Posted by
JDComments on Tuesday, September 05, 2006 3:37:55 PM
I recently saw " The Illusionist", which I found well acted, entertaining, and disturbing for its political undercurrent. Now I may be accused of being someone who sees Liberal monsters under every [media] bed, but in this case, you didn't have to peek under a piece of furniture to see the Liberal bias rearing its ugly head; it was right there at center stage.
Now if you haven't seen the movie, be aware that I may give away some of the story, which is basically a period [turn of the last century Vienna] love story, though not the final twist. Having said that, my problem is the blatantly secular philosophy which is espoused. Now the interesting point is that the main character, who the audience will identify and empathize with, and cheer on, admittedly uses spirituality to manipulate the poor, ignorant masses [who seem actually to be the middle class based on his audiences], with the result that [literally] from altars the cry goes up that Austria is a spiritual republic. The Prince who everyone should find detestable, is thwarted in his plans to bring democracy and modernity to the empire. Thus the good guy uses a thinly veiled stand in for religion to accomplish his admittedly selfish goal, while the bad guy, who seems to have no redeeming characteristics, is stopped from enlightening his people, and given the time the movie is set in, probably prevent an eventual world war. So I, probably like many, found myself walking out of the theater a little perplexed as to whether or not we had rooted for the wrong guy. Since love conquers all, the doubt quickly subsided, but what lingers is the obvious Liberal intentions behind the movie. Throw in the fact that the Illusionist also turns out to be Jewish [we learn this when he is arrested and his name is called out] for no obvious reason, and you therefore begin to wonder about the possible Anti -Semitic tone, which may or not be intentional, but I thought about,and therefore so will others. And so on the ride home, as I discussed this with my wife, a seemingly light diversion on a Saturday night was revealed to be a diatribe against the forces of religion that the Liberal establishment are so vehemently against, though they acknowledge the pathos of the fact that the folks will look upon them as evil even though they are only trying to do good. For me, they can start by keeping their prejudices out of my entertainment.