Mel Gibson’s take on Satan (part 1)
Disciple Dojo continues its series by Olatunde Howard on the topic of angels, demons, God and Satan as portrayed in pop-culture, particularly in movies. So far we’ve looked at “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and “The Devil’s Advocate“…now Olatunde takes a look at perhaps the most eerie depiction of Satan in recent film history–the androgynous figure in “The Passion of the Christ”
Please share your thoughts, questions or feedback in the comments section below! And, again, if you would like to read more from Olatunde on this or similar subjects be sure to check out his book “The Mind of Christ” …which sports an excellent cover designed by yours truly!
JM
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In “The Exorcism of Emily Rose,” we never actually “saw” Satan, because he took possession of a young innocent girl. We were told in the movie that this possession was necessary for the world to believe in God. But we saw that this was in no way the case, because God does not need the devil to reveal Himself. In “The Devil’s Advocate” we saw Satan masked as a lawyer, tempting a young lawyer with subtlety. What we learned from this movie is that we never see the devil coming if we are not trusting in the Spirit of Truth to protect us from self-deception.
But in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” we finally see Satan unveiled. And Satan’s depiction in this movie captures essential characteristics of his unmasked personality and expression.
There are two powerful lessons I took away from the depiction of Satan in the Passion:
1. The way to escape temptation is to not ignore the perversions of Satan.
2. The closer we get to the knowledge and likeness of Christ, the more direct the temptations from Satan will be.
Think back to the words of Satan and the words of Christ at the beginning of the movie:
Satan: Do you really believe that one man can bear the full burden of sin?
Jesus: Shelter Me, O, Lord. I trust in you. In you I take refuge.
Satan: No one man can carry this burden, I tell you. It is far too heavy.
Saving their souls is too costly. No-one. Ever. No. Never.
Jesus: Father, Y-you can do all things. If it is possible, let this chalice pass from me… But let your will be done, not mine.
Satan: Who is your father? Who are you?
In this scene Satan is a cloaked androgynous figure. A woman with her head completely shaved, yet with the voice of a man. There is something alluring about the figure–alluring in a weird yet intriguing way. There is something clearly “off” or “not right” about this figure. This is exactly what Director Mel Gibson intended:
When asked why he portrayed Satan—an androgynous, almost beautiful being played by Rosalinda Celentano—the way he did, Gibson replied: “I believe the Devil is real, but I don’t believe he shows up too often with horns and smoke and a forked tail. The devil is smarter than that. Evil is alluring, attractive. It looks almost normal, almost good—but not quite.
“That’s what I tried to do with the Devil in the film. The actor’s face is symmetric, beautiful in a certain sense, but not completely. For example, we shaved her eyebrows. Then we shot her almost in slow motion so you don’t see her blink—that’s not normal. We dubbed in a man’s voice in Gethsemane even though the actor is a woman … That’s what evil is about, taking something that’s good and twisting it a little bit.”
But what about the ugly baby?
“Again,” said Gibson, “it’s evil distorting what’s good. What is more tender and beautiful than a mother and a child? So the Devil takes that and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old ‘baby’ with hair on his back. It is weird, it is shocking, it’s almost too much—just like turning Jesus over to continue scourging him on his chest is shocking and almost too much, which is the exact moment when this appearance of the Devil and the baby takes place.”
http://www.sanctepater.com/2010/02/satan-in-passion-of-christ.html
What Gibson says is dead on.
The very nature of evil gives us enough to resist it.
Again, listen to Gibson’s words:
“It looks almost normal, almost good–but not quite.” “…beautiful in a certain sense, but not completely.” “That’s what evil is about, taking something that’s good and twisting it a little bit.”
In a sense, viewers can’t take our eyes off of Satan in the Gethsemane scene and the flogging scene, as he/she slowly moves across the scene (holding the weird/grotesque baby!). But viewers also know we are seeing something or someone that is evil…untrustworthy…repulsive. The blend of intrigue and repulsiveness is otherworldly really, something outside of our understanding of reality….something like God (in the sense of being beyond category), but a perversion of Him.
This is necessary for Satan!
He cannot be perfectly beautiful, because this is what he was when God made him, “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” (See Ezekiel 28:11-19. And while some see this passage as a depiction the King of Tyre which was only later applied to Satan, the point remains.) In other words, Satan can’t let his temptations be completely good because goodness is from God, and he won’t let God to be glorified as God.
The only way Satan can receive the worship that God receives is to be like God, that is, as something “other worldly,” but with his own twist–namely, evil.
He must get humanity to call evil good and good evil. The subtle distortion or perversion of good is Satan’s trademark. Like in “The Devil’s Advocate,” there must be enough evil in the temptation for the tempted TO KNOW AND CHOOSE THE EVIL! Satan cannot accuse unless this is so.
This is the “way out” mentioned in I Corinthians 10:13…
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
Satan won’t be so beautiful or alluring or attractive or intriguing that his evil won’t somehow come through.
This is true with any and every temptation. There will be something in the temptation, or the very nature of the temptation itself, which the tempted person knows should be resisted–something that shouldn’t be trusted or yielded to. But when sin is committed, the evil, or perverted good, KNOWN BY THE PERSON BEING TEMPTED, gets ignored or rationalized.
[to be continued…]
Categories: Arts and Culture, Biblical Theology, Blog
[…] [Continued from PART 1] […]
by Disciple Dojo – JMSmith.org » Mel Gibson’s take on Satan (part 2) on Jan 23, 2012 at 12:40 am