"A truth that's told with bad intent beats all the lies you can invent."
-William Blake
's concise and powerful artworks often share a quality that allows them to convey different or even opposites Opinions and opinions, so that they are accepted by people with different opinions, this quality is ambiguity. The film Doubt (translated as child abuse suspicion) tells such a complicated story, as the title of the film implies, until the end of the film, we can't be sure of the truth of the story. But it is also this ambiguity that allows us to put aside the pursuit of truth and think about the meaning of the story itself.
2 Father's three sermons
"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty."
-Father Flynn
The film begins with Father Flynn's sermon on "doubt" and ends with his farewell sermon. The three sermons constitute important clues in the film. The priest's first sermon leads the story to a time when people were experiencing widespread confusion in America in the mid-1960s. Father Flynn used an allegory to illustrate the current crisis of faith that people are experiencing. The crew had doubts about the course, but without more information, he was forced to follow the original course. The crew in the story mirrors the bewildered congregation. Although they doubted their beliefs, they had no other choice but to live by. Interestingly, the priest did not give the end of the story, nor did he comment on the phenomenon. Instead, he rationalized the phenomenon to some extent, pointing out that doubt is also a route to faith. This concept of his embodies the progressiveness and inclusiveness of religion, but it has a conflict of views with the conservative Sister Aloysius, which paved the way for the later contradiction between the two.
The priest's second sermon recounts the crisis of rumors he has experienced, which on the surface appears to be an indictment of Sister Aloysius' accusations against him. However, the director used a real shot to point out that the priest did not narrowly integrate personal emotions into the sermon. The footage of the middle-aged woman on the roof watching the feathers flying shows that the content of the priest's sermon is based on a true story. With the feathers fluttering in the wind and this allegory about gossip, the priest's image has gradually improved.
The priest's final sermon appears at the end of the film. We don't know what kind of consideration Father Flynn chose to quit this war without gunpowder. In his farewell speech, he spoke of "an uncontrollable wind" behind everyone, but with superior knowledge behind that power. The priest once again showed fraternity and wisdom in this sermon. In general, the director added some suspenseful elements when portraying the image of the priest, but the scale was very precise, and there was no deliberate ugliness. At the same time, the wind, as an important thread, connected the three sermons. When the crew is in a desperate situation, he can only let the sea breeze take him to the direction he wants to go; when the woman spreading rumors cuts the pillow, it is the wind that makes the feathers fly; when the priest has to leave, he tells the reason why It boils down to the "uncontrollable wind" behind everyone - an invisible force.
3 wind
'And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters asswaged.' -Old
Testament, Genesis
It is an important symbol of religion, and at the same time, it is also an important clue throughout the film. With the occurrence of the three winds (rain), the contradictions of the story are gradually pushed to a climax. The first strong wind occurred at the beginning of the film. Due to the strong wind, Principal Aloysius immediately got up and went to close the window. He saw the scene of Father Flynn and other priests hanging on each other's shoulders with a sullen expression on his face. After Sister James told Principal Aloysius about Father Flynn's unusual behavior, the night was stormy, and the thunder and lightning made Sister James sleepless, and she seemed to feel a sense of guilt for spreading rumors. echo. The appearance of the third gale occurred after the black mother's conversation with the principal. The black mother's ignoring and compromising attitude to the whole incident made Principal Aloysius smell a chill.
From the priest's three sermons to the many appearances of wind in the film, it is not difficult to find that "wind" contains more metaphors and symbolic meanings. It seems to be an invisible force behind the development of events, making the film seem to have an oracle shrouded. There are a lot of descriptions about wind in the Bible, and they are usually used as the projection of divine power in the human world (the same is true for rain), which shows the religious background of "wind". For example, "Ecclesiastes" chapter 1 verse 6, "The wind blows to the south, and turns north, and keeps turning, and turns back to the same way." Another example, "Exodus" 14:21, "And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind", "Moses stretched out his arm to the sea, and the LORD turned a mighty strong east wind (and the LORD). caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night), and the sea receded overnight, and the waters were divided, and the sea became dry land.” From these descriptions, we can find a common law: the wind is so powerful that it cannot be controlled by man, but it is the link between God and man. The director seems to use the important clue of "wind" to remind the audience. Although some people have a crisis of belief in the confused era, God has not abandoned people. God is using the wind to show the invisible driving force.
4 Secular and Tradition
The conflict between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn was ostensibly caused by Sister Aloysius' suspicion that Father Flynn was molesting children. However, upon closer inspection, it is not difficult to find that the doubts about Father Flynn come from the opposition of religious positions. Sister Aloysius represents the traditional force in religion. They abide by the distance between the clergy and ordinary members, and have a very temperate attitude towards life, tending to conservative and traditional ideas. And Father Flynn is undoubtedly a symbol of the secular or innovative power in religion. They have stepped down from the altar and into the ordinary believers, willing to accept new things and incorporate them into the religious system. Compared with these two types of people, the crowd represented by Sister James may be more important. They are between Sister Aloysius and Father Flynn, representing both the confused congregation and the audience in front of the screen.
Some of the details of the film are very well contrasted. After the priests are gluttonous and joking, they are followed up by a scene of nuns eating in moderation, which constitutes a strong contrast between the secular and the traditional. Instead of judging these two tendencies, the author puts the audience in the position of Sister James to make their own judgments. If the director is not critical of this comparison, then in another scene, the director's emotional judgment is shown. Principal Aloysius, in order to manage class discipline, suggested that Sister James hang a photo of the Pope on the blackboard so that when she turned to write on the blackboard, she could see how the students were doing in the reflection of the photo. Even if the pope in this photo is no longer the reigning pope, this can still produce a "miracle" effect - the teacher seems to have eyes behind his back. Such a description can be seen as a moderate criticism of Sister Aloysius, and it also shows the contradictory side of "tradition", which is an interesting metaphor. On the one hand, "tradition" tries to maintain the lofty status of God, and does not hesitate to distance themselves from God; on the other hand, in order to maintain the original order, it can even turn a blind eye to mistakes.
In addition, the contrast between the two forces is not uncommon in the film. The traditional principal Aloysius is very sensitive to problems such as being too intimate with boys and girls, using ballpoint pens, eating sweets, and having long nails; while Father Flynn encourages little girls to take the initiative to confess and teach Boys play basketball, how to invite girls to dance. At the same time, he also likes to use ballpoint pens, drink sweet tea, and have long nails that Sister Aloysius hated most. Interestingly, the Catholic religious tradition has no rules about ballpoint pens, sweets, and long nails, so it's just Aloysius' personal preference. According to Catholic class organization, nuns are at the lowest level in the religious system (even the headmaster), so this detail can also be seen as a challenge of women's rights to men's rights. Sister Aloysius is serving God in her own way, but the way of Sister Aloysius is more reminiscent of the repression of human nature in the medieval church. Aloysius has two identities. On the one hand, she has to fulfill the accusations of a nun and serve God wholeheartedly; on the other hand, she is the principal of a Catholic school and needs to maintain the order of the school. The accusation on her shoulders requires her to take up the traditional banner of maintaining strict order, and the school also alludes to the status quo of the Holy See.
5 Realistic Background: The background of the film on the secularization of religion
is the mid-1960s in the United States, an era of great social change. Since 1960, conservative social movements have occurred in the United States. Some conservative thinkers and religious rightists have expanded the influence of conservative ideas by directing and establishing political and religious organizations. However, these ideas all conflicted with the social environment at that time, which also caused people's spiritual confusion. Thus, at the beginning of the film, there is a discussion by the priest about doubt, which alludes to the crisis at that time.
However, the year in which the story is told is more important than the year in which the story takes place. Since the second half of the twentieth century, with the penetration of the market economy and the prevalence of globalization, the social and economic foundation as a material force has driven the development of social ideology and ideas in an inevitable way. Religion also needs to develop, and it needs to acquire a new orientation in a rapidly changing era. The confusion is not only specific to the mid-1960s, the confusion about religion has spread to the present. Religion is undergoing a process of transformation from sanctification to non-sanctification—that is, the secularization of religion. In the long process of human development, in the initial stage, primitive people have low productivity and ignorance of natural phenomena. Religion was once an important tool for human beings to explain and understand the world. a certain degree of limitation. In order for religion to adapt to the development of the times, it is necessary to inject fresh blood into religion without violating the basic teachings. However, it is foreseeable that in the process of religious reform, there will be obstacles from traditional forces. This film describes a detail of the process of religious reform, reflecting various contradictions and conflicts within the Holy See.
In this era, the issue of "religion secularization" is raised again, which has certain significance of the times. With the development of productive forces, the improvement of people's rational thinking ability, and the trend of humanism, "a part of society and culture has been freed from the control of religious institutions and religious symbols". However, secularization has not made religion decline in modern society, on the contrary, "religious fever" has become a phenomenon sweeping the globe. In the United States, the most modern and secular in the world, polls show that 94% to 96% of people answer "believe in God," 40% go to church every week to pray, and 59% think religion is very important (this is the same as Europe is different). However, some issues in the religious world are equally worthy of attention. Events such as child molestation scandals in many countries have also cast a shadow over the purity of religion, and have also become an important background for the film. The director keenly discovered the problems of religion in the rapidly changing times, and presented some questions for the audience to ponder.
6 Conclusion: The confrontation between two forces
In terms of storytelling, Doubt is undoubtedly very successful. The ambiguity endows this work of art with a wider space for interpretation, which arouses people's extensive thinking about the religious world. On the other hand, Doubt's story is not only an unsolved case caused by "suspects of child abuse by a priest", it also has a broader symbolic meaning. The disputes between nuns and priests are not only personal grudges, but also represent conflicts within the Holy See - the struggle between conservative forces and reform forces, men's rights and women's rights, and so on. Therefore, a work of art does not appear independently, it is closely related to politics and culture, and bears the significance of reality.
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