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Random Thoughts
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Topic: The movie Signs; a film about demons..not aliens Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 6:03pm |
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I found this 2 years ago (dont remember where) but I recently stumbled across it. I'm going to watch the movie tonight again for the references but it seemed pretty well thought out. I dont really know where to put this but even if you dont check for religion, I think it makes the movie Signs about 100 times better, since the water killing them thing (when the earth is mostly water) totally pissed me off.
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-There are no aliens. If you watch the movie
closely, there are numerous clues as to the fact that these are demons,
not aliens. The fact that they are interpreted as aliens is our modern
sensibilities. Had the visitation occurred in less modern times, they
would have immediately been called demons or evil spirits.
-Watch the movie with this frame of reference and see if you don't
think the same thing. There's a reason the water thing seems so
ridiculous.
-defeat from primitive means in the Middle East (Holy Land)
-the sign in the cornfield has a pitch fork symbol in it (see for yourself)
-faith in a sense is what causes the defeat of the "alien" in the house
-you need to understand what each character represents in the
context of the movie, then you'll get why it was Morgan, the BOY,
saying it was only tap water... Also remember that the 'aliens' seemed
interested only in him from the beginning.
-"The purpose of the climatic final scene in which the last alien
is defeated by being "baptized"—the simple way to defeat the "heathen"
invaders is to pour water on their skin and the final alien dies when a
glass of water is dumped on its head—we are meant to cheer the triumph
of "faith" over the brutality and emptiness of "non-belief"....
-One of the most ironic things about it is the tie-in to religion
and all of the creatures inhabiting it. Without most of us even
realizing it, we've given aliens the same purpose in our lives that
angels and demons once fulfilled. In terms of peaceful ETs, for
example, we imagine them as supremely wise beings, redemptive saviours
who hold the promise of enlightenment. In the case of hostile ETs,
there's a myriad of superstitious and demonic manifestations. I'm
surprised so few people look at Alien(s) and Invasion of the Body
Snatchers, and listen to stories of alien abduction and don't recognize
them as manifestations of incubi, succubi and demonic possession.
Ghosts, super-heroes, fairytales- it's not only clear from the
folkloric entities that inhabit MNS’s body of work that he recognizes
hostile ETs as such things, but by how he incorporated them into Signs
itself. He not only makes them demons, but a parody of our tendency to
project our own limitations onto ETs. And the hints at that commentary
are constant:
The Army recruiter goes on a wild-eyed spiel about "probing." "They're using military procedures!" he exclaims.
Merrill raises a leery eyebrow. "Yeeeah."
Graham gets back from Ray Reddy's house.
"I heard a theory that they don't like water..."
"Sounds made up," says Morgan, while wearing an aluminum helmet.
Throughout the entire movie, hoky guesses about the ETs are proven false again and again, especially via the Bimbu book device.
The book says the ETs would be short, peaceful vegetarians. Nope.
Or, if they're hostile, it's because they want our planet's resources.
Nope.
In the end, they are exactly what hostile ETs actually have become in fiction, and no more: demons.
They go bump in the night
They make no sense
They raise your hackles the way an unseen predator might
They're the monsters children see in the shadows of their bedrooms
They're the senseless evil eager to consume us all
They’re vanquished by purity
And he doesn't condescend to the audience by making up silly sci-fi excuses for them.
-Bo is referred to as an angel more than once.
-Bo asks father "there's a monster outside my room, can I have a glass of water?"
-Bo takes one sip out of many different glasses of water, then leaves them all over the house.
-Bo tells father the water is contaminated.
-Bo's brother is seen drinking the water.
-Beings the audience assumes are aliens attack, and are driven away by an ancient weapon in the middle east.
-One of the creatures is left behind, takes Bo's brother hostage,
poisons him, then is defeated with the aid of the water Bo left.
-There are references to the religious conflict all throughout the
dialogue including the Sheriff saying “What in God’s name is goin’ on?”
and the news reporter saying "God be with us all"
-Notice in the movie you never see UFO's, we just assume that
because of the news reports of a bird hitting something invisible
(portal from another dimension/hell?). No one saw a spacecraft or had
any type of signal that would support a large space craft floating in
the atmosphere. The "aliens" just appeared from the sky.
-next time you watch the movie. Think of the plot, and the internal
plot from the characters. Not one piece of evidence in the film would
support that these were Aliens from outer space..NOT ONE. Everything
was speculation and assumptions, but if you watch the movie with an
open eye you will see that the creatures in the film were demons and
the struggle was more of an internal faith struggle more than anything.
Edited by Random Thoughts - Jan 14 2010 at 6:03pm
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Brown Sug
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Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 6:28pm |
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ummm no. whoever wrote this must try again.
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Random Thoughts
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Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 6:39pm |
Brown Sug wrote:
ummm no. whoever wrote this must try again. |
How so?
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kfoxx1998
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Posted: Jan 14 2010 at 6:50pm |
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I totally saw the religiosity in this movie but I don't know if I would go so far as to say they were meant to be demons. Mel Gibson's character was a deeply religious man who lost his faith (or was losing it) because of his wife's death. The whole movie was about him regaining that faith. I enjoyed the move despite Mel Gibson and the extremely obvious effort to convince the audience that faith conquers all.
I have noticed the same pattern in several other movies. The one that comes to mind is the Hilary Swank movie where she was a minister who lost her family and her faith. The crisis, in these scenarios, is often about a major demonstration of supernatural forces to "prove" to the non-believer that they have wrongly turned away from god. It is a little annoying and painfully obvious what they are trying to do.
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Cocoa
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Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 8:52am |
i had to come out of lurk mode to roll my eyes @ this.
*Proceeds to roll...*
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Arielle
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Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 11:26am |
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Subverted propaganda can be amusing, but that descriptions makes it seem like the makers of that movie missed the mark. I wonder if they were really trying to make a commentary on the culture of Christianity, or if they actually believe in all the symbolism?
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camille07
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Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 12:04pm |
hey mama, where you been at? *joins in rolling*
Cocoa wrote:
i had to come out of lurk mode to roll my eyes @ this.
*Proceeds to roll...*
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Cocoa
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Posted: Jan 16 2010 at 8:27pm |
camille07 wrote:
hey mama, where you been at? *joins in rolling*
Cocoa wrote:
i had to come out of lurk mode to roll my eyes @ this.
*Proceeds to roll...*
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*waves* Hi! I just moved to a new city so im really busy. I lurk whenever I can, but it will be a while before im back in the saddle.
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Tangie
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Posted: Jan 19 2010 at 10:53am |
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I could never get into that movie to even remember my thoughts on it.
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kfoxx1998
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Posted: Jan 19 2010 at 11:21am |
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Mel Gibson annoys me. I did watch this movie and the Passion which was overly violent and made only to make Jesus suffering real to millions of crying movie goers. The church loved it as I'm sure they loved Signs.
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