Postmodern Cinema and Messianic Heroes

The advent of the modern era is usually described by the disenchantment of the world or

the death of God. If post-modernism inherits this modernist skepticism to all things theological,

then why are there so many examples (as will be shown) of messiah figures in post-modern film?

It will be argued that this is due a reinvigoration of religious belief that takes place in reaction to

modernist attacks on the authority of science and philosophy as the sole means of acquiring

knowledge. This reaction sparked a post-modern return to the subject that implies a personal

space for religious belief which cannot be obliterated by the instrumental rationality of science,

philosophy, or even institutionalized religion. This post-modern return to theological motifs is

chronicled through this genre’s history of films which present numerous reconfigurations of

messianic figures. Yet, this immediately begs the questions of what the genre of post-modern

film is, and what the theme of the messiah represents. Although this paper will attempt to sketch

the ephemeral boundaries of the categories of post-modernism and messianism, it will focus

specifically upon these motifs as they occurred in contemporary western cinema. This paper will

focus solely upon the implicitly (though not exclusively) Judeo-Christian concept of the messiah

as it has become a topic of cinematic focus in western, post-modern film.

Post-Modernism: Seeking a Definition

Albrecht Wellmer in his book The Persistence of Modernity attempts to define the

slippery category of the post-modern as a sustained and attenuated reaction to the problems of

modernity. Although he admits that in his attempts to define this category he chooses his

examples arbitrarily, his hope is to create of collage of images such that “…post-modernism can

be perceived as a symbolic or conceptual field with distinct force-lines.1” Wellmer’s primary

1 Wellmer, Albrecht. The Persistence of Modernity. MIT Press 1991. Pg 38.

category from which he identifies post-modernism is by means of its philosophical

deconstruction or unmaking. Wellmer claims that

[t]he moment of post-modernism is a kind of explosion of the modern episteme in which reason and its subject- as guarantors of ‘unity’ and the ‘whole’- are blown to pieces…this turns out to be a movement towards destruction- or deconstruction- of the cogito, of totalizing rationality, that has been underway in modernist art for a long time.2

This transformation of what was a suspicion of enlightenment rationality within modernism to a

full blown “explosion of the modern episteme” is what gives post-modernism its kaleidoscopic

and disjunctive perspective. These themes of deconstruction within cinema are articulated in the

form of non-linear or chaotic narrative styles, moral relativism, as well as a palpable anxiety

towards science, capitalism, and institutionalized authority in general.

This systematic deconstruction of philosophy, art, and history becomes a loss of meaning,

universal truth, and grand narratives in the post-modern tradition. Wellmer describes how this

post-modern impulse is manifested saying “…the critique of totalizing reason and its subject is

compressed into a repudiation of the terror of theory, of representation, of the sign, of the idea of

truth.”3 This loss of meaning and truth without any theory with which to search for them causes

the post-modernist to grasp blindly for definitions, for new perspectives, for some shred of

understanding from the chaos of life. Wellmer identifies the post-modern artist in similar fashion

saying that

…a post-modern artist…is in the position of a philosopher…the work he produces is not in principle governed by pre-established rules, and they cannot be judged…by applying familiar categories to the work. Those rules and categories are rather what the work of art are looking for.4

2 Wellmer, Albrecht. The Persistence of Modernity. MIT Press 1991. Pg 38.3 Wellmer, Albrecht. The Persistence of Modernity. MIT Press 1991. Pg 40.4 Wellmer, Albrecht. The Persistence of Modernity. MIT Press 1991. Pgs 47-48.

This insight of Wellmer’s illuminates a possible reason for the heavy application of messianic

themes within post-modern film; it is because the messiah is a metaphor for rescuing the hope for

capturing this loss of truth and meaning. Ultimately, the goal of finding lost meaning and

recapturing the power of reference from within a blinded society is utopian, and this glimmer of

salvation begins to shine within post-modernism where modernism was still mourning the death

of God and the loss of meaning.

Wellmer’s association of the artist with the philosopher is a key aspect for identifying

post-modern cinema. Basically, there is no particular time period in which these films exist,

other than their situation in reference to the vague historical category of the modern film era.

Rather than engaging in an argument about the usefulness of post-modernism as a historical

category, since it is a decidedly anti-historical intellectual movement, it can be defined by a

persistent progression of the concerns of modernity. In this way, post-modern film can simply be

identified by its philosophical perspective which is searching for new rules of representation and

new meaning. One of the possible cultural byproducts of this constant searching for meaning in a

chaotic and symbolically empty world is that recurrent image of the messiah in cinema has

become a powerful tool for re-capturing the utopia which has been lost in modernity. Susan

Hayward in her book Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts defines postmodernism precisely as

this sort of cultural liberation from historical prejudices in narrative perspective. Hayward claims

that “…postmodernism refutes generalizations that exclude, and advocates a plurality of

individualized agency. In this respect, therefore, gender and race are no longer dichotomized.

Postmodernism represents, then, a cultural liberation.”5 This cultural liberation of formerly

neglected or repressed narratives plays out through post-modern cinema in the varied races,

5 Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge Press 2000. Pg 284.

genders, and classes the messiah is presented as, and the varying hopes which the messiah’s

coming is expected to fulfill.

The Anointed One Who Comes At the End of Times

In order to properly identify themes of messianism within post-modern cinema it is useful

to define what is meant by the term messiah. Messiah comes from the Greek word messias6

which means “anointed one.” Sigmund Mowinckel and G. W. Anderson in their book He That

Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism define the messiah as

having a strictly eschatological context. Mowinckel and Anderson write that “…in later Judaism

the term 'Messiah' denotes an eschatological figure. He belongs to 'the last time'; his advent lies

in the future. To use the word 'Messiah' is to imply eschatology, the last things.”7 Hence, it is

clear to see that the messiah not only is a figure who is chosen or selected (or at least indicated

by their anointed status), but they are also the figure who comes during the end of times. All of

this suggests that whatever is expected at the end of times, whether it is destruction or rebirth,

will be linked to the expectations surrounding the arrival of the messiah.

Another important aspect of the term messiah is its connection to political sovereignty.

Indeed this concept of anointment is closely tied with biblical rites of marking the king with

scented oil to indicate his divine election, or a state of divine grace. Mowinckel and Anderson

discuss the connection between the Kings of Israel and suggest that the term messiah is the

…title and name for the eschatological king, Messiah does not occur in the Old Testament, but appears first in the literature of later Judaism…the word 'Messiah' is an abbreviation of the fuller expression, 'Yahweh's Anointed'. This shows that

6 Mowinckel, Sigmund ; Anderson, G. W. He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later

Judaism. 2005 William B. Eerdmans. Pg 3. 7 Mowinckel, Sigmund ; Anderson, G. W. He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism. 2005 William B. Eerdmans. Pg 3.

the eschatological Messiah derived his name from the sacral title of the ancient kings of Israel.8

Because this term derives from biblical notions of the divine right of kings to their political

dominion, this implies that the figure who comes in the end times will be some kind of ruler.

Once again, this all has to do with what the end times are conceived of as being like, as to

whether this ruler is someone who does so by establishing a new utopian order, or by providing

salvation for a world upon the brink of destruction.

The vagueness which surrounds the notions of the term messiah is inherent in its

historical applications. Mowinckel and Anderson cite the lack of definition to the promise of the

eschatological king presented as a being tied to the indescribability of the ideal kingship. These

authors claim that

…because the ideal of kingship was so lofty, and because the king was regarded as a divine being, of whom…divine virtues and divine help were expected, the ideal of kingship became something which haunted everyday reality as the object of dreams, wishes, and longings, something for whose realization the people would hope in every new king and prince, or at least something which would at some time be fulfilled. For one day the true king must surely come and put everything right…9

Due to the numerous variations of historical applications of this term, and the lack of consensus

that has always existed in scriptural claims to divine political authority, the possibility of the

messiah as the ideal ruler takes on different aspects depending on what it is that society is

desperately desiring or lacking. The hope for the messiah to be a redeemer at the end times is

implicit to the nature of this term as it references a divine ruler who does the will of God, or

fulfills God’s prophecies. Since the messiah is such an openly defined term, it provides a broad

lens with which post-modern cinema can explore the possibility of “cultural liberation”10 in a 8 Mowinckel, Sigmund ; Anderson, G. W. He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism. 2005 William B. Eerdmans. Pg 7. 9 Mowinckel, Sigmund ; Anderson, G. W. He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism. 2005 William B. Eerdmans. Pg 97.10 Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge Press 2000. Pg 284.

world on the brink of destruction from the loss of symbolic meaning which Albrecht Wellmer

described as characteristic of this intellectual movement.

Dogma and the Female Messiah

Kevin Smith’s 1999 film Dogma is the comedic tale of Bethany, the unwilling female

messiah. In characteristic post-modern fashion, Bethany’s religious morality is brought into

question since she is a practicing catholic who works at an abortion clinic. However, the film is

portrayed as a gradual opening of Bethany’s bleak materialist worldview to an over-abundance

of theological entities. Systematically, Bethany meets Metatron (the voice of God), the thirteenth

apostle left out of the bible for political reasons, and a muse (a non-Christian entity) who all hint

at the great task ahead for the protagonist. Although the film expresses anti-catholic sentiment

with the premise that two angels (played by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) are threatening all of

creation by exploiting a loop-hole in catholic dogma, it does repeatedly stress the personal nature

of faith as something which is needed to resist this form of dogmatic oppression. This theme is

repeated throughout the film as Bethany’s crowd of theological acquaintances reveal a variety of

misconceptions in common theological notions. For instance, the thirteenth apostle, Rufus

(played by Chris Rock), was left out of the bible because he was black, and the gospel he was

preaching would have revealed that Jesus (the messiah) was black. Another example of this is

when Bethany discovers that she is the ancient descendant of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and

that she is the chosen savior of humanity meant to end dogmatic oppression, thereby making her

a female inheritor of Jesus’ legacy.

Although critical responses to this film range from ecstatic to vitriolic, this is perhaps

unsurprising for such an irreverent comedic appraisal of religion. For instance, Gilbert Adair in

his review entitled “Oh For Heaven’s Sake” accuses Smith’s film of making the viewer

…feel like a schoolmaster confronted with an exam paper so unsalvageably hopeless he's tempted to slash a big red X across it and pass on to the next. Nothing, absolutely nothing, not a single idea, not a shot, not a camera movement, not a performance, not a gesture, not a gag, nothing at all, I repeat, works in this movie. Even nowadays, that must be some kind of a first.11

In spite of these kinds of critical reactions to the Film, Kevin Smith argued for the sincerity of

this film describing it as “my letter to God…with a few dick and fart jokes thrown in.”12

Although Smith’s anti-catholic sentiments which are derived from his own faith experiences

inspired negative reactions from within this community, the off-the-cuff and witty comedic

presentation of this film caused reviewer Dann Gire to express surprise that “Dogma would turn

out to be both a glib and nimble satire of religion and a reverential valentine to God.”13 In

between the lines of these two reviewers’ analyses of the film lays the vision of Smith’s portrayal

of a personal faith journey in which the recovery of faith must come without acceding to the

destructive potential of dogma.

This film’s presentations of surprising contradictions to popular theological beliefs by a

female messiah is completed with the appearance of Alanis Morissette, the female God who

completely re-writes the tragic history of final battle with the revenging angels. Bethany

overcomes the post-modern crisis of faith by accepting a world that is crowded with theological

11 Adair, Gilbert. “Oh For Heaven’s Sake”. The Independent; London, England. Dec 26th, 1999. Located at http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-5032361/film-oh-for-heaven-s-sake-dogma-18-kevin-smith. 12 Adair, Gilbert. “Oh For Heaven’s Sake”. The Independent; London, England. Dec 26th, 1999. Located at http://www.questia.com/read/1P2-5032361/film-oh-for-heaven-s-sake-dogma-18-kevin-smith.

13 Gire, Dann. “Good God! 'Dogma' a Satirical Valentine to the Almighty”. Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL),

November 12, 1999. Located at http://www.questia.com/read/1G1-68836164/good-god-dogma-a-satirical-valentine-to-the-almighty.

meaning, and it becomes her task to help society recover their loss of faith by overturning

dogma. This metaphor of Bethany as the genetic inheritor of the role of the messiah is extended

when, at the end of the film, Bethany immaculately conceives from a touch by God. This artistic

repositioning of the hope for humanity’s salvation into a woman and her unborn baby becomes a

vague symbol of the need to educate and guide the next generation merely to believe in

something. Ultimately, this becomes the film’s only guiding precept. This symbol of the female

messiah opening the minds of society also depicts Smith’s artistic interpretation of what he

believed to be the true meaning of Christ’s message of acceptance and universal love, simple and

vague though it may be. In the conclusion of the film Bethany asks God why we are all here; all

she gets is a wink, a funny noise, and a smile at which point God promptly turns around and

begins doing handstands. In this scene the message of the film is clear, in a world where no

meaning is readily available, and the theological entities we do encounter are absurd, only by

making our own faith journey can we discover God’s true hopes for us.

This film engages with post-modern forms of artistic representation by overlaying the

traditional Christian imagery with an inter-textual combination of cultural references in order to

create a layered and inter-textual presentation. For instance Matt Damon’s character is the fallen

angel of death by the name of Loki, and he entails the trickster ways his name implies.14 There is

a scene in which he is in an airport utilizing Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland to convince a

nun that the poem “The Walrus and The Carpenter” is an indictment of religion. Loki sways the

nun from her vows by telling her that the walrus represents the Buddha or Vishnu and the

carpenter is Christ, and since they shuck and devour the oysters, religion is not to be trusted. In

this artistic layering of angels and Christian theological entities with Norse gods, muses, and

14 Peterson, Amy; Dunworth, David. Mythology in Our Midst: A Guide to Cultural References. Greenwood Press 2004. Pg 103.

literary tropes, post-modern films like Dogma utilize a vast array of cultural references to both

challenge traditions while pointing towards new hopes of finding meaning. Post-modern cinema

is thereby aligned with this messianic impulse by creating a puzzling artistic reference that

demands engagement from the viewer to achieve a variety of potential interpretations, but

ultimately an interpretation which has the most impact of creating meaning for the viewer.

Donnie Darko and The Suffering Messiah

At the beginning of this 2001 film Donnie is out sleep-walking when a low, murmuring

voice tells him the world is coming to an end. Twenty-eight days, six hours, forty-two minutes,

and twelve seconds is amount of time left from the moment when Donnie, in his sleepwalking

daze, escapes death in his bedroom from a mysterious falling jet engine. This event,

unbeknownst to the characters, results in the creation of a tangent universe in which Donnie

begins to manifest the incredible powers of a time traveler. During this twenty-eight day period

Donnie successively utilizes his newly acquired powers to flood his school, expose a pillar of the

community as a criminal, and fall in love with a girl. Yet, the timeline in which Donnie has

survived his appointed time of death is an unstable tangent universe which threatens to become a

black-hole that could destroy all of reality.

The post-modern impulse to destroy and convolute the narrative structure becomes

morphed in this film into an actual metaphysics of time travel and the destruction of reality. The

overtly theological motifs of Donnie Darko become apparent when the characters of the film

discuss the philosophical problems of time travel. Donnie and his physics teacher are discussing

a book “The Philosophy of Time Travel” when Donnie asks whether it is possible to travel back

in time and alter the past. His teacher responds that this statement contains a logical

contradiction; if the past has already occurred, then there is no universe in which the altered past

wasn’t simply the current state of reality. Donnie responds that there is no contradiction if one

travels within “God’s path”, a portal or wormhole created by God, to allow the time traveler this

godlike power to alter reality. Following this scene, the film progressively becomes a story of

Donnie’s revelation to his calling to follow God’s path, and repair the branch-line universe he is

inhabiting by traveling in back to the original reality in which her perishes from the falling jet

engine. If he fails to move into God’s channel going back in time to the universe in which he

perishes, then the tangent universe will collapse destroying all of reality with it.

Kevin Dodd in his article “Donnie Darko and the Messianic Motif” supports the post-

modern reading of this film saying

Donnie Darko is a most ambitious cinematic retelling of the Jesus myth from the vantage point of apparent madness….the Christ figure and one’s sacrifice irreversibly alter the lives of those who remember and follow this one. They alone have come to understand that behind the strange behavior and ideas of the hero was a real redemptive purpose; others, however, will continue to see the character as a misfit, at best.15

The use of a mentally ill messiah sends a powerful message about the social repression of those

who have been stigmatized by being labeled as insane. Donnie has difficulties interacting with

his family as he is faced with the unbelievable fact that he must save the world, but they all show

him unconditional love in spite of his anger and confusion during his revelatory journey. Donnie

develops devout followers who see value in his bazaar acts of destruction, which all seem to

have such oddly fortuitous consequences. An example of this is when he burns the local

motivational speaker’s house down only to reveal that he is a child pornographer. The image of

Donnie as Christ is completed when, while on his way to burn this house, he exits a movie

theater where he and his girlfriend were watching Evil Dead. Donnie looks up at the theater bill

to see the title of another film The Last Temptation of Christ.

15 Dodd, Kevin. Donnie Darko and the Messianic Motif. The Journal of Religion and Film Vol 13 No. 2 October 2009. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol13.no2/Dodd_DonnieDarko.html

Though Donnie Darko is an oddly dark and difficult to follow film, it certainly contains

the stylistic elements of post-modernism while simultaneously adopting messianic themes. It is

set in 1988 and this film’s re-appropriation of 80’s time-travel nostalgia which, complete with

references to Back to the Future, gives the distinct sense of a time when America was going

through a post-modern, Cold War crisis of meaning. Each of the characters is in their own form

of identity crisis. Donnie is in legal litigation for burning down an abandoned house weeks

before he began having his visions that the world would end. His older sister is waiting to hear if

she will get into Harvard, and his younger sister is waiting to see if her dance team will make it

onto Star Search, a popular television talent show from this era. Similarly, Donnie’s new

girlfriend has just moved to the area in the witness protection agency and has been given a new

name, Gretchen. All of these characters encounter tragedy as the result of Donnie’s cheating

death. Hence, Donnie is presented with the cost of his new found time powers which he gained

from surviving his appointed time of death, and if he fails to surrender his newfound powers

along with his life, then everyone he cares about will die.

The vision of the end of time presented in this film is thereby associated with the

revelations of a messiah who is driven slightly insane by the suffering he must endure in order to

save the world. Ultimately Donnie chooses to die alone in his room. The post-modern emphasis

of a world without hope or meaning is driven home in a scene when this manic Christ figure is

coming to terms with his calling while speaking to his therapists. In Kevin Dodd’s retelling of

this scene, his therapist questions Donnie as to “…whether he feels alone right now, Donnie says

he would like to believe he isn’t, but he’s never seen any proof otherwise, so he considers it

absurd to debate it. She asks: “The search for God is absurd?” “It is if everyone dies alone,”

Donnie answers.”16 In this scene, Donnie foreshadows his own death alone in his bedroom at the

end of the film. However, he also echoes the post-modern sentiment that the search for God is

absurd if all there is to find is loneliness in the world. Instead, by surviving his death at the

beginning of the film, Donnie finds love and hope which gives him the resolve to go back and

accept his appointed doom.

This film does provide one twist upon cinematic retellings of the messiah; Donnie is not

resurrected in the end. Though this is not necessarily incommensurate with the above discussion

of the historical associations of the term messiah, it is worth asking what the world has gained

from the coming of Donnie if he is meant to be symbolic of a divine king that comes at the end

of times. Dodd points out this aspect of Donnie Darko writing that

[t]he greatest deviation is at the point of legacy, of “resurrection.” Donnie Darko saved the world by his act of self-sacrifice, but no one there will ever know it, nor will anyone’s life be altered because of his altruistic example. He’ll remain to everyone a mentally troubled young man, who died an untimely death under mysterious circumstances... There is something very striking, unsettling, and yet also welcome about the anonymity of it all.

This welcome, yet unsettling anonymity Donnie displays is representative of the uncertainty of

the historical truth of Jesus’ resurrection as a sign of his being the messiah. However, this

uncertainty is welcomed because it represents the true mystery of the messiah, the mystery of

faith. Also, the idea of the messiah as an everyman, as someone arbitrarily chosen to save the

entire world at their own peril, drives home the utopian hopefulness in comparing the messiah

with the post-modern subject attempting to rescue meaning in an absurd world in which we all

die alone.

The Matrix and Techno-Messianism

16 Dodd, Kevin. Donnie Darko and the Messianic Motif. The Journal of Religion and Film Vol 13 No. 2 October 2009. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol13.no2/Dodd_DonnieDarko.html

The first installment in the Matrix trilogy, The Matrix (1999) provides the best example

of a post-modern presentation of the messiah out of this series of films. Although all three of the

films in this trilogy present aspects of post-modernism by their anxieties with science and

technology, the first utilizes a film noir style that is excellently characteristic of the post-modern

reworking of tradition in search of new modes of representation. The film noir elements of The

Matrix are best characterized by the sense of mystery of “what is the matrix?” which drives the

rising action of this cloak and dagger plot. Adding to the sense of suspicion of reality, all of the

scenes within the matrix were filmed with a green filter which gives the appearance of darkness

and a vague glow reminiscent of a computer screen. Likewise, the world outside is filmed using

a blue filter which gives a sense of depression and closeness in the scenes of the desolate real

world.17 By use of these stylistic methods the Wachowski brothers simulated what has become

one of the most popular dream-within-a-dream films to date.

The post-modern elements of The Matrix are presented early on in the film when history

is disrupted. The world believes the year to be 1999, but it is, in fact, two to three hundred years

in the future during a period in which intelligent robots have enslaved the human race. Mark

Stuckey in his article “He Is the One: The Matrix Trilogy’s Post-Modern Messiah” supports this

reading of The Matrix as a messianic metaphor for a world trapped in a technological nightmare.

Stuckey claims that “it is not without coincidence that The Matrix was released on the last Easter

weekend of the dying twentieth century. It is a parable of the original Judeo-Christian worldview

of entrapment in a world gone wrong, with no hope of survival or salvation short of something

miraculous.”18 The hope for a savior capable of taking on the burden of awakening humanity

17 “Most later DVD versions have had color-filtering applied, giving the real-world scenes a blue tint and scenes within the Matrix a green tint.” Taken from the Internet Movie Database page on The Matrix located at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0133093/alternateversions. 18 Stuckey, Mark. He Is the One: The Matrix Trilogy’s Post-Modern Messiah. The Journal of Religion and Film Vol 9 No. 2 October 2005. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol9No2/StuckyMatrixMessiah.htm

from its technological enslavement is driven home when Neo (played by Keanu Reeves) comes

back to life at the end of the film, and suddenly begins to exhibit new powers to overcome the

controlling sentient programs, the agents. Also, the movie’s release date suggests that the

directors were aware its references to the end of times.

In this technological dystopia, Neo’s role as the messiah is constantly reiterated by

Morpheus (played by Lawrence Fishburne) who proclaims that Neo is “the one.” Though the

theological motifs run deep throughout this film, for instance the last bastion of humanity is

Zion, in typical post-modern fashion these characteristic Judeo-Christian archetypes are overlaid

with numerous historical references. An example of this is that the ship that rescues Neo is the

Nebuchanezzar, the second king of Babylon, and Morpheus is named after the Roman god of

dreams. However, this film ultimately adopts Neo as a Christian messianic figure by means of

his death and resurrection. Stuckey cites the overtly Christian nature of the Wachowski’s

presentation pointing out that

….at the core of the Nebuchadnezzar is a plaque with the words "MARK III No. 11.” With the Wachowski brothers' incessant attention to details, including names, it should not be passed off as coincidence that, in the Bible, Mark 3:11 describes how people possessed by evil spirits fall down before Jesus and say, "You are the Son of God.” Indirectly even the ship declares that Neo is the One…19

The Wachowsis’ attention to detail and their reworking of historical tradition once again displays

the post-modernist impulse to search for new means with which to create multivalent allusions to

layered, inter-textual references. The constant paranoia within this film which is presented by the

question of whether reality is merely a dream takes the deep post-modern anxiety of a world

devoid of meaning and turns it into a rich symbolic tapestry which the viewer must interpret to

understand Neo’s destiny as the messiah.

19 Stuckey, Mark. He Is the One: The Matrix Trilogy’s Post-Modern Messiah. The Journal of Religion and Film Vol 9 No. 2 October 2005. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol9No2/StuckyMatrixMessiah.htm

The Matrix begins with Keanu Reeves in the guise of Thomas Anderson a thoroughly

alienated, cyber-punk hacker with no clear agenda in life. By the film’s conclusion he has been

transformed into a karate fighting, reality-bending, techno-messiah who has been liberated from

his past to seize a new identity as the liberator of humanity. The transformation of Neo from

average citizen to techno-messiah implies a sudden gain of purpose that happens from

theological revelation within a society enslaved by technology. Stuckey attempts to decode the

inter-textual symbol of Keanu Reeves’s transformation from Thomas Anderson into Neo arguing

that

Thomas was famous as the doubting disciple who would not believe in the resurrected Jesus until he felt the nail wounds himself. Thomas Anderson...doubts his alleged identity as the One until nearly the end of the movie. "Anderson” translated from its Greek roots means "son of man,” the term favored by Jesus to describe himself. But Thomas Anderson takes on the name "Neo,” which is an anagram of "One.” When Thomas Anderson claims the name Neo, he becomes a "new man.”20

Although this sort of deconstruction of the possible biblical references within Neo’s identity is

certainly invited by The Matrix’s suspicious perspective, this powerful overlapping of references

all point towards Neo as the messiah. In this way the film makers are suggesting that all of

history points towards the arrival of this figure as the key to salvation at the end of time, thereby

making this film one of the most overt displays of messianism in post-modern cinema. However,

the necessity for a single individual to act as the harbinger of change for a planet on the brink of

destruction becomes the moral center of a post-modern world drained of hope or meaning, asleep

and enslaved.

Pulp Fiction and Waiting for the Messiah

20 Stuckey, Mark. He Is the One: The Matrix Trilogy’s Post-Modern Messiah. The Journal of Religion and Film Vol 9 No. 2 October 2005. http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol9No2/StuckyMatrixMessiah.htm

Ezekiel 25:17- The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the

selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and goodwill,

shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and

the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious

anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord

when I lay my vengeance upon you.

Pulp Fiction (1994) is often hailed as director/writer Quentin Tarrantino’s post-modern

masterpiece of cinema. The above biblical verse is the line that Jules (played by Samuel L.

Jackson) uses at the beginning of the film to deliver vengeance upon the unfortunate individuals

who botched a deal with his boss Marcelus Wallace. During this botched deal Jules’s partner

Vincent (played by John Travlota) retrieves a brief-case which is opened by the code 666. Upon

opening this case Vincent’s jaw drops in awe and his face begins to glow. Although the viewer is

never told what is in the brief-case, when first encountering Marcelus Wallace in the film, he is

shown in close focus upon a band-aid on the back of his head. In similar fashion to how the

imagery of Neo as the messiah was decoded in The Matrix, these theological references from

Pulp Fiction can be interpreted as meaning that Jules and Vincent are recovering their boss’s

soul, which he has sold in Faustian fashion. In this way, Jules and Vincent can be understood as

caretakers of the human soul, and the difficulties they encounter in the process of returning it are

symbolic of the challenges of saving a soul in modern society.

Todd Davis and Kenneth Womack in their article “Shepherding the Weak: The Ethics of

Redemption in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction” argue against claims that pulp-fiction presents

nothing more than a drug and money fueled post-modern nihilism. Davis and Womack claim that

[s]uch critical assessments of the film…neglect to account for the remarkably palpable elements of metamorphosis involved in the redemption of the character

who functions largely as Pulp Fiction's moral axis, Jules Winnfield. His dramatic struggle with the notion of divine… belies any rudimentary evaluation of the film as a morally vacuous vehicle that emphasizes Tarantino's lust for the flashy entrails of pop culture over the sublime qualities of artistic substance.21

Since, it is easy to lose a moral center in such a violence and drug filled, chopped up narrative

style which tells multiple stories from multiple points of view, this theological motif of

redemption of souls stands out as the asynchronous beginning and ending of the film’s trajectory.

During the botched deal to recover their boss’s soul, both Vincent and Jules have a revolver fired

at them at close range, but miraculously neither of them is hit by the bullets. During this moment

Jules feels the touch of God, and this event causes him to decide to quit being a gangster and to

change his ways.

This becomes a central moment in the film as Jules and Vincent begin to debate the

implications of the miracle Jules which has purported to have witnessed. However, Tarantino

makes his commentary about the nature of redemptive faith clear when Jules suggests that it

doesn’t matter what criteria one uses to judge if a miracle has occurred, only that he felt the

divine presence at that moment and he can no longer ignore God’s call. Davis and Womack in

their exploration of the theological motifs of this film interpret this moment within the plot as

one which is a kind of textual re-reading of Jules’s life. Instead of reading the above bible verse

as a sign of his forthcoming wrath, Jules utilizes it in the final scene of the movie to spare the

live of two amateur thieves attempting to steal his boss’s briefcase (soul.) Davis and Womack

write that “[t]he redemptive act of re-reading the text of his life, then, allows Jules to glimpse for

the first time the prospects of faith, hope, and love-possibilities that the stasis of his past life, in

21 Davis, Todd F.; Womack, Kenneth. Shepherding the Weak: The Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Literature/Film Quarterly January 1, 1998. Accessed at http://www.questia.com/read/1P3-28455653/shepherding-the-weak-the-ethics-of-redemption-in.

its devotion to death, could never offer.”22 This statement once again rejects notions of Pulp

Fiction’s post-modern presentation as inherently nihilistic, while simultaneously affirming the

arch of redemption as it plays out in the figure of Jules.

In characteristic inter-textual, genre-bending post-modern style, when Jules is asked what

he will do until he knows God’s plan for him now that he is on the path to redemption, he merely

claims that he will “Walk the wind” like Cain from the Kung-Fu television series. Jules’s

decision to move on from his criminal life and travel until he discovers God’s purpose for him

highlights the vagueness implicit in understanding the true meaning of redemption or the

possible path to it. Davis and Womack cite this post-modern obfuscation of this tale of

redemption saying of Jules that “although he pledges himself to the promise of spiritual

redemption, he realizes nevertheless that such a commitment necessitates faith in the intensity of

his cataleptic impression, and in the unknowable ways of God: [Jules claims] "If it takes forever,

I'll wait forever.”23 The possible interminability of waiting for God’s purpose to become clear is

a brilliant metaphor for the post-modern search for meaning, yet it is decidedly hopeful that

meaning can be found in faithful searching rather than in expounding the particulars of what or

when the eschaton may be. Although Jules saves the would-be thieves in the end of the film, he

is no messiah. Instead, he represents the religious convert who must await the ultimate arrival of

messiah which is symbolic of renewed meaning in this post-modern cinematic depiction of his

quest for God’s purpose for his life.

22 Davis, Todd F.; Womack, Kenneth. Shepherding the Weak: The Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Literature/Film Quarterly January 1, 1998. Accessed at http://www.questia.com/read/1P3-28455653/shepherding-the-weak-the-ethics-of-redemption-in.23 Davis, Todd F.; Womack, Kenneth. Shepherding the Weak: The Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Literature/Film Quarterly January 1, 1998. Accessed at http://www.questia.com/read/1P3-28455653/shepherding-the-weak-the-ethics-of-redemption-in.

Indeed there is a way to view the asynchronous narrative of Pulp Fiction as a

representation of eschatological end time. As linear history turns into a convoluted series of

interconnected loops, this film makes the overarching tale of Jules’s redemption and the

salvation of his boss’s soul into a powerful message of the challenges facing the moral man in a

world of violence and deceit. Davis and Womack cite Jules’s revelation of his responsibility to

follow the example Jesus set saying that “Jules realizes the value of human life, and his own

ability to sustain it. ‘The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men,’ he tells the

thieves. ‘But I'm tryin'. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd.’”24 These associations Jules makes

of himself as being caught between the choice of being a tyrant or a shepherd indicates his desire

to act in the capacity of the messiah, even though this may be an impossible task. The

ambiguities of what this redemption entails for Jules in this film presents the ambiguities of what

the messiah represents as a fulfillment divine kingship or when the end time will come. Although

the image of the messiah never quite comes to the fore in this film, it could be argued that there

is a glimmer of the messiah in Jules’s expectant waiting for the emergence of God’s purpose.

Searching for the Messiah in Post-Modern Cinema

Though this paper has not been an exhaustive review of all of the possible representations

of messianism or post-modernism within cinema, it has been an attempt to present a collage the

variety of artistic interpretations that have occurred when these two categories overlap in the

history of film. In reviewing some of the most popular films which exhibit both post-modernism

and themes of messianism, it is hoped that both of these categories have been able to be sketched

into a “symbolic or conceptual field with distinct force-lines.”25 It has also been demonstrated

24 Davis, Todd F.; Womack, Kenneth. Shepherding the Weak: The Ethics of Redemption in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Literature/Film Quarterly January 1, 1998. Accessed at http://www.questia.com/read/1P3-28455653/shepherding-the-weak-the-ethics-of-redemption-in.25 Wellmer, Albrecht. The Persistence of Modernity. MIT Press 1991. Pg 38.

that, although the concept of the messiah is unclearly defined, cinematic presentations give

reality to visions of the end time, the messiah, and what their coming might signify. There has

been a variety of different portrayals of the messiah (as black, female, cyber-punk, or mentally

ill) that have been discussed within post-modern cinema. This opening up of historical depictions

of the messiah to traditionally neglected narratives is representative of the “cultural liberation”26

that the post-modern destruction of grand narrative entails. Conversely, the notion of messianism

seems to imply this same anti-authoritarian perspective which may have caused Jesus to be

viewed as a rebel against the Jewish temple.

By reviewing these films’ relations to the categories of post-modernism and messianism

it has been implied that these two concepts are innately connected in the artistic imagination.

Since post-modernism is an intellectual movement more than a unified historical category, it has

been useful to examine these primary examples to indicate that there are a great deal of possible

films which would manifest aspects of this connection between post-modernism and messianism.

Although there are many examples of post-modern cinema which render a morally bereft

worldview (Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), the persistence of theological themes such as

messianism within this genre of film suggests that it needs careful re-examination before being

dismissed as patently disenchanted. Indeed, the morally bereft and symbolically empty world

that post-modernism presents is easily associated with the end of times, and thereby the “dreams,

wishes, and longings”27 that occur during this period. Although all of these cinematic visions of

how the end will come vary greatly in their presentation, it is universally accepted throughout

these films that this is a period in great need of redemption, and this need to rescue humanity

from the brink of destruction is the hope that the messiah represents.

26 Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. Routledge Press 2000. Pg 284.27 Mowinckel, Sigmund ; Anderson, G. W. He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism. 2005 William B. Eerdmans. Pg 97.