Blade Runner Reflection - Malia

            Blade Runner is a movie that calls us to reflect upon the symbols in our life and the emphasis we place on certain objects through the story of a society that worships technology to a staggering degree.  Technology in this film has come to be synonymous with creation for the extent of what it has created – human “life”.  With this ability to create life, is there a reason to believe that there is a God above all else if humans have mastered the art of creation as well?  Is technology the new key to life? I believe that this movie aims to bring the role of technology in our lives into perspective and let us reflect on whether or not the extent to which we worship technology has gone too far.

            The creator in this film who manipulates technology, Tyrell, is the master behind the Replicants and is himself somewhat faultier than what he makes.  His glasses show his imperfection while technology has ironically created a more perfect being.  In fact, the Replicants even begin to evolve past expectations and have emotions and a desire on their own to live.  Another interesting point is that the real humans in the film seem to lack the emotion and huge appreciation and desire for life that the Replicants possess. So do we only really appreciate things that we don’t fully have because we know what it is like to not have them?  Is human faith in jeopardy because of the fact that we are unable to fully appreciate all that we have and do not have a reason to have faith?  And should the Replicants be considered humans for purposes of faith and religion because they appreciate their life and have more genuine feelings on life?  This film helps us appreciate our life and the role that technology plays in today’s society.  The Replicants also serve as a reminder to not take our life for granted because even though we don’t have a definite expiration date like they do, our end time will come some day. 

Decalogue

The Decalogue is about the 10 commandments. We watched film showing us the first commandment and the 5th commandment. Midrash is relevant in both films but in my opinion more so in the first film about a father losing his son and possibly his faith in science as well. The first commandment is "thou shall have no other gods before me" and this the commandment addressed in the first film. In the film, the father is raising his son alone and they seem to be very close, bonding over equations they can put into the computer.  The father is a man of science in reason, this is immediately shown in his response to his sons question about death. The father responded with a very technical answer about the body shutting down and when pushed more by the son the father has no biblical answer, but instead a mild disintrest. This leads his son down a path to search for deeper answers, guided to sources about god from his religious aunt. All 3 characters view the world differently, the father has a pragmatic approach and the aunt believes god is in control of everything, while son is searching for answers somewhere in between. The fathers faith is then rattled when his god, science, betrays him, and allows his son to fall through the ice and drown. This leads the father to have an emotional episode in a church. How can someone not believe in god but still be angry at him? I just saw that on house and is very applicable here.
The second film is about the 5th commandment "thou shall not kill" which is something I think everyone can get behind. The film follows a young deviant commiting increasingly deviant acts throughout the town. The character esclates from being an ass to brutally murdering a taxi driver with a rope, stick and rock to finish the job. His lawyer stands up not for his actions, but objects to the death penalty, saying it is not a deterent to murder, which empirically has a lot of evidence behind it. While waiting to die we see the sweet side of the killer, he has a family he cares about and thinks that if his sister wasnt killed by his friend this would be different. Then we have a very uncomfortable scene of his struggle before being hung. After he was hung I felt very empty. Despite him having a family he cared about, I didnt have much sympathy for him, and I didnt think his sister dying was an excuse at all. Before he was hung I had no opposition to that happening. But after it happened it doesn't feel like justice is served. The cab driver is still dead and his family no better off. The deviant leaves behind a crying mother. Also, the hypocrisy of killing someone for killing sinks in too.

tree of life

When I found out we were watching the tree of life I was very disappointed. I had watched the movie in theaters with high hopes but felt bored and confused through the whole movie. However, now that I am at a stage in my life where I feel I can reflect on my childhood from a distance, I feel differently about the movie. Still, I had trouble wrapping my head around some of metaphors and messages the movie conveys in an EXTREMELY artistic way. Nature vs. Grace is a very important theme in this movie with the father representing nature and the mother representing grace. She is loving and forgiving while the father is more pragmatic and cold saying that being nice will get his boys no where. When the movie got to the plot it shows Jack growing up and at times losing innocence. He will do cruel or lustful acts of nature. For example killing a dog and stealing the neighbors underwear. His mother consoles him and tries to show him in a loving way that is wrong, being the force of Grace against his acts of nature. Throughout the story of Jack's childhood, we get to see his little brother and the interactions he has with him. The movie shows Jack and his family mourning the death of his little brother the moment it happened and years later. This tests the mothers religion, when being consoled by her friend saying "hes in gods hands now"she thinks to herself "wasn't he in gods hands the whole time?" The end of the movie shows her letting go of him and telling god to take her son in a beautiful scene on the beach where she raises towards the sky in all white sheets and lets her hands go. So even in her sons death, she handles nature (her sons young death) with grace.

Decalogue 1&5 - Numinous and the Search - Malia

          Decalogue 1 focuses on a father and son who both have different views on the world and place different levels of importance on the holy aspects of life.  The father places his faith in technology and the profane creations of humans, while his son places great importance on the sacred and that which he cannot even understand.  Pavel, as a child, is unblemished by the world's narrowness and his mind and heart is free to wander and be open to the calling of the numinous.  The father, on the other hand, is chained by what is concrete and proven, until the day that it stops working for him.  The father's faith in his technology is shattered when he loses his son.  He then musts start over and begins with no faith.  This is what brings him back to life, though, because he is again a blank slate, like his son was.  

         This is a testament to the fact that the mysterious is both daunting and fascinating.  For the son, he was too young to witness anything but the fascinating. The father, especially after having gone through what he did, experiences both aspects of the mysterious.  From the father's journey that we got to see, it seems to me that he personifies our search for something real; the numinous as the object of search and yearning that we sometimes don't realize we are searching for until all other obstacles are gone or until we are stripped bare of anything else and have only that left to discover. As the father runs into the church at the end of the Decalogue 1, it is a great symbol for the fact that numen begins to tak over everything once it is discovered. From now on, as the church encompassed him, he will be encompassed by his search to find that something more.

            In relation to Decalogue 5 and the murder, the numen relates to Jacek's need to find something more.  He does so in a very wrong way, obviously.  It is a completely human thing to have emotions and desires that we cannot understand , and I believe that this was a misdirection of the yearning felt in the numinous that was misdirected to resemble instead a profane desire. 

          The moral of these two stories is that the inherent yearning for the numinous is in all of us, but depending on the circumstance and what kind of person we are, that yearning can manifest in different ways, either for a benefit or detriment. But at the end of the day, God is here to fulfill that desire for something more in us, and it is our job to be able to discern how to do so. 

Decalogue 1 & 5 - Christine Porter

          In Krystsztof Kieslowski's film "Decalogue" each of the 10 commandments are interpreted and acted out in 10 one hour episodes. Kieslowski uses a style of interpretation used in Hebrew scripture, Midrash. These episodes focus on the deep meaning of each commandment and forces it’s viewers to feel and reflect internally on their own life.

           The first episode we watched focused on the first commandment, Thou shall have no other Gods before me. We see an agnostic father whom only believed in what could be quantified and proven. After completed his calculations on the computer, the father was confident that the lake outside of his home was solid enough for his son to ice skate. When the ice cracked and his son passed away, he questioned his reliance on calculations for the first time. When his son’s body if recovered from the freezing water, the bystanders are very upset and most of them are crying or showing some sort of distress. The boy’s father just stands there with a blank expression, feeling lost and in complete disbelief. Personally I believe Kieslowski did a great job portraying the importance of having faith and trusting in a God that cannot be physically seen or proven with numbers, but that can be felt. It is unfortunate the father had to go through the tragedy of losing his only son, but sometimes traumatic events like this are the only way to wake us up and expose our idols. Rudolf Otto writes in The Idea of the Holy, “It is not that the actual feeling gradually changes in quality… but rather that I pass over to make the transition from one feeling to another as the circumstances change” (Otto, pg. 42-43). The father’s circumstances definitely changed when his computer failed him and it cost him his son’s life. After losing his son, the father in this film may have had more appreciation for God’s sacrifice of his one and only son because he could now relate on a personal level about the amount of pain felt when losing a child.

             The second episode focused on the fifth commandment, Thou shall not commit murder. I experienced many emotions when viewing this film. The audience watches as the main character of this film mistreats most people that he comes into contact with, with the exception of a group of younger girls. The more people the main character mistreats, the more the audience wishes he would get some sort of revenge or face some sort of consequences for his actions. As the main character violently murdered an innocent cab driver, I felt anger and could not help but hope he would experience the punishment he deserved. When the man showed a personal side and opened up about his sister, mother, and his desire to be buried with his father it reminded me that he was a human as well and it caused me to question my morals. Does this man, that violently murdered an innocent man and caused harm to many others, deserve to die because of his actions or is this man a human that is struggling through mental issues and should just be given time in prison to think about his actions? I see both sides of the issue and find myself going back and forth. Towards the end of the film the murderer says, “They are against me” in which a different man responds, “No, they are against what you did.” Does someone actions define who they are? Is the main character seen only as a murderer now, and not as a human being?

               God gave us 10 commandments to follow here on Earth and because of my personal life and my faith I felt very connected to this film and the importance of understanding the deeper message Krzysztof Kieslowski was attempting to convey through Midrash. I believe Kieslowski did a wonderful job portraying the importance of God’s love above any Earthly love.

Grace and Nature

The Tree of Life was one of those films that I had difficulty wrapping my head around. I was completely fine until the dinosaurs appeared, and I kept asking myself "what the hell is going on" until the main storyline came back. After thinking about it and letting this particularly strange part of the movie settle in my mind for a little while, I actually think it's one of the most important parts. The director wanted to audience to realize that we are all part of the creation story, and that the struggle between grace and nature happens inside all of us.

Nature versus grace was a main point in the story, with Mrs. O'Brien saying at the beginning of the movie "The nuns taught us there are two ways of life - the way of nature and the way of grace. You have to choose which one to follow". To me it seemed like Mr. O'Brien represented the way of nature,  and his wife represented the way of grace. You can definitely see this distinction through how they treat their sons. They take completely different approaches. Mr. O'Brien uses discipline to teach his sons (especially with Jack) lessons that he thinks they need to learn. Mrs. O'Brien's approach comes majorly comes through in the scene where Mr. O'Brien has to go away on business. She is more forgiving and thinks that love and being gentle and nurturing is more powerful than being authoritative and strict.

Film as Midrash

Film as Midrash

February 19, 2016

Class Film

Krzysztof Kieslowski’s use of film as Midrash is an artistic attempt to convey meaning and create unity. The paradox of film as midrash is that it seeks to reveal what is ultimate in context of the common. The two are not as far apart as we often imagine. After all, if something is to be objectively applicable to human experience, it must be universally common to all. Kieslowski’s films are highly relatable because they depict very fundamental aspects of human existence. In the Decalogue, life is shown in a very real, mundane manner. Such plainness naturally provoked me to project myself onto each circumstance in the film without consciously realizing I had done so. The curiosity of Pavel resonated with me. He asked the very questions one would expect a bright child to ask. His death at the end was shocking. I felt as if I had been thrown into the grief and tragedy of the situation myself. I have always found visual portrayals of death and grief to have an incredibly sobering effect on me. Such an experience calls us to account before the ultimate questions of life. In the face of death, we long for an answer. Midrash is the hermeneutic that explores the contemplates the depth of meaning for a certain situation. Each of the ten commandments deals with a core issue of life. These are things that everyone, in all cultures encounter. The universally shared nature of such experiences undergirds the strength and power of the visual.