... sorry for not following up on my promise to deliver another Holiday Movie blog. After about 2 hours of re-writing, I determined that it was neither funny-haha nor funny-ironic ... so I filed it under funny-deleted. I'll press on anyway and get a post in before David Letterman shaves his beard .. or at least before all the snow melts off the brick that Prometheus lit his fire on (see my previous post).
I stayed up way to late last night to watch "The Order" staring Heath Ledger. I'd previously seen the last half of the movie and mistakenly called it "The Sin Eater" when discussing it at Homers; so when I got a chance to see the whole thing, I jumped at the chance. Ok, actually I just sat there and didn't jump up to do anything else or go to bed until after 4am.
The basic premise of the film (spoiler alert) is that there is now and throughout history have been individuals called "sin-eaters" that are able to consume the transgressions of others and take it on themselves - allowing the dying sinner a chance to enter the afterlife without all those chains and cash boxes we all saw Marley and his pals lugging around this past month. As you can imagine, this makes that sin-eater rather popular with big mean nasty people that are near the end of life. On the other hand, the church (Catholic that is) is really bent out of shape over all these previously excommunicated souls getting a free pass through the pearly gates.
Ledger's character (a conflicted / lusting priest) is recruited by William Eden to take over as the rouge absolutionist. In the process he gets the girl, loses the girl, eats the sin of the girl, gets really pissed off over the girl's death ... yada yada yada - he's the new sin-eater.
...
I also saw Dracula 2000 recently (though not so late at night). In this Wes Craven film we learn that our good friend Vlad the Impaler is none other than Judas himself with a big guilt/self-loathing complex over his betrayal of Christ. It was pretty well done .... and a tidy way to explain the significance of why crosses and silver (i.e. the 30 pieces) really get under his skin. In the end Judas/Dracula does not get the girl but is allowed to successfully hang himself this time after making peace with a large street-evangelism poster board Jesus during MardiGra.
What struck me this evening, as I was reading catching up in my daily devotional readings, was that in both cases these fantastical characters have been created as a way to meet a need that doesn't actually exist. Both Wes Craven's Judas and the clients of the Sin-Eater are trying to get right with a God that is against them. They seem to think that He is literally Hell bent on sending them the way of Buffy's Boyfriends rather than a merciful creator that desires renewed relationship with all his children, no matter what.
There is no need for an "other" way to salvation - by demonic ritual or suicide or anything else. Still it seems part of our nature to be convinced that God is making it hard for us - maybe that's just easier than letting him change who we are.
6 comments:
I haven't seen The Order yet, but there is one thing I really like about the idea of a sin-eater. While it does not fit into a proper Christian doctrine, it strongly illustrates the purpose of Christ's sacrifice.
I saw Dracula 2000 several years ago and was very intrigued with the Judas connection. The extras on the DVD explained that the connection was made when the writer was trying to imagine a reason that a lot of the things that are supposed to damage vampires are effective (crucifixes, silver, etc).
I would recommend staying away from Dracula 3000, as it is nothing like the "2000" version, though.
Wow! A new blog from Dash! A great way to start out the year!
Haven't seen either movie, but you have a good point about God wanting to reconnect with the sinner.
The Order sounds interesting. I did watch the movie "the sineater" and I think that was a book by a christian author. I enjoyed the dracula/judus connection in Drac2000. I had no idea there was a Drac3000...oh wait, is this Dracula in space?
Welcome back Dash. Very interesting connections, but since I haven't seen the movies myself, I cannot comment either way. I think the "Order" sounds like a good movie to be on the Q.
"The Order" does sound like something that I might be interested in. Will give it a try.
I like the spiritual applications you made from these movies. I see reflections like that sometimes but not everyone else sees it. I sometimes think getting people to think about God at all is an improvement over nothing, but the drawback is the wrong impressions of God, i.e. he's out to get you...these are hard misconceptions that it's up to Christians to try to offer an alternative to.
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