Hi, everyone!
I was just wondering: what did you understand from the ending of this movie? I mean, those animals running, those soldiers (at least, I think they were soldiers!) and the people stuck inside the church?
I know Buñuel was an atheist and used to question religion a lot, but I'm still trying to make sense of that ending. Great film, though. :-D
Well, it's clearly a case of "you can't get out of this easily"
all facades and status quo lies that made the people in the living room unable to leave (a criticism directed at the burgeouis) is repeated in the church: another set of lies with the same lying people.
I think the title can give us enlightment, albeit not a simple one: The exterminating angel, the same one that killed the first born in Egypt, is here to punish those that think they own religion and truth and are frankly far from anything true. As true as even being able to cross a door and get out of a room. These people have become so immersed in their world of mannerisms, so cut from reality that they cannot go back to it and do not know how. Only when they strip themselves of all and show the terrible reality of human nature, and then unite in belief of a simple truth, then can they only leave.
And the barrier is broken.
But nonetheless, stupid as they are, they go back: Back into religion and back into their world of stupid set rules.
They are unable to see that even though they prayed in christian, masonic and even "pagan" ways, none of this is what made them come out but their own human nature and their intent on 1) see reality and 2) be together as a group of humans, alive. This is the real truth.
So, again, they become trapped. Along with the preachers... of course, the biggest liars and blindmen.
The Exterminating angel though, does seem to always send them sheep to give them possibility of being fed and "realize" their errors... again.
And this is rather ironic of Buñuel, a man who was an atheist is suddenly ilustrating with religious beliefs? Maybe his famous quote "Thank God, I'm an atheist" gives us light on this particularity. He may as well believe in a god, or something like it but not in being a believer: not in the way these people are, going to church and praying, etc. Maybe he even believes "god" (or something like it) entrusts us with the power to be ourselves: and people cannot comprehend it: cannot afford or do not want to look at what they really are.
So they deserve this punishment. As many times as necessary. Until they become human.
The bear means, I feel, the real nature of the world: animality on the outside: the bear even gets to climb the pillar created by society - it can do it all because it is free.
About the army on the outside and "the riot" kind of suppresion I think it has a lot to do with the army defending the bourgeouis and a criticism on Mexico's current state of society at that moment. Though I am not completely sure of this. Any suggestions?
Wow.
You nailed it right on the head.
I read this post over and over again, and you have answered a question that many people who have seen the movie could not comprehend or put into words.
And I thank you.
You understand Captain that this mission does not exist, nor will it ever exist. "Apocalypse Now"
Thank God for this post.
I get this movie a lot better now.
Great post! I would like to get your comments on a few more points.
If this was primarily a punishment based on class, why was the servant also made to suffer? I know he was the head servant, and therfore higher on the social ladder than the servants who were strangely compelled to leave before the incident. However, it doesn't seem "fair" that he get taught the same lesson. It's punishing the middle class for the transgressions of the upper class. Is it his loyalty to his employers that puts him in this mess? (he didn't flee with the other servants). If this is the case, it may have been a more apt punishment if his employers and their friends ate him before the lambs.
My reason for bringing this up is because I wish this movie was about more than mere class. I want it to say something more about human nature in general. Everyone in their daily lives has rooms that they lack the will to leave. The "unleavable room" can be various social, political, religous or personal constructions that all of us live with-regardless of social status.
Hi misterjb. I think you answered your own question , with regards to the servant. That he was the "head servant" as you put it, he thought of himself as 'more important' than the other servants. Even among the servants there was a class system .At least that's my interpretation.
I just finished watching this film, so I am still trying to "digest" its meaning.
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Ten years later... Excuse the clumsy metaphors but the best way I can describe my take on the butler is to use examples from the American slave era. The butler is a sort of Uncle Tom figure. He didn't leave when the other servants did, he was not subject to whatever metaphysical compulsion made them go. Instead he was subject to the one that made the guests stay. That suggests that he shares their (simply put) classist ideology and hypocrisies even though he isn't one of them. Although he doesn't benefit from it, he approves of the system Bunuel is skewering. A little like Kenneth More in the Admirable Crichton. He has an unquestioning faith in a system, it doesn't matter where he stands within it. There's a lot of stuff about rules in this film, specifically the importance of adhering to social etiquette. That was as important to the butler as to the guests, hence he is treated as one of them by 'the force' but also by them, after a while. Once their little society breaks down and we're shown how base and savage humans really are, it would no longer be logical to treat the butler any differently. His lowly status was defined by a system that has now collapsed. So he isn't killed and eaten just because he was the butler. By the time they need food they are all the same. Though having said that there's something linking sheep and people. At the end the sheep arrive at the church once the bells start ringing: just as church bells call the faithful to prayer.
shareYou're a genius dude. I'd like to buy you a drink.
http://www.ymdb.com/daniel-glassman/l34590_ukuk.html