I was re-watching Man of Steel (2013) and a particular scene stood out to me which I want to explore. It's quite a simple scene of a conversation between two people but I think it raises interesting questions about faith, trust and personal responsibility.
To give a brief overview of the film, is a Superman origin story directed by Zach Synder with Henry Cavil in the titular role against the villainous General Zod. It has been fairly positively received but with some mixed views. Personally its not my favourite representation of Supes; I find the genuine compassion of the character somewhat lacking, as well as an over indulgence of fight scenes which don't add to the narrative and to be honest I now just fast forward through. The scene in question is around the middle of the film. General Zod has just released his creepy worldwide transmission for humans to hand over Superman to their custody. People are obviously panicked not only by the threatening alien space craft hovering around the world but also the fact that an alien has been living unnoticed in their midst for many years. Zod's demand comes with a vague threat to the world if Supes doesn't hand himself over 24 hours. So Superman has quite a conundrum, either surrender to their villain who attempted a coup on his home planet, killed his father and was judged to be imprisoned for life on Krypton or hide from Zod and let innocent people suffer unknown consequences. Added to that, in order to hand himself in Supes would have to involve human authorities (i.e. the US military).
We can see Supes' internal debate with himself explicitly in the scene I want to focus on. In it, he goes to seek advice from a priest, presumably one he doesn't know. The scene is a simple conversation between the two. The priest's name is never mentioned in the film, but as IMDB informs me he is called Father Leone. Fr Leone - What's on your mind? Clark - I don't know where to start. Fr Leone - Wherever you want. Clark - That ship that appeared last night. I'm the one they're looking for. Fr Leone - Do you know...why they want you? Clark - No. But this General Zod...even if I surrender, there's no guarantee he'll keep his word, but...if there's a chance I can save Earth by turning myself in...shouldn't I take it'? Fr Leone - What does your gut tell you? Clark - Zod can't be trusted. The problem is...I'm not sure the people of Earth can be either. Fr Leone - Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith first. The trust part comes later. Just to note, mad respect to Leone for not freaking out when Clark tells him that he is an alien. I know I would have! I always found this scene interesting, its trying to say something about faith, trust and self-sacrifice as well as being an interesting portrayal of organised religion. However, I never really felt that I had enough to write a whole blog post about. Until, that is, I noticed the stained glass window behind Clark as he talks. Here is a picture of it.
It's a fairly famous depiction of Jesus at the Garden of Gethsemane, I've put up some similar images. You can read about in Matthew 26:36-46, Mark 14:32-42 and Luke 22:39-46. In a nutshell, it is the moments of relative calm before Jesus' arrest, trial and execution. Jesus knows what is to come and spends this time praying and thinking, showing personal debate over whether to go ahead with his self-sacrifice plan. He does ultimately decided to but you get a real sense of his awareness of the suffering he will undergo from the three accounts, which you can check out to read about what happened more fully. Now just to note, the depiction of Jesus in Gethsemane isn't accurate to the text or the historical context. It should go without saying, but Jesus wasn't white skinned with blonde hair. Similarly, I really doubt that he would have looked that serene. It was a moment of total anguish with probably lots of tears. One tradition even holds that Jesus was so stressed that he sweated blood, based on Luke's account. Luke was a physician and sweating blood, hematidrosis, is a rare medical condition where someone is so stressed that blood comes out through their skin's pores.
So yeah, serene, blonde Jesus isn't really accurate but the image is recognisable to many as depicting that particular Biblical scene. So if you are a film maker who wants to invoke that Biblical episode it make sense to employ that particular picture. I am presuming that the decision to film Cavil directly in front of such an image was intentional. I don't know the motivations behind the filming of the scene by cast and crew, but given the theme-heavy focus of the film, the scene composition and Synder's own religious background I think I am on pretty safe ground to say that the comparison between Supes and Jesus at Gethsemane was intentional here. The content of the scenes are similar, our protagonists are taking a moment to consider whether to sacrifice themselves for others. They are both attempting to consult some higher power or understanding. Both are in precarious and complex situations, the stakes are high and the suffering they will be face, possible suffering in the case of Superman, is deadly serious. In comparing Clark's moment of dilemma to Jesus' similar time of stress and decision making, the film-makers seem to be highlighting the importance and impact of Clark's decision, his own moral questioning as well as the global impact of his decision. It's definitely a big thing to compare your character to a man many consider to be God.
Part of my initial ambivalence, I suppose you could call it, to these scene was it because it is obvious what Supes is going to decide to do. He is going to sacrifice himself and have a positive outlook to trust the humans. Supes may not be the full paragon in Man of Steel which he is in other representations but it would still definitely be out of character for him to leave all of humanity to suffer to because he doesn't want to face Zod. It's fairly ubiquitous even among your more morally questionable superheroes that self-sacrifice is the thing to do (with a few notable exceptions). Similarly, even just for the plot it makes sense to advance the story by having Supes connect with the military and face Zod. Hence you could argue that this scene is a bit defunct, we know what Supes will choose. True, he could devise some kind of alternative plan but between the two options, of either sacrificing yourself or not, we as the audience know that he will choose the former.
Instead, I think this scene allows for a moment of vulnerability for Supes. He obviously doesn't want to put himself in harms way and acknowledges his mistrust for others, whilst remaining dedicated to helping the Earth. Spoilers for Harry Potter, but this strongly reminds me of Harry in the Deathly Hallows (book 7, film 8). Harry finds out that the only way for Voldemort to no longer be invulnerable is for Voldemort himself to kill him, Harry. From this point, Harry never really comes close to actually not choosing to sacrifice himself but we still see his emotional distress. In the book, his inner monologue reveals this inner turmoil. The scene in the film where he uses the Resurrection Stone to talk to his parents, Sirius and Remus always makes me cry and again reveals this vulnerability of the character.
These moments when we see our heroes as vulnerable, human and aware of the great sacrifice they are making is really meaningful and helps us to sympathise. It is the same with the scene of Jesus in Gethsemane. Most readers of the Gospels know that Jesus will be executed but the depiction of his emotional distress cannot but affect us. These are the humanising moments (if you can say that about Superman as an alien), which show how our heroes are a lot like us. It also shows us the great sacrifice of what out protagonists are about to do; before we see the sacrifice itself, we know that this is big.
Superman being connected to religious imagery is not a new thing. It has been suggested that Superman's original creation, by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster in 1938, had Jewish inspiration. For example, Superman has been likened to Moses, the name Kal-El resembles the Hebrew words meaning 'voice of God' with El itself literally meaning God or of God. Nevertheless, these connections were never confirmed by Siegel or Shuster. Superman has also been linked with Jesus specifically prior to Man of Steel. The 1978 Superman film, with Christopher Reeve in the title role, has been suggested to have consciously created Superman as a Messianic figure come to save the world and that the spaceship the infant Kal-El escape Krypton in was modelled on the star in Jesus' nativity story. This notion that that Superman was sent to Earth to help humanity is expressed in both Superman (1978) and Man of Steel, it is undoubtedly a very Messianic and particularly Christ-like notion. We can apply lots of frameworks and cultural aspects to examining Superman and religion is certainly not a new one. So what can we take away from this? What does Superman and the particular scene of his conversation with a priest mean? It shows us how religion seeps, consciously or not, into our creations alongside how film-makers and other artists can use religious imagery as a kind of cultural shorthand. By comparing Superman's dilemma with Jesus' in Gethsemane we are being told a big of a decision this is, how the stakes are high and the personal cost to Supes is serious. I think the film is also preaching about importance of taking time to think things through when making decisions or going through difficult times. Whether our role model is Jesus or Superman, finding life difficult and being under great stress is something to be acknowledged. Being in a time of personal anguish is not a sign of moral or spiritual weakness but rather an indication that we all need support. Whether we need time and space to think, to talk to others or to pray, these things are being heroized. We might be faced with a legitimate moral dilemma or our mind might be made up and we just need some courage, either way space to communicate how we are really feeling is important.
We could follow the model of Fr Leone by supporting others in difficult times, asking them how they feel and coming alongside them in their distress. One of the notable differences between this Superman scene and Jesus in Gethsemane is that whilst Supes has a helpful supporter here, Jesus friends all fell asleep when he asked for their company and once he was arrested they all pretty much abandoned him. So yeah, there's my thoughts on this incredibly short and fairly unimportant scene. Do you have any favourite or thought provoking minor scenes of films, books or similar? What do you think of Superman, and his portrayal in Man of Steel? What do you think about the portrayal of superheroes more generally?
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