Category Archives: October 9

For those not enraptured with The Rapture

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Hi everyone,

I’ve been intrigued by these responses, many of which assume that Tolkin is trying to create a story faithful to Revelation, but has failed to do so.  Try to think about the film from another angle, in which doubt and skepticism about such belief might prevail, a film in which the idea of a god who allows human suffering is itself questioned.  How would such a stance then represent Sharon’s conversion, the sect which she joins, and the way in which her “reality” unfolds at the end? Eric and Amy discuss this to some extent so take a look at their posts. And Christine poses a question at the end that really gets at this key issue.

The film met with a significant splitting of opinion when it was released.  Many leading critics praised it, including NY Times’ Janet Maslin, and it won an award at Sundance, while some (though fewer) panned it.  That alone makes it a worthy vehicle for discussion.

Finally, what might we make of the pearl?  There are several references in Revelation to pearls: 17:4, 18:12, 18:16, and 21:21.  Using them in the film doesn’t necessarily mean the film is portraying Revelation as happening.  Might these be hints about the nature of born-again belief and its effects on believers?

The Rapture: Weekly Response #6

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The Rapture is not the best example of an apocalyptic film, but I still did see some familiar themes that we have previously discussed during class in the film.

For example, like John in the Book of Revelation, the main character Sharon abandons her life full of sex and sin and claims it dirty. She goes through purification to cleanse herself by washing her sheets and taking a shower. When she gets out of the shower, she clothes herself in clean white linen, just as some of the pure characters dressed in the Book of Revelation (examples: 19.8 & 19.14).

There is also the theme of waiting for the Apocalypse to come throughout the film. Like in the Book of Revelation, there is no distinct date of the Apocalypse. Sharon and her daughter are constantly waiting in the desert for the Apocalypse to come. Their prophet had not given them an exact day of judgment.

Of course, while there are some themes that resonate throughout the film, The Rapture, like most of my classmates pointed out, there are even more inconsistencies. For example, John’s dislike of women in the Book of Revelation made me question the use of a female protagonist instantly. If this film was based on the Book of Revelation, I saw no hope at all for Sharon. Despite the fact that she renounced her old lifestyle, I do not think that John would think her worthy of being saved because of her previous promiscuity. John already does not favor women, but the fact that Sharon is neither pure nor a virgin does not put her in an agreeable position. Though there are some apocalyptic themes in The Rapture, it is still not the best example of a film that uses themes from the Book of Revelation.

“The Rapture”

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I had mixed feelings upon watching “The Rapture,” — before, I was immediately turned off by the name of the film and the short plot-teaser I read online.  Like Albert, I found myself noticing how the main character called out the Four Horsemen incorrectly and wondering about the intentions of these lines. Ultimately, I was unsure whether or not to interpret The Rapture as an anti-religious film, a religious one, a badly written film, or a film written by Hollywood without full regard to the way certain allusions were used, or a mix of all three.

However, upon rereading the Book of Revelation, it was interesting how I found myself flashing back to scenes in the film. After seeing an imagining of events, I felt as though I was less likely to disregard the imagery in the film — more open, perhaps, because I’d seen visual suggestions. This isn’t to say that I found myself at all more inclined to believe in the events. However, the ending did throw me for a loop – I was unsure as to what I felt about it. It seemed to disregard the idea of ending up in a Hellish damnation for Mimi’s character to end up in purgatory. To me, it seems as though if one doesn’t accept one’s God then one would be condemned, but Sharon ends up in this purgatorial place. I found that interpretation – “If you don’t accept God, but you are able to get raptured BUT you won’t accept or forgive God still…” confusing. Unwillingness to forgive God seems like a sin, or something worth damnation by Revelation’s standards, yet it wasn’t…unless the purgatorial landscape was like Hell…

Why Believe?

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I’m actually unsure how to analyze The Rapture, because the ending completely shattered the analysis I had formed throughout the majority of the movie. Throughout the most of the movie, I thought it was meant to explain why people have the need to believe in god and believe in salvation. However, the fact that in the end the rapture DOES happen but Sharon DOESN’T love god anymore makes that analysis invalid.

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The Revelation Come to Life: Is That Really How It Happens?

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I was excited to watch Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture due to the fact that it uses a biblical approach to portray the end of the world. I have seen many apocalyptic movies, but never have I watched one where the events in the Book of Revelation happen literally. I personally did not like this movie, and I was left a bit confused as to how I was supposed to interpret it’s message. Before Sharon finds herself believing in God, she lives a life as a phone operator who participates in casual sex, drinking, smoking, and all the other thoughtless and careless habits of someone with no meaning in life. A good example of the hollowness of her life is present in the very graphic sex scenes, which though revealing, had no sense of emotion or passion in them. I felt this was a good representation of how physically based and meaningless Sharon’s lifestyle had become. It isn’t exactly revealed why she acts this way, is it because she has no faith in anything? I normally wouldn’t have thought too much into why Sharon lives recklessly, however I figured there must be more to it than she’s just a regular, unmotivated individual. I think it should have something to do with the fact that she doesn’t believe in God because her personality changes drastically when she turns to religion. After her conversation with the two men who come to her door, something in her changes. She feels a connection to God, and Sharon finally has something emotional in her life, a purpose to strive to achieve. She marries Randy, has a child, and goes on to live a generally normal, religious life. Even when her husband is killed, she remains calm, has faith, and tries to move on. As the film goes on and Sharon’s belief that the end is near escalates, she enters some state of ‘madness’. She murders her daughter, and as soon as this was happening, I imagined if this were to happen in today’s world. If I turned on the news and saw that a mother killed her daughter to send her to Heaven, I am sure that she would be diagnosed as psychotic and put away in a mental facility. Sharon uses her relationship to God to justify this action, but this is extreme behavior and made me think that she was dangerously delusional. In the end, God ends up being real, and he is wrathful and judgmental  He demands that Sharon love him and devote herself to him, but the death of her daughter and husband prove to be too influential for her to forgive God. He abandons her, and ultimately Sharon ends up alone, with nothing to show for her devotion to religion and her change in careless behavior.

As someone who does not believe that the Book of Revelation has any literal truth, it was difficult to sit down and watch this entire movie. If one believes that there truly is a Heaven and Hell and that we must live sin free to attain salvation, life would become impossible to live. Every move you make becomes some sort of debate between good and evil, and simply living day to day becomes a struggle.  I spent the majority of the film thinking that the Rapture wouldn’t actually happen, which therefore led me toview Sharon as insane. The fact that in the film ends with the Book of Revelation coming true was ridiculous to me. I don’t think the director meant to convert anyone into believers or to express his own beliefs; he simply made this film to explore what might happen if the Revelation came upon us. Basically, Sharon’s struggle to find herself and convert to a religious lifestyle ends up making her kill her daughter and abandon her faith in God. Is this meant to show that God is cruel and that he will only save you if you follow him blindly? Why didn’t God come to the desert to save Sharon and her daughter before everything turned to Chaos? If Sharon was faithful and lived religiously why was everything taken from her anyway? There are too many questions I can’t answer from this film, and it made me feel hopeless for my ‘destiny’ if God does actually exist. I think I am a good person, but if God is so harsh, it won’t be enough to save me.

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After watching Michael Tolkin’s The Rapture, I reread The Book of Revelation and wondered if many of the references made to the bible were legitimate. For example, we’re told that the sound of archangel Gabriel’s horn signifies the beginning of the apocalypse. However, in Revelation 8, we’re told that there are seven angels around God and each of them have trumpets. We are not told which angel sounds the first horn, or any of their names. Also, in Revelation 6:2 the first horseman of the apocalypse was Conquest. However, in Tolkin’s film, Angie cried out that the first horseman was War. Some of Tolkin’s use of biblical references in order to portray a rapture film was false and in a way, created a slightly antireligious film. Continue reading →

Chasing “The Rapture”: Let’s Give God One More Chance

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“The Rapture”, as a whole, is supposed to be the story of a woman who tries to find fulfillment in her life; first with indulging in the finer, and baser, pleasures in life before ‘finding’ salvation in a religion that she disowns by the end of the film in a bout of…selfishness. Overall, she shows no growth, condemns others to lives that didn’t make them all that happy, and tortured herself for no reason other than to have something to complain about. Normally, I would have analyzed the movie as a whole at the end of it but I ended up writing as scenes came up and then modifying my thoughts as it went on.

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