Even if you believe in a soul, the ending is wrong - his soul is presumably in heaven (or Limbo!?)
First of all, the "if you believe in a soul" portion has no bearing on this movie at all. Within the fictional universe of this particular movie, the existence of heaven / afterlife / soul is an absolute and undeniable fact. Whether one believes such things exist in reality is irrelevant.
Secondly, you're incorrect about Joe's soul being in heaven. Joe's soul is unquestionably shown in the movie to be in Murdoch's body. Murdoch's soul is the one that is in heaven at the end of the movie, after his scheduled death by gunshot in the middle of the boxing match. Mr. Jordan explicitly states that the only reason that Murdoch's soul even knew the final result of the fight was because they had told him (in heaven) about Joe having finished it using his body.
One might be able to quibble about whether it was fair of Mr. Jordan to remove his conscious memory of Joe's life (and afterlife). However, that is a relatively minor thing, compared to not getting to live those 50 years at all.
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g001-645-760521
13 years ago
To me, the loss of one's memories is equivalent to death because they are an essential part of one's identity. I would not call this a "relatively minor thing" at all! What I was trying to say was:
1. I don't believe in a soul, so I accept that I am suspending disbelief when watching this film. That's fine. However:
2. Even if I DID believe in a soul, I would still have found the film "wrong" because even though his soul is allowed to live on in a living body, it doesn't change the fact that he lost his memory of being Joe, so where's the benefit? To me, it's as if a NEW person had been created in Murdoch's body, and Joe was... well, nowhere at all.
Does that help to clarify my meaning?
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PillowRock
13 years ago
so I accept that I am suspending disbelief
To me, it's as if a NEW person had been created in Murdoch's body
Despite the fact that you claim to accept the suspension of disbelief when it comes to the concept of a soul, you are (by your own words) failing in any attempt to suspend disbelief in the concept of an "immortal soul".
Within the context of the "immortal soul", the 50 years of not remembering Joe's earlier life counts only as the very short term. After the death of Murdoch's body, Joe's soul will spend countless millennia in heaven with the full memory of his entire existence ....... plus the love connections of his (in the context of this kind of movie, presumed future) wife and any other family that they build.
In that context, Joe's partial amnesia for those 50 years *is* "relatively minor". Your suspension of disbelief just needs to more fully integrate the
immortal part of the common phrase "immortal soul".
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g001-645-760521
13 years ago
Oh I see - so you're saying that after he gets to heaven, he then remembers everything. OK, well my theological knowledge isn't up to the job of disagreeing with that, so I'll take your word for it. If this is the case, then I agree with you.
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