Die the Catholic Church knows a heresy, which she calls “Americanism”. In 1898, Pope Leo XIII has this heresy, condemned the separation of Church and state, which included recognition of non-religious paths to salvation, and the emphasis on internal motivation, in contrast to the priestly leadership of the Faith, in an Encyclical.
It is one of the many inconsistencies in the life of Mel Gibson’s, the conservative Catholic has now presented as the Director of a Film that feels like a Celebration of this heresy: “Hacksaw Ridge”.
Hero from the small town idyll
The Film deals with the true story of the seven days Adventist, Desmond Doss, who refused on grounds of conscience to the service of the gun, as a medic in the Second world war saved countless comrades life, and as the first conscientious objector in US President Harry Truman with America’s highest medal for valor was awarded.
Gibson tells the Childhood and youth of the later heroes in the sun-drenched images that operate as painted by Norman Rockwell. In the small town idyll of Lynchburg in Virginia, the farmer’s boy learns how Desmond sympathetic Garfield played by Andrew – the blood of his first love donations: the sick-sister Dorothy.
First love for a lifetime: before the beginning of the war, falls in love with Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) in the sick-sister Dorothy Schutte (Teresa Palmer)
source: Marc Rogers photo
He will marry her, and you, as the credits informed, life-long loyalty. In this Film, simple values: honesty, family, Church, father of the country. At first, anyway.
But with Desmond’s family is wrong a lot. The father Tom, a Veteran of the First world war, drowned the Trauma of the front insert and the loss of his comrades in the alcohol, beat his wife and children. Hugo Weaving plays these members of the “forgotten Generation” with the necessary intensity.
And because this is a Film about inner values and the victory of Good, he may have a big scene of this victory. Salvation is the magic word.
Hero from the horror in front of yourself
Desmond inherits the propensity of the father to anger and violence, once he slays his brother, and at other times he shoots almost the father. His pacifism is therefore justified, although biblical, arises from a deeper source than the word: the horror from himself.
Therefore, can survive Desmond the ridicule and the harassment by the superiors and the mockery of fellow soldiers during basic training. Here are the dark images. From the simple primary colors of the small town, the Olive green of the military apparatus. And to anticipate it: the most horrible scenes of the movie play not on the field of battle, but here, in the barracks.
The last third of the film is from Okinawa during the bloody Offensive by the US Army in may 1945. With 12,500 Americans killed in this last major battle of the Second world war, her life. On the Japanese side, there were more than 66,000.
splatter movie in the Holy Land, now in Okinawa: Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield) in the mud of the battle
source: Marc Rogers photo
In the “New York Times” criticized Richard Brody, the “almost pathological love of violence” that come in Gibson’s Film. In fact, Gibson’s images from the battle are more impressive than the opening scenes of Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” or the battle scenes in Terence dizzy gets “The Thin Red Line”, as you would from the Director of splatter movies “The Passion of The Christ” also not otherwise expect.
With realistic war scenes of this type, it has its own meaning. So bloody and mud are smeared and cruel to you; so much so, it rattles in Sensurround and POPs while people are torn: in the end, it remains Entertainment.
The sheer fear of death that almost all the soldiers describe as the all-pervading experience of the battle, is simply not to communicate. So, even an anti-war movie – so you should understand him well – as “Hacksaw Ridge” is more of a “In steel thunder-storms” as of “In the West nothing New”.
Fidelity fixed-for God and country
Because, as the medic seems Desmond is almost as little fear as the officer Ernst Jünger. He remains after the withdrawal of his company from behind the lines and an ally to the other saves, he remains his God and his country faithfully, can show his comrades that he is no less of a Hero than you. At the end you don’t want to move without him, and his prayer again in the Bad. Tara.
The heresy of Americanism is, in fact, the national religion of America, and especially in Hollywood. Again and again it comes to a test, which is also an act of justification before men and before God. Character and Beliefs are the key to salvation, not Knowledge or rank.
And who is justified by his deed, to spread his light so that others of his grace to be partakers of. In Gibson’s movie, all for the Better, from the father through the Hansel the comrades transformed Desmond by his example to the commander. He is, as it suggests the heavy-handed final setting, a Savior figure, a kind of Christ – Christ is just a special person.
What’s moving Gibson to a heretical movie?
This heavily from Judaism and from the Calvinism-influenced salvation religion in America, even among non-believers prevail, is found in countless Hollywood films, Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life” to Garry Marshals “Pretty Woman” and the products of the Disney Studios.
The Coen Brothers have dared to take their career to the attempt to put this theology, the Europeans, brought up in the pessimistic spirit of the Catholicism and of the Augustinian Lutheranism, anyway.
but What moves the Catholics, Mel Gibson, to turn such a heretical Film, remains his secret. Maybe he wants to reconcile with Hollywood, where he is according to some anti-Semitic default persona non grata.
Spiderman became a pacifist
Many critics have understood “Hacksaw Ridge,” as the apology of pacifism miss. He is not. In the key scene of the film, Desmond and his wounded Sergeant come under fire from a Japanese sniper. This is the scene where in a more conventional war movie, the pacifist recognizes that ideology is the One, right the Other, and to the gun grips.
This catharsis Gibson denied us. But Desmond, the fire of the sniper distracts protect, so that the Sergeant can be the enemy locations and kill them. “Intelligence” – the Knowledge of the enemy can be as deadly as a gun. Pacifism is a pretty relative thing, if you leave that in an emergency someone will other shoot.
Whether or not the death of the Japanese Desmond’s Conscience is troubled, we don’t know. The Film to be a Catholic, he would have the consolation of confession and Absolution. The Desmond is not necessary. He is a super hero, like Spiderman, Andrew Garfield also played. But Spiderman has more depth of Character.
No comments:
Post a Comment