I actually have a little bit of history with this movie. Signs was released in 2002--I would have been eleven years old. I watched it for the first time at a friend's birthday slumber party when I was in sixth grade. Unfortunately, my apparently highly impressionable mind proceeded to have nightmares for the next four months or so. Not that Signs is a particularly scary movie, but I had, at that point, not been exposed to any truly scary movies, and so this one proved to be rather traumatic for me. Happily, since then, I have watched the movie a number of times, and it has actually become one of my favorites.
I've been in a couple of youth groups and Sunday School classes where clips of the movie were used as an illustration. Every time it was the same clip: the clip of Mel Gibson's character, Graham, talking to his brother Merrill (played by Joaquin Phoenix), about the lights that have appeared in the sky that they know are most likely the lights of extraterrestrial ships hovering over earth. Graham says:
"People break down into two groups. When they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than coincidence. They see it as a sign, evidence, that there is someone up there, watching out for them. Group number two sees it as just pure luck. Just a happy turn of chance. I'm sure the people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, the situation is a fifty-fifty. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there will be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. See what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you? Are you the kind that sees signs, that sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky? Or, look at the question this way: Is it possible that there are no coincidences?"
I do like this scene, and I see how it is very applicable, especially for a Symbols and Imaging class. A basic definition of "sign" is "something that stands for something else." To group number one, the lights were something that stood for something else--they stood for the higher power watching over them and let them know that they were not on their own.
But, despite the lessons and philosophy that can be gleaned from that clip, it is not my favorite one in the movie. My favorite scene comes when the family--Graham (a reverend whose wife's death has caused him to question his faith), his two kids Morgan and Bo, and his brother Merrill, have locked themselves in the basement of their house to escape the extraterrestrials that would undoubtedly kill them on sight. In a moment of panic, Graham's son Morgan barely escapes the clutches of a frightening clawed hand down the coal chute in the basement. The scene plunges into darkness momentarily but we then see Merrill, blocking the chute with a big pile of bags of dog food. The audience breathes a sigh of relief, until the camera shifts to show us Graham, holding his son Morgan to him. Morgan is suffering an asthma attack, and his inhaler and asthma medications are all unreachable, still up in the house. The scene that follows is, to me, the most beautiful in the movie:
This scene isn't just about Morgan overcoming his asthma attack. It's a bigger metaphor.
"Feel my chest. Feel it moving in and out--breathe like me. Stay with me. I know it hurts--be strong, baby. It'll pass. It'll pass... Don't be afraid, Morgan. Feel my chest. Breathe with me. Together. We're the same. We're the same. We're the same."
This scene isn't just about Morgan's struggle to breathe, to me. It's also a metaphor for the family's struggle for survival and their fight with their fear. And perhaps most poignantly, it's also a metaphor for Graham's struggle with God. And in his struggle, I can see my own.
Since his wife's death, Graham has questioned his faith and questioned God. Graham talks to God in this scene, pleading "Don't do this to me again. Not again," and then finally hisses, "I hate you. I hate you!" echoing his own son, who said those very words to him not even an hour before at dinner.
This scene is a vivid visual representation of how I have felt at times in my life. In the times when I feel like I am drowning, or in the times when I feel animosity toward God, or in the times when I am afraid and doubting, this is exactly what God does with me. "Feel my chest. Breathe with me. Together."
Maybe that doesn't make any sense to anyone but me, but I can't help but leak tears every time I watch this scene.
In Symbols and Imaging, we talk about the act of (re)signing--the process of taking something that means one thing and changing it--(re)signing it--to mean something new. Jesus did this with the Jewish Passover meal--he took the bread and the wine and (re)signed them to have new [sign]ificance--they were now a sign that stood for his body and his blood. The movie Signs used to give me nightmares, but I've (re)signed it. Because now it reminds me of how I'm loved.
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