin is "lifted up to God," and despite her grieving for her son (the middle child, R.L. dies when he is 19) she is still able to lift up her heart to God and accept what has happened even as she grieves and experiences intense pain.
Mr. O'Brien at the piano with his second son, R.L. out on the porch playing his guitar. There is an aspect of Brad Pitt's character that I noticed in several shots, and perhaps it's just me, but it seems that the most photographed man in the world was intentionally doing something to his lower lip in the film to alter his appearance in some scenes, especially profile shots. If it is not just my imagination, it was an effective means of illustrating how "unnatural" his words to his children are in the story because the lips are used in speech, and for the lip to be deformed means that his words are deformed, i.e., "Give your father a kiss," when he says it in the film, there is an aspect of the repugnant because it seems demanding and manipulative, not loving and familial.
Mr. O'Brien, on the other hand, wanted to be a musician, but denied himself that dream. What is so sad is, he didn't just deny himself that dream, but he thwarted God's plan for him. It is the desire of the heart by which God leads us to fulfill our destiny and the purpose for which we were created; the fulfilling of our heart's desire is the act of a Father's love for His child. That Mr. O'Brien denied God by denying his desire to become a musician, and denied the gift of music he was given, Mr. O'Brien, not having experienced the love of God the Father cannot give the genuine, full expression of his fatherly love to his three sons (he tries to, but because he didn't learn how to be a father from the Father, he fails at being a father).
Why does Mr. O'Brien grow cabbages? The Roman Emperor Diocletian also grew cabbages after his retirement from the last and bloodiest persecution of Christians in history. There is an important scene when Jack stands outside the fence shown in the picture above, and watches his father in his nice suit squatting in the garden and pulling out the rotted cabbage leaves from where the worms had eaten them; but the whole of each cabbage has been eaten by worms. Because the garden is a stable symbol for the soul (the Garden of Eden and the Garden of Olives, for example) the seeds which Mr. O'Brien has sown "has been eaten by the worm," a symbolic reference to hell and the book of Revelations.
Whereas the three boys see their father as a hypocrite, they all seem to adore their mother, Mrs. O'Brien, who adores them. It's not that the father is bad and the mother is good, but the nurturing love which a mother provides is craved by all of us, especially when it's a matter of the hard lessons of the Cross we must learn instead of the sweet consolations of the Spirit for which we long, which brings us to perhaps the most enigmatic part of the film.
Jack O'Brien becomes like his father despite Jack's hatred of him.
Jack enters the Kimball's house, a neighbor, after they have left; the front door is open so he goes in. He wanders around and then goes upstairs; opening the drawers, he finds jewelry, including a pearl bracelet, and he handles a brush and a hand-mirror, then takes out several dress slips, holding them up and laying them out on the bed, then he takes one of them and leaves the house. He runs down to the river and first puts the slip under a board, but as a boat whizzes by, he takes the slip and puts it in the water where it floats away downstream.
Why did he steal the slip and what does it mean?
Mother, Mrs. O'Brien, walking through a salt desert (the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah, I think?). The reason this is an apt spiritual journey for one living in a state of grace is twofold: first, the rough ways have been made smooth, there is no hindrance to her walking her path of life (no rocks to divert her path or make her trip) and secondly, she has fulfilled Christ's command to be the "salt of the earth,": she has preserved in her heart all the teachings of the Lord to get her through her troubles, such as her son's death, but she has not preserved the grief and pain she has experienced in life (salt is a preservative and it's an apt parable for what our heart chooses to hold onto or let go of and how that effects our spiritual development). The overall bluish hue of the setting symbolizes wisdom.
It's not a mere device to show the wounds of Original Sin and how, if we are not actively living a life of grace we are digressing and those wounds are taking over more and more of our soul. Rather, it shows what we all do everyday: wish for someone else's life. The Kimball's house symbolizes their soul (as I have discussed many times, please see "House" in How To Eat Art) and Jack going into it illustrates for us Jack wanting to be a member of the Kimball household rather than his own (despite the fights he witnesses taking place there). That the front door is unlocked shows us how easy it is to do, to fantasize of being someone or something else than what we are. His going up the stairs, again, represents entering a higher plane of thought, so he's really deliberating on what it would be like to be, for example, as wealthy as they are. When Jack gets to the upstairs bedroom, what he does and doesn't do are the important characteristics to examine.
Jack as an adult (Sean Penn) with his wife. This scene is cut from the final film, however, when we first see Jack as an adult, he and his wife in their bedroom, it is obvious that they are drifting apart. Mrs. O'Brien, his wife, does something strange. She goes down the stairs of the very nice, expensive looking modern home, and she comes back in with a long, green vine. "I am the vine and you are the branches," Christ said, so for her to go out and bring it inside means she is stepping outside of their marriage (the house) and bringing in Christ (the vine). The house, as I noted, is very modern looking, like the area where Jack works: very industrialized and modern, clean straight lines and every compartmentalized. We are intentionally led into this "sterile" house so, when Jack walks through the wilderness (pictures below) we can see how, not only the lines, but the whole atmosphere creates the discourse between the industrialized and nature, between the artificially straight and clean and the beauty and mystery of the natural.
Jack doesn't have to steal anything.
He isn't doing this as a dare from a friend or anything like that; he picks up objects, such as a brush, but a brush isn't what he wants because a brush is an act of discipline (the hair illustrates a state of mind, that's why Mother O'Brien is always "combing" the boys' hair with her fingers, to remind them of her love for them); Jack picks up a pearl bracelet but puts it back, it doesn't seem to fit. Pearls are always a gem of wisdom, the fruit of contemplation ("Cast not your pearls before swine") and because these pearls are meant to be worn on the wrist, a symbol of strength, Jack doesn't want them, he doesn't want his strength to come from wisdom, like his dad, Jack wants power, money and influence.
Jack in the office; I believe this image, too, was cut from the final film, however, the mask to Jack's left is dropped into water; the social mask which not only keeps others from us, but keeps us from our true self, must be let down because it also keeps us from growing. That it is dropped in water refers, of course, to grace, and the cleansing which we receive when we have "given up our idols" and turned to the Lord "with our whole heart," not allowing any of it to be hidden beneath a mask protecting us.
So why does Jack take the slip?
The slip is the intimate clothing of a woman (a few scenes later, we see Mrs. O'Brien in her bedroom in her slip) and so it is Jack wanting the kind of consolation from God (the Holy Spirit) that God gives to the Kimballs because Jack's mother is the one who gives him the nurturing love he needs, wants and craves, but, as he hangs around his friends and increasingly does "bad things," (breaking windows with stones, for example) he wants to have what God has given to another, and rejects what God has given to him. So he takes the slip because he is revolting against how hard his father is being on him and wants more of his mother's love instead.
A room submerged in water; the door opens and Jack swims out of the room. It's not only his childhood memories, but that part of him that has stayed a child and refused to grow up; the part of him who has refused to go through the doorways where the Holy Spirit has tried to lead him on his way. In this scene, we have a perfect illustration of water as a destructive element: he would drown if he didn't get out, but throughout the film are also the examples of water as life-giving and the element of God's Grace, life to the soul.
Yet Jack instantly knows, running to the river, that he has betrayed himself (not only because he has committed a crime) but because he has tried to become someone else (entering into the Kimball home). He puts the slip, first under the board, because he's suffering for what he has done (the board is a piece of the Cross and the sufferings of Jesus Christ upon the Cross) so, because his "fantasies" of being like the Kimballs instead of his own family, he realizes that he has sinned, he has committed a spiritual crime against himself and, by putting it in the river, he abandons those fantasies but abandoning the fantasy isn't enough because, a little later, Jack repeats to his father something he heard when Mr. and Mrs. Kimball were fighting one night, that Mr. O'Brien can throw Jack out of the house at any time. So, Jack tries to repent of the spiritual envy he has committed in longing for the gifts that God has given to another, and sacrificed the gifts that God has given to him, but the wounds of his actions are still there in his soul.
Mr. O'Brien with his second son, R.L. who dies when he is 19. R.L. and Jack are close and one day, Jack holds a lamp and wants R.L. to stick the end of a wire into the socket of the lamp, then stick his finger. R.L. tells Jack, "I trust you," and he does it and nothing happens. Later, after Jack has stolen the slip, the two boys are playing in the woods and Jack tells R.L. to put his finger over the end of his loaded air gun; R.L. does it and Jack fires, seriously hurting R.L.'s finger. Trying to make up, it's only after Jack apologizes to R.L. that he can be forgiven, yet Jack refuses to forgive his father.
Jack, "playing" with his friends, throws stones through an old window, shattering the glass. This is important because it demonstrates for us exactly how that process of free will is involved in the "turning away" from God. The windows are, of course, self-reflection and the gift of meditation; because the Bible uses the imagery of rocks to denote "hardness of heart" and sin, then the rocks are the accumulation of sins which Jack commits that erodes his ability to meditate and pray (as he prays in the beginning but loses the ability to do throughout the film).
The spiritual desert the older Jack finds his soul in later in life. On the very edge of the right of this picture is a door frame; the door is especially a favorite device of the monk Thomas Merton, and James Finley's The Palace of Nowhere is a mystical summary of the writings of Merton which are highly applicable to The Tree of Life. This barren and rocky desert Jack realizes his soul is in differs from the salt "desert" his mother is in (pictured above) because the large rocks (pictured above) represent the sins of his life and how much work has to be done to make level the ground to prepare the Way for the Lord, but his entering through the doorway means that he has committed himself to doing just that.
Doorways, in the film, symbolize free will, because each time we make a decision, we enter into a new path, through a doorway that takes us some place. That is what the film is about, beginning to end, our free will, which is God's greatest gift to us, and we either use it to benefit us and bring us closer to Him, or we use it to hurt ourselves and distance ourselves from Him. Jack, by the end of the film, has finally realized that he has wasted his life and, following his father who, at the church, had lit a red prayer candle for a prayer request (red is the color of love, so we can guess that he was praying for his family, like the prayers before the family meals he said, asking for God to bless them); Jack, however, lights a blue candle; why?
One of the many spectacular nature shots of the film. One reviewer wrote of all the nature scenes that we see a mother grieving for the loss of her son (Mother O'Brien grieving for the death of R.L.) and it's not supposed to be a big deal because the cosmos is so big and large, her and her grief are insignificant; but that's not the message, that's not the message at all. The violence, for example, of the erupting volcano, reflects in nature the spiritual state within us when we are "erupting" and being torn apart by grief, misery, unhappiness and loneliness. The point is, the same modes of creation we see in nature, the same beauty and mystery, God also uses in our own, private, individual souls. Looking at nature should ease the pain we feel of being the only ones who suffer, or questioning why I am the only one suffering; the violence within us is expressed by the natural violence around us, comforting us to see how, despite the destruction that seems to be taking place, God will bring a greater good from it, inside and outside of us.
Blue is either the color of wisdom (as with Mother O'Brien above in the salt desert) or it is the color of depression. Since Jack has not lived as he should, in the Lord's presence, we can guess that it is his general state of depression which has led him to pray to God once more and has him cultivating a spirit of meditation and self-examination, leading him back to "the Father."
"That's where God lives."
I truly consider this film to be a masterpiece, because it communicates what is rarely (if ever) communicated in film: the pain and longing of the soul, God speaking to the soul in our deepest selves, without using words, but using Love instead, how we respond to that Love and how we turn against that Love, and then how we desperately seek out that Love long after we have abandoned it. I hope this will be a film influencing other film makers in its great talent for speaking directly to the heart in the language it knows best: silence and stillness. (Not to mention the great music, including a long-time favorite of mine, the Lacrimosa movement from Zbigniew Preisner'sRequiemFor My Friend). The whole film is a prayer, and the numerous awards and honors it has received is very encouraging for the future of Hollywood.
While The Iron Lady does honor Margret Thatcher, it is only a veiled biography and I mean that in a good way. History films are never about history, as I have often said, and biographies are never biographies; the lessons and struggles certain people lived through and experienced, are the larger-than-life lessons and vehicles for discussions of how things should be done today; biographies are catalysts, but they are not biographies; they are vehicles for dialogue, but they are not biographies. I'm quite shocked by the accusations of the film being a "musical," so I would like to contend with that first.
