"We were supposed to change the world with love, compassion, and forgiveness. This divine vengeance crap is all wrong. ... Who do these 'Christians' think they are, anyway?"
There are many stories with the Devil as a character, but not nearly as many with Jesus, and Hal Hartley imagines both of them in this creative 63 minute film, made in advance of the new millennium. Jesus (Martin Donovan) has arrived to judge the living and the dead on December 31, 1999 per the Book of Revelation, but has a lot of doubt about divine acts of wrath and the concept of judgment to begin with. "What twisted fairy tale had I allowed myself to be tangled up into?" he asks, bitterly pondering his assigned fate.
Meanwhile, the Devil (Thomas Jay Ryan) comes across as a moderate of sorts, still trying to harvest the odd soul, but breaking the 4th wall to explain himself to viewers, and trying to get the vulnerable Jesus to agree to a partnership. While Jesus vacillates, it's interesting that the Devil voices essentially the view of the God of the Old Testament, saying "God's tolerance for you stupid human beings has reached its end."
God is not present directly, but we understand his views through those who are. Jesus says "My Father, he is an angry God. To Him the law is everything. Still, to this day, attorneys are his favorites," which I chuckled over. The lawyer representing God expresses his indignation that the Apocalypse may be delayed, saying "My client's authority rest on this threat alone!" And yet Christ seems so much more enlightened, saying later to the lawyer, "I'm sorry, but retribution seems so petty."
And so it is in this spiritual angst that the film hangs on, and while it meanders around a bit, I found it engaging. You'll have to bear with the feel of amateur cinematography and low quality video though, with long exposure times creating a blurring of images combined with Dutch angles and abrupt editing to create a surreal effect. Perhaps this was in keeping with the themes of the film, spiritual disorientation, or perhaps it's just highly distracting. It has its moments though, including a brilliant final shot of the Manhattan skyline from a boat, as Jesus ponders the future of humanity.
The film is light and quirky, but there is heft to its questions about where mankind is heading amidst all of its technical advancements. It's fitting that Jesus breaks the 5th seal in the Book of Life on a Macbook computer. At one point the Devil observes "They're inventing themselves now. Artificial Intelligence and cyber genetics and so on," and at the end of the film, Jesus's final speech is something that would make Ingmar Bergman proud. Among other things he says "The innocent and the guilty all equally helpless, all perfectly lost, and as frightening as it was to admit, all deserving of forgiveness." Great stuff.
There are other things I liked about the film, starting with PJ Harvey as Mary Magdalene. I could watch her in anything, and she also contributes a couple of songs to the soundtrack. Yo La Tengo also appear briefly as a Salvation Army band on the street near the end, and are in the soundtrack as well. Miho Nikaido is solid as the waitress who wins the lottery through a perverse Faustian bargain that her would-be boyfriend makes for her, then decides to feed to poor on the streets with soup, and it's this character that clearly signals the embodiment of Christ's ideals.
This is a film that won't be for everyone, as indie as it feels and as bold as it is in its examination of Christianity. I really enjoyed the creativity and the philosophizing though, enough to overlook its roughness.
There are many stories with the Devil as a character, but not nearly as many with Jesus, and Hal Hartley imagines both of them in this creative 63 minute film, made in advance of the new millennium. Jesus (Martin Donovan) has arrived to judge the living and the dead on December 31, 1999 per the Book of Revelation, but has a lot of doubt about divine acts of wrath and the concept of judgment to begin with. "What twisted fairy tale had I allowed myself to be tangled up into?" he asks, bitterly pondering his assigned fate.
Meanwhile, the Devil (Thomas Jay Ryan) comes across as a moderate of sorts, still trying to harvest the odd soul, but breaking the 4th wall to explain himself to viewers, and trying to get the vulnerable Jesus to agree to a partnership. While Jesus vacillates, it's interesting that the Devil voices essentially the view of the God of the Old Testament, saying "God's tolerance for you stupid human beings has reached its end."
God is not present directly, but we understand his views through those who are. Jesus says "My Father, he is an angry God. To Him the law is everything. Still, to this day, attorneys are his favorites," which I chuckled over. The lawyer representing God expresses his indignation that the Apocalypse may be delayed, saying "My client's authority rest on this threat alone!" And yet Christ seems so much more enlightened, saying later to the lawyer, "I'm sorry, but retribution seems so petty."
And so it is in this spiritual angst that the film hangs on, and while it meanders around a bit, I found it engaging. You'll have to bear with the feel of amateur cinematography and low quality video though, with long exposure times creating a blurring of images combined with Dutch angles and abrupt editing to create a surreal effect. Perhaps this was in keeping with the themes of the film, spiritual disorientation, or perhaps it's just highly distracting. It has its moments though, including a brilliant final shot of the Manhattan skyline from a boat, as Jesus ponders the future of humanity.
The film is light and quirky, but there is heft to its questions about where mankind is heading amidst all of its technical advancements. It's fitting that Jesus breaks the 5th seal in the Book of Life on a Macbook computer. At one point the Devil observes "They're inventing themselves now. Artificial Intelligence and cyber genetics and so on," and at the end of the film, Jesus's final speech is something that would make Ingmar Bergman proud. Among other things he says "The innocent and the guilty all equally helpless, all perfectly lost, and as frightening as it was to admit, all deserving of forgiveness." Great stuff.
There are other things I liked about the film, starting with PJ Harvey as Mary Magdalene. I could watch her in anything, and she also contributes a couple of songs to the soundtrack. Yo La Tengo also appear briefly as a Salvation Army band on the street near the end, and are in the soundtrack as well. Miho Nikaido is solid as the waitress who wins the lottery through a perverse Faustian bargain that her would-be boyfriend makes for her, then decides to feed to poor on the streets with soup, and it's this character that clearly signals the embodiment of Christ's ideals.
This is a film that won't be for everyone, as indie as it feels and as bold as it is in its examination of Christianity. I really enjoyed the creativity and the philosophizing though, enough to overlook its roughness.