All the hype’s gonna
go now. They’ll find, or indeed, I think they’ve already found something else
to get kids excited about. Just as the Twilight “saga” replaced Harry Potter at
the teeny box office, something else is going to come sell to younger
audiences.
About a month ago, I
was actually kidnapped and taken to the cinema by surprise, and made to watch
the final episode of the series. This was after having succeeded in avoiding
the whole of the so-called saga, though not entirely avoided seeing trailers
and reading blogs about how both cinematographically awful they were as well as
spiritually evil. Upon landing in Manila, after 20 hours of travelling, most of
which had already been spent sitting and watching movies, I was picked up and
driven to the cinema. So granted, I wasn’t particularly in the mood for it, but
I was able, despite the tiredness and the frustration, to draw from it some
things which I have not heard anyone mention before (though they probably have
been said somewhere in the world), which I think I’d share.
Some people might read
this (though I doubt they will actually read) and say “it’s just a flick,
entertainment, and it’s fantasy! Why d’you have to try and see what’s behind
it, it’s just a stupid movie!” The reality is, in spite of being stupid, any
and all movie can tell you something about the people who are likely to enjoy
them, the message which is being communicated, and the general trends in
culture. I think this film and series is particularly telling at that level,
even though I’ve only watched one of them.
Since I saw it over a
month ago, it’s difficult to remember clearly and in what order things stood
out to me, but there were many, on various levels. I think the one I really
need to mention, because it’s so out there and glaring, is the particular type of
self-determination which it presents. Seeing that explains a lot why it is
popular with today’s teenagers. It basically implies that teenagers are wiser
than any and everyone else, and that it’s up to them to decide what is right
and what is wrong, each one of them individually. Bella lives in a world in
which she can decide what to tell her father and what not to tell him and even
patronise him about it, choose to be a vampire, and be with her friends, whilst
separating themselves from the world, not entertaining relationships with
people who are different from them (except the clique of cool werewolves, but
we accept them, because they’re just so cool), and living in a world
where time stops, they never age and life will always be this beautiful. What’s
more, though she marries a vampire and doesn’t care about her dad’s opinion concerning
that issue, her and her group have already decided that her newborn daughter is
going to marry this other guy: an arranged marriage. The implications of this
are shocking, but reveal where many teens are at today: they want to be in a
world where they never have to grow old to become like their parents and take
on responsibilities, never have to change, or learn anything which would help
them mature, just hang out with their friends who are all co-dependent on each
other. The consequence is that they intend to raise the children they may have in
a context which is far worse, and more limiting for their own children than the
one they grew up in. “I decide for myself” ends up becoming “I decide for
everybody else”.
Another disturbing
thing in the movie is the way these “friends” treat each other. Bella has no
problem beating up her friend because she’s angry at him while the others
watch, and this poor guy’s supposed to just let himself get punched, though he
always treats her right. It is a strange form of feminism to say the least. Still
under the self-deterministic insignia, there are subtle and less subtle
references to drug-use and maybe alternative sexualities in the movie, though I
don’t think the author would have necessarily intended these to be explicit,
being a Mormon (which we’ll come back to later): there is the idea that I
choose my lifestyle, some people are born like this, others are born like that,
you just have to accept it (even if no cogent arguments are ever made), and if
you don’t, you’re mean. There are even people who have relationships based
exclusively on the sensations they get to feel together: one couple gets formed
simply because the power one girl has, a form of electric shock, gives
something of a rush to another vampire. It’s all very co-dependent, as I said.
The aspect of thirst
for power is also very interesting, because in all myths and stories up until
now, there has always been a need to justify the desire for superpowers, or to
find a way to use them responsibly, for the greater good, just think of
Spider-Man (“With great power comes great responsibility”), X-Men, etc. or if
you’re into manga, there’s Bleach, Naruto, or Kenichi,
where the reason is often to protect one’s friends, or to bring about world
peace. Here, no reason is given. It’s just for the simple pleasure of being
powerful. There is no ambition to do any good, except to oneself. No aspiration
to anything that doesn’t bring something good to me. Another profound mark of
selfishness.
But maybe, as
mentioned, the author of the books didn’t intend for all these things to be
apparent in her story. Maybe she was just creating a Mormon narrative, mixed
with threads of teenage angst. After all, the other aspect which stands out
pretty heavily is the Mormon discourse. For those who do not know, Mormonism is
a religion created in the XIXth century USA, which deviates
significantly from historic Christianity, but wants to be recognised as true
Christianity. It is halfway there in its homeland, since it is a recognised
religion, just as any other, which this blogger finds both odd and frightening.
Inspired by this background and the mythology of Mormonism, Stephanie Meyer has
written a narrative which reflects life from that perspective. Bella is born
again by being bitten by a vampire, and they live in a world where they are
superior to everyone else. She often calls her dad by name instead of
“Dad/daddy”, while she calls her vampire friends “our family”, and actually
separates herself from him, a mark of sectarian belonging. They live in
wilderness, separated from the world, similar to the way the early Mormon
community founded Salt Lake City. They create a happy family where everyone is
always together, and give each other hardly any privacy. The bad guys are the
ancient establishment which wants to eradicate them (interestingly, they come
from Italy) for no apparent reason and who executes people by burning them. The
child that Bella has may be inspired by Mormon teaching on “spirit children”,
since it is a child of a different kind, neither human nor vampire (you can
really see I’ve spent too much time thinking about this…).
So much for the
religious aspect. The final thing which stands out for me, and which still
shocks me, though it shouldn’t, is just how downright bad the movie is, and how
easy it is for Hollywood to sell something like this. Full of banal lines, I
cannot believe someone got paid to write this script. There is no logic,
coherence in the story, things happen and you think “why did that
happen?”, or even “why would that happen?”. The story in and of itself
is not even original! Vampire romance stories have been written by dozens for
the last few decades, it is a whole genre, which once again, the Japanese do
much better in manga. One also wonders how it is that teenagers, used to
watching much more spectacular things, are satisfied with such awful fight
scenes and special effects. Learn how to throw a punch Bella!!! It is probably
because the main target audience is female, and girls often aren’t much
interested in those particulars. All of this simply highlights the massive
power of advertising. There are plenty of stories out there, better written,
better done, but hype up the one you want, you’ll get people talking about it,
even if it’s bad (yeah, even here, I’m doing publicity for the movie),
and you’ll make bank. Which is of course what the bottom line is all about. It
doesn’t matter if the message is awful, the subtext sectarian, the moral
nonexistent, the punch-line abysmal, the finale done to death, or not quite,
since to go that far is just too much of a letdown in most people’s books (have
to see the finale to understand what I’m talking about here); if it sells,
we’ll advertise well.
In one sense, Twilight
is brilliant. It is an amalgam of contemporary teenage subculture and Mormon
mythology, in a pre-established genre, which speaks to millions of teenagers
today. On the other hand, it doesn’t say anything interesting, nor good, and it
doesn’t say it well. If I may, J.K. Rowling, through the Harry Potter series is
infinitely better at representing teenage life, frustrations, aspirations, and
also better in the way she construct her characters. She also aims at something
which is greater than my own good, sacrificial love for the sake of others. The
HP series is more realistic in its depiction of humanity, more logical and it
digs deeper into the heart, which is also why I think it’s a shame the way those
movies panned out.
Tired of all this
stuff, I’m going to resolve to read Paradise Lost this year, as well as some
more Shakespeare. Though it may be difficult, at least they are original
stories. And I pray that the Paradise Lost movie adaptation which was underway
at one point gets pulled out of its rut, by miracle.
