Write down your thoughts on the religious symbolism you saw in the movie. No right or wrong answers, just be as open as you can and use some of the information from Chapter 1 of the textbook. You must also respond to at least two other comments (respectfully). Then research some of the on-line articles about the movie to see if you get any more ideas. Feel free to imbed the links to any helpful sites.
Religious symbols in Prometheus: Barrenness of Elizabeth and her miracle baby, Elizabeth's faith, and the washing of Weyland's feet before he is about to meet his maker. I thought the significance of Weyland's death upon meeting his maker is that maybe God's purpose in creating us was purely for his own entertainment. And are lives are completing insignificant in the grand scheme of existence. I also thought the fantastical side of the movie shows that religion in essence can be ridiculous. Believing in god is like believing in aliens that created our existence. However the other side to that is anything is possible, maybe we were created from a different life form.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on the movie, Jeni. But as one of the characters asked, if they created us, who created them? You may want to check out soe of the groups that believe we are descended from ancient aliens.
DeleteI agree with you very much when you said that our lives are insignificant in the grand scheme of things. This is brought up when Holloway talks with David and Holloway asks why the Engineers made them. David replies with "Well why did you make me?" Holloway, without realizing the significance of his words, responds with "Because we could." David then asks Holloway how he would feel if that was the Engineers justification for making humans. It goes to show that in the end we all were made for someone else's amusement.
DeleteApparently Raelians, with a 55,000 strong membership, believe that their leader "Rael" was abducted twice by the aliens who created them. This is a very reasonable inspiration for the movie Prometheus. The religion is associated with a company called Clonaid that believes they have cloned humans. Surprising similar to the plot line in Prometheus.
DeleteI agree with Jon that you can make an argument that our lives are extremely insignificant. Our lives could have easily been made just for one person's entertainment and have no important purpose.
DeleteI think that there are many religious themes in the movie, but the most prominent being that of Shaw's barrenness. Though Shaw is barren and can't possibly be pregnant, she somehow becomes so. A calm and peaceful, almost angelic, David announces the birth to Shaw, much like when the Angel Gabriel told Elisabeth in the Bible that she was pregnant even though she was barren. "And the angel answered to her and said... 'and behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month.'" Luke 1:35-36. As well, is it no coincidence that Shaw gives birth to this new and powerful species on Christmas day? Another religious symbol is the importance of fire. In a sense Holloway martyrs himself, at one point literally inviting Vickers to kill him as he approaches her on the ship. Though she repeatedly tells him to stay back, he walks towards her and "gives her no choice." Is it also a coincidence that the way Vickers kills him is by burning him with fire, the very gift Prometheus gave to humanity? As well, Vickers doesn't believe his and Shaw's idea about the Engineers, much like how many early Christians were not believed by the people of their times. He, like many early Christians, sacrificed himself.
ReplyDeletevery interesting John. You could almost say that the fire is a symbol of truth. Holloway is killed by the truth in how the engineers created him.
Deletejesus!
DeleteJon I never picked up on the aspect of fire being able to kill the aliens - fire delivered by the crew of the Prometheus. Very good.
DeleteI think you're right. The unintentional pregnancy of Elizabeth was highly important and I didn't even realize she gave birth on Christmas day. That would mean she was Mary and the alien creature was Jesus Christ. Following the comparison, the alien would be able to save humanity but instead in "Prometheus" is a weapon to destroy humanity.
Deletethe whole fire/prometheus thing is really interesting. prometheus got punished for bringing fire to people so in a way he punished himself, same thing happens to holloway because he (along with others) brought fire and was killed by it.
DeleteJon, that’s a really good point that David delivered the news very calmly, which is how the Angel Gabriel delivered news to people. And I think that the fact that David was very detached when telling Shaw that she was pregnant highlights Gabriel’s legacy of being a messenger, not someone who can control people’s fates. Also, I found that the sequence of events surrounding Elisabeth of the Bible’s pregnancy and Elizabeth Shaw’s pregnancy is very similar. In the Bible, Gabriel tells Elisabeth’s husband, Zechariah, that they will soon have a son, which Zechariah doubts will happen because of his and Elisabeth’s old age, but goes on to conceive a child with his wife. In “Prometheus,” David discusses the creation of life with Charlie Holloway, who voices his opposing opinions to David, and goes on to conceive an offspring with his girlfriend.
DeleteThat’s also a great point about fire becoming hurtful, rather than helpful, to us, especially since the characters in this movie learn things that oppose the beliefs that they had before.
I think your ideas are extremely interesting. I agree with your connection to the importance of fire. Also, having Elizabeth give birth on christmas day is another interesting comparison to the bible
DeleteThere are a lot od religious symbols throughout the movie. One of the symbols present in the movie is sacrifice. the alien thing sacrificing himself to create more beings (like Jesus sacrificing himself for his followers), scientists sacrificing their lives in order to discover the truth about where they came from, Holloway making sure Shaw got to the ship on time, Weyland sacrificing the lives of the scientists and crew and others in order to fix himself, etc. My thoughts on this are varied. Mostly because I don't really find that much value or care about "where we come from" thing. I think it's more important for people to focus on what's going on in the world around them, then spending time searching for answers about origin outside of the world. As humans, we spend a lot of time trying to find the ~meaning~ behind things from poems to random coincidences, instead of focusing on ourselves and trying to figure out why we do things and how to change them to be better people. So while I think this movie is interesting and fun to watch (if gross at times) I feel a little weird about the themes of sacrificing yourself for answers that (in my opinion) don't really do anything in the long scheme of things.
ReplyDeleteWhile this doesn't exactly relate to religious symbolism, this is kind of just what I was thinking when I was watching the movie/thinking about what to write here.
I completely agree. We will most likely never know the answer to questions about the origins of the world, and what we are doing here. What we do know is that all humans have feelings and if we treat each other well then this will be a better world for all of us. Why should we sacrifice our amazing lives to a belief that could quite possibly be totally wrong. We should appreciate the chance we have to live and breath and travel and feel.
DeleteThanks, Cliel. Good observation about sacrifice in the movie. What do YOU think gives things any meaning?
ReplyDeleteI think the most important religious symbols in the movie were the opening scene and Elizabeth Shaw's necklace. The opening scene shows an alienlike creature sacrificing himself to create all life on earth. This is an important symbol of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who died in order to save all of humanity. The alien could have reproduced naturally but the director chose to use the powerful image of sacrifice when creating the human race. This implies that the alien was a Godlike figure or that our "God" could be an alien. Elizabeth Shaw strongly believes in our God and wears an inherited cross necklace for comfort. Even when she finally discovers that aliens did create the human race, she does not want to take off her necklace. This symbolizes the importance religion has other than its literal meaning as a cultural force. Even if Elizabeth did not believe in the religious aspect anymore, she needed her religion in other ways. I feel that the religious meaning of Prometheus was no matter what specific religion you believe in, it is important to have ideas and ask questions about religion and our place in the universe.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good point that we need to continue to ask questions. The movie was criticized for leaving the story without a complete resolution, but I think that it stresses the idea that we should keep asking questions about the universe.
DeleteI think that the snake-like alien that attacked Millburn and Fifield represents the serpent that shows up in many religious texts. The serpent is very often a tempter of people, like in the Garden of Eden when it tempted Eve to eat from a forbidden tree, and when a serpent tempted Jesus in the story of the “Temptation of Christ.” In both of these stories, the serpent represented Satan. Millburn was tempted by the snake-like alien to approach it, and it promptly killed him. Granted, Millburn was a biologist, so it’s understandable that he’d want to examine it, but after deciding with Fifield that he didn’t want to go on with Shaw and Holloway’s mission, it’s strange that he would interact with an unfamiliar creature entirely by his own free will; he would have been tempted by a stronger power to do so. Further, according to the Rabbinical tradition, the serpent represents sexual desire. After this snake-like alien shows up, many people are driven to have sex and/or procreate: Shaw and Holloway, Vickers and Janek, and even Shaw’s alien offspring and the Engineer.
ReplyDeleteDid the alien offspring and the Engineer have sex or did the offspring kill the Engineer? I thought it was killing the Engineer. However, I agree with the other couples. I definitely think the snake creature is a symbol of temptation.
DeleteI think what happened is that the alien consumed the engineer and used his body to fertilize and act as a womb for the birth of the new alien. The new alien thus emerged from the engineers corpse.
DeleteThere was many religious symbols in this movie especially the sacrifices and Elizabeth's pregnancy. Both of these events in the movie have significant connections to things that occurred in the bible. Many biblical figures go to extreme measures to become one with god and would even sacrifice some of the closest family members. While many others gave up the idea of christianity when they saw the rebirth of the alien like figures, the only person that survived was Elizabeth who maintained her Christianity faith. Also, there was the connection between the two elizabeths that didn't believe they could have children but in the end they became pregnant. Throughout this movie many plot aspects resemble events in the bible.
ReplyDeleteIn this movie, I think that the biggest religious theme is the idea of the aliens(or something) being the creators of humans. The old man from Weyland corporation desires to see his creator. Humans in Scotland find a star map which leads them to this planet. At the start of the movie, it shows a memory of one of the people in the spaceship, observing another religious group as a child. There is also a myth in greek mythology about a titan named Prometheus who has his liver eaten by a bird every day as punishment by Zeus.
ReplyDeletePrometheus is about mans search for their creator. The movie depicts how insignificant we are.
ReplyDeletePrometheus has multiple religious features from something small like the cross to the general idea of a creator making a whole entire species. The movie to me reaches another idea that goes beyond just our maker, but the maker of the maker and his maker ect. I believe that if we were to find out who our creator was, or if god existed then we would just move on to the next big mystery and that would be who made him and so on and so forth.
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