The Magician (Spoilerific Review)

Deception is so prevalent that those who speak the truth are usually branded as the greatest liars.

Just got done watching another solid film by the Swedish master, Ingmar Bergman, and figured I might as well toss up a quickie review while it's fresh in my mind. I've seen a number of Bergman films over the past couple years, and the guy never fails to deliver interesting material. The Magician, his 1958 piece about a troupe of...magicians, is no exception.

The film begins with said troupe (which includes Bergman favorites Max von Sydow and the always mesmerizing Ingrid Thulin) picking up a dying actor in the woods on their way to town to answer for the "supernatural disturbances" they've been reportedly causing. The actor becomes very important in their grand deception later on, ultimately proving their act worthwhile and saving them from punishment by the authorities.

Ingrid Thulin
(the woman who will come back from the dead to be my wife)

I'll skip the plot summary and go right to my thoughts on the most interesting aspect of the movie, the parallels Bergman draws between traditional magic and religion. The magicians here are nothing but entertainers, even con artists, who masquerade a bunch of simple tricks and nonsense as the supernatural. They play on people's desires to believe in these sorts of things and show them what they want to see, ostensibly for power, prestige, and profit. In other words, they're like priests.

The ending initially left me with a "that's it?" feeling, but I soon came to appreciate it after thinking about it for a few minutes. The magicians are stripped down and exposed for the frauds they are, left begging for a small amount of money and compelled to flee town before the authorities can arrest them. But when they fail to make it out in time, they are instead summoned to perform for the king (certainly a step up in their seemingly flagging career). I may be the only one to take it this way, and it probably wasn't Bergman's intent, but I saw this tying back to the priest connection. The magicians, like priests (if you ask me), could arguably be locked up for their cons and frauds. But because the magicians/priests are entertaining the people, showing them what they want to see, and feeding and enabling their fantasies, the magicians/priests are actually rewarded for their deceptions.

You damn fraud...

The curious thing, I guess, is that we're supposed to be happy about all this, as the magicians are positioned as the good guys in the film. The men of science are positioned as the jerks who want to mock and punish the deceivers that everyone else seems so fascinated by. Naturally, given my positions on these matters, I found myself siding with the men of science jerks, especially in light of the religious parallels.

Bergman, of course, was agnostic and frequently dealt with religion and doubt in his work. He was very good at walking the line pretty evenly and allowing for ambiguity and different interpretations. I just glimpsed someone else's mini-review on imdb.com, and he said he saw von Sydow's character as a Christ figure. Man. I didn't see that AT ALL. But that just goes to show how talented Bergman was and how thought-provoking his films always tended to be.

If you like deep stuff and haven't seen Bergman before, check out some of his films. He's sure to impress.

Fear...Fear is My Ally

Well I've been slacking again with the posting, so it's time to get back on the horse, at least for one day. So strap in, readers, as this one's bound to offend (hi, religious folk!).

If you recognize my title as a discarded quote from Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace previews, congratulations, you're as sorry as I am. But it seemed an appropriate one for the discussion at hand and a likely secret mantra of religious leaders around the world. Whenever their other methods of controlling you are in doubt, fear is their ace in the hole.

WTF, George? Jar Jar blathers the whole movie, and you cut my bad-ass lines?

As I've quite painlessly shed my belief in religious claims over the past few years, I've wondered more and more how such outlandish and fantastical superstitions have enjoyed such enduring success over the centuries. If they are so unlikely to be true, how can so many people continue to believe them? I think it has to do with a few main reasons: hope, ignorance, laziness, and...wait for it...fear.

Hope is one I can't really fault anyone for. As cynical and misanthropic as I tend to be, I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of all hope. It can keep you going when nothing else can. It can inspire you. It can give you something to shoot for. On its own, it would still make much of religion eye-rollingly silly but largely benign. The only problem comes when you're talking about false hope, which can really crush your spirit when you finally identify it as false after staking so much on it. If you become too dependent on it, and it fails you, you're left with nothing. Gotta watch out for that.

Ignorance is a pretty big one, and while it may be bliss for a time, it can't last forever. In many cases, I think people turn to religious explanations because they understand so little about reality, science, and how the world actually works. There are many things that we as a species still don't know (and probably plenty that we never will), but it staggers me how much we do know that people either ignore or consciously refuse to accept. Knowledge and understanding are good things; they allow you to better deal with reality. The only things threatened by them are institutions predicated on lies. And my biggest problem with ignorance isn't so much the inability to grasp real-life concepts as it is the willfulness of said ignorance.

Okay, George. Probably best that you cut this one.

This goes hand-in-hand with laziness. Many people are just not very intellectually curious. They may not care how things work or why things are the way they are. Or they may not care why something may be right or wrong in a given situation. They prefer to be given simple, pat, unchanging answers and rules that never have to account for context, and religion is more than happy to provide them. I can certainly understand the appeal of simplicity, don't get me wrong. But the world isn't black-and-white. Doing some mental lifting is often necessary, and it really doesn't hurt that much.

And now for the big boy: fear. Fear of the unknown is a real big problem for us humans, especially fear of death. What happens when we die? Religion assuages (see: preys on) that fear by pretending it has the answer. And that answer, be it accurate or (most likely) not, is thoroughly perverse. People come to religion with an uneasy fear of nothingness and leave with a paralyzing fear of eternal torment. Nice.

I gotta ask, how is hell not blackmail? And how is heaven not bribery? Why are so many people perfectly okay with these concepts and the abhorrent lack of morality implied? In all honesty, I suspect they aren't. Because torturing people forever, especially for such absurd affronts as failing to kiss your ass and failing to believe ridiculous claims without evidence, is not the standard operating procedure for a loving being. It's the behavior of an egomaniacal, bloodthirsty sociopath. And if that's the being you're choosing to worship, you either agree with that kind of moral bankruptcy or you're scared shitless of said being. I'm guessing that, by and large, it's the latter.

Kissing Hank's Ass

Who's Hank, and why would I want to kiss his ass?

This is one of my many problems with organized religion. Any system based on fear is not a good one. Any institution that levels threats at you (directly or implied) for disagreeing with it is not a moral one. And anyone trying to sell you something without good evidence for its reliability is a bad salesman. There's nothing to see here, folks. It's all just emotional manipulation.

Alllllll that being said, I'm not trying to yell at anyone here or tell you what to believe. I'm just giving a take on religion and explaining some of my problems with it. If your system works for you, go with it. Just don't try to force it on anyone else (including your kids). If you're only pretending your system works for you, however, don't be afraid to open your mind and explore other possibilities. Other religions, science, philosophy, fiction (plenty of good ideas to be found there, too). Whatever helps you live a better life.

And if you still can't get past this fear of eternal torment business, consider this: the only just way to judge a person is by that person's character and actions. Treat other people (and all other forms of life) well. Be the best person you can be, and measure this by the real, tangible influence you have on other people and the world at large. Put reality first. If there's a just, omnipotent being waiting to judge you for this when you die, you've won. If there isn't, you've still lived a good life, helped others, and won. And if there's an all-powerful narcissist waiting to judge you on how enthusiastically you kissed his ass, why would you want to spend eternity with that prick, anyway?