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Download (8MB) Lindohf, Jessica Malin (2002) Images of the end : representations of the apocalyptic in contemporary film. PhD thesis http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3104/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Images of the End Representations of the Apocalyptic in Contemporary Film Jessica Malin Lindohf PhD Thesis submitted at Department of Theology and Religious Studies Faculty of Divinity University of Glasgow June 2002 Abstract This thesis sets out to investigate the relationship between the 'classical apocalyPse' and the contemporary apocalypse as portrayed by the films A Clockwork Orange (1971), Apocalypse Now (1979) and Crash (1995). The 'classical apocalypse' is a literary genre which supplies a rich and vivid imagery where the image takes precedence over the narrative. At the centre of the 'classical apocalypse' is the image, and this thesis explores if the imagery of the apocalypse can be translated from its traditional literary form to the visual form of film. The apocalypse is a revealing of that which has been concealed and which lies in the future of humankind at the end of time. In the postmodern era with the absence of meaning, apocalypse and God, the apocalypse has become a nihilistic repetition and the revealing has become feared since it might be a revealing of nothing. These contemporary depictions of the end, I would argue, help the apocalypse to come into its own in a postmodern setting, and the medium of film offers a possibility to further emphasise the visuality and potent imagery of the end, expressing the concerns of the apocalypse fully. As such they provide a 'sense of an ending' and an apocalyptic sentiment which is as unnerving and evasive as the 'classical apocalypse'. These films revisit as well as revamp and rehearse the imagery of the Biblical apocalypse, b~coming a-theological statements if not on the Bible, on the state of society and the apocalypse. 2 Content Chapter 1: What is the Apocalypse Anyway? 1 1: 1 Defining Apocalypse 5 1:2 The 'classical apocalypse' 7 1:3 The Works of Classic Apocalyptic Literature 12 1:4 A Working Definition 14 1: 5 The Apocalypse on Film 16 1:5: 1 Film and Religion 16 1:5:2 Hollywood Apocalypse - Film as Theology 18 1:6 The Apocalypse Revamped 20 Chapter 2: Characteristics of the Apocalyptic 24 2: 1 The Ongoing Relevance of Apocalyptic Literature 24 2:2 Characteristics of Apocalyptic Literature 25 2:2: 1 Apocalyptic as Crisis Literature 26 2:2:2 The Image at the Centre of Apocalyptic Imagination 29 2:2:3 Image and Real in the Postmodem 33 2:2:4 Language of the Apocalypse or how to Speak the Unspeakable 35 2:2:5 Apocalypse as Ritual 41 Chapter 3: A Clockwork Orange 46 3: 1 Stanley Kubrick and His Works 46 3:1:1 Kubrick's Art of Adoption 47 3:2 Structure and Style 50 3 :2: 1 The Narrative 50 3:2:2 Language, Music and Movement 52 3:3 A Clockwork Orange as a Depiction ofthe Postmodem 57 3:3:1 A Clockwork Orange as a discussion about Human Nature 59 3:3:2 Violence at the End 62 3:3:3 Non- relational Sexuality 64 3:3:4 A Matter of Free Will 66 3:3:5 To Watch the Unwatchable 71 3 3:4 Apocalyptic Visions 73 Chapter 4: Apocalypse Now 77 4: 1 Taking it to the End - the Making of Apocalypse Now 77 4:2 War on Film - War as Spectacle 81 4:2:1 Apocalypse Now as War - More Real than the Real War 84 4:3 Apocalypse Now and the Heart ofDarkness 86 4:3:1 Conrad's Narrative and Coppola's Vision 88 4:3:2 The Narrative 91 4: 3: 3 The Characters 95 4:3:3:1 Kurtz, Marlow, and Willard 95 4:3:3:2 Chief and Chef 97 4:3:3:3 Clean and Lance 98 4:4 Ritual and Myth at the End 100 4:4: 1 Death of Nature as a Mythological Theme 100 4:4:2 Reading Apocalypse Now through Eliot 102 4:4:3 The Killing of Kurtz 104 4:5 Apocalypse Now as an Apocalypse 106 Chapter 5: Crash - a Postmodern Apocalypse 109 5:1 Narrative Versus image - The Written and the Visual 110 5:2 The Written Versus the Visual in Crash 110 5:3 Construction of Identity in Crash 113 5:3:1 Crash as a metaphor for the new life 115 5:3:2 Born Again, the Crash Victim in Hospital 119 5:4 Sexuality as Pornography 121 - 5:4:1 A Desire Leading Nowhere 123 5:4:2 The Communion of Human Flesh and Technology 126 5:5 Crash as an Existential Love-Story 129 5:6 The Sacred 130 5:6:1 The Prophet or High Priest 130 5:6:2 Ritual and Sacramentality in Crash 131 5:7 The Apocalypse of Crash 135 5:7:1 The Voyeuristic Lens of the Camera 135 4 5:7:2 Language Reassembling Images 138 5:8 Domestication or Apocalyptic 141 Chapter 6: The survival and transformation of the apocalypse 144 6:1 On Eating the Scroll 146 6:2 From dying metaphor to living image 148 - 6:3 The Ethical Absence that is a Presence 151 Bibliography 152 5 Chapter 1 What is the Apocalypse Anyway? Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers. Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn. Locking in, unifonning, book burning, blood letting. Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate. Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down. Watch your heel crush, crushed, uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier. Renegade steer clear! A tournament, tournament, a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel [me.! Today, almost 2000 years after the writing of The Book of Revelation and Mark's urgent call, telling us to 'watch' as the end unfolds, The Book ofRevelation and the Apocalypse continue to challenge and interest us. The Apocalypse has always had a secure place in the realms of popular culture where it has emerged in social movements, art and literature. The word apocalypse has been associated with the weird and violent as well as with the obscure and fantastic, and its vivid and seductive imagery has lent its power to a variety of movements throughout the history of Christianity.2 The apocalyptic texts have been seen as problematic since the beginning of Christianity as a result of their tendency to influence extreme movements and individuals, hence they have always existed on the fringe of official religious practice. The questionable status of the apocalyptic texts has often resulted in their exclusion from the canon, the early church excluded apocalypses such as the Apocalypses of Paul and Peter, and Martin Luther among others wanted to exclude it from the canon, and many times the papal authority has attempted to- suppress apocalyptically charged movements. This tendency to exclude or overlook the apocalyptic writings may be seen as a result of the declining eschatological hope during certain times but it might also be due to the great potential they have for fuelling political ! 'It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)', song by REM on their 1987 Album, Document._ 2 Klaus Koch, 'What is apocalyptic? An attempt at a preliminary definition', (1972), in Paul D Hanson (ed.), Visionaries and their Apocalypses. Issues in Religion and Theology, part 2 (PhiladelphiaILondon: Fortress Press, SPCK, 1983), P 16. 6 and religious extremes. 3 In contrast to the popular interest in the apocalypse, theological study has often neglected the study of the apocalyptic, something I would arg!le is still the case today. As a result, like many of my generation, my first significant encounter with the apocalypse was through the 'apocalypse of Hollywood '. However, in the 21 st century we are living with the constant reminder of the apocalypse, in sectarian movements, environmental disaster, nuclear threats, global warming and terrorism, things often discussed and brandished as apocalyptic with or without their biblical references. This apocalypse of the postmodern is an apocalypse of urgency and fear, as well as of defeat and cynicism. This is reflected in contemporary events such as when President Bush sets out to fight his apocalyptic enemy in his war on terrorism, or when others like the REM song, take the defeatist or cynical approach of 'it's the end of the world as we know it- and I feel fine,.4 This thesis is to attempt at unravel what the contemporary apocalypse is and how it presents itself in the format of film. Further I wish to discuss how the 'classical apocalypse' has lent itself and its characteristics to its contemporary counterpart and whether this has left the contemporary apocalypse an empty shell without content, or revived and revitalised the apocalyptic imagery as well as the theological challenge that the apocalypse poses.
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