Easter Greetings!

I do hope that you had a blessed, happy Easter! I was sick in bed nearly all day. Oh, well, I will be getting up my post on The Passion of the Christ today, sorry about the wait, but it couldn't be overcome. Again, Easter greetings and blessings!

The Ten Commandments & the Law of the Wilderness

In 1956, there was a strike going on in Hollywood, at the same time director Cecil B. DeMille was trying to make his epic of epics, The Ten Commandments, which is the reason why, in film criticism circles, The Ten Commandments is held up as a great example of why who controls the labor force is so important, which was a struggle not only between DeMille and the unions, but is expressed within the film between Ramses (Yul Brynner) and God (Himself). Who controls the labor force today is still a pertinent question, because every day, we have to ask ourselves do we make bricks for Ramses, or do we labor for God?

The Hebrew pattern of the cloth is what identifies the Levites as the shepherds of Israel. The red color is for the Love of God they bear, that they love God above all their things. The black stripe is for death to their own senses so they can be alive to the calling of God and the white is for their faith, purity and innocence, for they cannot shepherd others if they have no faith themselves.

The film is a marvelous example of structure, and how tensions in one scene are pre-empting the tensions of the next scene; if we see a symbol being used regarding one person, we will see it employed in the exact opposite way for another. Of course, these are wonderful reasons to watch the film, but more importantly, is DeMille's own faith and belief that he and Charlton Heston (Moses) poured into their work to give the world a story that would move us and inspire us to follow Moses into the desert to find God within ourselves.

Throughout the story, there are always two women pulling on Moses, one tempting him with the world, the other acknowledging the yearning within himself for that which is greater than himself. We can identify with it because the same struggle is within ourselves, the pulling upon us of the world and the yearning for our heavenly homeland. When God created Light and separated it from the darkness, He also created a people for Himself and separated them from all other people, those who would follow the Light.

DeMille realized how necessary it was to establishing the high-stakes of the film with the lavish costume and set designs, so when Moses enters the Wilderness, we have a sense of what he has given up and left behind, and how much more valuable that is which he searches for. Without seeing the luxuries of the court enjoyed by the social class which has taken Moses into its own, we wouldn't be able to recognize the temptations in our own life which we must abandon so we can be free of the chains and shackles to embrace Christ. What are the girls talking about? Getting a man, which is exactly what the daughters of Jethro will talk about when we first meet them, and in both circumstances, it's the discovering of Moses that follows the discussion, emphasizing (as Joshua will say after Moses comes down from Mt. Siani) that Moses is a man, but he is more than a man because God is with him as He has not been with any other man up to that point.

But because of sin, "each sought to do his will," instead of the Will of God, and this is the difference we will see between Moses and Joshua (John Derek): when Moses stands upon Holy Ground, the Lord has him remove both his shoes; when Joshua (in the Bible, not the film) stands upon Holy Ground, the Lord has him remove only one shoe. The feet symbolize the will, for Moses to remove both shoes means that he has completely removed any impediments to God using Moses as his instrument, God can use Moses completely; Joshua removes only one shoe because God will not use Joshua as fully as He did Moses and not require as much from Joshua as was required of Moses.
But to the story...

Bithia's empty heart leads her to pray for a son; it's reasonable to deduce that, because of her incredible faith in God (even though she does no know Him) she is rewarded and that her faith is passed on to Moses through her example (when Moses returns from Ethiopia, he tells Bithia, "Yours is the first face I look for and the last I find," and Bithia tells him she was thanking the gods for his safe return, and that kind of devotion would have been passed onto Moses, which we see throughout the film illustrated by his wisdom. We see Bithia among the reeds, for example, because even though she is Pharaoh's daughter, she is humble (reeds are associated with humility) and when we learn that her husband is dead, it makes sense, all that we have just deduced, because her husband is symbolic of  the world and worldly ambitions

"Chains have been forged into swords before now, Divine One," an astrologer tells the Pharaoh. For Christians, the state sanctioned slaughtering of the newborn in the time of Moses, again at Christ's birth and today in abortion mills is as great a crime today as then. Why is there a star? Hope. We could say that if the star foretelling Moses' birth had not appeared, all those children would not have died, Moses would have grown up amongst his own people... but the Lord works in strange and mysterious ways, and in His Wisdom, He knew what He was doing, perhaps because of the glory it would bring to Him that Moses would turn down all the riches of Pharaoh's court (as Jesus Himself would renounce Satan after His fast in the Wilderness) but also because He desired Moses to be an example to the Israelites--as Christ is an example for us--of turning aside form the world to follow God onto unknown paths.

Yochabel and little Miriam sending Moses along his way. You recognize immediately the resemblance to Noah's Ark as the trusting mother, inspired by God, tries to save her son, and then when Bithia commands Memnet to "sink the ark" Bithia herself has become the ark to save God's chosen, just as the ark saved Noah and his family. Later, when Moses has gone into the mud pits and Nefretiri has found him, she tells an overseer that she needs a new oarsman for her bark (ship), but Nefretiri will not be a ark for Moses, but (as Moses points out) the "lovely dust" God chooses to work out his will.

One of the greatest lines from the film--if not THE greatest line--is, "So let it be written, so let it be done."  Why? An earthly king expects his commands and decrees to be obeyed; as surely as the king orders it to be written, so he expects all his subjects to adhere to it, upon penalty of death. God, however, writes the Ten Commandments with His own Hand, and no one obeys them, but death is still the penalty. The film presents us with the stumbling blocks of our free will, and how we adhere to the state, that has no interest in us outside of taxes, and yet our own father desires Life for us and we heed Him not. If only following the word of God was as easy as it being written, but it's not enough to just know the Law; so we will value what we do know, what God has taught us, we are shown a world where not even that Law existed.

It's not just that Bithia opens the basket and sees a baby; Bithia opens her heart and sees her own desire; Bithia opens her heart and sees her destiny in life. This is what happens to each of us when God has "called us by Name," called us to fulfill His purpose and intent for us in this life, because we see what our heart has longed for and recognize it as what we want and need to fulfill our life.

There is a reason why we first see Moses as the "conqueror of Ethiopia," because it will lead to his making a far greater conquest: himself. When Moses sees Sethi, Moses embraces his earthly father figure with both his hands, just as Bithia embraced the infant Moses and Sethi embraced him, as Joshua uses both his arms to strike the Egyptian to save Yochabel, as his father-in-law Jethro will embrace him and as God will embrace him and Moses will embrace God. There is also a possible reference to a future event the film will not cover: Moses' second wife after the death of Sephora. Moses remarries a woman from Ethiopia, which the princess of Ethiopia might symbolize, and that marriage, in the Bible, foreshadows the Bride that Jesus Christ will take for as His own, the Church.

Arms symbolize our strength and from where our strength comes. Moses is stronger than Ramses because Moses' strength comes from his heart, whereas Ramses' strength comes from his power and position. Moses embraces his "father" with both arms, just as both those arms will later be pinned back upon the binding pole of a slave.

As Moses enters the palace of Pharaoh, a priest recites all Moses' names and titles, and Sethi exclaims under his breath, "Windbag," and again when the priest is praying as Sethi is about to die. This wonderful tie-in between the two scenes provides the audience with a comparison that might otherwise elude us were DeMille not so intent upon our own involvement with the film: all these titles are passing, and we too shall pass, like the dust of the pyramids.

A wonderful way of comparing the women and what they represent in the film is the scene with Yochabel about to get smashed between the rocks. Yochabel putting grease under the stone to help it move can be symbolized as her love and prayers being the "grease" to help Moses (a rock foreshadowing Christ the Cornerstone) to move from Egypt to Goshen; Yochabel herself can be taken as a symbol of Israel, "caught between the stones" of bitter bondage of Egypt (Nefertiri tells Moses earlier, "I am Egypt!" and we should take her at her word) and God not hearing their prayers (although He has heard). When Yochabel tells Moses, "I had not the strength to free myself," we should take this two ways: first, that Yochabel is Israel and Israel does not have the strength to free itself from Egyptian rule; secondly, that she does not have the strength to free herself from the bondage of sin.

All the references to Dathan (Edward G. Robinson) to a rat and ferret illustrates for us what serving the world does to us: it turns us into animals.

While Moses can free himself from sin, he can't free anyone else, and this is why there must be a future Messiah that must come, one strong enough to be able to free people from sin; this is illustrated by Moses giving the temple grain to Israel, he can give grain, but Moses himself is not the Bread of Life. Moses can give a day of rest, but he cannot institute the Sabbath as God's Law can. Moses can build a worldly city, but he cannot build the heavenly city of Zion. DeMille does a wonderful job of showing us all the Moses can do, so we have a better understanding of what he couldn't do, and why that was still left for the Messiah to achieve (which we will see in our next post on The Passion of the Christ). 

Sethi and Nefreretii playing hounds and jackals. This scene foreshadows how she will "play a game" of state between Ramses and Moses, cheating one moment and sacrificing the next, thinking she's smarter than everyone else and carrying only about getting what she wants, like Scarlett O'Hara and her men in Gone With the Wind.

It's a sad situation when Memnet comes to tell Neferiti that Moses is a Hebrew slave. What happens in this scene, again, foreshadows what will happen in later scenes. When Neferiti pushed Memnet through the window (over the balcony), it symbolizes reflection; it appears that Moses being a Hebrew slave doesn't effect her, she "loves him" and still wants to marry him, throwing herself later at his feet when he's naught but a condemned slave; but it's odd, isn't it, that the Hebrew cloth Memnet drops is right there at her feet as she ascends those stairs and she doesn't see it but Moses does? She wants Moses to see it, because it does bother her, and she wants Moses to tell her it's not true. As with all of Nefertiri's plotting, it does backfire. While Nefertii pushes Memnet through the window of reflection--that Memnet is willing to die for her cause to keep a slave off the throne of Egypt--because Nefertiri does not reflect (go through the window) she herself dies.
In killing a slave, Nefertiri becomes a slave herself.

Moses goes into question Bithia, and the beads she strings together symbolizes the lies she has "strung together" to keep up the facade of who she wants Moses to really be, a prince of Egypt. When Moses leaves her room, Bithia stands quickly and her chair falls over; this isn't bad acting, coincidence or bad directing, Bithia's authority (her throne) has been overturned because Moses now knows that she is not his mother, and with the loss of her motherhood, she loses her authority, which her chair symbolizes. The opposite of this is true when Moses sees Yochabel.

We don't realize that Yochabel is sick in this scene, but she dies when Moses is in jail. Yochabel and the old mud dancer both get to see Moses, the deliverer of Israel, just before their deaths (just like Simeon and Anna see Jesus just before their deaths) to reassure us that all God has promised will come to be.

Throughout this scene, Yochabel stays seated because she has re-gained her authority as Moses' mother, and not just as his mother, but Israel as a country enslaved to Egypt as regained its dignity because God has heard their prayers, and the deliverer has taken the first step towards fulfilling his destiny. When Moses sees Yochabel, he says,  "You were the woman caught between the stones" because she's caught between the hardness of her bondage (and not wanting that for Moses) and her rock-solid faith in God that they will be delivered. "My son would be a slave."  Moses asks her, "Does this god demand a scarred back and broken hands as the price of his favor?" Yes, he does, because Jesus Himself would offer that to God.  "Look into my eyes and tell me you are not my mother," and she cannot, because upon both their souls, like the fabric of his Hebrew swaddling cloth, is the pattern of God's design for each of us, and Moses knows it and Yochabel knows it, and they recognize the pattern looking into each other's eyes.

This is a great shot because we know that it is Nefretiri who is covered with the mud of sin, whereas Moses is the one being cleansed; she thinks she is saving him from the mud pits, but Moses will not be able to save her from damnation. Nefretiri complains about being condemned to be Ramses, but she continuously chooses Ramses because she chooses the world and not God, she doesn't want Moses' God, only Moses.

One of the most controversial things in the Bible is when Moses murders the Egyptian, in this case, Baka (Vincent Price). In the Bible, we could say that the Egyptian is the part of Moses that wants to stay in Egypt, that's why Moses has to kill him and bury him within the sand, where nothing will grow (where Moses won't start nurturing memories of Egypt when things get tough and try to go backwards). In The Ten Commandments, Moses kills Baka because Baka has unlawfully taken Lilia, who symbolizes the future of Israel, and the tainting of Lilia (later by Dathan) symbolizes the Egyptian within Israel that can't be buried in the sand (as Moses does) but must die out from time and following God's word.

The rest of the film we will use as a comparative analysis for our next post, The Passion Of the Christ, because it provides a comparative analysis with the plagues and Christ's mission.

Lambert the Sheepish Lion & the Incarnation of Christ

Lambert the Sheepish Lion was held in such high regard when it was released, that the Disney film was nominated for an Oscar; why would it be considered a high spot of all the great films of 1952? Two reasons, at least: first, the United States was still slowly realizing the superpower it had become nearly overnight at the end of World War II, just like Lambert "snapping" and realizing that he was a lion there to defend the defenseless. The theme of one going from being "backwards" or of poor quality, to suddenly holding super-star status was typical of many 1950s (Breakfast At Tiffany's, Annie Get Your Gun). Viewing the United States as a lion suddenly emerging would have deeply resonated on the unconscious political scene at the time as a demonstration of what had happened and why the United States did the right thing in joining the war.

As compelling--and even complete--as this historical understanding seems, there is also another reason for the idea of a "sheepish lion" to have become so beloved: Lambert embodies the dual nature of Jesus Christ, as both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God. (There was another film made this same year, in which a great fighter tried to cover up who he really was and, like Lambert, it required a snap that made him realize he couldn't hide from who he has: John Wayne in John Ford's The Quiet Man).

The opening lines indicate that it's not just "Once upon a time," but exactly a spring night, and what happens during a spring night? Jesus Christ is resurrected from the dead and becomes the defender of the Children of God. The night is the time when the soul experiences its greatest trials, and in Biblical times, that was the "fullness of time" when all things had been especially prepared for the coming of the long-awaited Messiah.

The flock of Israel.

When the stork crashes into the trees, the trees indicate the Suffering of the Cross and how that "crashes" with our common sense; why would a king come to suffer for his people? Why would a king suffer at all? Why would God suffer for his people? But it also re-enforces the idea that the Suffering of the Cross and the Incarnation are the specific power of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ, because the stork, bearing babies (i.e., new life), is a symbol for the Holy Spirit, who is the Lord and Giver of Life.

Why do all the little lambs not choose the Mrs. Sheep for their mother? Her bell is more than a method of the audience readily identifying her; she is Mary, and Anna, the prophetess in the Temple, and Saint Anne, all those in Israel who longed for the deliverance by the Messiah and prayed and kept the Law of Moses so God would grant their prayer. That's why none of the new-born lambs choose her, those lambs are of the world, not the spirit, and her bell is a symbol of prayers (I had hoped to do bells during Christmas, but wasn't able to get to it so for now, I am afraid, you will have to trust me; but songs such as Silver Bells and the ringing of the bells in general, are invoking the power of prayer because of the sweet music they make to God).

When all the little lambs have been taken in by other sheep, Mrs. Sheep cries not only because she wasn't chosen, but because the Messiah still had not come. In Biblical times, virginity by a woman was to be mourned because it meant that she would not be the mother of the Messiah; Mrs. Sheep is not only sad about this, but because it means they will have to wait even longer.

Mr. Stork's comical bungling isn't funny at all: the Children of Israel were expecting a lamb who would be a lion in his heart, not a lion who would be a lamb, and that's an important distinction, because (like many of us still today) we would rather be a lamb with all the power in the world than to be a lion who chooses not to use that power. In political terms for Israel, they would not be delivered from their political enemies (the Romans) by fighting them like lions--as they were in the Old Days under God the Father and King David--but they would be delivered from their spiritual enemies, the demons, by the one who could subjugate the demons, God the Son.

Yes, lions are found in South Africa, not really in Israel, but there are references to lions, especially in the Psalms, when "young lions hunger and go for want" of food. Those young lions are the fallen angels, the demons who revolted against God. Like God they are immortal, but being created by God, they are younger than God, hence, they are "young," but they have an unending appetite for souls. Jesus, as the Lion of Judah, praises God and is thus able to overcome the young lions, because He is their natural superior in the physical and the spiritual world.

Lambert choosing Mrs. Sheep is then an obvious choice because Lambert ringing her bell means that God has answered her prayers: the Messiah has come. Unlike the Chief Priests and Scribes who want God and the Messiah to fit their image of what he would do and bring to Israel, Mrs. Sheep is wedded to God Himself, and is willing to accept what God sends to fulfill his purpose.

Lambert being with the little lambs and "not fitting in" offers an interesting commentary on what the hidden years of Christ's childhood might have been like for him growing up, as God and the Messiah, but also "hidden" in the form of a human. The rejection of Lambert reveals the constant rejection which Christ experienced even as a young boy growing up. When Mrs. Sheep licks his hair, it forms something of a crown, reminding Lambert of his great calling that he will have to answer to save her, and those making fun of him and rejecting him. We have heard the Scripture, "The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone supporting all the rest" and Disney's Lambert the Sheepish Lion provides us with an intimate view of the intimate pain Jesus willing experienced to be that "rejected stone" (because Satan offers us the stones that are pleasing to our eyes that we want to accept but are ultimately deadly to us).

Lambert being turned into a toy for his "brother lambs" to play with lets us know the way the Chief Priests of the Temple and the Scribes took his teachings, his words of wisdom, and turned them into objects of scorn (for example, in the Joyful Mystery of the Finding in the Temple, when Jesus is found talking/teaching the priests and they don't recognize him to be the Messiah, neither do the little lambs in the cartoon, in spite of the great size of Lambert).

It's important to remember, watching the cartoon, that all the complaints the lambs have against him, not enough wool for one bag, can't butt his head or bleat, are all worldly measures, and we ourselves go against the same "standards of measurement" when we are in the world and rejected.

Lambert being "yellow, through and through," is a sign--not of his cowardice--rather, of his great dignity (yellow is the color of gold, and gold is associated with kings, so his royal dignity is what is being invoked, even though he wants to fit in with those "less than himself," the little lambs).

"Drink from the pool by the way side" is what Lambert and his mother do in this shot, taking in the wisdom (the life giving water) that others choose not to do, so they are sustained to fulfill what God himself has decreed for them. The wisdom of the world would teach that Lambert doesn't fit in and that, as such, he should be driven out, but God knows (as we shall see with Moses in the next post on The Ten Commandments, that the one who doesn't fit in is the one who will become the pattern by which all others will be measured).

The "sheepish grin" of Lambert indicates his humility and meekness in being able to control his temper and not lash out at that who have hurt him

When the lambs are asleep, it symbolically means the sleep of spiritual sluggishness, they are not tending to their souls; Lambert is the first to awaken because he is tending to his soul, that's the reason he was born, to lead the children of God out of darkness that covers them now, in this moment. Lambert's fear when he sees the wolf is reminding us of Christ's own fear when he was called to undergo his passion, and how he didn't want to but he did t for love of God and love of us, regardless of the terror in his soul at doing so.

The moon rises in cycles, so the moon being full symbolically stands for the "fullness  of time" (since the last cycle had past) and the wolf standing on the rock is a sign of the hardness of heart of the lambs below (not tending to their souls or cultivating their virtue); Lambert is a rock, but a rock in his faith and righteousness, and that's why he can defeat the wolf who lives by his appetites.

The wolf stealing off Mrs. Sheep graphically illustrates for us the way Satan attacks the Church, the mystical spiritual body which God created, but was then born into as a man and now must defend from his mortal enemy. The prayers of Mrs. Sheep crying out clearly mimic the prayers of the Church today, still under so much attack, praying for the Second Coming and a new Deliverance from the enemies of our souls and the guardian of our soul, the Church.

What finally snaps inside Lambert is not suddenly finding his bravery, nor fear for himself, rather, the pleas of his beloved Church, his faithful, because the time to be the Lamb of God has passed, and the time for the Lion of Judah to enter has come. Only after the Lion has defeated its enemy the wolf, can the Lion lay beside the lamb and the two natures of Christ be reconciled in our little human minds. The fall of the wolf reminds us of the fall of Satan and how we can follow that way, or rejoice in the power of the Lion that we first come to know through the power of the Lamb.

The Peacock vs the Swan: Mirror, Mirror

(This post builds upon Walt Disney & the Brothers Grimm: A Comparative Analysis of Snow White). Tarsem Singh finds himself in an unenviable position with his newest release: Mirror, Mirror utilizes a vast array of visual signs and symbols, but critics have bashed his expertise as being merely eye candy; does he come through to deliver a powerful message, or does the visual banquet overwhelm the audience? If you are President Obama, you don't want this film to mean anything, because it speaks so loudly about financial woes, taxes, the politically disenfranchised, empty promises, vanity, arrogance and corruption, the whole country is bound to get up in arms and revolt, just like Snow White (needless to say, I really liked it!).  Why wouldn't, like Snow White and the Huntsman, Mirror, Mirror, retain an aspect of the original title, including the main character's name? Because the film seeks to "hold up a mirror" to this country so we will look into it; either we will be wise and see the parable intended, or, like the queen, we will be foolish and ignore the warnings.

I know there are times when people probably think I "go too far" with interpretations, or may be reading something into some tiny detail that you question; when a film participates in its own decoding, offering its own interpretation, we are invited to come a long for the ride, and every aspect of the structure and the choices made within the film reflect a complex commentary on the American political state today.

The evil queen (Julia Roberts) and Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) at the gala the queen throws to "Sweep this kid off his feet" so he will marry her and replenish her dwindling bank roll. She's been married five times. When Prince Alcott is first presented to the queen, he's stripped down to his underpants; that he has no shirt on shows how he can "bear all" because--unlike the queen--he's not hiding anything (as the queen hides what she did to the king and her murder of Snow White). This honesty is what the queen will consider to be trickery because honesty doesn't serve her purpose of staying in power; when the prince appears before her a second time without a shirt, he's even more honest with her and that only validates his virtue and his valor in being virtuous.

Prince Alcott (Armie Hammer) has just arrived in the Evil Queen's kingdom (Julia Roberts) and to impress him, she throws a costume ball where the prince comes dressed as a white rabbit. When the queen sees him, she says, "The rabbit is a sign of trickery," and deception (the queen interpreting the prince's costume because costumes should be interpreted), and she's concerned what she should be thinking of him and she's right, because the prince's heart isn't with the queen at all, but with Snow White whom he met earlier that day and during the proceeding dance, the prince tricks each dancer who should be with Snow White into moving on so he can stay dancing with her. Even more importantly are the costumes the queen and Snow White are wearing: the queen's red and white peacock dress compared to Snow's all white swan dress.

Armie Hammer as Prince Alcott; this is a good shot of him because the prince is literally divided in half, one half to the queen, the other half to Snow White. How does Prince Alcott happen into the Evil Queen's kingdom? He's looking for an adventure and is mugged by the dwarfs. The adventure he's on is to demonstrate his heroism, and this adventure surely will do that, but only after he's been cleansed of his own political selfishness (thinking the dwarfs are unworthy to fight him, for example, because they are small); this can easily be put into political terms, because Prince Alcott, after being held up by the dwarfs, vows he will rid them of the queen's kingdom then gets held up by them again. It ends up, of course, that the dwarfs are the good guys, and the prince effectively "switching sides," mirrors members of the political party of the president who have also been switching sides and, instead of fighting the Republicans, joining them. Supposedly, in Snow White and the Huntsman, a similar episode takes place with the prince, he joins Snow White's army, but he hasn't been in any of the trailers, so we will have to see if--like Prince Alcott--he has an expanded role over the original and Walt Disney's version or if he's confined to the sidelines in favor of the Huntsman.

The peacock is the symbol of royalty and associated with pride and vanity; the swan, associated with water, is a more capable bird than a peacock (which can really only strut and just barely fly, and has that terrible screeching voice). The swan is comfortable flying, swimming or walking on the land; the swan, to many, is the essence of beauty and grace, which comes to represent Snow White. The queen's red dress, in her case, reveals her anger, because getting angry about things is the only thing she's good at (red is the color of anger). What's accomplished so well with this costume are the white peacock feathers: the tail feathers of the peacock are the birds signature glory, and the "bleaching" or whitening (which fits in well with the rest of the artificiality in the film) here lets us know that the beauty of the queen (like the peacock's feathers) is as dead as the feathers she wears (white symbolizes a decaying corpse in this context).

Another well done aspect of this costume are the eyes of the peacock incorporated into the design. The eyes are filled with rhinestones, so instead of the eyes symbolizing the queen's knowledge or wisdom, the "false gemstones" reveal to us the queen's inability to see where her bad decisions are leading her; but she does have the ability to see how to make money (she thinks, which is the only important thing). The head-piece the queen wears should be emphasizing her wisdom (the way the crown emphasizes the king's wisdom), but instead it draws our attention to how she blocks out wisdom and knowledge that others try to give her (for example, the face in the Magic Mirror warns her about the price to be paid for using magic but the queen doesn't care; Brighton [Nathan Lane], tries to tell the queen she's bankrupt but she refuses to accept that). If you will, please compare the sleeves (the top part, by her shoulder, sticking up with the holes in it); in Walt Disney's version, Snow White's sleeves were blue with red fabric peeking through the slits, meaning, symbolically, that Snow White's strength came from her wisdom (arms symbolize strength, blue is wisdom, and red is love) and that her love is what supported her wisdom; the queen's empty holes, that is, unsupported, means she herself is  as empty as the holes in her sleeves, having no love nor wisdom, two virtues which Snow White does possess.

You may rightly ask, then why doesn't Snow's all white swan dress symbolize a dead corpse, too?  The reason heroes are heroes and villains are villains is because the one possess virtue, the other vice; symbols (including colors) aid the audience in realizing why a hero has virtue or what in a villain is villainous. In the case of Snow's all white swan costume, she's alive with her purity and innocence and faith and those qualities will help her to "fly" when the queen can only strut. Why is this an important note to consider? Snow White takes an important walk in the film, the first time in years that she has been outside the castle, and when she goes into the village, she sees how the queen's lavish parties and lifestyle has cost the villagers, breaking them and starving them; enraged at this injustice gives Snow White wings (like the ones pictured on her below) to "fly in the  face of opposition" and do something about the trouble and financial ruin the queen has caused.

As noted previously, there are many comparisons, especially lately, to women as swans: Elizabeth Swan (Kiera Knightley) in Curse of the Black Pearl Pirates of the Caribbean, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) from Twilight and Miranda from Picnic at Hanging Rock (much older film). The elegance and beauty of swans fits women as a reference to their femininity, or what they should be and are not. In Snow White's case, she is. The top hat of the prince symbolizes that in his thoughts and actions, he is a gentleman, but the large ears also lets us know that he's listening to what the queen and Snow White are telling him, and he hears more than just their words. Does it really make him look ridiculous? The prince is very tall, so he's easy to see anywhere in the ballroom and the ears only accentuate his height further; that he's so tall is a sign of his own virtue: he stands out from the others, especially in the realm of morality and doing what's right. In this sense, because he's so "snow white" himself, he does look ridiculous, but only because the backdrop for the other guests at the gala are themselves so artificial that the prince looks out of place for this reason, but so, too, does Snow White. The prince wears a dark coat covering him down to his ankles, meaning, that he's completely "dead to himself" (the dark color) and that it completely covers him means he won't do anything on his own accord, but only because it's the right thing to do. For example, the prince dines with the queen, and just before she tells him that Snow White is dead, he rips off the frilly, lacy ends of his shirt sleeves given to him by the queen. Again, arms symbolize strength, and the prince knows the niceties of the court (the expensive lace) gets in his way of his purpose (eating) and impairs his ability (his ability to move).

A questionable aspect of the film is Snow White (having been locked in her room with nothing to do but read) wanting to change the storybook ending and, instead of the prince saving the princess, she wants the princess to save the prince; in essence, this is what always happens anyway, that's how a woman reveals herself to be a princess. As I said in the previous entry comparing the Brothers' Grimm version to Walt Disney's, the princess is the woman who has fought the spiritual battles the man can't (he is destined to fight the physical battles) and she comes out in the end the moral superior of other women and the evil that threatened her.  Prince Alcott is a brave fighter, and stands beside Snow White to help her fight, but the reason she must fight the beast herself is because the beast is within her (and it echoes Holy Mary having to fight The Beast as well). So this isn't a Feminist approach, rather, it's the traditional approach and a counter-cultural statement against the way society is progressing.

The first time we see the queen in the film, and when we learn just how much she hates Snow White and loves herself. This is also the moment the queen tells Snow White, "It's important to know when you've been beat." Perhaps the most bizarre thing about the changes Mirror, Mirror takes the original is the way the queen interacts with the Magic Mirror (when she looks into the Magic Mirror, it's not like the one in the Disney version, but like the Snow White: A Tale of Terror version when the queen (Sigourney Weaver) looks into the mirror and sees her own, younger and perfect face).  Why would this device be employed? Because it's about showing a ruler who wants to see themselves in a certain light, not as they really are, and that handicaps them from being able to rule wisely, just and fair... and effectively. When the queen summons the magic in the Mirror, she says only "Mirror, Mirror, on the wall," without finishing the famous incantation and that's a sign of her arrogance. But she passes through water (like an unholy, wicked baptism into the dark arts) and enters on a long pier of two dark, gray huts. Why? The beautiful queen is like the glamorous castle on the outside, but on the inside, she's as poor as the huts (houses and homes symbolize the soul) so she hasn't anything glamorous within her. We can be assured of this because of the way she uses people. When the "woman in the mirror" uses the wooden puppets to try and take out Snow White and the dwarfs, it's indicative of how she sees people: toys. If you don't see and foster your own dignity, you don't see dignity in others. When Snow White finally leaves the castle, she wears a hood the color of gold, because she knows her own dignity, she sees the dignity of the poorest people. Gold, to the queen, isn't about dignity, it's about wealth, and she uses the dignity of her beauty to gain more wealth, and hence, loses everything.

The film (like The Hunger Games) incorporates a highly artificial world against a natural world, so that we will be lead to compare and contrast. One aspect of the natural vs. the artificial is sexuality: Snow White has just turned 18 and has not yet had her first kiss (God bless her!) whereas the queen has all ready been married five times and preparing for the sixth; obviously, the queen's out of control, but the issue in the story reflects the overwhelming commentary on how and why the prince must be saved: bondage.

The first kiss, not only between them, but for Snow White. The prince is bound because he's under the spell of the puppy love potion hence, he's literally bound to the queen and he's lost his strength and free will. Why will love's first kiss release the prince from the spell? Because the kiss is the breath of life; whereas the queen sought to rob the prince of his money and his dignity, the kiss of life Snow White restores him and wants him to fulfill his destiny in terms of his moral standing and masculinity.  It's reversed from the Disney version (when the prince kisses Snow White and releases her from the spell) because that version is religious in nature, whereas Mirror, Mirror is political: Snow White signifies "the new America," and the prince is the new leadership and direction; their kiss is the genuine love and patriotism for the land as opposed to the ruthless rule of the queen (who is not the rightful ruler; more on this below under the song sung at the wedding of Snow White and the prince). An example that both the prince and Snow White are as wholesome as they appear to be is when the prince says Snow White's name, there is a sparkle on his tooth; later in the film, Snow White will say Prince Alcott's name, and she will have the same sparkle on her tooth. The teeth, of course, symbolize the appetites, and the "sparkling" white of their teeth mean that there is no stain of sin or evil desire in their desire for each other (there is no lust, only love) and that's why the first kiss is more potent than the queen's magic.

If Prince Alcott marries the queen, he will be doomed to becoming "her puppy." It's really not a joke, because the queen used up all the love potion in getting Snow White's father to fall in love with her, the only thing left to use is the "puppy love potion," yet the truth is, that's exactly what the queen wants, not a man, but a dog. When she throws something to have the prince fetch, it goes over the side and he looks into an abyss whining, because if he "fetches after the queen," that abyss is what his soul will become. That's what Snow White has to save the prince from, just as every woman must save every many from falling to an evil, worldly queen who will destroy him.

Snow White's father, the king (Sean Bean). Snow White's mother died in childbirth, but the king raised his daughter to one day lead their kingdom, but then fell under the black magic of the future queen (Julia Roberts); after marrying her, a dark magic fell over the land; riding into the forest one day to confront the evil, the king was never seen again. It ends up that the evil queen turned the king into the beast which terrorizes the people of the village, and controlling the beast, she's able to get rid of all political "undesirables," a term used by the dwarfs in the film which clearly references the socialist Nazis of World War II and Adolf Hitler's. So instead of the king doing his job of protecting the people, the queen enslaves the people to do her will.

Since the king is the rightful ruler, and the queen banishes him to the forest and turns him into a beast to terrorize instead of protect, lead and rule the people, the king really symbolizes the founding fathers of America. That which has been demonized (turned into the beast) has to be turned back into the king and rightful ruler again; how can I support this?

When Snow White first enters the cottage of the dwarfs, they tell her she has to become one of them; she asks, "I have to become a dwarf?" and the answer to that is yes, she does, because a ruler cannot be a ruler unless they identify with the "little people" of the kingdom so they can deliver justice. Throughout the film, the people exist to squeeze taxes from to support the queen's lifestyle, whereas Snow White has gone among them and gotten their money back. But the real moment of Snow White becoming "a dwarf" (someone with no political power) is when she's running from Brighton who is supposed to kill her (but has let her go) and knowing that she herself is now without any power, she has no one but "the little people" with whom to identify and we can be confident of this because she is running and hits her head on the sign at the dwarfs' cottage entry and it knocks her out (she enters into a state of despair over what's going to happen to her but the dwarfs literally revive her and her spirit; she faces despair again when she leaves a note for the dwarfs telling them she is going to leave).  The reason the dwarfs' cottage has oak leaves on the walls throughout is because that's the only thing still living in the kingdom (the trees are all dead from winter) but in the dwarfs' cottage, they have kept alive within them what real political liberty and freedom means and that's the place Snow White finds refuge.

Well, I don't think I am the only one observing that the Constitution (the ultimate symbol of the identity and rule of the land has wisely bequeathed to us by the founding fathers) has been demonized by the current political administration, because in January of last year, it was decided by the GOP to read the Constitution aloud as a guiding principle for the upcoming political terms. Given there are 21 impeachable offenses against President Obama's acts against the Constitution, seeing a political film in which the founding father has been turned into a monster by an unlawful ruler (Obama), and needs to be saved is a clever method of commentary.

The kingdom where Snow White is destined to rule but has turned into a barren, never-ending winter. In the bottom, left-hand corner is a black area, that is the wedding party for the queen's sixth wedding to Prince Alcott and to the right of that, still on the lake, is the queen's wedding procession arriving to get married. Once the spell over the king has been broken, the kingdom comes back to life.

There's an excellent chance that you believe I am just reading my own political position into the film, and being too hard on President Obama. There are the facts, however, about his political woes which are "mirrored" by the film: America's credit has been downgraded for the first time in history, government has shut down several times and the deficit is at an all time escalating high, and he wants to continue spending money, just like the queen, and none of it actually has done any good (but that hasn't stopped him from taking vacations). When the queen arrives at her wedding, the gentry want her deposed because her administration can't administer justice; does Obama administer justice, or does he run over it, like the queen?

Who else has gotten too big for their britches as they are hoping for a "new marriage" that will assure they can continue to rule? The metaphor is an apt comparison for how "big" government has become and can't fit into the new dress for the upcoming "wedding" in November's elections.

The next question is, is the queen really that bad? We know the queen is rotten because, when she's getting ready for her wedding, she goes through "the treatment." It really invokes Demi Moore and "leaching," with bird poop smeared on the queen's face, a bee sting on her lips to make them larger, a scorpion sting, worms and all kinds of nasty things put on her because to her, those are the things that make her beautiful, but to us, we see her beauty as being only skin deep and that skin deep comes from nasty bugs and filth, compared to Snow White's natural beauty which comes from faith, purity, innocence and genuine love for all people.

The queen arriving to her sixth wedding, this one to Prince Alcott. Let's talk about the strange outfits her guards wear, first. The castle of the kingdom overlooks a lake, and that lake has been frozen ever since the queen got rid of the king. When the queen consults her Magic Mirror, she steps into a wall of water to enter another dimension then comes out some place completely different, through water, so water is an element associated with the queen (she also sits upon a sea-shell like throne when we first see her). The gold masks of the guards are very much like the creature face from The Creature From the Black Lagoon and, since she herself is surrounded by them, we might say that instead of the woman carried off by the creature of the black lagoon, the queen is the creature carrying off a prince. In this shot, her all white dress means that she is thoroughly dead, nothing is left alive in her and that is apparent from action she decides to take.

While I contend the film is about the need to depose Obama just as the evil queen is deposed, and the rightful rulers be returned with the king (the founding fathers) being the source of justice, the film provides us with an imperative lesson, and one we absolutely must heed (and this is where knowing the two past versions will aid us in discerning this lesson).  When the audience first sees Snow White and the queen interacting, the queen tells Snow White, "It's important to know when you've been beat," and in the end, after Snow and the prince are married, and the (deposed) queen makes her last attempt at regaining power (pictured below) the queen offers Snow the poisoned apple from which Snow has to take only one bite; Snow doesn't take the bite, but looks at the queen and tells her, "It's important to know when you've been beat," letting us know that, actually, Snow White did bite the poisoned apple, because Snow is now (slowly and only a little, but definitely) stooping to the kind of arrogance the queen would have displayed, and that poison from the apple is the potential for a "stain" upon Snow White; in political terms, if the Republicans are going to win back the government in the November elections, they had better not  do to the Democrats what they did to the Republicans, or there will be the same problems we have had the last four years.

Snow White and the prince have just been married and all is happy and prosperous again; the evil (deposed) queen comes in this brown cloak and offers Snow White the apple and to take "just one bite." The design of Snow White's dress invokes the original story from the Brothers Grimm when, therein, the evil queen had tempted Snow White with bodice laces that the queen cinched up so tight, Snow White couldn't breathe and it wasn't until the dwarfs returned and freed her that she was saved. Snow White's wedding dress is more than a wedding dress for Prince Alcott; it symbolizes how Snow White has wedded wisdom (the blue) and purity (the white) but also she has wedded herself to vitality and growth (the orange bow). In the beginning of the film, Snow White gives a slice of apple to a bird as a sign of her willingness to share, but in the end, when she gives a slice of the poisoned apple and offers it to the queen, it's a "taste of her own medicine," and dishing out what the queen dished out to her. This is the lesson that Republicans cannot do what has been done to them, but must take the high road.

This act of arrogance on behalf of Snow White (which, again, serves as a lesson for us all to heed), should have been picked up on in the very first few lines of the film: the original Grimm Brothers' version stated that Snow White's hair was as dark as the ebony frame of the window her mother was looking through when she first wished for the little girl, after pricking her finger and a drop of blood falling onto snow; in Mirror, Mirror, the "redness" of Snow White's traditional features are never mentioned (a vague reference to a strawberry only) instead of black as ebony for her hair, her hair is either dark as night or "raven," to use the queen's expression. Ebony is a black wood, when polished, very shiny and ornamental, a luxury; the queen in the Grimm Brothers' version looked through a window framed in ebony, and that wood is the Wood of the Cross and the window is the window of contemplation and self-realization, so a child who would be a perfect Christian and exercise all the values of Christ. But Mirror, Mirror, changes this.

At the beginning of the film, the castle in the snow globe could be taken as Snow White's world, sheltered, since she's locked up; by the end of the  film, however, the snow globe means that the kingdom is now her world and she's going to protect it from anyone who would want to harm it.

 That her hair is likened to a raven, by the queen, means that the queen believes Snow White has thoughts of death towards the queen (the raven is the opposite of the dove, a symbol for death); that those who love Snow White say her hair is black as night, refer to the darkness of her trails, the loss of her father, being locked in her room, ordered to death by the queen... while still admirable, it's not quite as meaningful as the original, and that was intentional. (The lack of "redness" attributed to Snow White in Mirror, Mirror, reflects an unwillingness to be martyred; that Napoleon the dwarf puts a strawberry upon her lips means that her love comes for the "sweet things" in life; politically, that demonstrates how we as Americans have lost the "sweet things" in life and are seeking after them once more).

Part of this can be contributed to the dwarfs, who are thieves, and what have they stolen? Snow White who would have advanced in greater virtue had she been given the chance, but  the dwarfs are not "the masters of the house" as the dwarfs are in the original tale, nor the miners in Walt Disney's version, so Snow White becomes like what she is living with: a thief, and is threatened with digressing further because she missed out on the sleep of death meant to further perfect her and she's slowly, at the end, turning into the "mirror image" of the queen.

The closing song of Mirror, Mirror has struck some people has odd, but given the way the last scene plays out, I think it's quite appropriate. I Believe (In Love) appears to be about the triumph of Snow White's and the prince's love, but more importantly, it's about people loving their country and believing that the Constitution is still the law of the land and this country still has a future (but not a socialist one):

In conclusion, Mirror, Mirror contains timely encouragement for those of us hoping to depose Obama in November, but also lessons on not doing what we complain about the Democrats doing; if we want to return to the natural world of dancing and singing as it was, then we must put far from us the cynicism of the Democrats (characterized by the queen's sarcasm in the story) and not treat them as they have treated us: locking us in the political closet as Snow White was locked up in her room.

An example of the artificiality the film presents and the unnaturalness of the people under the queen's reign. Why does Mirror, Mirror do this? For eye candy and spectacular visual effects? No, because this is how unnatural people are under Obama's reign.  The unnaturalness of the costume (their hair, for example, which symbolizes thoughts and thinking) reflects unnatural sexuality (the man on the left proposes marriage to the queen in the opening scenes, so sexuality can definitely be associated with him and unnatural sexuality because the queen talks about how much older he is than she is, which is also unnatural and when the queen proposes marriage to Prince Alcott, he mentions how much older she is than he himself, which is also unnatural). The support of the unnatural "gay marriage" movement, as well as abortion, are all unnatural, because only the evil queen doesn't want children (having been married five times, she must be using the black magic of birth control to keep herself from having children and hence, thin [like Scarlet O'Hara getting into her corset in Gone With the Wind and not wanting anymore children]). But this can also symbolize the unnaturalness of turning America from a capitalist country into a socialist country.

L'Odyssee de Cartier: Consumers and Capitalists

I normally don't do commercials (this is only the third one), but premiere French jeweler Cartier has not only produced an incredibly rich advertisement to match their rich gemstone creations, but made an important, capitalistic comment without saying a word. When we enter into the window, we enter into a world within a world, a doorway of sub-texts and meanings as rich as the diamonds and emeralds coming off the jaguar creation, meaning, that just as the jewels are being "stripped" away to reveal the real cat, we need to strip away the symbols to find the real meaning.

Cartier creation: Mackay emerald, 168 karats, 1931.

What does the predator cat symbolize? In this case, there are two: there is first the predatory nature of consumerism, those who are hunting for the riches of the world. Russia (the winter sleigh), China (the dragon and Great Wall) and India (the Taj Mahal); the second predator are the predators hunting genius. Creativity, design, ingenuity and beauty (the cat goes up a staircase,meaning that the woman in red he finds there is of the higher plane of thought, not just the appetites; genuine love for the pursuing of excellence). This is where the landscapes come in, because there is the cold winter in Russia, the rocky wilderness in China, and the barren rocks of India; each culture has made contributions to beauty and luxury, but French jeweler Cartier (jumping onto the airplane to soar above the world, symbolically and stylishly) has pursued a higher plane of elegance and design (also symbolized by the Rococo room) and influenced all the world by it.

Cartier creation, the Bismark Sapphire, 1935.

So why should we care about this commercial?
If you are a capitalist, examining the comparative cultures and economies mentioned in the "odyssey," then Cartier makes the statement that it's the supplier and producer of luxury goods which the world bows to, and only "breaking through the glass ceiling" of economics (the first images of the cat leaving the pantheon) isn't about minorities anymore, but the very venture of capitalism and attempts to hold it back, which will hold back the world. This is a perfect example of why we need art and the artistic: images stay with us longer than words (you will, for example, be able to retain the images you saw in the film longer than the words I have written about them).
This is an important statement, and only Cartier could have said it with so much class.

The tree which may have inspired the diamond tree in the odyssey, as many of Cartier's jewels were inspired by Medieval bestiaries; when the cat enters into the room with the tree and animals, it pays homage to the nature and art from which its past creations have come, and the new "nature" of art and luxury to which Cartier has contributed.