Weird Job Titles
God Against Us: Alien Spaceman Jesus, the World Trade Center Attack and More
GOD AGAINST US: ALIEN SPACEMAN JESUS, THE THE WORLD TRADE CENTER ATTACK AND MORE
Alvin Miller
(1986)
My second, newest article: http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/inaugural.html
At my site: http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman/ TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
CHAPTER ONE: A PLAUSIBLE TIMETABLE
CHAPTER TWO: A FIRST LOOK AT NORMAN O. BROWN
CHAPTER THREE: THE MEDIA MESSIAH, OR LOOKING FOR JESUS ON
TV
CHAPTER FOUR: THE MESSIAH RETURNS
APPENDIX: THE SECRET RAPTURE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FILM LIST BY DATE
FILM LIST
FILM SERIALS
PREFACE
What do you call a crazy spaceman? - - An Astronut.
What follows is a nearly word for word online version of my ©1986 booklet WEIRD ESCHATOLOGY: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW OF THE SECOND COMING (ISBN 0-9616435-0-1; Library of Congress Call Number BT823.M55 1986). By the time you finish this, you may conclude that this particular peculiar interpretation of the Book of Revelation should be relegated to the teachings of self-appointed cranks, crackpots, prophets of doom and various other assorted fanatics. But perhaps, even so, your own view may be clarified when you read this. The first chapter deals with theology and may be slightly dull, but fasten your seatbelt, as I will get more and more weird ahead (in terms of any interpretation you have seen before). Note that I make use of mostly unobtainable texts and obscure films. Lack of access to these sources should not impede your understanding of what follows. Also, to emphasize the ostensibly momentous issues I am dealing with here, I capitalize the subject phrases I discuss.
CHAPTER ONE
A PLAUSIBLE TIMETABLE
Are you a Christian? Do you believe in the Second Coming at some future date? Is it legitimate to construct timetables for these future events?
Rhetorical questions such as these right off the bat may well put you off. A major difficulty is that no consensus as to when and in what sequence these predicted events must take place. This topic has always been a particular source of schism and polemic. I will be proposing specific dates as numerous have in each generation before me. And as many have been before me, I can be refuted by the mere passage of time.
The majority view espoused by most evangelicals is pretribulational premillennalism, which I only partially agree with. I will point out that part of this view is in fact based on a historical novelty that only traces back to the nineteenth century. What I mean here is that in terms of the glacially slow movement of theology (remember that the canon was finalized some two thousand years ago), the majority view is a relatively recent innovation.
I prefer a distinctly minority position, which would be called multiple-rapture postmillennialism. The postmillennial position holds that many of the predictions made in the New Testament, including those of the Olivet Discourse (Matt. 24, Mk 13, Luke 21), were accomplished in the early Christian era, and their past fulfillment limit’s the future events to be expected. There exists one school, represented by, for example, Max King and Timothy James, which holds that each and every prophecy of the entire New Testament was accomplished during the early Church age. However, I feel this view neglects proper consideration of the Book of Revelation.
Postmillennialism is also sometimes referred to as preterism, which implies that the text is allowed to speak without exegesis. Thus, when Jesus repeatedly predicts the Kingdom within a generation, I do not write off the statement as a mistake or excess of enthusiasm. Instead, I draw up a timetable that shows the Kingdom beginning a generation after the Crucifixion. Then, when John of Patmos says the Millennium starts at this date of the beginning of the Kingdom, I duly go to my chart (at the end of this chapter) and set the Thousand Year Clock ticking. There was in fact a specific date a generation after the Crucifixion - the pivotal date of A.D. 70. This was the historical date of the Fall of Jerusalem, which is not a particularly prominent date in more mainstream discussions. This is the date of the First Resurrection in the terminology of John of Patmos that begins the Millennium.
What happened in A.D. 70? After a lengthy siege by the Roman legions, Jerusalem was ransacked and leveled. To the secular eye, as detailed by Josephus in THE JEWISH WAR in gory detail, the scene was one of mass destruction in which not even the Temple was spared. But to the spiritual eye, as Russell’s PAROUSIA demonstrated more than a century ago, these events were the fulfillment of the Olivet Discourse and the return of Jesus and His conquering armies in the clouds to inaugurate the spiritual reign with the saints and martyrs. Other sources listed in the bibliography including Chilton’s PARADISE RESTORED espouse this view. Chilton nominated Jerusalem as the Whore of Babylon and Rome as the Beast. (Note added 2006: In my 1986 Timetable I followed Chilton. I have since reversed my opinion. I now see Rome as the Whore and Jerusalem as the Beast.)
I need to stop for a moment to consider the question of the dating of the Book of Revelation. The presently accepted date for the appearance of the Book of Revelation is A.D. 95. If this is the correct date, the fulfillment of the predictions made so far would be merely a matter of hindsight. I recommend John A. T. Robinson’s examination of this question in REDATING THE NEW TESTAMENT. Robinson cites extensive internal and external evidence for moving the date of the Book of Revelation back to the A.D. 70 timeframe. Further, he traces the standard A.D. 95 view back to a single source. This source is a statement by Irenaeus that the Apocalypse first appeared “toward the end of Domitian’s reign.” This statement is ambiguous and may even be merely mistaken. Other sources listed in the bibliography (including Chilton and James) accept an earlier date.
The Book of Revelation represents a significant amplification of the preceding Gospels and Epistles. Here the concept of the Millennium is introduced for the first and only time. The timetable presented by John of Patmos extends forward to the future Judgment Day and the establishment of the New Jerusalem, thereby completing the New Testament Canon.
Turning to the time period of the Millennium, lasting approximately from A.D. 70 to A.D. 1070, the starting point was the spiritual event, the Parousia, as detailed by Russell and Chilton. But secular historians looking back at this time period as a whole have labeled it the Dark Ages. More recently this verdict has been tempered by the demonstration of the development and technical progress that occurred in the Middle and Far East during these years. But it does remain true that for Western Civilization, primarily Western Europe for these years, these were times of unprecedented barbarism and ignorance. During these times the blood of countless martyrs was spilled in belatedly laying down the Roman Empire and establishing the Church. Violence was the order of the day and sugarcoating or rose-colored glasses are unnecessary. The First Resurrection was an event of mass destruction and the Kingdom or Millennium was an era of barbarism. In other words, it is not an accident or coincidence that the fulfillment of the prophecies was apocalyptic. Instead, there is an important principle to remember here, since I will point out that Judgment Day will also be mass destruction and the New Jerusalem to follow will appear to secular eyes again be relative barbarism. I will take up these thoughts again in later chapters.
Why didn’t Judgment Day begin about A.D.1070 with the end of the Millennium? Historically, many of the people living then did expect to see the Messiah return. I answer instead that this was the date when Satan was unbound for his season. Here I part company with many of the sources listed in the bibliography. They prefer to see the Millennium as an indeterminate period extending potentially thousands of years with Satan loosed for his season only shortly prior to the Second Coming. They see the Church still in the Millennial period expanding and consolidating its gains to ultimately convert the entire world immediately prior to the Advent. On the contrary, I hold that John of Patmos really meant a time period of approximately one thousand years, and that Satan has been at work sowing his evil. I admit that the season has now lasted nearly a thousand years in its own right. One consolation is that this extended period is finally about to come to a close. Satan has been quite busy from my point of view during the last centuries. Examples of his infamous work would be such events as the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution on down to the contemporary horrific mass movements. I could be accused of being a feudalist or an obscurantist here. However, I do not look back to the Kingdom so much as forward to the approaching New Jerusalem. At this point in time I feel we are reaching the low point of the curve descending to Hell, immediately prior to the Messiah’s return.
Thus, I teach hellfire and damnation, as do most of the right wing evangelists who hold the premillennial view. But, as I have said, the postmillennialists of the bibliography, who are also uniformly conservative for the most part, place much less emphasis on this aspect.
I am also in agreement with the premillennialists with respect to the Rapture. Historically, for eighteen centuries the Rapture was taken as essentially simultaneous with the Advent. This is detailed by, among others, MacPherson in THE GREAT RAPTURE HOAX and Kimball in THE RAPTURE: A QUESTION OF TIMING. MacPherson demonstrates that the nineteenth century so-called Scotch seer Margaret MacDonald in 1830 introduced the pretribulational Rapture - a temporal separation of a Secret Rapture from the Second Coming. This introduction was a theological novelty or innovation. MacPherson traces the concept from its introduction through the nineteenth century figures Darby and Scofield to the mainstream electronic evangelists of today. I have said that I accept the multiple-Rapture view, which is a variation of the pretribulational Rapture. I agree, based on the work of my sources, that this view had its origins only in the nineteenth century. I will indicate why I hold that view in the last part of Chapter Three.
I should note that because I take a preterist perspective, I place less emphasis on seeing the events that occurred with the First Resurrection exactly duplicated on Judgment Day. For example, Nero was clearly the Antichrist for A.D. 70, but I don’t necessarily expect to see a new Antichrist prior to the Second Coming. If forced to, one could select from many twentieth century candidates for this post. Similarly, I don’t expect to see the coming events occurring at the actual Jerusalem this time. I predict in Chapter Four they will more likely begin in one of the advanced Western nations.
Beginning with the next chapter, I will be using apparently incongruous sources, such as left wing sources from the sixties. I will delve into films and the media in general. These sources I will bring up are relevant to the issues of this chapter. So far I have outlined a plausible but not mainstream view of Christian eschatology. From this point forward, as promised, expect the view presented to be ‘weird‘.
CHAPTER TWO
A FIRST LOOK AT NORMAN O. BROWN
It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.
-Shakespeare
There is a good possibility you have never heard of Norman O. Brown or come across any of his writings. His books are now a generation old and partly out of print. Perhaps certain of the issues he raised have become moot with the passage of time.
I think when his books originally came out Brown was taken as merely a sexual radical. I say merely here in the sense that Brown would not be under discussion if I felt that was solely what he was about. A superficial reading of his cryptic, aphoristic style indeed does give this impression. However, the actual subject of two of his books, LOVE’S BODY (1966) and CLOSING TIME (1973) was religion. Of the two books, CLOSING TIME is currently out of print but necessary for a complete picture. With these two books Brown actually solved the mysteries of religion. Am I here claiming that if you comprehend these books you will have all your questions answered on religion? Yes, that is indeed what I am claiming. Brown did get all the way to the inner sanctum. If you are able to solve Brown’s puzzles, you will simultaneously solve the mysteries of religion. I say this fully aware that Brown’s erudition makes this a monumental task.
If I have piqued your curiosity, and you decide to take a look at Brown, the best procedure might be to look at some other sources as a preliminary. It’s all there in Brown in plain English, you understand, but you may have more success by circling in from the periphery. One good out of print source from the same time period is Eric Gutkind’s THE BODY OF GOD: FIRST STEPS TOWARD AN ANTI-THEOLOGY. This book is also written in an aphoristic style. Comparing the title of this book with LOVE’S BODY will give you a clue to start you on the road to solving Brown. Looking from the philosophical side, Michael Harrington’s THE POLITICS AT GOD’S FUNERAL astutely asks all the right questions. The best book ever written on Jesus is Constantin Brunner's OUR CHRIST: THE REVOLT OF THE MYSTICAL GENIUS (1921). Here's an interesting sentence from the book: "There he hung, the blasphemer of God and slander of the most noble men, the poor malicious fool, the incorrigble wretch, the whoreson and whore monger, the swindler, the liar, the secucer." The so-called radical Freudians, in general, such as Marcuse, Reich and Roheim in addition to Brown, are pertinent.
There isn’t space for an exegesis of Brown. Instead I’ll outline a central idea - the importance of the Primal Scene. For the uninitiated, the Primal Scene is what Dad and Mom did in the bedroom. Now even Freud’s disciples had difficulty seeing the significance of the Oedipal Primal Scene and repeatedly attempted to revise their master. Perhaps the best way to get an inking of its significance is to set up a confrontation between the Joker (the little 'castrated' clown portrayed by Brown) and you. Put yourself in the following scene as a male:
You are standing on the outskirts of the big, modern city where you live as the Joker approaches.
The Joker begins, “You know, stranger, I’ve been doing a lot of traveling lately and have seen several cities, including this one. I must say I don’t like what I’ve been seeing at all. In every town the residents use elaborate locks on their doors and seen to be afraid to get outside on their own sidewalks at night. One minute they use each other’s bodies as pleasure objects, and the next they sue each other at the slightest provocation. I see noise, confusion, mayhem and worse at each turn. I can’t think of a thing that happened in Sodom that hasn’t happened here many times over. Tell me, when you first came here was the city the same as it is now?"
You reply, “More or less it was, indeed.”
The Joker says, “This town is a hard place to try to make a living in. Life is so hectic, there is such a constant rush and din, that I sometimes believe I’m really caught in a nightmare and will wake up at any moment. This is no place to try to start a family or to raise a child. There’s no place for the kids to play here. You know, although I’ve had plenty of opportunities to unzip my pants and pull out my gun here, I just haven’t felt right about it and so far decided to keep my pants zipped up. But I see by the ring on your finger that the situation here apparently didn’t deter you. You had the same opportunity, after all, to look around and see what was going on. But I see that no matter what you saw, you weren’t about to stay away. You had to have it. I admit that I am only a Fool. But I ask you - who’s the better man?”
You: (Speechless).
The Joker resumes, “ Because I care about the evil I see and you don’t particularly care, you end up with a child to carry on your line, and I don’t. I ask you, which man has the greater love?”
You finally speak, “Before I punch you out, do you have anything more to say? - Any last words?”
The Joker ignores this and pauses a moment to scan the distant skyline. He then points a finger at the tallest skyscraper, rising in the mists - a source of civic pride known to all residents (and an indisputable phallic symbol). The Joker turns and asks, “How? - that building there - Tell me how that modern Tower of Babel was constructed? No, let me answer the question. It was constructed by men who at some time or other unzipped their pants. Not that a single one of them was ever forced to you understand. It is after all a voluntary act. Now I ask you to consider for a moment with me what would have happened if not one of these same men had ever unzipped their pants at all - not even one single time. How much of what you see around here now would still be here? I’ll answer - not a bit of it would here, including the building I just pointed to. I’ve been wondering these days why we put up with the perpetual nightmares here that we go through to get these massive monuments constructed. If we could just get all the women under control, we could sit around all day and drink beer and play cards."
You reply, “Leave it to a shiftless ne’er-do-well to --”
The Joker interrupts, “What we really need here is a King - the absolute biggest Fool we can find with the largest member. I think you may agree that I am the perfect candidate for this job, as I’m absolutely no good for anything else.”
The pair glare at each other, ready to fight.
Let me make the important point about this tale that the ‘you” of the dialogue could just as well be the Joker’s father as anyone else - not a single line of the preceding would need to be changed. (In the original tale of Oedipus meeting his father at the crossroads, the pair had been separated and there was a disguise and neither seemed to recognize the other, at least consciously.) If the ’you’ of the narrative were indeed the Joker’s father, the Joker would then literally be a son of a gun. This would also make the Joker on his mother’s side literally an S.O.B.
In the dialogue that took place at the Temptation of Christ (Matt. 4:1-11, Mk. 2:13, Luke 4:1-13), Jesus rejected Satan’s offer of the kingdoms of this world. Brown says we are indeed in Satan’s kingdom, i.e., Hell, especially in the big cities. Jesus will one day accept dominion over the earthly kingdoms, but only on Judgment Day when His enemies have been made into footstools. When He does return, He will bring the keys to Hell and to Death. This implies that a massive restructuring of present urban life - our man-made Hell - will begin at this point.
To change the subject, if you have an interest in James Joyce, you should examine the excerpts Brown has collected in CLOSING TIME. Joyce either imitates (or himself actually is) the insane. The WAKE is from start to finish nothing but the gibberings of a madman. FINNEGANS WAKE is a textual Rorschach test, by which I mean that in its voluminous pages, any phrase you are looking for before you open the book can likely be found. But all the excerpts Brown has assembled taken together conclusively demonstrate that Joyce ‘cracked’ religion, i.e., that all the answers were set down in the WAKE. In other words, Brown demonstrates that Joyce earlier pioneered the same trail in that Brown found. I don’t want to go beyond fair use and start quoting text, so I'll stop.
CHAPTER THREE
THE MEDIA MESSIAH: LOOKING FOR JESUS ON TV
Let me start with a lengthy list:
PURPLE RAIN COLORED RAIN GREEN RAIN FAIRY RAIN INVISIBLE RAIN BLOWING THE WIND REAPING THE WHIRLWIND IDIOT WIND WEATHER WAR REICHIAN ORGONE RADAR LOVE THE CALL LONDON CALLING THE BIG BROADCAST WEIRD RADIO PLANET WAVES BLOWING THE HORN SOUNDING THE TRUMPET MIND WAR FAIRY GOLD FAIRY BLIGHT FAIRY BASEBALL FAIRY BOWLING WALLS TUMBLING DOWN BALLOON GOES UP THE LONG GOODBYE THE BIG SHOOTOUT THE LAST ROUNDUP DROPPING THE VIALS THE POWER AND THE GLORY FIRE AND BRIMSTONE THE FLOOD TWINKLING OF AN EYE THE RAPTURE THE SECRET RAPTURE MARCHING MORONS DROPPING THE BIG ONE THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL THE MACHINE STOPS THE FINAL SOLUTION THE ELEPHANT BURIAL GROUNDS THE ROAD TO HOLOCAUST TIMEBOMB TICKING OVER SODOM LAYING THE DEVIL DOWN RADIO SILENCE LIGHTS OUT SHUTTING IT DOWN TURNING IT OFF PULLING THE PLUG PUNCHING THE DELETE BUTTON THE SCREEN GOES DARK CLOSING TIME JUDGMENT DAY SIGNING OFF NIGHTFALL THE BIG SLEEP
"Whom the gods would destroy, they first drive mad" I’ll ask some questions about this list to clarify it. At first sight, looking over this by no means exhaustive list, it appears we need to get out our umbrellas (or perhaps a degree in meteorology). The first question to ask is: How many of these phrases have you ever come across before? Try to think where, if anywhere, any of these phrases can be found. After thinking it over, you might decide that some show up in literature, some may be from the Bible, but many of them come from the media.
The next question about the list would be: by grouping all these phrases together as I did, did I thus intend to imply that each phrase is identical or synonymous with each other phrase in the list? No, they are interchangeable in only a few cases, but they are interrelated. What then do the phrases have in common? My answer is that all bear a direct relationship to a single phrase:
MASS PSYCHOSIS
This particular phrase, Mass Psychosis, you are probably less likely to have come across. Mass Psychosis is the actual meaning of the Fundamentalist doctrine of the Secret Rapture.
Now I’m sure if one had the opportunity to interview rock star Prince and ask him what he meant by Purple Rain that he would not immediately reply, “a codeword for mass psychosis.” Similarly, Bob Dylan wouldn’t be inclined to say, “When I sang about Idiot Wind, I meant mass psychosis.” I would instead expect convoluted explanations involving literary metaphors, etc., if I received any reply at all.
Incidentally, I mentioned Prince deliberately since there was controversy about his ‘explicit ’ lyrics when his songs came out. I note that his critics had nothing at all to say about the other dimension of his songs I am pointing to here - Judgment Day by 1999, etc.
Here I want to stop discussion of the list and return at the end of this chapter with more comments. Let me briefly return to the general topic of the media. By media I mean all the conduits by which paid entertainment reaches us - film, radio, television, etc. Because television has such a voracious appetite, I will be using the term media and TV more or less interchangeably. Think of how TV, in order to fill each and every hour, gobbles up the output of the other media, from films to stage plays to even rock music in the form of music videos. Some of us are logging in nearly a third of our lives glued to out sets these days. As a baby boomer, I teethed on TV and took its pervasive influence for granted. But, after decades of exposure we have now had, I feel it is time we should begin a serious examination of the media. Its influence is probably considerably greater than literary sources today.
Already by the sixties we had the McLuhanesque dictum that the medium is the message. This idea is that the content is not particularly important, but rather the existence and ubiquitousness of the medium itself is the most significant fact.
Let me look at media criticism in terms of increasing level of profundity. At the lowest, most abysmal level, the media are seen as providing harmless entertainment. But the billions of dollars we dump into the media demonstrate that much more is going on. Slightly better is the extreme right wing evangelical view that TV and films are the devil’s picture book and rock music is the devil’s music. This approach has the virtue of being factually correct, but has fallen on increasingly hard times as all but the diehards have capitulated and joined in the media cacophony themselves. Massive blocks of radio broadcast time and entire cable networks are devoted to selling Jesus sandwiched in between the ads for soap and used cars.
Slightly more discriminating is the idea that TV is a boob tube and rock music is subversive trash, and exposure to one or both may permanently warp your brain. Is the ultimate objective to produce a race of mindless, godless, zombie giants (the return of the “men of renown” of Genesis as described by Brown in CLOSING TIME)?
What indeed keeps us mesmerized by the flickering images hour after hour? Why are so many of us couch potatoes - practically frozen into stone statues? What are we really watching? The answer from Norman O. Brown is that we are seeing the Oedipal Primal Scene reenacted night after night in endless repetition with slight variations. You object, “I beg your pardon. I watched a game show followed by a situation comedy last night.” What we are really doing here is paying performers to put on the only show we want to see.
Finally, at the highest level of criticism, we also simultaneously get the final verdict on the media. We are watching Jesus get crucified night after night in excruciating detail, although we may not be consciously aware of it. After decades of this, I think it is likely to catch up with us some day. In other words, the lurid violence and evil we see depicted in the media may eventually come to us in real life.
In spite of the blanket condemnation of the last paragraph, I’m going to turn around and list some movies. Ideally you should stay away. But the payoff is going to come to us all, whether or not we individually may or may not have watched. In the meantime, perhaps we can use the opportunity to study both the overt and the subtle techniques being employed.
The primary genre to keep an eye on is science fiction. As Susan Sontag said in the sixties, this is the genre of apocalypse and mass destruction. Typically, as in the prototype FRANKENSTEIN (1932), a man attempts to appropriate the prerogatives of God (technically blasphemy) and reaps madness and disaster. These are rigidly moral parables where retribution is swift and sure.
Look, for example, at Rene Clair’s THE CRAZY RAY (1923) from the infancy of the industry. The elements that were to become cliches with decades of continuous repetition were already present. A mad scientist invents a ray machine he constructs inside the Eiffel Tower that turns the inhabitants of Paris into stone statues. An aircraft initially out of range of the ray lands, and the passengers are astonished when they disembark. One worthwhile principle of criticism is to pay particular attention to the message of film titles. In this example, the title might bring to mind such questions as: “did the title mean the inventor was crazy? Or did the ray have crazy effects? Or did the ray drive people crazy, implying that to turn people to stone is to drive them mad?”
A quite similar theme is presented in THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) and its sequel THE CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964) (what questions do these titles bring to mind?). This time a mysterious influence seals off an entire village, the perpetrators in this case being invading aliens. Here, as in THE CRAZY RAY, a geographic area is temporarily circumscribed. The females are impregnated by the aliens and subsequently bear children with glowing eyes and mysterious powers. This aspect of the film echoes the tale in the Book of Enoch of the fallen angels who descended to earth to mate with the women and to teach forbidden arts.
Let me quickly note a few relevant characteristics of paranoid schizophrenia as described by, for example, Norman O. Brown, Geza Roheim or Victor Tausk. The patient believes evil entities such as aliens from another world are secretly conspiring to do him harm. The patient may believe his enemies are employing physical equipment such as beam projectors against him. He is subject to seeing hallucinations or hearing voices attempting to guide his actions against his will. In THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR (1950) normal radio broadcasts are interrupted for short periods each night, and the cast seems to hear a message. This message seems to be more or less the Sermon on the Mount. Was this the voice of God? If not, what was it?
Another frequent theme in science fiction is the nomination of candidate (false) messiahs. I say false, since we are merely watching actors playing a fictional role. A real life prototype of these characters if found would not automatically thereby be a messiah. An example is THE MAN FROM PLANET X (1951), which has an alien who is trapped and needs earthly assistance.
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) (note the title) offers another false messiah. An alien descends in a saucer, takes on the interesting name of Mr. Carpenter, is killed and resurrected three days later, etc. In the case of this film, the extensive analogies were conscious on the part of some of the production people and were taken from the novel on which the film is based.
In the BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1958) an alien
possesses a scientist, who then embarks on a mad quest to rule the world. It's my all time favorite movie. He has the power to shoot airliners out of the sky with his eyes while lauging maniacally. He causes megaton exposions with no visible weapons in his scheme for world domination. He's also a sex fiend. Ingmar Bergman’s THE MAGICIAN (1958) presents a rather dyspeptic false messiah from a traveling carnival show. The messiah of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1962) (note the title) is a fugitive mistaken for Jesus when discovered in their barn. When apprehended and frisked, he stretches his arms to form a cross. THE FLIM FLAM MAN (1967) is a petty con artist living by his wits. CHARLY (1968) is mentally retarded until chemically transformed into a supermind. In THE RULING CLASS (1971), the candidate is an apparent psychopath. THE OMEGA MAN (1971), a remake of THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964), (note the titles) offers another ersatz messiah. In ZARDOZ (1973), the messiah figure is a barbarian.
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (2004) has as the villan a man in his grave named German Toden Kopf (Death's Head). He has arranged to have a new Noah's ark built. As so often, the villan is the secret hero, because here Sky Captain actually destroys the Ark! HOLOCAUST 2000 (1978) (note the prediction in the title) presents the spectacle of Kirk Douglas wildly running up and down the Middle Eastern oilfields proclaiming the Ten Horns, etc. from the Book of Revelation. The messiah of THE LAST WAVE (1979) is an aboriginal witch doctor. In BEING THERE (1979), a simple-minded gardener who can barely tie his bootlaces and happens to be named Mr. Gardiner impresses the President as a sage. At the end of the film he walks on water since no one has told him this is impossible. A not very bright academic in SIMON (1979) is prevailed upon to impersonate a spaceman. After a period of rigorous mental brainwashing and physical conditioning, Simon comes to believe that he actually is an alien. He uses equipment that interrupts regular television broadcasts when he periodically wants to deliver messages. Similarly, in RIDERS OF THE STORM (1986), riders on a bomber interrupt TV broadcasts.
Woody Allen’s ZELIG (1984) features a schizophrenic chameleon who supposedly hobnobbed with the leading political figures of the thirties. In the PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985), also by Woody Allen, a larger than life hero steps out of the screen in a movie theater and into the squalid life of a New Jersey housewife. CREATOR (1985) has a loony college professor who is attempting to resurrect his dead wife. The students he recruits for the project are lectured on the Big Picture.
Numerous other films with similar themes are listed in the bibliography, but, due to space limitations, I won’t give further examples here. Men play god in the movies, but do they in real life? I point to such research as genetic engineering, or the ‘star wars’ project (laser weapons, beam projectors, etc.) These devices were first predicted in science fiction, but always accompanied by warnings we conveniently ignored that to develop them would be to court disaster. Further, I will shortly point out that while these films depict physical devices, such actual equipment is unnecessary to produce the effects depicted.
As for the entertainment industry, we pour multiple billions into it year in and year out. For what we pay we get back entertainment, but additionally, we also get back social engineering that we didn’t necessarily ask for. I am by no means suggesting a conscious conspiracy or deliberate plot by Hollywood. The fundamental problem is again expressed by McLuhan - the medium is the message. In other words, inherent in the nature of the images produced by the media is a latent potential for subversion and ultimately destruction.
From this point to the end of the chapter, I will again take up the list with which I began this chapter. Upon completing the listing, I said each term was related to the term Mass Psychosis. I now claim we have already had several actual episodes. The first, in late August 1973, lasted nearly two weeks. It occurred during the Watergate period and was done primarily by the ‘hippies’. The April 1983 event occurred during the time of the American embassy bombing in Lebanon. The October 1983 event occurred during the time of the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon. The most recent event was the broadcast made while the Tower of Babel 9-11 attack (World Trade Center) was simultaneously taking place. These broadcasts lasted only a day or so each and were done by a remnant handful of people.
What is the Invisible Rain like when it is falling? A person walking down the street may stop for a second, look around quizzically (what the #$*!), perhaps sniff the air, and then continue on. You’ve lived through it - you tell me what it’s like.
A few comments to wrap up the chapter. These events should not be referred to as a Flood, because of God’s promise in Genesis that there would be no more Flood. The New Testament imagery is always fire. I hold Margaret MacDonald’s Secret Rapture innovation of the nineteenth century correct, since we now have hindsight on these (multiple) events. There may or may not be more before the Messiah returns. After all, no one can predict the weather.
CHAPTER FOUR
THE MESSIAH RETURNS
I’ll begin with another list:
THE SPACE COWBOY THE SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE SKY KING KING OF THE ROCKET MEN STARMAN THE LOST PLANET AIRMAN THE MAN FROM INNER SPACE THE MORON FROM OUTER SPACE THE DIVINE IDIOT THE MAN WITH A THOUSAND FACES THE MIRROR MAN THE INVISIBLE MAN THE THIN MAN THE OMEGA MAN THE MYSTERY MAN THE MAN WITH THE POWER THE MAN WITH THE POISON MIND THE MEDICINE MAN THE RAINMAKER THE FERTILITY KING WILD-EYED CHAMELEON THE JOKER THE DEMOLITION MAN BIG BROTHER
Let me ask a few rhetorical questions. Are we perhaps involved in a real life version of the children’s game King of the Mountain in order to pick out the Messiah? Consider the paranoid schizophrenic with delusions of grandeur or possibly what is diagnosed as a messianic complex. What has this to do with the Messiah? Am I suggesting the Messiah will be merely a madman? Let me define a fairy or Peter Pan. A fairy is chronologically and physiologically an adult but has refused to assume an adult identity (ego) and has refused to take on adult responsibility. A fairy more or less never outgrows the omniscience, omnipotence and sense of wonder possessed by the infant, and inhabits fantasy mental worlds in preference to the real world. Again, I ask, what has this to do with the Messiah?
I took a brief look in the preceding chapter at some of what I felt were candidate messiahs being put forward by the movie industry. I wonder if we might be getting practice for recognizing the actual Messiah when He returns. I feel such practice may well be a good idea, since; for one thing, the Messiah won’t be riding the White Horse this time (that was done in A.D. 70). Neither do I expect to see a flying saucer descending from the skies to a world capital.
I suspect it will be an Incarnation in the manner that occurred at Bethlehem. At that time, only the Wise Men and a handful of others could discern the Messiah. One dictionary definition of blasphemy is for a mortal to name himself a god. I feel there could well be an early period when the Chosen One is accused as a blasphemer or the Antichrist. A considerable period of time may elapse before He is acclaimed Lord of lords and King of kings.
At any rate, once the Messiah is actually recognized, it will then become a situation of “when the saints go marching in”. In whichever country He first appears, the Messiah and a motley crew of followers will walk into the capital city and take power. You say you want to be in that number? I suggest you think carefully about it. To the secular eye this will be a Fool’s Parade or Goon Squad made up of Snake People (Marching Morons) - the actual ‘meek’ who will then inherit the earth. I repeat - do you want to be in that number?
How, you may object, will a mere handful of such people be able to take over a major capital city? The context is important here. We are dealing at this point in time with a nation under siege internally and externally, soon to fall. Numerous other portentous dire events will be occurring simultaneously that will dilute the significance of the central event. The World Trade Center attack, 9-11, was just the inaugural event of a coming series of catastrophes. We are on an accelerating descending slope. God is against us now for our Godless Wicked ways. This will be confirmed by the disasters coming ahead predicted here.
Initially the Messiah will assume actual secular political power in order to obtain the objective of reinstating theocracy - an archaic form of government long abandoned and forgotten by Western nations. Looking again with secular eyes, whether considered from the political left or from the political right, the government will be a de facto fascist government - no matter what label is ostensibly applied to it. To provide an example of the type of events that will be taking place, if, and I cannot overemphasize the hypothetical, if this occurs in Washington, DC, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights will be abolished and both Houses of Congress dissolved. I find this idea unpalatable, and I feel none of the sources I have mentioned would find this palatable, nor would you. I do not believe these events will occur in the actual Jerusalem, but, as I have indicated, one of the major Western capitals, which will then become a platform for world domination.
W. Reich in the forties prior to even the advent of national TV took a look at popular culture in THE MURDER OF CHRIST. He was acutely aware of the possibility of fascism, having had direct experience with the mass movements of the twentieth century of both the left and the right. What would be his verdict now, some sixty years later? Many science fiction films have dramatized a fascist takeover. Are they a prototype for future real events?
The evolutionary stages the government will undergo can be expressed in the Marxist schemata. The first phase corresponds to the dictatorship of the proletariat (rule by the meek). Then begins the transition period to the withering away of the state and the classless society or New Jerusalem. Theologians have previously published outlines of the analogies between Marxist mythology and Christian eschatology. And the return of the Messiah will actually fulfill Marx’s predictions, as well as those of John of Patmos simultaneously. During the transition period, it will be a matter of being forced to do without various items we now take for granted. The entire entertainment industry will be dispensed with - television broadcasts, movies, rock music, etc. Much of the high technology of the West will be abandoned. We will cease constructing aircraft, rockets and probably even automobiles (do only angels have wings?) This will be accomplished with only a minimum of objection because the Messiah will rule with a Rod of Iron as the Book of Revelation predicts. He will be a combination Joe Stalin, Jim Jones, Adolph Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeni rolled into one. Amos in the Old Testament correctly prophecied the gnashing of teeth and tribulation that would come with the Day of the Lord.
Is Western Civilization about to officially end? Are we and our descendants to become almost exclusively concerned with physical survival, staying alive? Don’t go outside to watch the skies for the Advent. Merely stay tuned to your TV set and start paying more attention. Have I seen one too many science fiction movies? Or is the show you never expected to see ABOUT TO BEGIN?!APPENDIX
Brief excerpts from Margaret MacDonald’s 1830 Secret Rapture prophecy:
It was first the awful state of the land that was pressed upon me. I saw the blindness and infatuation of the people to be very great. I felt the cry of Liberty to be just the hiss of the serpent to drown them in perdition. It was just ‘no God’, ----
I saw the people of God in an awfully dangerous situation, surrounded by nets and entanglements, about to be tried, and many about to be deceived and fall. Now will THE WICKED be revealed, with all power and signs and lying wonders, so that if it were possible the very elect will be deceived.
PARTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter One.
The following titles are examples of conservative postmillennial and amillennial views as opposed to the standard premillennial view.
Bray, John L., THE MILLENNIUM - THE BIG QUESTION?
Chilton, David, PARADISE RESTORED: A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF DOMINION.
Brunner, Constantin, OUR CHRIST: THE REVOLT OF THE MYSTICAL GENIUS (1921 - published 1990).
James, Timothy A. THE MESSIAH’S RETURN: DELAYED? FULFILLED? OR DOUBLE-FULFILLMENT? Jones, R Bradley, THE GREAT TRIBULATON.
Kik, J. Marcellus, AN ESCHATOLOGY OF VICTORY.
Kimball, William R., THE RAPTURE: A QUESTION OF TIMING.
King, Max, THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY.
Lewis, Arthur H., THE DARK SIDE OF THE MILLENNIUM.
Logston, Robert, THE END-TIMES BLOODBATH. MacPherson, Dave, THE GREAT RAPTURE HOAX.
Robinson, John A. T., REDATING THE NEW TESTAMENT.
J. Stuart, THE PAROUSIA (1887).
Stevens, Ed, WHAT HAPPENED IN 70 A.D.
Terry, Milton, BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS.
Chapters Two-Four.
Brown, Noman O., CLOSING TIME (1973).
______________, LOVE’S BODY (1966).
Campbell, Joseph and Robinson, H., A SKELETON KEY TO FINNEGANS WAKE (1944). Gutkind, Eric, THE BODY OF GOD: FIRST STEPS TOWARD AN ANTI-THEOLOGY (1966-Horizon Press).
Harrington, M. THE POLITICS AT GOD’S FUNERAL: THE SPIRITUAL CRISIS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION (1983)
Hyde, Lewis, TRICKSTER MAKES THIS WORLD (1988).
Joyce, James, FINNEGANS WAKE (1939).
Reich, Wilhelm, THE MURDER OF CHRIST: THE EMOTIONAL PLAGUE OF MANKIND (1966). Robinson, Paul A., THE FREUDIAN LEFT: WILHELM REICH, GEZA ROHEIM, HERBERT MARCUSE (1969). Roheim, Geza, MAGIC AND SCHIZOPHRENIA (1955). ____________, ANIMISM, MAGIC AND THE DIVINE KING (1930). Sontag, Susan, “The imagination of disaster.” AGAINST INTERPRETATION AND OTHER ESSAYS (1966). Tausk, Victor, "On the origin of the 'Influencing Machine' in schizophrenia" (1933).
Tindall, W., A READER'S GUIDE TO FINNEGANS WAKE (1969).
Verene, D., KNOWLEDGE OF THINGS HUMAN AND DIVINE: VICO'S NEW SCIENCE AND FINNEGANS WAKE (2003).
FILM LIST BY DATE (PRIMARILY SCIENCE FICTION)
A partial list of relevant and valuable film titles. No studios are given. Especially significant films are preceeded by an *
*EVAN ALMIGHTY (2007) (sequel to BRUCE ALMIGHTY. God commands Evan to build an Ark)
THE INVISIBLE (2007) AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (1996) CLICK (2006)
STRANGER THAN FICTION (2006)
BEWITCHED (2005)
CHICKEN LITTLE (2005) ('The sky is falling!)
*CONSTANTINE (2005)
V FOR VENDETTA (2005) THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004)
ELLA ENCHANTED (2004)
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004)
THE FINAL CUT (2004) (madman must die to save others)
THE FORGOTTEN (2004)
THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2004)
THE MACHINIST (2004)
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST (2004)
*SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMMOROW (2004)
WHAT THE #$*! DO WE KNOW!? (2004)
*BRUCE ALMIGHTY (2003) ('Armageddon outta here!')
*NORTHFORK (2003) (has an Ark,a Flood and recording angels)
SPIDER (2003) (madman)
CLOCKSTOPPERS (2002) (mass psychosis)
DON'T SAY A WORD (2002)
FINAL (2002)
FRAILTY (2002)
HEARTS IN ATLANTIS (2002)
THE IMPOSTER (2002)
K-PAX (2002)
LILO AND STITCH (2002)
NO SUCH THING (2002)
THE RING (2002)
SIGNS (2002)
ZOOLANDER (2002)
A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001)
CHICKEN RUN (2000)
END OF DAYS (1999)
GLADIATOR (1998)
THE MATRIX (1998)
*THE SIXTH SENSE (1998)
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (1998)
MEN IN BLACK (1997)
INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
MARS ATTACKS! (1996)
*PLEASANTVILLE (1996)
FORREST GUMP (1994)
*STARGATE (1994)
DROP DEAD FRED (1991) THE RAPTURE (1991)
THE FISHER KING (1990)
THE HANDMAIDS TALE (1990)
LOOSE CANNONS (1990)
SPACED INVADERS (1990)
EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY (1988)
BEETLEJUICE (1988)
BIG (1988)
RAINMAN (1988)
THEY LIVE (1988)
*WINGS OF DESIRE (1988) (angels)
FIELD OF DREAMS (1987)
*MAKING MR. RIGHT (1987)
PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1987)
REAL MEN (1987)
THE BOY WHO COULD FLY (1986)
FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR (1986)
RIDERS OF THE STORM (1986)
BETTER OFF DEAD (1985)
CREATOR (1985)
LIFEFORCE (1985)
*LEGEND (1985)
MORONS FROM OUTER SPACE (1985)
MASS APPEAL (1985)
MY SCIENCE PROJECT (1985)
THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985)
REANIMATOR (1985)
REAL GENIUS (1985)
STARMAN (1985)
WEIRD SCIENCE (1985)
BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984)
THE DEAD ZONE (1984)
DREAMSCAPE (1984)
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984)
THE LONELY GUY (1984)
THE NATURAL (1984)
NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984)
RED DAWN (1984)
REVENGE OF THE NERDS (1984)
SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES (1984)
TERMINATOR (1984)
TESTAMENT (1984)
*ZELIG (1984)
KRULL (1983)
THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (1983)
VIDEODROME (1983)
*ROCK AND RULE (1982)
THE SENDER (1982)
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)
SCANNERS (1981)
*THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (1980-PBS)
ALIEN (1979)
*BEING THERE (1979)
CAPRICORN ONE (1979)
THE LAST WAVE (1979)
*SIMON (1979)
HOLOCAUST 2000 (1978)
STAR WARS (1977)
CARRIE (1976)
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976)
THE OMEN (1976)
A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975)
*THE DEVIL'S RAIN (1975)
THE STEPFORD WIVES (1975)
WIZARDS (1975)
FLESH GORDON (1974-X)
YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974)
THE EXORCIST (1973)
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973)
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973)
JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR (1973)
SOYLENT GREEN (1973)
THE SPOOK WHO SAT BESIDE THE DOOR (1973) THE WICKER MAN (1973)
WESTWORLD (1973)
ZARDOZ (1973)
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
FOOLS' PARADE (1971)
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971)
THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
*THE RULING CLASS (1971)
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS (1971)
WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)
CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY (1970)
*THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN (1970)
THIS STUFF'LL KILL YA! (1970)
THE RAIN PEOPLE (1969)
CHARLY (1968)
MARS NEEDS WOMEN (1968)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
PLANET OF THE APES (1968)
THE POWER (1968)
FAHRENHEIT 451 (1967)
THE FLIM FLAM MAN (1967)
DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS (1966)
KING OF HEARTS (1966)
DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE (1965)
A THOUSAND CLOWNS (1965)
*CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964)
DR. STRANGELOVE: OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964)
SEVEN DAYS IN MAY (1964)
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)
LORD OF THE FLIES (1963)
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1963)
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
THE MUSIC MAN (1962)
REPTILICUS (1962)
WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1962)
ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT (1961)
MASTER OF THE WORLD (1961)
ON THE BEACH (1960)
PSYCHO (1960)
*VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960)
THE WORLD, THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL (1959)
ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN (1958)
*THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1958)
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958)
I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (1958)
THE MAGICIAN (1958)
NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957)
THE COURT JESTER (1956)
FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
GIANT (1956)
GODZILLA (1956)
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
THIS ISLAND EARTH (1955)
GOG (1954)
INVADERS FROM MARS (1954)
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953)
THE LOST PLANET (1953)
*MEET MR. LUCIFER (1953)
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953)
MY SON JOHN (1952)
RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON (1952)
RED PLANET MARS (1952)
ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1952)
CAPTAIN VIDEO, MASTER OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1951)
*THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
THE MAN FROM PLANET X (1951)
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (1951)
D.O.A. (1950)
*THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR (1950)
ROCKETSHIP X-M (1950)
THE INSPECTOR GENERAL (1949)
KING OF THE ROCKETMEN (1949)
THE THIRD MAN (1949)
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)
THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1947)
THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (1945)
COBRA WOMAN (1944)
THE LODGER (1944)
NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART (1944)
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)
DON WINSLOW OF THE NAVY (1942)
I MARRIED A WITCH (1942) THE DEVIL COMMANDS (1941)
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
*FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE (1940)
BUCK ROGERS (1939)
DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (1939)
THE PHANTOM CREEPS (1939)
*THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS (1938)
FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS (1937)
THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES (1937)
TIM TYLER'S LUCK (1937)
TOPPER (1937)
THE DEVIL DOLL (1936)
FLASH GORDON (1936)
THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936)
THINGS TO COME (1936)
UNDERSEA KINGDOM (1936)
THE LOST CITY (1935)
MURDER BY TELEVISION (1935)
*THE PHANTOM EMPIRE (1935)
GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (1933)
THE INVISIVIBLE MAN (1933)
KING KONG (1933)
FRANKENSTEIN (1932)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)
M (1931)
BLUE ANGEL (1930)
METROPOLIS (1926)
THE LAST LAUGH (1924)
*THE CRAZY RAY (aka PARIS QUI DORT) (1923-Fr.)
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919)
FILM LIST
ALIEN (1979)
ATLANTIS, THE LOST CONTINENT (1961)
ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN (1958)
A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2001)
BEETLEJUICE (1988)
BEING THERE (1979)
BETTER OFF DEAD (1985)
BEWITCHED (2005)
BIG (1988)
BLUE ANGEL (1930)
A BOY AND HIS DOG (1975)
THE BOY WHO COULD FLY (1986)
THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS (1958)
BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET (1984)
BRUCE ALMIGHTY (2003)
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919)
CAPRICORN ONE (1979)
CAPTAIN NEMO AND THE UNDERWATER CITY (1970)
CARRIE (1976)
CHARLY (1968)
CHICKEN LITTLE (2005)
CHICKEN RUN (2000)
CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED (1964)
CLICK (2006)
CLOCKSTOPPERS (2002)
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
COBRA WOMAN (1944)
CONSTANTINE (2005)
THE COURT JESTER (1956)
THE CRAZY RAY (aka PARIS QUI DORT) (1923-Fr.)
CREATOR (1985)
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW (2004)
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951)
THE DEAD ZONE (1984)
THE DEVIL COMMANDS (1941)
THE DEVIL DOLL (1936)
THE DEVIL’S RAIN (1975)
D.O.A. (1950)
DON’T SAY A WORD (2002)
DROP DEAD FRED (1991) DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE BIKINI MACHINE (1965)
DR. GOLDFOOT AND THE GIRL BOMBS (1966)
DR. STRANGELOVE: OR, HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1964)
DREAMSCAPE (1984)
EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY (1988)
ELLA ENCHANTED (2004)
END OF DAYS (1999)
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981)
EVAN ALMIGHTY (2007)
THE EXORCIST (1973)
FAHRENHEIT 451 (1967)
FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004)
FIELD OF DREAMS (1987)
FINAL (2002)
THE FINAL CUT (2004)
THE FISHER KING (1990)
FLESH GORDON (1974-X)
FLIGHT OF THE NAVIGATOR (1986)
THE FLIM FLAM MAN (1967)
FOOLS’ PARADE (1971)
FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)
THE FORGOTTEN (2004)
FORREST GUMP (1994)
FRAILTY (2002)
FRANKENSTEIN (1932)
GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE (1933)
GHOSTBUSTERS (1984)
GIANT (1956)
GLADIATOR (1998)
GODZILLA (1956)
GOG (1954)
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963)
THE HANDMAID'S TALE (1990)
HEARTS IN ATLANTIS (2002)
HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973)
HOLOCAUST 2000 (1978)
THE HOLY MOUNTAIN (1973)
HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958)
I MARRIED A WITCH (1942) I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE (1958)
I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (1943)
THE IMPOSTER (2002)
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH (2006) INDEPENDENCE DAY (1996)
THE INSPECTOR GENERAL (1949)
INVADERS FROM MARS (1953)
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)
THE INVISIBLE (2007) THE INVISIBLE MAN (1933)
THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936)
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932)
IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE (1953)
JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR (1973)
KING KONG (1933)
KING OF HEARTS (1966)
K-PAX (2002)
KRULL (1983)
THE LAST LAUGH (1924)
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1964)
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW (1971)
THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984)
THE LAST WAVE (1979)
THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (1980-PBS)
LEGEND (1985)
LIFEFORCE (1985)
LILO AND STITCH (2002)
THE LODGER (1944)
THE LONELY GUY (1984)
LOOSE CANNONS (1990)
LORD OF THE FLIES (1963)
THE LOST SKELETON OF CADAVRA (2004)
M (1931)
THE MACHINIST (2004)
THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN (1970)
THE MAGICIAN (1958)
MAKING MR. RIGHT (1987)
THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
THE MAN FROM PLANET X (1951)
THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (1983)
THE MAN WHO COULD WORK MIRACLES (1937)
THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976)
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
MARS ATTACKS (1996)
MARS NEEDS WOMEN (1968)
MASS APPEAL (1985)
MASTER OF THE WORLD (1961)
THE MATRIX (1998)
MEN IN BLACK (1997)
MEET MR. LUCIFER (1953)
METROPOLIS (1926)
MORONS FROM OUTER SPACE (1985)
MURDER BY TELEVISION (1935)
THE MUSIC MAN (1962)
MY SON JOHN (1952)
MY SCIENCE PROJECT (1985)
THE NATURAL (1984)
THE NEXT VOICE YOU HEAR (1950)
NIGHT OF THE COMET (1984)
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)
NIGHTMARE ALLEY (1947)
NO SUCH THING (2002)
NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART (1944)
NORTHFORK (2003)
NOT OF THIS EARTH (1957)
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR (1963)
THE OMEGA MAN (1971)
THE OMEN (1976)
About the Author
Retired.
My site: http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman
My second, newest article: My Inaugural Address
Why are civilian airline pilots given the military title "Captain"?
It just seems weird to me that people who work in a non-government, non-military job wear military insignia and have military titles.
Probably the same reason an owner of a boat is called Captain.
It's just a mundane title to make them feel important.
Weird Job Titles
Strange and Dream Job Titles
The Written Word: Rajeev Jain (Indian Cinematographer) Visual wizardry....
Philosophy
The world just got a whole lot smaller. I am still in a state of total disbelief. The horrific crimes of recent suicide bomb blasts were beyond comprehension and human logic. How is it that our goals and aspirations can be so different in spite of coming from the same mould? As a father, I am always trying to encourage my two little angels Abigail Jain (17yrs.) and Kimberly Jain (13 yrs) to work hard, be fair, be honest, be kind and humane and most importantly, be open minded and tolerant of other people.
The terrorists who executed this deadly plan lied, cheated, murdered and judged all others who did not subscribe to their twisted perversion of faith and morality.
This is a very difficult time to be positive, but the future of our children and rights of a free democracy depends on everyone continuing to protect the choice to pursue what is important and right for every individual.
The marketplace is in a total state of flux. Everyone in our business is scrambling to firm up existing clients and struggling to keep what they have. Add the challenge of preparing for HDTV and the plethora of format choices to the equation and you've got a difficult situation.
Climbing to the higher planes of the industry was not overnight. A native of Lucknow and a graduate of University of Lucknow and Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts (Bhartendu Natya Academy/ Bhartendu Natak Akademi), My career has taken me over the years from Lucknow, to Mumbai / Bombay in pursuit of my dreams. And the companies have ranged from organizations, TV stations to ad agencies and Features. Despite all my accomplishments and obviously varied skills, I remain very true to my first love, and that is the love for cinematography.
I believe that the DOP has one primary job: to serve the director s vision of the story. Some DOP seem bent on making a different movie than the one the director is making - such behavior is completely unprofessional, even silly. I strive to maintain a fully professional attitude whether we are shooting 16/ 35mm film, High Def 24P or Video. Shooting is shooting, I try to make every shot the best it can be.
One of the great pleasures of filmmaking is the collaboration. I take great pains and efforts to put in nothing but the best i can into each shot. I try to understand the vision that the director is striving to bring to the fore- front, presenting that vision in all its totality and making it as realistic as possible then becomes my sole purpose.
Some directors prefer to control every aspect of the image, and at the other extreme, some prefer to concentrate on directing the actors and pretty much leave the photography up to me. Most commonly, of course, majority of director s fit in somewhere the middle. I am completely comfortable working either ways.
The DOP has another job, of course, and that is to help the production to stay on schedule and within the prescribed budget. I take those responsibilities very seriously as well. Being a Director of Photography is much more than just being good at lighting and camerawork (although those are primary, of course); it is also very much a "management" job: you are in charge of a number of people, different departments, equipment, schedules etc. My experience on productions large and small; from very simple to very complex shoots gives me the experience to handle the various responsibilities and keep the balance.
I am as big a gear head as the next guy, but please!
The reality is that you had better know your client and be honest with yourself about which marketplace your doing most of your business in. The mistake a lot of people make is dreaming about what might be and not concentrating on what is.
For me, I have an eclectic mix of works. I continue to shoot Commercials, Feature Films and Music Videos.
I personally believe that you better enjoy what you are doing and have as much fun as you can while doing it. I have been very fortunate to hook up with a bunch of great people, both crew and production houses.
I have noticed that instinct is starting to rule my life. I no longer fret about the "what if s", I just do what feels right and amazingly it seems to work out. The old rule is true, if it sounds to good to be true.... Hard work is the only substitute for lack of natural luck, hell I do not even know how to spell luck. As a freelancer, you have got to make your luck, you have got to sit back and think about what type of work you want to do and then make the contacts, place the calls and pursue what it is you want.
There are a hundred ways to go wrong and only a few to go right. There is only one goal: Beautiful pictures that serve the story and flow together in the edit.
It has been a weird year (2009). I lost a number of commercials in Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East due to the downturn in the economy, war and terrorist extremism.
And finally, this year (2010) I turned 43.
So, if you get a call from me one day, do not be too surprised.
MY MISSION
To use my skills, experience and professionalism to provide productions with distinct and compelling cinematography.
RAJEEV JAIN s TAKE ON......
PREP
I work out the complicated problems in prep to execute simple solutions in production. From location scouts, shot listing, story boarding, script meetings, watching rehearsals, testing stock, lenses, makeup and wardrobe, to scheduling and collaborating with department heads - I do not wing it. I prepare to the point where I can use my intuition to respond to the unexpected, rise above the game plan and take the film to the next level.
DIRECTORS
What gets me excited - is to work with passionate directors who take risks. Whether the film is meticulously storyboarded or improvisational, from prep to wrap, I try to unlock what the director has in their head, understand it, refine and capture it.
PRODUCERS
I know how to collaborate with a producer to get a dollar out of fifteen cents. Whether it is tapping my extensive contacts to efficiently scheduling the crew and equipment; to finding innovative and resourceful ways to shoot a film; to nailing a shot on take one - I take no expense for granted.
CREW
I have the contacts to put together a camera and lighting crew for most any sized project and the experience to delegate and supervise them. My roster have skills and aspirations bigger than their job titles; but also have the attitude to keep it fun. I hire crew that take initiative, love movies and read the script.
STYLE
I hope I am not accused of it. I want the audience to feel what I shot, not to pay attention as to how it was shot.
FRAMING
I shoot for the edit. I frame for the drama.
LIGHTING
I believe there is no best way to light. Every film has its unique demands. Some directors may want 360 degree dollies while others do not move the camera at all; others like to work with marks while some do not; some schedule 20 shots a day while some just 10. In all cases, I have to find an approach that reinforces the director s instincts, stays within the production s resources while at the end the day, elucidates the drama.
FORMAT
Whether it is Super 16, HD or 35mm, I am format agnostic. I work closely with the director and producer to not only choose a viable format; but also, to exploit it to the fullest.
EQUIPMENT
Through my contacts with vendors and rental houses; my collaboration with key personnel; and from years of shooting at a variety of levels - I keep productions from paying for unnecessary gear, while making sure we have what we need. But I also believe in finding ways to get the most of what you got.
POST
My job does not end on the set. I supervise the look of the film from dailies to digital intermediate through release prints. In post, the DP s eye is critical in creating the finishing touches as well as maintaining a visual continuity and integrity.
MOVIES
From classics to new release, from horror to romance, I know my films and genres. It's the experience of escaping into a great film that I'm passionate about. I'm not a gadget head, don't fall in love with shots or obsess about technical matters. I do obsess about films that move me and do all I can to be part of making them.
Quotes from some famous DP's......
... I Believe
" I admit a fondness for commercials. It is the perfect blend of many skills. You have 30 seconds to sell an audience a product or idea using the visual techniques of lighting and camera movement to reflect and comment upon current culture. "
" Every director brings a different viewpoint to spot work. Their backgrounds vary as much as the products do and that diversity is what makes every job different and unique. My challenge as cameraman is to capture that special uniqueness on film. "
" I never wanted to be pigeon-holed in commercials. I don't care to restrict myself to shooting just cars or tabletop. My background is still photography, documentaries and theater. I've traveled my whole life and I want to incorporate that into my work. Commercials reflect constant change in markets and audience. This medium demands that one be aware of the evolution in lenses, film stocks and accessories as well as to be actively involved in the quickly evolving technology of digital imaging. "
"Filming kids is the ultimate in spontaneity. You have to be ready at any moment for something to happen. It all has to do with lighting and planning. You also have to find the right place for the camera so that the kids can work in a given space and be comfortable without a lot of noise and distraction... finger on switch. "
"If you know how to light, it doesn't matter what you shoot. If you don't know how to light... it does not matter what you shoot." - on shooting film vs. shooting High Def:
"Cinematography is the art and craft of the authorship of visual images for the cinema extending from conception and pre-production through post-production to the ultimate presentation of these images. All and any processes, which may affect these images, are the direct responsibility and interest of the cinematographer. Cinematography is not a subcategory of photography. Rather, photography is but one craft, which the cinematographer uses in addition to other physical, organizational, managerial, interpretive, and image manipulating techniques to effect one coherent process. Cinematography is a creative and interpretive process, which culminates in the authorship of an original work rather than the simple recording of a physical event. The images which the cinematographer brings to the screen come from the artistic vision, imagination, and skill of the cinematographer working within a collaborative relationship with fellow artists".
"Cinematography is the process of capturing a vision on film. As both an art and a craft it is a dynamic process that involves the composition of light, shadow, time and movement. For the cinematographer this requires a synthesis of technical skills and creative sensibility".
"A great deal of work happens between scouting and shooting and it can be a very tedious process. In the end, if any of that behind the scenes work shows in the final product, then I think that work has not been for nothing.
Q&A With Rajeev Jain, ICS WICA Indian Cinematographer On Film
Indian Director of Photography, Rajeev Jain, ICS WICA is a Cinematographer based in Mumbai, India. Rajeev specializes in shooting television commercials in the 35mm motion picture film format as well as HD Digital formats. Rajeev started in the early days of the music video revolution, before venturing into narrative filmmaking. His eclectic body of work includes Army, Badhaai Ho Badhaai, Carry on Pandu, Kadachit, Kalpvriksh - The Wish Tree, Mirabai Notout, Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi and Rasstar .
QUESTION: Where were you born and raised?
RAJEEV: I was born in Lucknow, India. There was no seminal event that happened to me as a young person that made me want to be a cinematographer. It certainly wasn’t the quality of the light in Lucknow. I remember it was gray; was stained brown from the traffic and the sky dark. But as I say that, I realize the suppressed palette of the place did affect me emotionally. Saturates leaped out against that neutrals, as in a dream or a post-industrial nightmare.
QUESTION: What did your parents do?
RAJEEV: My parents were just ordinary folks. I don’t think they were particularly ambitious for me. Their main concern, I think, was that I wasn’t an embarrassment. We moved to the Etawah and then back to Lucknow, where I completed my education. My degrees were in Theatre Arts.
QUESTION: Did you have a career goal at that point in life?
RAJEEV: I wanted to be a writer, but like Mohan Rakesh I thought too much and wrote too little. That is too say I was more a reader then a writer, more academician then poet. I got very interested in semiology and structuralism (the study of how language encodes ideas). Initially I studied how the spoken and written language worked, but then became more interested in how codes worked in other languages, like the language of film. My interest in film language led me in a rather convoluted way to cinematography.
QUESTION: That’s interesting. Can you be a little more specific?
RAJEEV: I became very interested in understanding how in altering light, composition, camera angles and camera movement a cinematographer alters an audiences perception of the visual event, and thereby the audience’s emotional response. It is a difficult thing to quantify. I remember specifically thinking back to seeing Pather Panchali when I was a child, and how its images had always remained in my imagination, not only for their pure beauty and sublime scale, but because they affected me emotionally, striking some unconscious but responsive cord. Later I saw Ray's "The Apu Trilogy". I had much the same response, but now my understanding was informed by my studies. It would be accurate to say that the cinematographers of these two films, Subroto Mitra, were those who most influenced my decision to become a cinematographer.
QUESTION: How did you make a connection between words and photography?
RAJEEV: In writing essays and articles about film. I realized that film images worked very much the way the spoken/written language works. You want to express certain ideas. There are culturally agreed and understood codas. These shapes, which we call letters, have agreed upon pronunciations. These letters form words. These words have agreed meanings. But it is of course arbitrary. The word “cat” has no innate “catness” about it, but on hearing this word the listener forms an idea in their brain. A cat. We can then add adjectives, and qualifiers, to make it a black cat, or an angry black cat. These words are codes, but not universal codes. They are specific to a culture that shares that language. Photography in some respects is a much more complex language system. The denotative (specific) or connotative (symbolic or implied) meaning of an image can be ambiguous, but also complex. Perhaps the best literary analogy is the Haiku poem. The fewer words have greater potential meaning — the more words that are added in longer literary forms, the more specific the meaning. An image offers both specific and non-specific meanings. It can work on many layers, conscious and not.
QUESTION: Did you have any mentors or were you totally self-taught?
RAJEEV: I’ve learned a lot from other DP’s. But it’s mainly from studying their work. Ashok Mehta and I talk a lot, and he’s given me a great deal. But I was self-taught. I studied art extensively, particularly early 20th century artists, and late 19th century artists. I learned a lot about light from them. I’ve stolen an idea from every good film I’ve seen, probably. Particularly the work of Subroto Mitra (ISC), Ashok Mehta (ISC), Binod Pradhan, and Santosh Sivan (ISC).
QUESTION: Do you think of yourself as an artist, a technician or both?
RAJEEV: I think that’s a very important distinction. I don’t want to sound pretentious, but if you consider the nature of art, it is meant to give us new eyes to see the world. I want audiences to respond viscerally to what our intentions are for a film. I think that cinematography works very much like music in that it is difficult for us to measure or quantify why audiences respond to what we do. So it is an art. And its practitioners must therefore be artists.
QUESTION: Tell us more about your analogy of music and cinematography.
RAJEEV: I can sit in dailies and I can see the other people watching the film with me respond physically and emotionally to the images; but it is very difficult quantifying what they are responding to. If you watch people listening to music, they may also respond, but you would hard put to quantify why they are responding.
QUESTION: I’ll borrow a phrase from Subroto Mitra, who said, cinematographers are the authors of the images. But, that isn’t widely recognized.
RAJEEV: Part of the problem lies with our collective culture. Films are reviewed as theatre rather than as a unique art form. Critics will talk about scripts and performances. They talk about things they understand, but they understand them because their own cultural antecedents are principally in traditional theatre, though they may not recognize that. In this context, cinematography and music aren’t understood, except to say they were beautiful, because there is not a particular language developed within criticism for their description. Unfortunately, many reviewers don’t recognize how decisions made by the director, cinematographer and composer made a profound impact on the visceral reactions and intellectual responses of audiences. I’m not saying that cinematographers aren’t recognized. We are, at least within the industry, but not in the consumer press. I don’t think I read a single review that mentioned the significance of Subroto Mitra’s (ISC) decision to use 16mm film and other formats in certain scenes in The River, yet that made a profound impact. I consider that a significant artistic decision worthy of comment, in fact, essential to an audiences understanding of the film’s artistic treatment.
QUESTION: The collaboration between directors and cinematographers is unique.
RAJEEV: An important thing about that collaboration is that cinematographers have to integrate their vision for a film with the director’s vision.
QUESTION: Do the many music videos you shot influence you today?
RAJEEV: Not really. None of my films look like music videos, but the great thing about music videos was that we could experiment with different lighting, film stocks, lenses and filters. We would decide to try putting four filters on the lens, force process the film, or put a negative through a reversal film postproduction process to see how it comes out, and then try it again the other way around. It was a great way to learn.
QUESTION: Are there other cinematographers whose work you follow?
RAJEEV: I can mention all the obvious names, but the truth is I learn from all cinematographers. I can watch a television program shot by a 29-year-old cinematographer and find something that he or she did that is quite interesting. I’m constantly learning from other people. I still read every magazine and journal about cinematography and photography that I can lay my hands on. I still study art. I collect books of photographers and paintings. But it’s not just the good work that others do that I learn from. I learn from my own mistakes that I have had ample opportunity to make over these last 20 years. When my son Adam was in the seventh grade, he wrote an essay in which he was required to say who his hero was. He said it was me. “My father is my hero because he messes up all the time, and he lets me see it.” So I feel o.k. about messing up. I think that’s a hugely important lesson to learn. It’s o.k. to mess up, and you will sometimes mess up if you’re willing to push the limits of your craft.
QUESTION: Did any other mentors influence your thinking?
RAJEEV: I was a graduate from the University of Lucknow for a short while. That’s where I met Renu Saluja who was a really important mentor. She pointed me down some really interesting avenues as regards film theory.
QUESTION: How do you decide that something is a film you want to do?
RAJEEV: Early in my career anything that was offered was a film I wanted to do. Today, two things are likely to affect my decision. One is my first meeting with the director. That relationship is like a marriage only, oddly, much more intense. You have to decide whether you’re going to be able to get along with that person for the long time that you’re going to be together. I think I have gotten along well with over 90 percent of the directors I have worked with, and many have remained friends. The second thing is the photography. I’m always interested in doing new and different things. If the project is very much like what I have done before, and the script is not great, then it is less likely I will be interested. Sometimes a project comes along that is just so interesting it is impossible to resist.
QUESTION: What do you tell students and other young filmmakers when they ask you to share the secret of success? Do you tell them the truth about the odds?
RAJEEV: I think you have to be patient, and not let yourself believe that things are going to happen quickly. You need integrity and honesty about who you want to become. That way, even if you fail, you can fail with some dignity. If you compromise and fail, what do you have left?
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Rajeev Jain, ICS WICA - Indian Cinematographer / DOP, Talks about ... Kalpvriksh - The Wish Tree - Your Dreams Are Just a Touch Away
Like any artist, Rajeev was born with innate talent burnished by experience and cultural influences. Born in 1968, his first introduction to movie magic came while observing his uncle as a projectionist at Ravindralaya Theatre, Lucknow. “I remember sitting in that little projection room and watching films with my uncle,” the Indian cinematographer recalls. “It was like watching silent movies because you couldn’t hear sound in the booth. I just saw the images and would try to understand the story. My uncle would show us Charlie Chaplin movies, which, of course, were silent. There is no doubt that he put his dream of becoming a cinematographer into my heart.” Originally from India, cinematographer Rajeev Jain ICS WICA studied at the Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts in Lucknow, India.
The day after completing his studies, Rajeev went to work as a trainee on an anamorphic picture. He contributed to ten more movies as assistant cameraman before becoming a DOP. “From that moment on I considered the camera to be like a pen that you use to draw images,” he states. “Operating a camera is mainly about composition and rhythm. I also operated the camera for Bollywood songs. It was very primitive. While we were shooting, someone with a watch was timing every pan and zoom. He would say, ‘You have 5 1/2 seconds to do that zoom.’ It was a great lesson for me, learning to make each element of a shot work in that amount of time.”
I thought it was fascinating that film speaks a common language that everyone in the world can understand," he recalls. "That's especially true for cinematographers, because we are communicating with the audience non-verbally." “To me, making a film is like resolving conflicts between light and dark, cold and warmth, blue and orange or other contrasting colours. There should be a sense of energy, or change of movement. A sense that time is going on — light becomes night, which reverts to morning. Life becomes death. Making a film is like documenting a journey and using light in the style that best suits that particular picture… the concept behind it.
The first important decision regarding the visuals was to shoot in anamorphic (2.4:1) format, as they had done on Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree. Rajeev explains that Manika likes to manipulate the subjective and objective viewpoints, sometimes in the same frame or even at the same time. In a simple example, a shot will begin on a subject, and then an actor will step into the frame, creating an over-the-shoulder shot, changing it from subjective––in which the viewer sees what the character sees––to objective. "One of my first suggestions was shooting Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree in Super 35 format," Rajeev continues. "I felt that would give the film an edge that you don't expect to see in Drama. I felt we could use the wider frame to create a claustrophobic feeling in the Shabana’s cave and more interesting composition showing Shabana in the world." She, director Manika Sharma, designer Mansi and other members of the creative team discussed the possibilities for composing Kalpvriksh – the Wishing Tree in widescreen format, while drawing upon such visual references as another drama with an improbable theme. Though Manika storyboarded scenes, Rajeev utilized the sketches primarily as a communications tool. While shooting, the director remained open to veering from the storyboards to take advantage of unexpected opportunities. “Our production designer Mansi and costume designer gave us rich sets and costumes. Even though pushing two stops in the development sometimes is not as faithful to colours, their collaboration with this technique allowed us (especially in the dinner / fantasy sequences) to have a warm and yellow-looking scene, as if all that was lit was candle light,” he says.
In one dramatically lit scene, the school principal (Mahabano Kotwal) is sitting on the chair, looking out a window at the falling rain. “The whole scene was lit with one hard day light, an ARRI 6K,” says Rajeev. “We brought one light through the window. In order to light the door, we used a 4 by 4 mirror just out of frame to the right. The light is modulated by the rain on the window, and it stretched over to the book. We were ‘gathering chestnuts.’ It was serendipitous, and it all worked out with one light.” “For fill light on this movie, we used either very, very little or absolutely none,” he adds. “I find that with the film stocks we were using, if you’re overexposing a little bit, you can read the shadow detail incredibly well. When I saw the picture at Theatre on the 70-foot-wide screen, on the dark side, which is dead black, you can actually see hairs going into actors’ heads. I found it very interesting. I hope it works on a subconscious level for the audience.” Even though Rajeev knew that he could not shoot wide open at a T2 or a T2.8––because the Super 35 format chosen has a shallower depth––he still wanted this tool to give the story a greater stage presence. The bigger negative allowed him to push the envelope. And, he knew the grain would still be acceptable, if he stayed within the T2.8 to T4 ranges on interiors. “We could still use real sources and it wouldn’t be hard for our camera crew to follow focus,” he says confidently.
Like many of his colleagues, cinematographer Rajeev Jain has many concerns about changes that can be introduced to imagery during the post process of our electronic age. Such considerations only become intensified when one is dealing with a profusion of visual effects, which was the case with Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree. "I tried to make a concerted effort to stay as involved in postproduction as possible - which is sometimes tough because it's 'off to the next job' - to work with the digital effects and optical house to ensure that there wouldn't be any problems with the answer printing process. “You don’t see any lights in the master shot,” he says. “The master shot that we started out with was an impossible shot to light. We were jammed back in the corner with a 35 mm lens and there was a two-way mirror in the background. So we used a technique Rajeev Jain called a ‘driller.’ Simply put, you’re normally shooting horizontally across a room, and there are horizontal surfaces, like the tops of mantels and tables. If you come from directly overhead with a light and drill it down onto that surface, it works quite well. It doesn’t seem wrong. If light comes from a place that’s not normal or usual, people seem to accept the element that’s being illuminated without really figuring out what’s going on in terms of a source. Shadows go straight down, so they don’t end up looking strange or calling attention to the source. You see it on the table and then it comes off the table and lights the faces to a degree. It’s interesting because you’re not lighting the people at all. You’re lighting the environment that they’re in.
Anamorphic gives you the space in the frame to do that,” Rajeev says. “Manika has no problem filling an anamorphic frame in a contemporary picture. The story also has an elegiac aspect, so it seemed better to tell it without rock video cutting and frenetic camera movement. With the amazing cast, we knew this film would be about the performances. All those ideas––as well as ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’––factored into our decision to shoot anamorphic.” To determine a visually appropriate approach for the various moods needed in Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree, Manika and Rajeev chose to forego in large part the usual business of viewing other films during prep. "We used a lot of book work, referring to other kinds of artists working in two-dimensional forms, still photography and drawings mainly," Rajeev relates. "This was a nice and different way to prep. Looking at movies to see how a particular sequence worked is great, but this approach started me on this incredible round of self-education, covering still photography from 1890 up 'til now. Now I can't stop myself from buying the books. It is amazing how much visual reference source material is out there when you go back to basics. These were great jumping-off points for us.
The cinematographer also had to avoid telltale reflections of camera gear and personnel on the water surface. Along with a disciplined crew, that required careful light placement and camera angle selection. He discovered that putting the plastic at the right distance from the lens for tighter shots from Shawn's point-of-view rendered slightly distorted images with a hint of grain, which amplified the look that he and director Manika desired. Rajeev also occasionally added reflections of characters and objects on the water's surface to draw attention to the barrier separating the boy from other people. Sometimes the camera takes a subjective, spectator-like stance while other times the audience seems to share Shawn's life-in-the-bubble experience. "There was no simple formula for deciding when to put the audience inside the bubble with Shawn. It was a question I asked the director for each shot in every scene. Are we with Shawn inside the bubble, or are we outside looking in?"
I didn’t believe this and obviously neither did neither director Manika Sharma nor producing company Rhombus Films. Another picture shot in an old house in Bollywood required us to actually operate two generators to power all of the lights. By the time we were done, however, I was able to shoot two-thirds of a long sequence by dollying along with the reflections seen in a long fishpond at night (Shabana’s cave). “I think it’s a visual reflection of the fact that one’s position in life can change almost instantaneously,” he says. “It’s extremely effective visually. It seems to work on a number of different levels. Using this different approach seems to freshen up all your overs and reverses. There’s a very interesting scene between Shabana and kid that was staged on an under the tree, and there’s a sense of disquiet and possible aggression. It’s very ambiguous, yet the spatial dynamics really underscore the feeling.”
There is a great advantage in working on location versus a studio. For example, the muslim house I mentioned had real marble floors. An experienced DOP knows how to utilize this reality something he can only simulate in a studio," mused Rajeev. Reflectors were used extensively throughout the film, usually on the fill side to pick up some ambience or an edge of the keylight, and to redirect some of that light to the fill side. In most cases it was very subtle, however, just reflecting in the shine of the skin. “We used the reflectors as almost more of an eyelight,” Rajeev says. “There is such tension between these three characters. There are a lot of internal emotions beneath the surface of this movie. I felt that the audience needed to have access to the internal life of the characters, so I tried to keep eyelights going, especially when we’d get in close. Often it was done with a small reflector thrown in at the last moment.
One of the most important aspects included previsualizing the character of Shabana herself. "To nail her down, we started off by working on storyboards with an artist," says Rajeev, "who drew terrific boards and is a brilliant artist as well. We told him our thoughts on how the Shabana looked and he set to work. Manika credits him with creating a good part of the final look, since his drawings were used to communicate to hair, make-up and wardrobe departments what Manika wanted for his look." Part of Cave ' guise involved the use of a wig that often obscured the actor's face - which on occasion made for a less than ideal lighting situation. "During hair and make-up tests, I saw that while Shabana looked amazing, they were going to be difficult to deal with for 2 weeks. She had a big headgear and a huge costume also, so there was a question of whether we were ever going to be able to really see her. I told Manika that at times she was on the verge of becoming a headgear with hair. Being very sensitive to the needs of actors, Manika didn't want to get the hair out of her face, so we tried not to mess with her and solve it on our own."
On Kalpvriksh – The Wishing Tree, Rajeev opted for Vision 200T (5274) for everything but night exteriors, explaining that the smooth grain of this non-intrusive emulsion records deep blacks, true colours and a wide tonal range. Rajeev shot day exteriors on Eastman EXR 100T (5248), using an 81 EF filter to half-correct and retain the cool blue of winter. Daylight-balanced 250D (5246) Vision stock was selected for day interiors, while he exploited Vision 500T (5279) on most night interiors and exteriors. Since shooting, the cinematographer did extensive tests with different materials to search for the right thickness and translucency. "It's the same as using a cheap filter on the lens and we realized that any distortion or loss of focus would be magnified when the lab optically 'squeezed' the images into the 2.40 aspect ratio. In addition to selecting the right plastic, it was important for us to record a strong negative with properly focused images. We were shooting through filters at least 90 percent of the time.
While shooting forest scenes with the lead actor, Rajeev employed what he calls a Nine-light sandwich. "Others might call it a book light, but in any case, we were bouncing a Nine-light Maxi Brute off a piece of bead board, then letting the light pass through a diffusion frame usually fitted with either 216 or light grid. The resulting soft light striking He had a very beautiful quality, plus some serious pounding of foot-candles. This soft light had enough to punch through Shabana’s hair, and I could control the amount of light just by clicking off various globes. But it also required a lot of flagging and took up much space." On other occasions, Rajeev illuminated the Forest by directing the light from more extreme angles. "I came in much lower and more frontal with his key than I would have normally, but the approach succeeded in letting her hair fall naturally, so, while it was tough, it worked. It did make me thankful for the scenes when Shabana is dressed up with her hair pulled back, since I could get a nice edge on her through side lighting."
When kids arrive at tree before the climax, production established the famously setting by filming the actors in front of blue screen and green screen. Those elements were digitally composited with stock background plates culled from Ladakh. Harry and Arjun from Red Chillies’ in-house facility supervised the visual effect shots. "I don't think these scenes could be any more believable if we had travelled to Ladakh to film them live," marvels Rajeev. "How can you miss when you begin with 70 millimetre background plates? We matched everything to those plates."
There were a few daylight scenes in there, so we decided that cracks in the cave roof let hard sunlight in," he continues. "I put some signs of this in on the walls behind the actors and let some light bounce off the floor. For the most part though, the cave scenes are set at night - lit by firelight or lanterns or the imaginary glow coming off, which isn't plugged into anything. For the Water, I chose to use a slightly blue key light on the actors but didn't put any flickering movement in because I felt that it was distracting. The only flickering on their faces comes from the actual water. What I did add was a slight flicker effect on the walls, which I found to be more pleasing while lending a bit of realism.
Front-end lab work was done by Gemini, which provided film dailies. "After her experiences in the commercial world where you work on a monitor all the time, Manika loved watching film dailies - it opened up a new world for her," says Rajeev. "For example, there is a shot of a Shabana delivering a line at the end of a long shot under the tree. When Manika saw it played back on the [video tap] monitor, she didn't feel good about it. She seemed too small in the shot. She remarked that maybe her line would have to disappear in editing. After some time, Manika saw it projected on a big screen and loved the shot." When asked if such glad tidings extend to the on-screen drama as well, Rajeev smiles, and says, "Would you be surprised if I said there is a happy ending?"
The cinematographer does not use diffusion on the camera lens, instead preferring to soften his subject as needed by selectively affecting the light source. "I've never liked it in films when the overall resolution of the lens changes visibly during cuts in to a close-up during a scene," he declares. "The whole business of putting heavy diffusion in front of the lens to make [an actress] look 'better' is just crazy to me. I don't want to see the cinematographer's effort to make someone look good. Instead, I want to see the character look well, and I think that happens when the actor is both integrated into the scene properly and lit in a flattering manner. My solution is to soften at the source of illumination, and let the image be as clear as possible. Some people think Primo lenses are too sharp, but I love all that perfection. When you combine years and years of research and development on the film stocks from Kodak, with what has gone into these Arri lenses and the lab work at Gemini, and then put all that into a film being projected properly on screen, the result is such awesome perfection! So I take a lot of pride in delivering a really perfect negative. We may want to mess it up later, and that's fine, but I believe in starting with something well-exposed and sharp."
With all the many visual treatments necessary to depict the Shabana's perceptions, Rajeev and Manika needed to settle on parameters early on for the more elaborate manifestations requiring visual effects. "We're telling a story that is seen in part through the eyes of a crazy person," offers Rajeev. "She's an incredibly brilliant crazy person, but crazy nonetheless, so there's a sense of the fantastic about these visions, but they are not in the tradition of science-fiction movie effects. We had submitted a wish list of visual effects for budgeting, but it came back priced four or five times higher than we hoped. This meant we had to pull back, and that decision ultimately worked better for the film we wound up making. Most of the effects are things we did ourselves, with practical light cues, or as a combination of those cues with digital enhancement."
I'm glad that this movie's look seems interesting to the eye, but I'm also pleased that the visuals don't supersede the story. Early reviews are praising Shabana's performance as one of the best she's ever given, so it wouldn't make sense to do anything that took away from that aspect. Lots of films now seem overwhelmed with effects, but Manika isn't one to tell that type of story.
When Indian Cinematographer Rajeev Jain, ICS WICA is asked if, he would do anything differently today, the master artiste replies, “Ninety-nine percent of the time when I see my old films I am serene. It was the best I could do at that time of my life with what I had to work with. What’s important is your life and how you evolve as a human being and as an artist.
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Kalpvriksh - The Wishing Tree - Yours Dreams Are Just a Touch Away
Two-time Winner Indian Cinematographer Rajeev Jain ICS WICA Creates Special World of Light, Shadows in his recent film Kalpvriksh the Wish Tree Yours Dreams Are Just a Touch Away
Rajeev Jain has a way of seeing that takes an image to its outer limits. In his years as assistant, electrician, grip, and in the past 16 years as director of photography, he has developed a visual sensitivity and expertise.
Rajeev takes his inspiration from directors such as Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali) and cinematographers Ashok Mehta, ISC (36 Chowrangi Lane) and Binod Pradhan (Parinda) for their use of colour and lights and shadow to amplify the emotional content of stories. I find the ability to allow the characters to operate in shadow is a real art, he says. Ashok Mehta allows his characters to function in darkness. He lights everything so the blacks are really rich - yet you can see everything.
His work in Kalpvriksh, a film by director Manika Sharma exudes a period quality with an edge. Rajeev was especially intrigued by the non-narrative, fragmented script, because it offered a myriad of visual possibilities. Shooting primarily on Kodak to give contrast to the exterior scenes, Rajeev experimented with warm and blue filters to get the look he wanted. The result is a stark, almost surreal journey into the minds and actions of the film's bizarre characters.
Up-front collaboration on any film is essential, Rajeev emphasizes.
It's important for me to go through the script scene by scene with the director Manika Sharma, Rajeev says, to try to see what is in her mind. I want to know what the scene is saying, who the most important character is at that moment, and how the characters move through the scene. We also share photographs and movies, which gives us a visual base to work from.
A graduate of Bhartendu Academy of Dramatic Arts in Drama and a beginning still photography, Rajeev took a course in filmmaking. Intrigued by the film medium, he saw the possibilities of combining his interests with film in commercials. Searching for a way to learn camerawork, he offered his assistance (unpaid) to cameraman Subroto Mitra to learn the craft.
He taught me about his SR package, what the lenses were, and how to load magazines, he said. Then he started me by working on Shyam Benegal’s documentary on Nehru.
In 1996, Rajeev got the first opportunity to shoot a film, Army, with Mukul Anand. After eight weeks of stressful shooting - his every move was watched.
After 6 more features, then came Kalpvriksh in 2007, allowed Rajeev to explore a new visual technique to add nuance to the story. The film includes a dreamlike journey that Rajeev wanted to give a dreamlike quality. We tested filters and a bleach bypass process to give that section of the film its own special look," he says. "Instead we decided to use a swing tilt, a view camera attachment that allows the operator to change the plane of focus. It let us throw different parts of the frame out of focus, which is difficult to do in a wide shot because of increased depth of field.
Rajeev is currently finishing production on Carry on Pandu, a feature being shot in Mumbai, as well as doing Commercials.
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Indian, Cinematographer, Dop, Kalpvriksh, Rajeev, Jain, Wishing, Tree
About the Author
Surendra Rahi was born and raised in Delhi, India, surrounded by pet animals. After twenty years as a farmer, he turned to teaching and then to writing children's books.
Rahi writes mostly about animals: farmyard fantasy, as he likes to call it, often about pigs, his special favorites. He enjoys writing for children, meeting the children who read his books, and knowing that they get enjoyment from what he does.
Among his well-loved books is Kid, The Gallant Kid, which was recently made into a major drama, and was nominated for an Award.
Surendra currently lives with his wife in a small cottage, about three miles from the house where he was born.