Sarah Clementson- the Bible- Outside Reading #1

Almost all of the films that we watched in class had some relation or focus on death. The reason for this I believe is because death has always been a part of our existence and yet we want to be able to observe death, figure it out somehow, stop it or choose when it will happen. In Groundhog Day he tried to kill himself to escape the misery, in the Seventh Seal they danced with death and in Apocalypse Now many died and the main character kill the insane commander. In Blade Runner the creator of the replicants and the replicants themselves died. In The Jacket Jack died twice and in K-Pax, Prot killed the murderer of his wife and child.
The reason I bring the prevalence of death in films is because it made me realize after each upsetting movie that we watched, the common theme between our discussions was more often than not, dealing with religion, life and death. I chose to focus on two verses dealing with being born again and with death. Jesus is telling a religious Jew, known as a Pharisee, that “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where is come from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit.” (NIV, John 3:7-8)
This verse makes me think of many of the films we watched this class, but specifically The Jacket because he experiences two deaths, but because he was alive after them, he also experienced a type of re-birth. The films cannot explain how and why people die, but they do not avoid putting in their stories. Jesus tries to explain rebirth by stating that we cannot see the wind or understand it but it does happen. Although we have meteorologists who predict whether patterns and storms, they still cannot figure out how they happen in order to prevent them. There is something bigger out there controlling it. In the same way, being born again sounds insane, but Jack in The Jacket is seen with the sun shining through the back window, almost as if saying he was redeemed and in the light.
The second verse I selected was in Ecclesiastes 9:5 “For the living know that they will die but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, an even the memory of them is forgotten.” This verse is somewhat depressing, but I feel as though this is the type of life that was described in the films. Specifically in Groundhog Day, Phil Connors, felt his role as a weather news anchor was pointless and that he would not be remembered. This verse is the epitome of every person’s fear that their life will not be meaningful or remembered and that in death there is nothingness.
I think that the religion that comes about in each film is when the protagonist of the film finally understands that in order to make life meaningful they must put in into perspective and no longer live for themselves, but experience a life of significance such as the re-birth that Jesus spoke to the Pharisee about.