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Films and Apocalyptic Themes
Peter Malone
There was a rash of devil-possession films during the '70s: The Exorcist, The Omen and a lot of derivatives that looked lurid on the advertisements and made noncinema-goers wonder what was happening in films.
A Satan more visible on earth suggests strange times. Scripture says that the Devil will go round like a lion, seeking whom be may devour and the Book of Revelation's oracles and symbols stimulate the imagination to wonder about the number of the beast and gates of hell. Film-makers, quick to note a trend, detected a questioning of traditional faith yet a hankering for something transcendent. When God is perceived to have died, superstition, bizarre sects and interest in the occult take God's place.
Yet, with the interest in final times, a possible consummation of the world as we know it (where apocalyptic meets nuclear fear), gigantic conflicts between powers (cosmic or on earth) and the coming of a new age, all is not necessarily pessimistic. While the powers of evil inhabit the world, heroes and heroines flash and fly across the screen in ways that would have seemed impossible in the questioning '60s and early '70s.
Although Star Wars and its sequels may have been set in "a galaxy, far, far away", hero Luke Skywalker led the forces of good to destroy the evil Empire. Borrowing from tales of chivalry, Jungian psychology, cinema traditions of westerns and action adventures, these films have served as new formulators of age-old myths. While the style might be that of science-fiction, fantasy, pop art and comic strips (with an American accent), the impact is that of light versus darkness, good versus evil, cosmic battles, monster symbols, superhuman messengers of good and the restoration of order or the emerging of a new world. It is no wonder that religious educators have taken up these themes of hope with their popular characters: Luke Sky-walker, Han Solo, Superman, Supergirl, Indiana Jones and the Australian Mad Max.
But the films that we might label more obviously apocalyptic are not about the triumph of good, but about the malicious presence of evil. There have been many fantasies of angels and devils over the decades, often with the light touch, but Rosemary's Baby in 1968 marked a new phase in films about devils. Rosemary's baby is the Devil incarnate. If Jesus could become flesh, then an incarnation of evil was imaginable. As imagined by novelist Ira Levin and director Roman Polanski, an ordinary American couple could be chosen by a coven of Satanists, the husband sell his soul and his wife be overshadowed by the Devil. This fable shocked many at the time but it was a symbol of the reality of diabolical evil in our world.
So too was the famous The Exorcist (1973) where the Devil tormented a young girl, transforming her into a possessed monster. As the title suggests, the confrontation between evil spirit and minister of God was crucial — even demanding the laying down of life for the girl to be free. (Many audiences, distracted by expert special effects and some hellish language and behaviour, did not remember the themes.)
Most of the main "possession" films have had Catholic settings: The Omen series (another incarnation story paralleling the Gospel outline with Revelation quotations), the Amityville Horror series where a house is controlled by evil spirits and is a gateway to hell. This gate of hell theme was the point of The Sentinel (and parodied in the 1984 international success Ghost busters). There were many commercial spin-offs, especially from Italy, "spaghetti horror", with titles like The Antichrist, House of Exorcism. By now this trend has run its course but it was typical of the '70s.
Old and New Testaments offer signs of the apocalyptic age: upheavals in nature and strange portents. The association of natural disasters with human tragedies is a staple of literature — doesn't King Lear rage and storm in a fierce tempest? The '70s also saw the popularity of the disaster film. In an age of technological wizardry, upheaval need not be confined to nature. Mammoth disasters could occur in the air, on sea, on land — an Airport series, The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno showed that human beings were at the mercy of nature and machines often beyond their control — or turning on us because of human greed and selfishness. The skyscraper ablaze in the modern city, the towering inferno, was a °popular symbol", an apocalyptic portent.
The film-makers did not neglect the menace of nature. Jaws (borrowing from the allegorical Moby Dick) was the most famous of the animal menace disaster films. Screen-writers made links with human upsetting of ecological balance so that animal mutants broke out of their natural environment and went on rampages - summed up in the title of one such film, The Day of the Animals.
But the overwhelming apocalyptic image is that of nuclear holocaust, where the world comes to an end. After US-USSR confrontations in the '60s, there was a number of excellent, alarming thrillers (for instance, Fail Safe) on this theme as well as the first major black comedy on war, Dr. Strangelove with its ironic subtitle, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The late '70s saw a renewed interest by film-makers and many apocalyptic warnings: The China Syndrome and then the made-for-TV, The Day After seen by millions at home: a contemporary scenario that was not unimaginable. Other thrillers take us into the future, the desolation of a post-nuclear age, a new primitive era, a planet of the apes.
A final image from one such film, The Terminator: in nuclear-ravaged Los Angeles, 2029, rebel humans fight for survival. Authority, relying on sophisticated weaponry and robots, build intelligent computers, cyborgs, clothed in human skin and tissues. One is sent into the past to alter history and kill the mother of the rebel leader - an image of the machine-human, programmed solely for a relentless mission of death. When attempts to destroy it fail, it remains a steel skeleton, still marching on to destroy.
Apocalyptic is highly imaginative, a realm of conflict between good and evil, between terminators and Luke Skywalkers.
Father Peter Malone, M.S.C. is at present on the staff of the National Pastoral Institute in Melbourne, Australia. He is well-known as a film critic and as author of numerous theological and religious articles.
