Superman, Jesus Christ and Jim Caviezel

Jim Caviezel is on a roll. First he plays Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, now he may be playing Superman in an upcoming role. I just saw this on Nick Queen's blog - Patriot Paradox I say that Caviezel is on a roll because Superman is a well known Christ figure, so in many ways he is playing the same character as he did in The Passion of the Christ.

The Journal of Religion Film has an article called Superman as Christ-Figure: The American Pop Culture Movie Messiahwhich compares Superman as played by Christopher Reeve in the 1978 and 1981 movies to Jesus. This article lists "Twenty Superman-Jesus Parallels," and "Eight Personalistic Christic Traits of Superman." Speaking of Richard Donner, the director of these movies, the article says:

However, many years later, Donner gladly admitted to the Christic subtext: “It’s a motif I had done at the beginning when Brando sent Chris [Reeve] to Earth and said, ‘I send them my only son.’ It was God sending Christ to Earth.”It was a dramaturgical decision that made good sense, for just as Superman was literally a super-man, Jesus was “the ultimate Super Jew of his day,”the “Christian super-hero,” the pop culture “God with us” (Matt. 1:23).

One web writer is doing some weird kind of DC Tarot Card thing, but it is interesting that, among other things, he speaks of Batman-Superman-Wonder Woman as the Trinity of DC Comics:

More than just trademarks, the characters are icons, and speak to our need for Power, Justice, and Protection. They have recently been linked in time by Wonder Woman author Eric Luke - Batman the Detective looks to the past for answers, Diana Goddess of Truth looks to the now, while Superman looks forward as the Man of Tomorrow. Taken as metaphysical analogies, Wonder Woman speaks of an age of primordial Matriarchy, Batman champions the Old Testament "Eye for an Eye" strictures, while Superman is the quintessential Christ figure, from the solar symbolism to the favorite son of a far away father to the ressurection and the life. If the Holy Spirit is seen as Sophia, the feminine aspect of God's wisdom, they are the traditional Catholic Trinity. the Father (Batman), Son (Superman - more Christ symbolism!), and the Holy Ghost (Wonder Woman). More essoterically, they are the Father (Batman), Mother (Wonder Woman) and Divine Child (Superman). (Though in the comics Superman is more often married off to his physical equal, Wonder Woman, Batman's position as Rulegiver makes him more of a Father figure.) They are defined by Body (Superman), Mind (Batman), and Spirit (Wonder Woman), as well as the Primary colors Red (Superman), Yellow (Wonder Woman), and Blue (Batman).

Mark Millar is the author of a new Superman graphic novel called "Superman - Red Son." In reading an interview with the author it appears that he is using this novel as an anti-George Bush piece and that doesn't thrill me. However, it is interesting that he makes the link between Superman and Jesus.

Every culture creates its own Christ figure. The Egyptians had one, the Celts had one, the Christians obviously had a fairly successful one and the Americans created their own Christ in the middle of the century where most people stopped believed in the original. Nature abhors a vacuum and these archetypes just find themselves being recreated to suit the needs of a particular culture.

Mars Hill Review #21 has an article called "God in a Cape: Superman as Savior." They point out that there is even a death and resurrection motif in the Superman saga. In January of 1993, in Superman #75, he died at the hands of the villain "Doomsday," and was laid in a tomb, to return later that year.

In all fairness I need to mention that there are those who don't buy the "Superman as Christ figure" motif. Gary Robinson, the author of the Mars Hill Review article mentions that Superman's original creators were a couple of young Jewish men, leading Gary Engle to "suggest that Superman's saga may be that of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who struggled to assimilate themselves into American culture."

Steven at Peiratikos denies denies a link between Superman and Christ, but in denying the link between the two, he does recognize other religious symbolism.

Superman has plenty of alter egos, but no natural self. His only nature is alienation from nature. He is, in fact, a metonym of human nature, which is alienation from nature. What Christians call Original Sin, alienation from God. What people are looking for when they give up the hectic bustle of modern life and join a commune or something. The immigrant embodies this alienation physically, and Superman takes immigration to the next level: not only is he from another planet, he’s from another planet that blew up and no longer exists. It’s like Genesis without the moral judgement and without Happy Heaven as a final reward after a life of struggling to get back to Eden. Superman’s only reward for the true selves he tries to cobble together out of the pieces he’s been left with is no more and no less than whatever self he manges to cobble together. His life as Superman, Clark Kent, Kal-El are the closest he’ll ever get to Heaven. (This is one reason I find attempts to make Superman a Christ figure amusing. Or bemusing. He descends from some idealized place and takes on the burden of humanity, right, but then he doesn’t have any Heaven to ascend to! He’s like the first half of a Christ figure, which just means he’s human.)

All those are points well taken. As intrigued as I am with this whole "Superman as a Christ figure" motif I wouldn't push it to the point of saying that the original creators had this in mind. Nor would I suggest that all of the writers, producers and screenwriters who have worked on Superman in the last several decades had the Christ figure link in mind. Furthermore, even some who may have had this mind may have been modeling Superman after a Christ many of us wouldn't recognize.

Still, the possible link is intriguing. And, it calls to mind some of Robinson's closing words in the Mars Hill Review article.

The suggestion that Superman might be Christ got up in spandex and a cape is anathema to some believers. It evokes the sort of horror typified by Sister Mary Justin in the little-known tragic novel, The Kryptonite Kid: "Superman in church! In church!" Yet some have suggested that there is really only one Story - the story of redemption - of which every other story, from Cinderella to The Phantom Menace is a shadowy replica. If this is true, then the Man of Steel is not to be regarded as a mere gaudy relic of misspent youth nor a figure of blasphemy. Rather, Superman is an archetype. He takes his place among the storybook redeemers like Robin Hood, Tarzan and the wolf killing hunter from Little Red Riding Hood. Commercial considerations - the demands of an ongoing comics series, the need to reinvent the character for each new generation may obscure his essential mythic quality. These days he may seem tame and, since marrying Lois Lane in 1995, domesticated. But something of his power and glory remains. He is, after all, a superman, to say nothing of being a modern mythic savior.

In keeping with that line of thinking, here is a good article at Mysterium Tremendum on Movies as the New Mythos.

I'm also intrigued at the way Jim Caviezel keeps playing all of these Christ figures. I have argued in another post that he seemed to be playing a Christ figure in The Count of Monte Christo. And of course, you don't get to play much more of a Christ figure than playing Christ in the Passion, as he did. It will take a lot of imagination to see him as a Christ figure when he played Bobby Jones. Still, I do find it kind of fascinating that he now seems to be the go to guy in Hollywood when they need a character to play the savior.

Now if I can only figure out the deeper metaphysical connections between Jerry Seinfeld and Superman.

Comments

[Russ]

There is a close connection between the two roles - Superman is a weirdly mythologized and Americanized version of Christ, and Jesus in The Passion is a weirdly mythologized and medievalized version of Christ.

[ronnie]

i think tom welling should play the role as superman. i like jim but i don't think he should be superman

[ronnie]

i think tom welling should play the role as superman. i like jim but i don't think he should be superman

[Alex Tang]

Central is to the theme of the movie, Superman returns is Lois Lane’s article, “Why the world doesn’t need a Superman”. It was written after Superman left abruptly and had won her the coveted Pulitzer award. Rephrased, the question became, “Does the world need a Saviour?” There is a scene in the movie where Superman hovers in space, listening and then responding to cries of help. There is another scene when Superman and Lois were floating in space (Lois apparently do not need oxygen or feel cold) when Superman answered the question. “You wrote that the world doesn't need a saviour, but everyday I hear people crying out for one." This has much resonance about the question about the world needing a saviour. One can cast Superman as the “Christ” figure. There are enough pointers in the movie; Jor-El sent his “only son” to earth. The talk about the father being the son and the son being the father. There is a scene in which Superman hovers in space in a crucifix position: arms outstretched, legs together. The second coming as in the return. The sacrifice and death of Superman. His apparent resurrection. His felt “responsibility” to be a saviour to the people of earth. It is easy to find Superman as the “Christ” figure in this movie.

However, we need to look deeper into the character of this Superman. Is he saviour material? In Superman II, he took Lois to bed (and fathered a son) while leaving the world unprotected. In this movie, he returns from a 5 years absence again leaving the world unprotected. He expects things to be what it was when he left. He tried to rekindle his relationship with Lois who has a son and a lived-in boyfriend. He stalked her like a love-sick puppy. Lex Luthor got out of jail (a 2 lifetime sentence) because Superman was not around to testify at his trial. He may be Superman but he is not perfect man. Only a perfect man can be the true saviour of mankind.

[David Buckna]

Friday, July 7, 2006
Superman As Super Savior
A quiz...

By David Buckna
Special to ASSIST News Service

http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s06070029.htm