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selenakTaking a break from writing angst-ridden entries over at ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
theatrical_muse, which is rapidly consuming my life, I find yet another article on Gibson's "Passion of Christ" in the papers. You know, I have the very dark suspicion that the whole "antisemitism or no antisemitism?" question was a very cunning plot to get more than a year of free publicity, because frankly, do you really think a biblical movie with several hours of Aramaic and Latin would have made for a cash cow otherwise? If it hadn't been AN EVENT (TM)?
I haven't seen it and am unsure whether or not to go.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deborah_judge's posts on the matter weren't exactly encouraging. Incidentally, remember when everyone got spammed with unwanted advertisment for this film? Well, I didn't get any spam, but londo_mollari did. Which gave me some strange images of Londo watching a movie on the last 24 hours of Christ and immediately concluding that G'Kar had managed to sell his life story to some human director, who promptly changed it for the human market.
Okay, seriously now - it's fascinating how often shows produced and written by self-proclaimed atheists like Joss Whedon and JMS return again and again to Christian imagery and theological issues. And not, thankfully, in an cliched "enlightened hero vs evil priest (tm)" kind of way. In the Jossverse, you have "the blood of the lamb and all that" (Giles, in Restless, about Buffy, which reminds me of a great exchange withrozk on the possible use of Narnian themes, and hence Christian ones, for season 5 - Buffy as Aslan, Ben as Edmund and Glory as Jadis, if I recall correctly). You've got impossible, divine births (Darla and Angel even get their very own King Herod in the form of Holtz). You have Mal who prays and talks of angels in the opening scenes of Serenity, the Firefly pilot, and never forgives God afterwards, and you've got Book, the Shephard whom bimo recently analysed so intriguingly.
Over at Babylon 5, the imagery and metaphors are played through again and again as well. Sinclair being tortured in the flashbacks to the Earth/Minbari war in season 1 is just the earliest example - he's hanging from a cross, if you look at it, and of course that is when, as we will find out, the Minbari discover he is their Messiah. Then you've got Draal, who sacrifices himself to the machine (again with outstretched arms, and note the other two possible candidates here, both chosen for their capability of self-sacrifice - Sinclair and Londo) . Moving on with the seasons, G'Kar gets the Christ symbolism in increasing doses, most pointedly during the opening six episodes of season 4, down to the thirty lashes, the cross-bearing and fall on the way. But G'Kar ultimately rejects the role of human (err, Narn) sacrifice and messiah - he's the prophet instead, the voice that must be heard. (By whom? Come on.) Sheridan gets his part of the symbolism with his death and resurrection (causing Garibaldi's catty remark regarding him not being the Pope, and since he refers to the later as "she", we're casually told that by the 23rd century, the Catholic Church has reformed into ordaining female priests and being led by one; gotta love JMS).
But the character who ends up volunteering for hanging on a cross for the people for 15plus years - you might describe it as facing and surrendering to his greatest fear, knowing it will destroy him - is none other than the tragic antihero of the show, Londo Mollari.hobsonphile has pointed out that Londo starts out dressed in purple, then gets dressed in black to indicate his increasing inner darkness, and ends up in sacrificial white. Whenever I watch The Fall of Centauri Prime, which I still can't manage without sobbing, I am reminded of Passing through Gethsemane, a season 3 standalone episode, in which the main guest character, memorably played by Brad Dourif, murderer and saint at the same time, starts out wandering whether he would have had the strength to do what Jesus did in Gethsemane, i.e. wait for his torture and death to come instead of fleeing, and ends up knowing that yes, he has.
It's a powerful narrative pattern, which is probably why you find it in so many media incarnations.
theatrical_muse, which is rapidly consuming my life, I find yet another article on Gibson's "Passion of Christ" in the papers. You know, I have the very dark suspicion that the whole "antisemitism or no antisemitism?" question was a very cunning plot to get more than a year of free publicity, because frankly, do you really think a biblical movie with several hours of Aramaic and Latin would have made for a cash cow otherwise? If it hadn't been AN EVENT (TM)? I haven't seen it and am unsure whether or not to go.
deborah_judge's posts on the matter weren't exactly encouraging. Incidentally, remember when everyone got spammed with unwanted advertisment for this film? Well, I didn't get any spam, but londo_mollari did. Which gave me some strange images of Londo watching a movie on the last 24 hours of Christ and immediately concluding that G'Kar had managed to sell his life story to some human director, who promptly changed it for the human market.Okay, seriously now - it's fascinating how often shows produced and written by self-proclaimed atheists like Joss Whedon and JMS return again and again to Christian imagery and theological issues. And not, thankfully, in an cliched "enlightened hero vs evil priest (tm)" kind of way. In the Jossverse, you have "the blood of the lamb and all that" (Giles, in Restless, about Buffy, which reminds me of a great exchange with
rozk on the possible use of Narnian themes, and hence Christian ones, for season 5 - Buffy as Aslan, Ben as Edmund and Glory as Jadis, if I recall correctly). You've got impossible, divine births (Darla and Angel even get their very own King Herod in the form of Holtz). You have Mal who prays and talks of angels in the opening scenes of Serenity, the Firefly pilot, and never forgives God afterwards, and you've got Book, the Shephard whom bimo recently analysed so intriguingly. Over at Babylon 5, the imagery and metaphors are played through again and again as well. Sinclair being tortured in the flashbacks to the Earth/Minbari war in season 1 is just the earliest example - he's hanging from a cross, if you look at it, and of course that is when, as we will find out, the Minbari discover he is their Messiah. Then you've got Draal, who sacrifices himself to the machine (again with outstretched arms, and note the other two possible candidates here, both chosen for their capability of self-sacrifice - Sinclair and Londo) . Moving on with the seasons, G'Kar gets the Christ symbolism in increasing doses, most pointedly during the opening six episodes of season 4, down to the thirty lashes, the cross-bearing and fall on the way. But G'Kar ultimately rejects the role of human (err, Narn) sacrifice and messiah - he's the prophet instead, the voice that must be heard. (By whom? Come on.) Sheridan gets his part of the symbolism with his death and resurrection (causing Garibaldi's catty remark regarding him not being the Pope, and since he refers to the later as "she", we're casually told that by the 23rd century, the Catholic Church has reformed into ordaining female priests and being led by one; gotta love JMS).
But the character who ends up volunteering for hanging on a cross for the people for 15plus years - you might describe it as facing and surrendering to his greatest fear, knowing it will destroy him - is none other than the tragic antihero of the show, Londo Mollari.
hobsonphile has pointed out that Londo starts out dressed in purple, then gets dressed in black to indicate his increasing inner darkness, and ends up in sacrificial white. Whenever I watch The Fall of Centauri Prime, which I still can't manage without sobbing, I am reminded of Passing through Gethsemane, a season 3 standalone episode, in which the main guest character, memorably played by Brad Dourif, murderer and saint at the same time, starts out wandering whether he would have had the strength to do what Jesus did in Gethsemane, i.e. wait for his torture and death to come instead of fleeing, and ends up knowing that yes, he has.It's a powerful narrative pattern, which is probably why you find it in so many media incarnations.
