John O'Sullivan blurts out the obvious about Ridley Scott's new film:
What really caught my attention was its quietly insistent religious theme. This is never stated boldly. It would hardly be a major topic of conversation among a group on scientists on an inter-galactic mission towards the end of this century. And this is not a talkative Shaw play. But it emerges in key scenes in odd and unexplained ways, disappears behind the action again, and then recurs later, notably in the final scene.
One main character uses the phrase “In the year of Our Lord,” quite without irony, in a sentence that tantalizingly promises us a sequel. A Christian cross is taken from one character and then, at a moment of grave crisis, seized back. The apparently malicious actions of an android raise a question with ultimate implications: Is it a case of bad programming? Or does it/he possess a soul? If so, what is his relationship to the Fall? Maybe I am drawing implications too heavy for the script to bear; but I don’t think so.
Me neither. I was enthralled by the film's spectacle (and we went to a 2D screening), entertained by its action sequences and, unlike my companions, unfazed by several loose plot ends. This was an epic story, using myth and symbols to dramatize some truly great questions: the relationship between man and God, the amoralism of nature and the salvation that only comes from grace. It's also a grand re-telling of the Tower of Babel – the deep mythical truth that we and our knowledge can be our undoing, that the fruit in the Garden of Eden was most definitely from the Tree of Knowledge. It was like The Tree of Life combined with 2001: A Space Odyssey. I quickly forgot the plot issues and marveled at its grand sweep.
The film admits of several interpretations. Mine – surprise! – sees it as a Christian film about the necessity for human humility in the face of creation, the easy temptation of evil that appears good, and the irrational faith in grace that springs paradoxically from our reason as well as revelation. It is about becoming Gods. And why that is, in fact, a nightmare.
More online discussion of this here, here and here. To see what has happened to the Christian imagination in America, read this review. And weep.
(Photo: a deleted scene featured here.)
The Dish 