LONDON - 7 June 2006 - 1,120 words
Signis statement on The Omen
Fr Peter Malone
Today is the 6th of the 6th 06 and, in fact, the screening of
The Omen today finished at 6.06 pm - so it seems a suitable moment
for a statement on the film.
A preliminary observation. It has been amazing and irritating
that in recent weeks we have been approached by newspapers and
radio programs not so much about the film but about seemingly
trivial matters. It was not for clarification of issues or the
position of the Church. Rather, journalists were asking about
women who allegedly don't want to give birth on the 6th of June
because of what they have heard about the number of the devil,
666. And they don't want to call their sons Damien because that
is the name of the devil.
People who declare they are not religious, who are sceptical about
the teachings of Christianity suddenly give credence to superstitions
from who knows where or seemingly religious gossip. As regards
the name Damien for the devil, that was invented by writer David
Seltzer in the 1970s for the screenplay of the original Omen.
Nothing to do with the Bible. And there are all kinds of discussion
about the symbolism of 666 (not a date, let alone a date in our
times) for the early Church and the Roman Empire.
So, in the immediate wake of The Da Vinci Code comes the remake
of the 1976 film, The Omen. This present version is more respectful
of the Church than Code's blatant criticisms and implications,
even if it opens with a bizarre-looking cleric at the Vatican
observatory noting strange comets in the skies (echoes of stars
over Bethlehem). The cleric hurries to inform a cardinal in Rome.
The cardinal then explains recent events (September 11th, wars
in the Middle East, hurricanes) to the Pope and the Curia along
ultra-literal lines of interpretation of selected texts from the
Apocalypse. (Actually, some very evangelical groups, especially
in the US might not think them so far-fetched). One cannot imagine
Benedict XVI listening to this kind of biblical hokum!
As regards the official church, there is nothing more, except
a dying scene for the Pope where the Cardinal rushes to kneel
by his bedside, presumably to tell him the bad news that Damien
lives. And the Pope dies. There are two demented priests who
have been caught up in the birth of the antichrist and have participated
in having the baby adopted by an American diplomat who is the
godson of the American president. Those who know the two Omen
sequels are aware how significant this is for Damien's easy entrée
into world politics and business. (The riff given to the beast
arising from the eternal sea is that this is not meant to be taken
literally while everything else is and means the turmoil of
the sea of politics).
Novelists and screenwriters as we realise, particularly at this
Da Vinci hypothesis and conspiracy time, invent scenarios that
rely on a medley of historical facts, legends and religious images.
They are fascinated by apocalyptic texts, sometimes inventing
them as in Omen 3, and eager to apply them to the present. They
can be imaginative 'what ifs'?,. The Omen is clearly one of these
scenarios.
However. While non-Christians and non-believers can watch The
Omen or dismiss it as a piece of imaginative nonsense, it is not
so easy for believers to dismiss it.
One of the intriguing features of both Roman Polanski's Rosemary's
Baby (1968), the first of the incarnation of evil films, and Richard
Donner's The Omen (1976) is that they postulate the incarnation
of the devil. This came as something of a shock to us in the
1960s. We had not quite imagined this scenario. But it made
Catholics reflect that, if the incarnation of God was possible,
then so was the incarnation of evil. With the cultural and religious
questioning of the 1960s, especially with Time Magazine's take
on the movements and opinions of say, Bishop John Robinson in
the UK, 'Honest to God' and Paul Tillich and others suggesting
in the US that there should be a moratorium on the word, 'God',
with alternates like 'Ground of our being', the question was 'Is
God Dead?,. This was the black-background, red-letter cover of
Time at Easter 1966 (which Polanski actually used in his film,
the magazine that Rosemary read in the doctor's waiting room).
In the early 1970s came possession films, The Exorcist (1973)
and its sequel and many derivatives. Audiences were invited to
raise issues of the devil, incarnation and possession, that both
fascinated and frightened people.
Is it the same today? Are we so apprehensive now with terrorist
attacks, wars, earthquakes and tsunamis that we wonder about God's
presence and the presence of evil, of the demonic? Does the modern
fascination with religious conspiracies add its influence? Has
western culture lost its knowledge of Christian roots, symbols,
images and teaching that audiences are prone to believe anything
without checking it critically? These are questions that the
Church today has to come to grips with.
In the meantime, The Omen itself?
David Seltzer has again written the screenplay, putting the events
in a 21st century context. He has also made the parents of Damien
(Liev Schreiber and Julia Styles) much younger than Gregory Peck
and Lee Remick. Otherwise, it is very close to the original,
relying on atmosphere and eerie suspense rather than horror (although
the three upsetting deaths from 1976 are repeated in the same
upsetting way here and the menacing dogs are present again).
A footnote of interest is that the nanny this time is a fey Mia
Farrow, looking surprisingly like Rosemary of 1968 rather than
her sixty years. David Thewliss is the photographer and Pete
Postlethwaite has melodramatic moments as the disturbing priest,
Fr Brennan.
Dramatically and thematically, the film is quite pessimistic.
It looks as though evil triumphs. After destroying his family
and others who helped them, Damien survives and, as in the original,
he stands at the graveside of his father, hand in hand with the
president, turns to the audience with his perpetual malevolent
expression and then smiles. Obviously, it is all open to a sequel.
For believers, fortunately, the sequel is optimistic, a sequel
of grace.
For those who don't know the original, The Omen may come as a
surprise. For those who appreciated the original, the surprise
element is long gone, so it is a matter of looking at the plot
and questions more closely.
The Omen is a reminder to those who believe in God that there
is evil in our world, that is malicious and destructive. It is
alarming to see it embodied in a five-year-old child.
© Independent Catholic
News 2006
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