Ivan Roško
Film and religion
''Judgement of God'' in cinema: Apocalypse Now and Dogville
Introduction
The question of the End Times and the Apocalypse, described in the Bible, has puzzled
and worried people for centuries, for it is written that in that time, the fate of all human souls
will be decided. During the Last Judgement, the Gospels tell us that God will judge all people
– as individuals, but also upon ''all nations''.1 God's judgment is supposed to be lead by justice,
but also mercy. Which of those are more important, what is their character and what that means
for all souls before God, are the questions that trouble theologians to this day. In this paper,
using Christian Biblical texts, we will try to describe what is the nature of God's justice (upon
his previous judgements of men), what is it's relation to mercy, and how that dynamics is seen
in God Judgement, especially upon communities (not individuals). In the second part of the
text, we will set out to describe two examples of God's Judgement in cinema: in the endings of
cinema masterpiece Apocalypse Now (1979) by Francis Ford Coppola) and Dogville (2003) by
Lars Von Tier and what they tell us about Divine's view of justice.
God' Judgement and Justice
Divine judgement is an act of God, which bestows God's justice upon a rational creature,
which is decided by the creatures ''merits and demerits''.2 When we think of God's judgement,
we usually think (if we are believers), of our own. The so-called ''Particular judgement''.
Particular judgement is an instance when immediately after death the eternal destiny of each
separated soul is decided by the just judgment of God.3 The soul can either be pulled from the
1
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08552a.htm (4.6.2017)
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08549a.htm (4.6.2017)
3
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08550a.htm (4.6. 2017)
2
body in grace but in a need of purification and goes in the Purgatory, be all pure and go to
heaven, or be burdened by original or mortal sin, and sentenced to eternal punishment in Hell.
But outside the individual judgement, we also have the Last judgement and, the most interesting
one – General judgement.4
The Last Judgement is a well-known concept of Christian theology – it is the judgement
of Second Coming Christ, judging all mankind for their actions. At the End Times, all souls
will return to their bodies and be resurrected for one final judgement by ''Son of Man'' (Matt.
13:37-49)5 and a new heaven and new earth will be created for all. 6 That event is, therefore,
separate from Particular judgement when one soul at the time is judged. At Last judgement, all
mankind, or ''all nations'' are respected and judged at once.
The ''all nations'' part, is what connects the Last judgement to General judgement.
Although sometimes just a different name for Last judgement, it can be argued that the General
Judgement is something quite unique in Christian eschatology. It is a concept of a judgment of
a whole nation or a community. Although we can consider various General judgements of
nations as a part of the Last Judgement, for the purposes of this essay, we will argue that a
General judgement is a unique assurance on its own. More precisely, General judgement is a
special judgement, a ''generalising judgement'', of God upon certain community of peoples:
''great catastrophes as the flood (Genesis 6:5), the destruction of Sodom (Genesis 28:20), the
earthquake that swallowed up Core and his followers (Numbers 16:30), the plagues of Egypt
(Exodus 6:6; 12:12)''7. The important distinction being, unlike the Last or Particular judgements
that concern with the soul(s) and happen after death, the General judgement is a judgement on
the humans on Earth and their life. And it does not concern the soul!
An example of this is the destruction of Sodom. Abraham tells God to have mercy upon
his city because the righteous will die along with the evil and wicked. “Will you sweep away
the innocent along with the guilty? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to bring death upon
the innocent as well as the guilty, so that guilty and innocent are alike" (Gen. 18:23-25)''. God
agrees and promises to spare the city if only ten righteous men are present inside it. But there
are not enough. Those who are innocent (even if there aren't any, it's irrelevant because God's
was shown to sacrifice the innocent) are destroyed along with the wicked. And not only men.
44
Ibid.
All of the Bible quotations were taken from official webpage of King James Bible (the standard version) https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/
6
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08552a.htm (4.6.2017)
7
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08549a.htm (4.6. 2017)
5
Women and children too. There is no mention of them being saved or allowed to escape. God's
justice here is blind and strikes them all.8
To understand this, we must understand what God's justice on Earth is and what is its
purpose. In the Bible, the Divine judgement is most brutal on groups of people: Sidon, Moab,
Amalek, Israel... The rains, floods, earthquakes - they land on all, just or unjust. It's is very
rough and unfair it seems. Well, as Pyper points our, justice and fairness are not the same thing:
''Deep at work in the prophetic books and in the world-view of
both Testaments is a cosmic notion of justice, something not unlike
the ancient Egyptian view of maat or even, with all due caveats,
the notion of karma. Justice in that cosmic sense is a matter
of balance, which would be one way to translate the Hebrew verb shalom.
The world can be put out of balance through human folly, but sooner
or later the balance will be restored. The great pendulum of justice may
be pushed out of the vertical, but it will swing back. Like a pendulum,
however, it will not simply return to the point of balance, but will swing
through it, bringing terror and destruction with it before it eventually
settles back to its resting place.''9
The divine justice on Earth is to bring back it's balance of good and evil. When evil flourishes
uncontrollably and threatens the Order, it is God's task to purge it from the Earth, no matter the
cost or collateral damage.10 Individual justice of mercy has nothing to do with it. Particular
judgement is done after death and mercy have no place in it. Not the mention, unlike the popular
notion that's God's judgement, is one of mercy and all souls can be saved, reading the Gospel
tells us something quite different. Take, for example, Andrew Andrews reading of the Gospel
of Matthew: ''Matt. 28:2011 alongside Matt. 13:40-4912 demonstrates that Jesus is present with
8
Pyper, Rough Justice: Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay and the Book of Amos, 325.
Ibid.
10
Whoever thought of using drone strikes, must have read the Bible the similar way...
11 20
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.”
12 40
Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time.
41
The Son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of falling and all who do
evil, 42 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. 43 Then
the upright will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen! 44 'The
kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone has found; he hides it again, goes off in his
joy, sells everything he owns and buys the field. 45 'Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant looking for
fine pearls; 46 when he finds one of great value he goes and sells everything he owns and buys it. 47 'Again, the
kingdom of Heaven is like a dragnet that is cast in the sea and brings in a haul of all kinds of fish 48 When it is
9
the disciples as 'Emmanuel' until Jesus judges them as Son of Man''13. Jesus, therefore, has two
aspects to him: ''Emmanuel'' (from the Hebrew name ‫'( עִ מָּ נּואֵ ל‬Immanuel) meaning "God is with
us")14 who follows and supports all men/people through their life, and ''Son of Man'', his persona
present at the End of times – when he will make his final judgement. That is to say that God's
presence and support of man stop, at the moment we are called to be judged before the God,
and they have nothing to do with the final hour.
Having established what Divine judgement is, and more importantly, General
judgement is, along with the nature of God's justice on Earth, we will now talk about two films
in which, we will argue, we can find an example of those concepts. Those are Dogville and
Apocalypse Now. Both movies have endings of pure destruction of communities done by main
characters. At first glance, those acts are at least immoral, if not pure evil and disregard for
human life. We will argue here that they represent Divine justice itself!
Evilville
Dogville is a film by famous and somewhat controversial Danish director Lars Von Tier,
famous for his works that explore themes like mental health, depression, death, sacrifice and
social issues in movies like Breaking the Waves (1996), Dancer in the Dark (2000), Dogville
(2003), Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011) and Nymphomaniac (2013). Important for his
filmmaking; von Tier is a founder of the Dogme 95 movement alongside Thomas Vinterberg.
Together, they created the "Dogme 95 Manifesto" and the "Vows of Chastity". These were rules
to ''create filmmaking based on the traditional values of story, acting, and theme, and excluding
the use of elaborate special effects or technology. It was an attempt to take back power for the
director as artist, as opposed to the studio''15.
One of the films in which von Tiers followed the mention rules was Dogville from 2003.
The entire 178 minutes of the film were shot in a relatively small, very simple stage-like set.
The film is the first instalment of von Tier's USA – Land of Opportunities trilogy and was
followed by Manderlay (2005) and should be completed by Washington. The film was in the
full, the fishermen bring it ashore; then, sitting down, they collect the good ones in baskets and throw away
those that are no use.49 This is how it will be at the end of time: the angels will appear and separate the wicked
from the upright, 50 to throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
13
Angel, Inquiring into an inclusio—on judgement and love in Matthew, 528.
14
https://www.behindthename.com/name/emmanuel (4.6.2017)
15
Utterson, Technology and Culture, the Film Reader, 69.
competition for Palme d'Or at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. It divided the critics, with some
panning it and other considering it a masterpiece.16
The film lasts for almost three hours, but the plot can be summarised rather shortly. A
young woman named Grace chased by mobsters arrives in a small, very remote town called
Dogville. Under the persuasion of a local writer named Tom, the townsfolk of Dogville accept
to keep Grace as a refuge, in exchange for helping around town. As time passes, Grace slowly
integrated into the community. But, once it's revealed that authorities want her too, townsfolk
began to make her do more and more work. Gradually, as the fear of her pressure grows, they
begin to take advantage of her and more - they psychologically, physically and sexually degrade
her, and by the end, completely dehumanise her as a (sex)slave. When the mobsters finally
come to town, all of them, including Tom who supposedly tried to protect her and had feelings
for her, surrender her to her pursuers. But, a grand revelation comes! When she enters in the
main gangster's car, we find out she is his daughter who was running away from him. Partially
in fear, but also in anger of his criminal and violent ways. He offers her to take his place as a
head of his criminal empire and together they discuss the fate of the townsfolk. She defends
their actions, claiming that they are a product of their tough living conditions and that he is
arrogant to judge them. Her father strongly disagrees:
''No, you are arrogant.... My God, can’t you see how condescending
you are when you say that? You have this preconceived notion that
nobody, listen, that nobody can possibly attain the same high ethical
standards as you so you exonerate them. I cannot think of anything
more arrogant than that... is their best really good enough?”17
After a short period of thinking, Grace realises that if she had done what they had, she would
never be able to forgive herself. She returns to her father's car with following words: “Shoot
them and burn down the town''. The film ends with machine-gun fire and screams of the
townsfolk, including women and children, being gunned down by mobsters. Tom himself is
executed by Grace, who spares only the town's dog, Moses.
What kind of an act Grace committed? Accepting her father's power, she obliterated the
whole community, including its children (for some of whom, we can certainly say, are
innocent). Grace stated the purpose of her act very explicitly: ''l wanna make this world a little
better''. She concluded, being tortured and used to superhuman limits, that Dogville is a place
16
17
http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b85bbfe0f (4.6.2017)
Quotations from the film come from the transcript of the dialogue available on the internet at
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/dogville-script-transcriptnicole- kidman.html (4.6.2017)
of pure evil and needs to be obliterated from the face of the Earth. The parallels with the Biblical
texts are at least two-fold. First, like Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, Grace turns from
''Grace''/Emmanuel, who is with the townsfolk, defending them and working for them, into ''Son
of Man'' or in this case, ''Father's daughter'' - who judges those around her with extreme
prejudice and no mercy, with powers bestow upon her by her Father. The second parallel is the
General judgement of the Old Testament. Although we can say that the children, for example,
were innocent or that not all of the townsfolk deserved death, just like in instances of Sodom or
the Great Flood, no innocents were spared. Destruction of evil and return to the balance after
all the evil that was been committed there were the priorities of Divine/Grace's justice.18
There's is also another reason why mercy was not shown to the children but the decision
for obliteration remained to be just, apart from assuring evil's destruction and it has to do with
mentioned balance, especially for Grace. Since she was the one suffering without reason, it can
be argued that, for balance to be restored, the other party must suffer the same way. This is
shown in her merciless treatment of the woman who, unprovoked, crushed her vases that were
symbolic payment for her working Dogville (promising she will stop if Grace won't cry over
the first one). Right when the killing started, Grace said to the mobsters:
''There is a family with kids. Do the kids first and make the mother watch.
Tell her you will stop if she can hold back her tears. I owe her that. I am
afraid she cries a little too easily.”19
Grace, to make the mother truly experience the pain that she felt, kills her children – mother
did not deserve such pain, just like Grace didn't. Their killing is therefore not fair because they
were innocent and have not deserved such fate, but it was just because the balance was restored
by mother feeling the same kind of pain under the same principle that Grace did.20
Dogville was a place of evil, justly eradicated by Grace to make the world a better place.
Another such place and its total destruction we can find in another masterpiece of cinema, the
classic, Apocalypse Now.
Almighty's Judgement, Now!
Apocalypse Now is one of the jewels of American cinematography. It appeared in
cinemas in 1979 and although it won the Golden Palm at Cann festival, at the time it received
18
Pyper, Rough Justice: Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay and the Book of Amos, 325-326.
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/dogville-script-transcriptnicole- kidman.html (4.6.2017)
20
Pyper, Rough Justice: Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay and the Book of Amos, 325-327.
19
mostly negative critics; accusations that it's intellectually immature or that it simply succumb
to its colossal mission set on by it's director Francis Ford Coppola. The film went through hell
during production, went over budget multiple times, and Coppola himself was under so much
pressure he contemplated suicide. He's famous for saying: "My film is not about Vietnam,
it is Vietnam... We had access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little we
went insane''.21 Today, the film enjoys the status as one of the best ever made.
The plot of the movies is, at first glance, simple. Captain of the American Army Willard
(Marteen Sheen) is tasked with a secret mission to go at the heart of the jungle in Cambodia
and kill the renegade, Colonel Kurtz. With four other soldiers, Willard, already deeply struck
by PTSD, goes on a hunt for the Colonel. Reading about him on his journey, little by little, he
becomes obsessed by Kurtz. Travelling along the river to his compound, they encounter various
people and events, which serve Coppola to show numerous aspects and horrors of war. Near
the end of the film, Willard finds Kurtz in his temple (where he has a large following of natives
treating him as a warrior demi-god) and, after some troubles, kills him. Coppola himself
struggled for a long time to find a fitting conclusion. The stressed director prepared three
different versions of it: an open end with Willard at steps of Kurtz's temple, one in which
Willard is shown leaving in his boat (the most popular and most shown ending), and a third one
in which an air strike wipes out Kurtz's camp. For most interpretations of the film, that mostly
focus on the elements of its literary base – Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, the ending is
basically irrelevant (it's usually the most popular and ambiguous one with the Willard and Lance
leaving in a boat). But for the purposses of this essay, I will focus on the third ending, one
shown in the credits of the original theatrical version - an air strike wiping out Kurtz's camp
and all of his followers in a spectacular 5-minute sequence.22
Willard was set by his superiors to kill Kurtz because ''his methods have become
unsound''. After Willard, Chef and Lance (the only survivor of his company) arrive at the camp,
they see mounted Vietcong heads on spears and hanging bodies. Willard is captured and
tortured before Kurtz speaks to him. Kurtz also decapitates Chef and throws his head to
imprisoned Willard, much to his horror. While talking, Kurtz reveals his mental state and
struggle to Willard. Although he has some kind of moral code left in him, he realises what he
has become and waits for Willard to kill him. But, he insists he can not judge him. The evil that
engulfed him is in the war and in the jungle themselves. This is very vividly shown by the
imagery in the film: the sense of a brooding darkness and a light absorbed by dark is ever
21
22
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102015/quotes (4.6.2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCShcqvG8mU (4.6.2017)
present. In the opening, images of dark green, almost black and impenetrable jungle move
slowly across the screen, visual sense of dark light is preserved throughout Willard's long
upriver journey in search of Kurtz. Kurtz himself is always in half-darkness. This symbolises a
deep sense of ever-present evil, with humans presence being the one that swallows the light in
the darkness.23
Kurtz is well aware of this evil. He does not consider it his own but knows it's there and
it has to go. Before Willard leaves to Kurtz with Lance, he orders Chef to call in an airstrike on
Kurtz's compound if they do not return. After Willards kills Kurtz, he finds his note, saying:
''Drop the bomb, exterminate them all!''. After he and Lance get back in the boat, Willard is
contacted by the HQ, codename ''Almighty''. The film soon ends with them leaving and ''rain
of fire'' in form of massive bombing destroying the compound.
This is also an instance in which he can see God's terrible judgement upon the place of
evil. The parallel is rather obvious, with the ''Almighty'' codename given to the command and
Kurtz transferring his power as the Warrior-King-Father to the Son who killed him – Willard.
Krutz compound has become a place of evil, rooted with all of them in it. Just like in Dogville,
innocent and those seeking redemption are not spared. This is important to mention because on
first glance we can say that the bombing was unnecessary because all of the camp's inhabitants
lowered their weapons after Willard did so because he became their new ''Warrior-King'' after
killing Kurtz. But he knows that he is leaving, and some other will take its place, so horror and
evil will continue. Kurtz knew that too. That place of evil on Earth was to be obliterated by
''Almighty'' so it can not spread farther. Much like Dogville was.
Conclusion
In this essay, we tried to explain the nature of God's/Divine's General judgement, His
justice and give examples for it in contemporary cinema.
God's justice is not fair. God's justice is justice that brings back the balance between
good and evil into the world. The justice of destroying evil. When evil flourishes, and it
flourishes easily, like weeds that threaten to take over all of the lands – they need to be burned.
No matter if some flowers manage to find themselves among it. The flowers (the righteous)
will find their reward in Heaven. The examples of such justice we can see in a General
23
Nell, At the Heart of Darkness: Eichmann and “Apocalypse Now”?'', 34.
judgement – Divine's judgement upon the nations or communities of Earth, usually sentencing
them, guilty and innocent alike, to death by a massive catastrophe.
Two such Judgement we recognised in films Apocalypse Now and Dogville. Not unlike
''Son of Man'' in the End Times, both Grace and Willard, with powers granted to them, extracted
Divine judgement upon the town of Dogville and Kurtz's compound. Both places completely
obliterated, with no one spared. Both were places of evil on Earth, that could no longer exist.
For the concluding remarks, we can ask ourselves, why are those interventions
necessary? Won't things work out for themselves? Aren't those innocent lives then worthy of
sparing, along with the places that house them? I will try to answer this with the previously
mentioned metaphor of weeds and flowers. Hate, violence and evil are like weeds. They grow
everywhere, where is even a little chance for them to grow. They grow and spread fast and don't
require much to appear and sustain themselves. They are also a threat to the flowers. Life,
goodness, care and compassion are rare. Like flowers. They require us to nurture them with
delicate care and even then, sometimes, they fail to flourish. In the clash between the weeds
and the flowers, when the flower field is threatened with a nearby field of weeds, sometimes
that weeds field must be burned to allow the endangered flower field to survive. For the greater
good. No matter if there were some flowers in it.
Bibliography:
Angel, Andrew. ''Inquiring into an inclusio — on judgement and love in Matthew''. The Journal
of Theological Studies, Vol. 60, No. 2 (2009): 527-530
Nell, Victor. ''At the Heart of Darkness: Eichmann and “Apocalypse Now”?''. Critical Arts
South-North Cultural and Media Studies Vol. 1, No. 3 (1981): 28-40
Pyper, Hugh S. ''Rough Justice: Lars von Trier’s Dogville and Manderlay and the Book of
Amos''. Political Theology, Vol.11, No.3 (2010): 321-334.
Utterson, Andrew. ed. Technology and Culture, the Film Reader. London, New York:
Routledge, 2005.
(online source:
https://books.google.pl/books?id=EsVYBL8ytLMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Utterson,+And
rew.+Technology+and+Culture,+the+Film+Reader.+Routledge(2005).&hl=hr&sa=X&ved=0
ahUKEwjWiaeR86TUAhWDCpoKHU8AA70Q6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=Utterson%2C%20
Andrew.%20Technology%20and%20Culture%2C%20the%20Film%20Reader.%20Routledg
e(2005).&f=false – 4.6. 2017)
Internet sources:
Apocalypse Now original ending/credits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCShcqvG8mU (4.6.2017)
Apocalypse Now – IMDB quotes online page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102015/quotes (4.6.2017)
Catholic Encyclopedia:
-
Divine judgement: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08549a.htm (4.6.2017)
-
Particular judgement: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08550a.htm (4.6. 2017)
-
General judgement: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08552a.htm (4.6.2017)
Dogville script:
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/d/dogville-script-transcriptnicole- kidman.html
(4.6.2017)
Dogville info:
http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b85bbfe0f (4.6.2017)
Name meanings page:
https://www.behindthename.com/name/emmanuel (4.6.2017)