Tag: Mythology
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Paul Atreides: Seer of the Holy War
In Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part One, under the influence of melange, spice which can be found only on Arrakis, Paul sees the visions of a holy war, and in shock, tells his mother: “It’s coming. I see a holy war spreading across the universe like unquenchable fire. A warrior religion that waves the Atreides banner…
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The Darkening of Valinor in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Silmarillion” and its Possible Romantic Influence
In The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Valinor, the Blessed Realm is shown before the light of the Two Trees was dimmed, the eternal light shone on the land of the gods. The destruction of the Two Trees and its Light is briefly surmised by Galadriel: “We thought our light would never…
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Princes and Kings Gazing at the Stars in “The Leopard” and “The Lord of the Rings”
The soul of the Prince reached out toward them, toward the intangible, the unattainable, which gave joy without laying claim to anything in return; as many other times, he tried to imagine himself in those icy tracts, a pure intellect armed with a notebook for calculations: difficult calculations, but ones which would always work out.…
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The Nameless God: Ingmar Bergman’s Mythical Tale “The Virgin Spring”
Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring is an adaptation of a thirteen century Swedish ballad. Christanity became a state religion in Sweden in the twelfth century, while the process of Christianization of Sweden began roughly in the ninth century. This means that the tale we witness on the screen, portrays an age in which Christianity…
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Freedom or Security? – MCU’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”
Chris Evans, the actor who impersonated Captain America, said the following words regarding his character’s transition from the WWII era to the modern day: “It’s not so much about his shock with [technology]… It’s more about the societal differences. He’s gone from the ’40s to today; he comes from a world where people were a…
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Journey into the Unconscious: Alex Garland’s “Annihilation”
For me, [Annihilation] was a film about the nature of self-destruction… it was about an observation I made, which is that everybody appears to be self-destructive. Some people are very obviously self-destructive because they’re addicted to heroin or alcohol… Other people are very comfortable in their own skin, and they’ve got a fantastic job and…
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A Veiled Body: The Divided Self in Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence”
We question a country’s self-mythology. Perfect town and perfect family are – like Westerners – part of America’s mythology, involving notions of past innocence and naïveté. But is it possible for innocence to exist while something heinous transpires elsewhere? David Cronenberg In David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence something heinous transpires underneath the presentation of…
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Dream of a Pure Land in Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind”
From the very first scene of Nausicaä we can see that we are in a place of magical beauty. The trees, a windmill and the surroundings are coated in what looks like a spider-web or frozen snow; the flakes are falling around a man riding strange creatures, wearing a mask, looking bird-like. The man breaks…
Vigour of Film Lines 