Post by Morgana on Sept 23, 2017 8:11:26 GMT
Sept 19, 2017 22:34:30 GMT @graham said:
So I saw mother! at the weekend, and I really hated it. However, I didn't really "get" it when I first saw it, and only realised what it was doing afterwards. Since then... well, I honestly still can't say I liked the film, but I do appreciate it more.It's pretty much impossible to discuss the messages and meanings of the film without total spoilers, so don't read on if you don't want that.
Okay, so for those who don't know, the entire movie is one big metaphor for christianity. "Him" is god, "mother" is mother nature, man and woman are Adam and Eve, their sons are Cain and Able, and so on.
I'll put the parallels I saw (after the fact) in spoiler tags so they're not taking up half the page :
Him and mother live in a house she says she wants to make into "a paradise" - the house is the garden of Eden / Earth.
man arrives and Him is fascinated with him. We see man coughing over the loo later, with an injury on his side; Him has taken his rib to create woman, who arrives the next day. Note that man acts as though he's never met her before, even though they are married and have kids.
The one rule that mother/Him have is to stay out of his study and not touch his precious jewel. The study is the tree, and the jewel is the forbidden fruit. her naturally disobeys and breaks the jewel.
The sons show up and one kills the other in an argument about who is loved more. He is marked on his forehead with blood, and banished from the house.
As the wake happens and more and more people show up, they begin to increasingly trash the house. mother repeatedly tries to stop them but is ignored. Finally this culminates in damage to the sink, causing a flood which gets rid of everyone.
Him is then inspired to write his new poetry - the new testament. Everybody loves this, and he basks in their adulation. As mother will say later, he badly wants love from people and although their increasingly terrible behaviour always makes him sad, he never so much as asks any of them to stop what they are doing - and will forgive them anything at all so long as he gets their love. When she literally begs Him to throw them out, all he can say in response is "but I don't want them to leave."
And boy, do they behave terribly. Cults, human sacrifice, riots, murder, slavery, rape... all the major sins of humanity are on display.
mother finally gives birth to Him's baby, and this quiets the crowd. But Him takes the child and gives it to the crowd, and the crowd quickly turn ugly and kill the baby. Then they eat him, in an obvious parallel to the eucharist.
This is finally enough for mother, and she descends to the basement (hell) and consumes the world with fire (the apocalypse). But Him takes the love from her dying body in the form of a new jewel and recreates the house complete with a new mother, to begin the whole thing over again.
man arrives and Him is fascinated with him. We see man coughing over the loo later, with an injury on his side; Him has taken his rib to create woman, who arrives the next day. Note that man acts as though he's never met her before, even though they are married and have kids.
The one rule that mother/Him have is to stay out of his study and not touch his precious jewel. The study is the tree, and the jewel is the forbidden fruit. her naturally disobeys and breaks the jewel.
The sons show up and one kills the other in an argument about who is loved more. He is marked on his forehead with blood, and banished from the house.
As the wake happens and more and more people show up, they begin to increasingly trash the house. mother repeatedly tries to stop them but is ignored. Finally this culminates in damage to the sink, causing a flood which gets rid of everyone.
Him is then inspired to write his new poetry - the new testament. Everybody loves this, and he basks in their adulation. As mother will say later, he badly wants love from people and although their increasingly terrible behaviour always makes him sad, he never so much as asks any of them to stop what they are doing - and will forgive them anything at all so long as he gets their love. When she literally begs Him to throw them out, all he can say in response is "but I don't want them to leave."
And boy, do they behave terribly. Cults, human sacrifice, riots, murder, slavery, rape... all the major sins of humanity are on display.
mother finally gives birth to Him's baby, and this quiets the crowd. But Him takes the child and gives it to the crowd, and the crowd quickly turn ugly and kill the baby. Then they eat him, in an obvious parallel to the eucharist.
This is finally enough for mother, and she descends to the basement (hell) and consumes the world with fire (the apocalypse). But Him takes the love from her dying body in the form of a new jewel and recreates the house complete with a new mother, to begin the whole thing over again.
So thoughts...
Him really did not come out well in this depiction, as indeed he doesn't in the bible, by my consideration. I think the film highlights one of the issues with christianity - that whilst we're told god loves us, in the story he acts like he really doesn't love anybody or anything. As mother sums Him up, "You never loved me. You just loved how much I loved you." In at least that respect, the film could be taken as an indictment of christianity and yahweh.
But it's not necessarily so. Him also came across to my eyes as being rather helpless in the face of what was going on. He explains that he pretty much has to keep creating over and over again, has to keep trying to get it right. He's a creator, it's in his nature. And whilst he won't ever do anything to try and keep his creations from self destruction, he doesn't actively seek it out.
I guess you could say that in that light Him is shown as being incompetent rather than selfishly arrogant. He's like an artist forever trying to paint a picture, and never able to get it right. Of course, that's not exactly a great depiction of Him either.
What do others who have seen the movie think? Are there parallels I missed? I'm sure there must be. Is there an interpretation of the movie that is more charitable to christianity or to god? Perhaps, in thinking back on it, I am viewing it entirely through my own filter? Anybody have a different perspective? I'm thinking of seeing it again at some point and would appreciate having other views to consider when I do.
