Movie UPDATE! Also, scripts

My first feature length film, Left Behind and the Translation of God, is chugging along. I have written a great deal of it. A ton of research goes into every episode of Renegade Cut, but this has required me to watch dozens  of university lectures, read many books and educate myself on a number of religious topics that I had not even counted upon when I first took up this project. 

If you want to do some reading along the same lines as myself, I recommend "Who Wrote the Bible?" and "The Bible with Sources Revealed" by Richard Elliot Friedman, one of the world's most famous Biblical scholars. This is only the groundwork, though. Other major sources for the information in the film come from "The Anti-Christ Handbook: The Horror and Hilarity of Left Behind" by Fred Clark and "The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation" by Barbara Rossing. There are a bunch of other sources as well -- the bibliography is going to be massive.

Anyway, with that aside, here are the scripts to some of the recent episodes:

DUNE:

 AUDIO 1
 Dune is a 1984 science fiction film directed by David Lynch. In the distant future, the most important substance is the spice melange. It extends life, grants visions and can be used for space travel. The Emperor of the Universe gives House Atreides control of the planet Arrakis – the only source of the spice. His plan is to have them ambushed there by House Harrkonen, the rival of Atreides. Paul Atreides, son of the Duke, is part of a long line in a eugenics program conducted by the mysterious Bene Gesserit. They hope to create a superbeing called the Kwisatz Haderach. After a series of betrayals and mishaps and deaths, Paul forms a bond with the secret population of Arrakis called the Fremen. Nobody outside of their culture knows how great their numbers are. Paul's incredible abilities lead the Fremen to believe he is their messiah. He takes the Fremen name Maud'dib and teaches them to use sonic weapons.   
 Paul gains the ability to control sandworms and launches an attack against House Harrkonen. A young girl declares that he is indeed the Kwisatz Haderach, and the movie ends. It is deeply confusing. This is partly because there is little connective tissue between scenes. Everything is...air. It is also full of sci-fi spiritualism that is not properly explained. Yet, there is some worth in Dune, at least from some of the messaging and themes that transferred over from the source material. In the novels, Paul's ascends to a position of Emperor of the universe and eventually begins to dislike the religion that has been built around him – which may be the whole point of the novel series: “Beware of heroes,” said Frank Herbert. People can be manipulated into their faith, as the Bene Gesserit exploit religion to protect their own members and spread fabricated legends and prophecies to developing worlds. However, in the film, Paul's role is comparatively more straight-forward. His ascension to a messianic figure among the Fremen does not seem devious. He receives visions, he witnesses the hand of God. But who is Paul Atreides meant to be? How does he relate allegorically to religious figures in the real world?
 
 AUDIO 2

Paul Atreides follows in the tradition of other desert prophets – Moses, Jesus and Mohammad. While Atreides being referred to as the Messiah might paint him as a Christ figure, his actions and his surroundings more closely parallel those of the prophet Mohammad. In fact, much of Dune appears to be inspired by the teachings of Islam. A religion in the novel, for example, is called Zensunni, an amalgamation of Zen Buddhism and Sunni Islam. Paul is a prophet and a warrior. He leads a desert society to military victory and lays the foundations of what would become a new empire. This parallels Mohammad. Armed conflict broke out between the Meccan pagans and the Muslims. Muhammad permitted the Muslims to fight the Meccans. He even led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. One might claim that even Paul's Fremen name – Maud'dib – resembles that of Muhammad, but mu'addib – spelled with the accent in a different place -- is actually an Arabic word for educator.  
 It's not a one to one parallel, but the influence is obvious. Many of the names in the film have etymologies in Arabic, the language of the Quran. Alia, Paul's younger sister, bears the same name as one of the queens of Jordan. The masculine form, Ali, was a relative of Muhammad. The Feydakin, the armed Fremen soldiers, seem to take their name from the Arabic word Fedayeen, meaning those willing to sacrifice themselves for God. In the film, the word “jihad” is used but only in the way that the word is mistakenly rendered in English as “holy war” – which it is not. Jihad simply means “struggling” or “striving.” towards a righteous goal. In Islam, it actually can mean struggling internally with one's own morality or striving towards the betterment of society. It can also mean armed struggle, but that is only one aspect of the word. It would be akin to saying the English word “service” always means “military service.” The word jihad appears many times in the Quran with and without military connotations – often in phrases roughly translated as "striving in the path of God” or “striving for the sake of God.” In the film, the Fremen are motivated by their faith and by Paul, who they believe is a figure in their faith, to bring about a better Arrakis.     
  [speech]  
 
 AUDIO 3  
  At the time of Herbert's writing, "jihad" had yet to become such a twisted word in the western world. Dune was written in 1965, before guerrilla jihadism became known due to the Soviet War in Afghanistan. Herbert's usage probably comes from a more genuine struggle for human improvement. There are countless other examples of Arabic words and figures from the Quran, but in short, Dune borrows a lot from Islam to present its word. Hebert's work insisted on NOT following heroes but in trusting in oneself, but the film does not show this. Instead, it is very much the hero's journey. We even get a happy ending with Paul commanding the heavens to rain, even though that will ruin the spice trade. Science fiction that takes place in the distant future – like Star Trek – usually portrays humanity as a more secular society. But Dune shows religion as existing far into the future and spreading across the universe – not as a means of enlightenment but as a system of control by a select few.     
 Dune presents an antiquated universe rather than progressive. Its futuristic political system is based on the Medieval feudal system. Dukes and barons rule outer space, and control passes down from one relative to the next in line. Inheritance and royal nepotism not only exists but has proliferated itself across known space. After the death of Duke Leto, Paul becomes the Duke, for example. Everything in Dune that is prized is actually damaging, which may have been the author's intent. The spice is the substance that everyone in the universe wants, but its existence is the source of incredible conflict. It can be used as a drug, but that means it is highly addictive. It can be used a method to transport ships from one part of the universe to another, but wars will be fought over it. The parallel to conflict in desert regions of the real world fought over oil is apparent.     
  [spice quote]  
  AUDIO 4  
 In addition to the previously mentioned antiquated ideas coming back into vogue in the distant future, Dune casts a traditionalist and patriarchal version of the future events. The Bene Gesserit's plans are thwarted when those who they were controlling through manipulated bloodlines decide against their wishes and produce a son instead of a daughter. Science fiction generally presents science as the key to progress: amazing spaceships and utopian societies, but Dune is the opposite: religion is the key to control, only men may rule and universal imperialism is the unquestioned standard. The imperial power is primarily concerned with the maintaining itself more than the universe, and that is also true of the houses, even the comparatively more noble House Atradeis.    
  Galactic powers are more concerned with pure bloodlines and inheritance than anything else. Dune is more Game of Thrones than Star Trek. Dune's setting is the distant future, but its prophecies are of what the 1960's and even the 1980's of the film would consider the NEAR future instead: the return and acceptance of imperialism and outmoded political ideas that should have passed into the ether. 

WILD AT HEART:

 AUDIO 1
 Wild at Heart is a 1990 film directed by David Lynch. Sailor and Lula are in love. Lula's mother, Marietta, disapproves. One night, after a failed attempt to seduce Sailor, Marietta has a man attempt to murder Sailor. In the ensuing fight, Sailor kills the man. Time passes, and after Sailor is released from jail, his relationship with Lula continues. He breaks parole, and he and Lula drive out of town on a road trip. Marietta, still hoping to get Sailor out of the picture, uses her criminal connections to send a hitman to kill his daughter's boyfriend. They come upon a car crash shortly after Lula has a vision of her mother. Lula takes this is a bad omen. Running low on cash, Sailor agrees to join up with a criminal named Bobby. They commit a robbery that at first seems successful until Bobby murders someone and then attempts to murder Sailor as well. Bobby dies violently, and Sailor is taken back to jail. When he is released years later, he meets his son, and after some deliberation, decides to marry Lula and help raise their child.  
  Everything is uncontrolled and explosive in the film. It isn't a reflection of reality but a world that operates under its own rules of madness. Wild at Heart is kind of this intersection of ideas, common thematic elements and cohesive storytelling elements and references that permeate through the filmography of David Lynch. This is not Lynch's best film, but it is a sort of central hub for what his movies are about. The director seems to have this fascination with a man's journey from youth to adulthood and how the fear of maturity dooms him along the way. Eraserhead has Henry Spencer is unexpectedly saddled with a grotesque, malformed child. His life has been turned upside down, and nothing feels real anymore. Dune has a young man burdened with incredible responsibility as his father dies. Blue Velvet features a young man disillusioned by a strange world and thrust into a sexual relationship with an older woman. There are numerous examples of this in Twin Peaks as well.    
  AUDIO 2    
  Of all these examples, Wild at Heart seems to dive in more audaciously than the others with the two main characters deeply immature at times, over the top and acting with wreckless abandon. Their journey to some level of maturity is long, and in Sailor's case, does not happen until the last minute of the film. Sailor spends more time as the initial version of himself and not the changed version of himself than, say, the protagonist of Blue Velvet, who begins to change almost straight away. Fire is a common motif in Lynch's works as well. In Mulholland Drive, a woman emerges from a fiery wreckage of a car without her memories – fire as a force of both destruction and creation – in this case, of a new person. Twin Peaks and its movie famously use the phrase “Fire Walk with Me.” In Lost Highway, the Mystery Man resides in this burning shack. In Wild at Heart, fire is everywhere.    
  Sailor and Lula smoke as an important habit, regardless of the fact that smoking lead to tragedies for both their parents. Fire relates to self-destruction. Lula had a devastating encounter with fire when she was younger. Yet, they continue to seek passion – seek the fire – seek self-destruction. The world is too much for them, and they choose to burn along with it. Lynch's films also contain shots of roads to keep the audience in mind of the physical journey paralleling the spiritual journey of his characters. Lost Highway is an obvious example. Mulholland Drive is too. Dark roads at night are mysterious and inviting. But in Wild at Heart, we have a narrative that is actually a road movie. Everything that is David Lynch is connected to this film, every motif is amplified or exaggerated. His films often show a duality of characters. In Wild at Heart, Sailor's dark shadow is Bobby.  
  [clip]  
  AUDIO 3  
  More than any other individual piece of art, Lynch conjures The Wizard of Oz in his movies. In Blue Velvet, Dorothy's name is a reference to the protagonist. Mulholland Drive has a great many references to The Wizard of Oz, but they are subtly hidden within the film. One of the most obvious is that Winkies' Diner is a reference to the guards from The Wizard of Oz. But in Wild at Heart, the references become a more explicit part of the story. [23:39] Lula mentions the Wicked Witch on numerous occasions, eventually [57:18] she begins to have visions of the witch as her mother. [35:16] Lula tells Sailor that making love takes her “over the rainbow.” She uses the term later to mean escaping this world. [36:50] This man speaks like a Munchkin. [46:45] Sailor wishes someone could visit the Wizard of Oz to get some advice. [1:10:50] Sailor says that the town of Big Tuna isn't exactly Emerald City. [1:17:30] This man references Toto, the dog. [1:29:41] After a harrowing encounter with Bobby, Lula clicks her heels together.    
 [1:35:24] There are numerous others, but to summarize, this is Lynch's most complete vision of Oz in a filmography that is packed with references to the film. It's no wonder Lynch is so fascinated with The Wizard of Oz. It's a journey into the mind. Sailor and Lula are riding down the yellow brick road through Hell. That's actually what Lynch called their journey. He rarely explains his films thoroughly, but of Wild at Heart, he has said “As to what it's about, 'Wild at Heart' is about finding love in hell – which might be a theme in all my movies. This particular hell is modern life..." Lula says the world is wild at heart and crazy on top. She wants to flee from it, the way Dorothy does, over the rainbow. In The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her companions learn that what they initially wanted is not what they needed. They all reach some form on enlightenment about themselves – their true selves. And that leads us to the philosophy of the film.  
  [TRANSITION]  
 [clip] “Did I ever tell you that this here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality  and my belief in personal freedom?”      AUDIO 4
 How does Lynch see freedom? Sailor's declaration is a little strange. He says that the jacket REPRESENTS a symbol, not that it is symbolic. In other words, he believes in the abstract principle of freedom but does not actually understand what it means. Sailor's freedom is complicated. He was just released from prison, but he is confined by the terms of his profile. Due to his belief in his personal freedom, he rejects these terms and breaks parole almost immediately after his release. Of course, people who are released from prison sometimes do end up back there – recidividism happens – but Sailor risks a second incarceration almost the second he can see the Sun. His boasts are, perhaps, a case of wishful thinking. He “believes” in his personal freedom enough to do something terribly unwise that will consequently limit his freedom far greater when he is arrested again for violating his parole.
 Sailor does not understand that absolute freedom cannot exist because it limits the freedom of others. For example, someone believes he is free to do what he wants no matter how reckless it is, which ends up injuring someone, confining them to a hospital and limiting their freedom. Anarchy is absolute “freedom” in a sense, but it also limits and endangers the lives of so many people – and if so – are people who live in anarchy with fewer options towards their well-being and the betterment of their lives “freer” than before? With less options, they have less choices – they are less “free” – due to all this “freedom.” Freedom is a paradox. A word that sounds good out of the mouths of politicians and on t-shirts and other places that eschew complexity.
 AUDIO 5
 Sailor's focus on his own individuality and desire for unlimited freedom results in him locked up in jail for years – far less free than before. Sailor and Lula no doubt see themselves as rebellious. Lula believes the world is “wild at heart and crazy on top.” Their journey is a quest to leave this world – somewhere over the rainbow as Lula puts it. They try to forge meanings for themselves. The phrase “wild at heart,” which Lula applies to the world and Sailor applies to himself, suggests a predetermined nature of the world. Existentialists would say that there is no human nature since there is no God to conceive it. However, Lynch does not believe this, once saying “The kingdom of heaven, God the almighty merciful father, is that totality. It’s that level. It’s the almighty merciful father, and the divine mother, the kingdom of heaven, the absolute, divine being, bliss consciousness, creative intelligence. These are all names, but it is that.... I sort of think that the great religions are like rivers. Each one is beautiful and they all flow into one ocean.”  
  In other words, he believes in some spiritual force in the universe, and he taps into this realm through his transcendental meditation. That is where he claims he finds his ideas. He submits to the universe, and it delivers visions to him. Sailor abandons his uncompromising individuality and his belief in absolute freedom in the end. He submits to something more powerful than himself, which manifests in this vision, – and this new worldview, believes in the greater power of love. The world has opened up for him. This is his true freedom.  
 

INLAND EMPIRE:

 AUDIO 1
 Inland Empire is a 2006 film directed by David Lynch. Nikki Graces lands a major role in an upcoming film, On High in Blue Tomorrows. As she rehearses and prepares for her role, she finds that she cannot tell the difference between her own life and the life of the character from the film, Sue. Her memories become twisted and disjointed. She is visited by strange apparitions and people who speak in riddles. Nikki or Sue is watched by a mysterious young woman who sits alone in a room and witnesses the events through a television. In the end, the protagonist confronts a dark stranger, shoots him and releases the young woman from her prison. The film is as enigmatic and appealing as it is frustrating. Actors play multiple roles, and scenes take place out of chronological order with only clues to differentiate the time periods. However, it would do a disservice to Inland Empire to simply label it “weird” and move on to more conventional fare. Lynch films challenge us, and we will answer that challenge today.
 [clip]
 AUDIO 2
 The shortest way to explain Inland Empire is this: Nikki Grace does not exist. Sue is reliving her life under more pleasant circumstances, as a famous actress, while bits and pieces of her real life are recalled by intruding figures like the Visitor and communicated to her by the Lost Girl, a woman with whom she shares a spiritual connection. Sue had an affair with Billy. Smithy, Sue's husband, was aware of the affair and kills Billy. Sue kills Smithy. Doris, Billy's wife, kills Sue. Her fantasy begins to crack around her, and Sue relives aspects [ketchup] of this and receives clues about what happened to her. Long ago, the Lost Girl killed her lover's wife. Lost Girl's husband killed HER lover at roughly the same time. When they meet up, the truth becomes clear. Lost Girl was either later killed or committed suicide because she could not live with what she did. Sue defeats the Phantom – the personification of darkness – and frees Lost Girl from her purgatory. That's the simple version. Here is the not-so-simple version:    
 We open with the Lost Girl in a room watching a television. The programs include a sitcom about anthropomorphized rabbits and other glimpses into tragic events. We don't know the nature of what this means to us – the audience – but to the Lost Girl, we know it's significant because she's crying. The Lost Girl is in a kind of purgatory for reasons that will be explained. Sue, while in her imagined Nikki persona, is visited by an old woman who is credited as Visitor #1. The visitor begins pleasantly enough, but her words turn cruel and frightening. She asks Nikki if her movie will have a murder. Nikki says it will not, but Visitor #1 says that it will. She recites a story. “A little boy went out to play. When he opened his door, he saw the world. As he passed through the doorway, a ghost...a reflection...evil was born. Evil was born and followed the boy. …  A little girl went out to play. Lost in the marketplace as if half-born. Then, not through the marketplace—you see that, don't you?—but through the alley behind the marketplace. This is the way to the palace. But... it isn't something you remember.”    
  AUDIO 3  
  The evil ghost is the character credited as The Phantom. He is the reflection – the representation – of all  darkness. For example, when the Phantom hypnotizes someone, that is symbolic of someone being seduced by the darkness inside them. At the end of the film, Sue confronts the Phantom, shoots him, sees her inner darkness reflected – this distorted image of her face – and defeats him. We actually see her frightening face earlier in the film, and well as this clown distortion. When Visitor #1 says that a debt must be paid, she is referring to existing in purgatory, reflecting on one's own choices, confronting what one has done and confronting the darkness. The Phantom is the guardian of the purgatory, and Sue is able to see him and defeat him.  
 But who is the Lost Girl? Well, she is one person and she is another person as well. Remember the story? A little girl went out to play – lost in the marketplace as if half-born. Sue is seen behind the marketplace in a later scene. The Lost Girl is connected to Sue. The being or half-being who wishes to protect her. The Lost Girl, who cries as she watches her soulmate's life and death, "guards" Sue by creating or co-creating the comforting Nikki persona, which reimagines Sue's life as a successful actress. They are connected. Sue looks through the television to see the Lost Girl, and they embrace when they finally meet towards the end. Then, the Lost Girl disappears, as if her debt has been repaid and the darkness has been successfully confronted. Lost Girl and Sue shared a darkness which needed to be defeated. They also shared the debt. Sue inherits Lost Girl's debt. Sue may even be a reincarnation of Lost Girl, and the other double characters reincarnations of earlier selves. We are not seeing reality. We are seeing a deceased Sue reliving her life and trying to make sense of it, comforted with Lost Girl and hounded by the Phantom.    
  [clip]  
  AUDIO 4  
 Sue's connection to the spiritual world requires different objects and clues. If you look closely, you can see "LB" clearly written on the back of Sue's hand when she finds the gun that she will use against The Phantom. After searching through every character and major object in the film, it seems clear that "LB" means "light bulb." The red light bulb appears in two different places. First, in Sue's lamp, and later in the Phantom's mouth. It's hard to see, but it's there. The Phantom is the owner of this light bulb, and he put it in Sue's lamp. The lamp flashes at Sue and gives her information. It connects Sue with the supernatural world. During the séance, the red lamp is visible. Lost Girl's spirit is channeled. What is Axxon N? According to narration in the beginning of the film, it is the longest running radio play in history. It is something that Lost Girl may have listened to when she was younger.   

“Longest running radio play in history” – the supports the idea that we are witnessing recycled lives – reincarnated spirits. Remember, her story takes place decades before that of Sue. Every time Sue opens a door marked Axxon N, she learns more about what is happening because she is connecting to Lost Girl's childhood. Further evidence that we are dealing with a neverending cycle is that the film within a film, On High in Blue Tomorrows, is revealed to be a remake, much to the surprise of the two leads. They had no idea this had all been done before. In the fantasy, On High in Blue Tomorrows was scrapped before it was finished because the two lead actors were murdered. This is a clue for Sue that she is reliving a life that ended in tragedy. An even earlier clue to the audience is when the Announcer says...

[clip]“The Marilyn Levens Starlight Celebrity Show will be back next week from Hollywood, California—where stars make dreams, and dreams make stars!"[/clip]

AUDIO 5

Dreams make stars. The actress Nikki Grace is not real. She is a fantasy. A superficial viewing of the film might lead an audience into believing the opposite: that Nikki Grace is real and that she is becoming the Sue character from the film-within-a-film, but that is not supported by everything else that David Lynch whispers to us inside Inland Empire. It's a challenging puzzle of a film. Lynch only leaves clues as to when something is happening in relation to another scene. For example, in the very beginning, Visitor #1 says that time can be difficult to decipher and that one might not know when it is after midnight or 9:45. There are several times in the film in which the Lost Girl's story in the past in Poland has someone reference 9:45, indicating we are in the past. And there are several times during the modern scenes in which someone gives a time that is after midnight. This can orient the viewing of Inland Empire. A film that requires you to pay attention can be much more rewarding than something that expects you to zone out.  

Lynch believes in the purging of negativity – negative energy. He speaks about this as it relates to his transcendental meditation. At its core, this appears to be what Inland Empire is expressing. The purging of darkness. As the credits roll, the film is not quite over. "Sinnerman," – a very old song famously covered by Nina Simone – gets this point across. The vocalist is looking right into the camera, singing a rather in-your-face song about sin—looking at us, the "sinners." She is pointedly confronting the audience, singing directly into the camera. The “sin” is internal – self-destruction, the destruction of one's own soul.