Cinema review: Tess (1980)

-
What do you get if you mix great cinematography with fine acting and wonderful direction combined with a depressing story? Roman Polanski's Tess, a great summary here. The young Tess gets seduced/raped/exploited by a rich guy whom she had hoped would help her family as a kinsman. She flees, pregnant. The baby dies. The local vicar won't give the baby a Christian burial. He had previously informed her father that he comes from an ancient family line that were originally pagans. She baptizes her son and buries him with proper prayers then flees her village. She finds work as a milkmaid and falls in love with another vicar's prodigal son, Angel. She doesn't reveal her sordid past until after the wedding when he had revealed his past affair. He rejects her and flees to Brazil. She ends up back with the rapist as a means of support for her and her family. Angel returns and confesses he's wrong. So she kills her oppressor and together she and Angel flee to the North. Eventually they are caught at Stonehenge, or something similar, a pagan shrine, where she acquires peace to face justice. She is led off to a trial and the gallows.

That is so lame. Perhaps much more is left out from the novel, Tess of the D'Urvervilles. I did enjoy Hardy's Return of the Native, which I read twice. As a Christian reader a couple themes jump out to me. Hardy lays blame at the feet of the church. It failed to help the needy and blamed the victim. However, I think Hardy found no hope at all in any religion. The pagan past and conclusion offer nothing either. A wiki article about him agree with my thoughts on his religious leanings. The article says the problem of evil was too great a one for him to reconcile with the God of Christianity. It selects one quote from Tess, "The inherent will to enjoy and the circumstantial will against enjoyment." 

However, Tess does make poor moral choices. Rape is not her fault, but murder and lies will not improve anything either.

The movie won 3 Oscars, but the story stinks and is almost 3 hours of pain. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why did Peter put his coat on before jumping in the water? John 21:7

-
I have the great pleasure of facilitating every week a Bible discussion group with several high school students. We've been discussing the Gospel of John  this past year, and we finally finished tonight. We enjoyed the humorous scene John writes about in this last chapter. The great apostle John can't help himself when it comes to embarrassing his fellow inner circle apostle; the denial of Christ, his slowness in getting to the empty tomb, and this event in the last chapter. John 21:7 That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea. What's the joke? Well John is the first to realize that Jesus is on the beach, #humblebrag, but then Peter puts ON his coat before jumping out of the boat? I've seen some academic ink spilled trying to explain this weird behavior on the part of this fisherman ( good one
Read more

bike review: Actionbent JS2-US, for sale

-
Image
Update 2011: Sold to the LBS in trade for something new. Pictures soon. Update May 2009. This baby needs a tuneup, cables and tires, and I bought something new . If you are interested in buying this from me for $350 and are willing to pick it up in New London County Connecticut, contact me by email or facebook. Both contact methods can be found to the right below the "about me" section. Click on "contact the Umblogger." Here is my new bike review from April 2007, 2 years ago. I still think the Huffy Star-Spangler would be my ideal bike. I bought a recumbent bike last month from Actionbent and have been using it for my commute. here is a picture of the Jet Stream 2, understeering. i've been a bicycle commuter for years but last summer i developed at work a bad case of tendinitis in both wrists which made riding painful. one day i longed for my old Huffy Star Spangler with the banana seat and the hot rod handle bars and pined for the good old days. then i remembe
Read more

The near sacrifice of Isaac and bad religion

-
Image
Bad religion asks parents to sacrifice their children. Bad religion is cultural. Bad religion looks for scapegoats. Bad religion always find scapegoats in those with less power. Bad religion kills kids. Abraham's story in Genesis 22 is a story of good religion prevailing over bad. image source    Abraham lives in a culture which not only approves of child sacrifice, but even encourages it for assistance from the deities. Abraham believes his deity wants him to also perform this act of devotion. But after he ties his son up, he has an encounter with God unlike any previous one. It appears God changed his mind.  More likely, Abraham changed his mind about God. Evangelical and fundamentalist christians also live in cultures where they think their deity asks them to bind their children, to not let them live in truth their sexual identity. Hence, these children who normally benefit from the protective effects of religion on suicidal thoughts and tendencies actually experience it worse a
Read more