This one is complex, so I'm going to try and make it as simple as I can. Since this week is Easter, I'm going to tackle religion and spirituality in the different sagas. I'm not going to rank them, because that's just silly. When it's all said and done, I'm sure that there will be information that I left out, but I'll do the best I can. I guess the danger of this is that I have numerous people who read my site who have gone to seminary schools. So, reverendmother, katieg, and notshychirev....go easy on the novice. ;-)

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The Lord of the Rings

As best as I can remember, there is little talk about God in the LOTR movies. There is talk about spirituality, and the nature of good and evil, which works for this argument, I suppose.

The basic premise of the LOTR movies, is that there is an ultimate evil that is capable of residing over Middle Earth. This means that either there is also an ultimate good and that Middle Earth existed here before the movies, or that there is an ultimate good, and that is where Middle Earth stood.

The first LOTR movie, much like the new Star Wars movies, deal with a society and world where things that were once stable, crumble under the weight of oppressive forces. I tend to think that Middle Earth was never this Utopia, but existed instead in a grey area, much like *our* Earth. But I only say that, because I also view the evil put forth in the LOTR story as symbolic of a society always at war with itself. If the ring had fallen into Sauron's hands, I don't think that Middle Earth would have become this literal hell on earth, but would have instead become this society that is always in conflict. Where issues would not be worked out with words and understanding, but by weapons and destruction.

But there is also talk of the afterlife sprinkled throughout the LOTR stories. Gandalf mentions dying at the hands of the Balrog (or whatever that thing was called), and transitioning over to another realm before his return. Gandalf gives lessons to both King Theoden and Pippin about what awaits people on the other side of mortal life. So there must obviously be a place where people go when they die.

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The Matrix

Beyond the S&M gear and the bullets and guns, the Matrix is all about religion and spirituality. I'd argue that the Matrix borrows more heavily from religious texts than they do comic books. There are prophets, messiahs, devils, and more Dante Alligheri references that you can shake a stick at.

The Matrix movies never really answer if there is a Heaven or Hell as we know them, and there is little discussion about what happens when people actually die. But one could easily make the argument that the world created by the Matrix is what we could view as our mortal life. Zion would obviously be a Paradisio type of environment, and the "real world" would exist as a sort of hell on earth.

And where you end up, depends on whom you choose to follow. Do you follow Neo (which can easily be scrambled to say "one," as well as meaning "new") and end up in Zion, or do you sell your soul to the system and stay inside the Matrix?

The characters in "The Matrix" can all draw comparisons to other characters in religious texts. Morpheus, and Neo I suppose, can be compared to Moses leading people out of the promised land. Neo is killed, and brought back to life. Trinity bares the name that hearkens back to the holy trinity, although I can't find a direct character parallel. That annoying kid in "Reloaded" and "Revolutions," will probably end up being one of the sole professors of whatever legend/hero worship befalls Neo after the movies conclude, so he could be compared to Paul I suppose. And that's just the tip of the iceberg really, because you have Persiphone, the Gate Keeper, the Merovingian, and of course, the oracle.

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Star Wars

Almost literally, the Star Wars universe deals with good and evil in black and white terms. Being the kiddie, popcorn flicks that they are, Lucas didn't really start to get into grey area until the new movies. In the old movies, he briefly touched on Vader having good in him still, but these new movies take that to a whole new level.

The Star Wars movies are nothing more than a series of combinations. The movies are combinations of westerns, Flash Gordon serials, Wagnerian operas, and Samurai films. Star Wars spirituality is a combination of Joseph Campbell-lite mythological archetypes, a touch of Christianity, San Francisco new age Buddhism, and the belief that god exists in everything from rocks to trees (animistic?!?!).

While the Jedi definitely hold many similarities to monks who do nothing more than meditate and become at one with their surroundings, Lucas also threw in a little bit of "The Magnificent 7" into their duties. Yoda is by far the most in-tune of all the Jedi. Even beyond his great dialogue from "The Empire Strikes Back," he spends a good portion of the new movies meditating on the state of affairs around him.

The Star Wars Universe, more than the other two movies, DEFINITELY concludes that there is an after life. I mean, we get to see ghosts for crying out loud. It is made abundantly clear in SW movies that if you die on the right side of things, then you become a part of a force larger than yourself.

Many people scoff at the new movies, but I think if anything, Lucas has taken the religious undertones to a whole new level. To fulfill a prophecy, the force creates Anakin in a woman, very similar to the Virgin Mary. Lucas has shown how the good people of the Jedi order were too blinded by their own arrogance to notice the force of evil conspiring against them, which is a story that any group religious or otherwise could take heed to. And lastly, as Lucas admits, we get to see the physical representation of hell in Episode III, when Anakin and Obi Wan duel it out on Mustafar.

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I've been working on a HUGE word processing project the past few days, so I'm all worded out right now. That's all, folks. No ratings. Just interpretation.

Til next time.

matt out