Angel Vs Demon Film

[Charise Scrivner]

Iremember the first "demon" I came across in a film. More accurately, it was a poltergeist. Thought not technically a demonic force the actions of this pesky little spirit were demonic enough. You see, I grew up in the town of Poltergeist, the movie. I used to ride my bike past the poltergeist house in Simi Valley, CA. Each time, images of TVs flicking on by themselves, possessed clowns, and bodies emerging from the front lawn would creep into my mind.

Then, there were the angels. John Travolta as Michael, the post-modern angel-human romance of Wings of Desire (Der Himmel ber Berlin), Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life, or the kickass, androgynous, Tilda Swinton Gabriel in Constantine. No matter the angel movie, I have always preferred them to pop-culture demons (though Paul Bettany's angel in Legion may be an exception).

Rome. Helicopters. Religious iconography. Surely it's got to be the glorious opening sequence of La Dolce Vita? Well, not any more, because with Angels & Demons, Howard, Hanks and Brown have swept aside that little picture, turning it into a cinematic footnote. Did the helicopters in Fellini's film erupt into one of the biggest and most colourful onscreen explosions ever witnessed by a cinema audience? Of course they didn't. Did Marcello Mastroianni, instead of merely wading into the Trevi Fountain, dive to its bottom, and save an Anita Ekberg who was strapped to a weighted, Lector-esque metal frame. Of course he didn't. Is, in fact, Angels & Demons, the greatest film ever made? Of course it's not. But neither is it the worst. It just sits there. A large part of its plot revolves around some stolen anti-matter from the Cern Labs, and in that macguffin, novelist Dan Brown and screenwriter David Koepp have found a perfect encapsulation of the film itself, which is cinematic anti-matter, sucking in its references and predecessors, yet giving out nothing in the process.

Koepp's involvement is telling, as he was one of the many (many) screenwriters for last year's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which is, surely, along with its prequels, one of Angels & Demons's greatest influences. Yet, the Indiana Jones films (even the irritating second and ridiculous fourth) have a gleeful sense of humour. They constantly temper their pseudo-archaeological guff with witty characterisation, and subtle direction. Angels & Demons is an Indiana Jones film devoid of laughs, devoid of fun, and devoid of lightness (often literally - in order to afford that massive explosion, most of which is shrouded in cloud, they must have skimped on hiring a couple of lighting technicians: this film is as stygian as it gets).

Tom Hanks' utterly bland character zips from church to statue to church, giving an often hair-tearingly irritating lecture on European Literature and Art as he goes. One choice quotation is his identification of English in the Renaissance as a language used "by rebels, like Chaucer and Shakespeare". What's wrong Dan, don't want to throw Puttenham in there, too? This is one of the two central problems with Angels & Demons: it pertains to be an Art History thriller, which is a noble aspiration. The thriller aspect is, in fact, done reasonably well. But its references are such utterly common denominators (Michelangelo, Raphael, Da Vinci, and so on) that it constantly fails to do justice to its own aims, thus feeding the culture of blandness that it could be used to combat.

Its second problem is religion. There's a whole debate - often tossed to and fro in lengthy speeches by the badly accented Ewan McGregor (amongst others) - about the relationship between science and religion. It's hard to go into specifics, because it's hard to care when the topic is treated with such idiocy, but it does raise one important question: why is it, exactly, that the Catholic Church are so unhappy with Dan Brown and his mates? If Angels & Demons is anything to go by, Brown is irreversibly enamoured of the Catholic Church, its endless and amazing mysteries, and its mission of truth and light. The upkeep of the Church's beautiful brotherhood is the film's aim, one which it completes with great reverence. No mention, then, of the Pope's exacerbation of AIDS epidemics, his denigration of homosexuals, and his Church's lack of female authority figures. Honestly, this would be more forgivable if the film itself didn't proceed with all the steady determination of a man running into a brick wall. Why not just go all out and make Indiana Jones the main character? At least he might snog somebody.

Langdon is called to Rome when an eminent physicist is murdered and branded with an mysterious emblem on his chest. An expert in religious icons and symbols, Langdon reveals that it is a sign that the Illuminati, have returned to destroy the Catholic Church.

With an anti-matter bomb set to cause a cataclysmic explosion beneath the Vatican and the kidnapping of four cardinals, it's a race against time. With the help of Vittoria Vetra, the daughter of the murdered physicist, Langdon races through the streets of Rome unlocking the secrets he finds in the Diagramma by Galileo.

With its large concrete domed ceiling, which isn't reinforced, the Pantheon is one of the oldest buildings in Rome. A feat of engineering using cement and pumice rock for lightness, it was originally a place to worship the Roman Gods.

In the film, Vittoria sees a sign indicating that the body was placed there in the 17th century. This occurred after the time the secret code was written in Galileo's book, they were in the wrong place.

Sculpted in marble and representing a vision St. Theresa wrote about in her autobiography. An angel with a golden arrow repeatedly stabbing her in the heart leading her to a point of ecstasy. The two appear to be floating on a cloud as St. Theresa dies from the wounds.

In the film, when Robert and Vittoria arrive, they find the third cardinal suspended from the ceiling on cables meant for lanterns. The cardinal is on fire and the pews beneath burning. They have arrived too late to save him from the torturous death at the hands of the Illuminati.

The location is the same, at the Piazza Navona but in the book the cardinal dies, in the film Tom Hank's character saves the cardinal who had been wrapped in chains and thrown into the Fountain of the Four Rivers to drown, this representing the element of water.

The fountain was sculpted by Bernini to represent the wide reach of the Papal influence across 4 continents. The 4 rivers representing the Ganges, the Nile, the Danube and the Rio de la Plata for the American continent.

As Robert fights with the assassin, Vittoria frees herself and saves Robert and the day, by sending the assassin over the balcony plunging to his death. The two of them run down the Passetto del Borgo to the Vatican.

The castle used to house the ashes of Hadrian and those who ruled after him. His ashes were lost after raids, and once taken over by the Catholic Church, it was used as a residence, a fortress and also a prison.

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Certainly this is all overpowered by the presence of Mammon in the story. The actual son of the Devil, he is introduced in the opening moments of the movie. In the Mexican countryside, a young, obviously impoverished man named Manuel scavenges with a friend. In the process he discovers the Spear of Destiny, the blade that pierced the side of Christ, buried in the ground and wrapped in a Nazi flag. That itself could bear some parsing out, but it was probably just screenwriters Brodbin and Cappello paying homage to the Indiana Jones films that so often portray Hitler as dabbling in the occult. Regardless, when Manuel touches the Spear he finds himself possessed by Mammon, and thus begins his long trek to the United States.

In the end, a lot of this boils down to mixed messaging. The illegal immigrant angle to demons is certainly unique but even the bad politics of the message fails to cohere as class and race divisions overlap. And when it comes to women, Angela is a tough, independent female character who still plays second fiddle to a man and becomes nothing more than a damsel in distress due to her potential for supernatural conception. Finally, when stunt casting an androgynous role you should consider the implications of them having a heel turn.

Great analysis. This is one of my favorite movies and I suspect may to continue, albeit, able to read between the lines now. I was pointing out to my wife that Constantine kept using the term deport and deportation and coincidentally there were a lot of latinos. But man, you gave me a lot of other points to think about. Thank you!

The fate of a slain Half-Breed Angel is unknown, however, it is known that burning the wings of a Half-Breed Angel causes the angel to lose their powers. Thus, they "lose" their Angel side and retain their human side. These Angels are commonly referred to as 'Fallen Angels'

According to Constantine "a whisper of a half-breed demon can turn your favourite pleasure to nightmare." We see Balthazar leaves the deceased and choked by insects Beeman (who was obsessed with insects as he mentioned to Constantine) and prevents Henessy (who always drinks to get away from "the voices") from sensing alcohol thus inadvertently drowned himself.

Many people believe that guardian angels watch over them and protect them from harm. Many Christians even refer to real people as angels when they help them through difficult times. Through faith, we believe that God can inspire our friends or family to be there in our time of need. While you may not have wings or a halo, God can quietly encourage you to be in the right place, at the right time for someone who needs your help.

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