Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary (DVD-Video)
Picture: C Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Film: B
In one of
the boldest films of a career filled with them, Jean-Luc Godard’s Hail Mary (1984/5) remains one of the
most challenging of all time. It
deconstructs the dogma of Catholicism, Christianity and even fascism, only to
reconstruct the heart and soul of religious faith and the real reasons why one
would want to follow any faith for their own personal reasons. Needless to say this is why The Vatican and
other political forces, especially in the mid-1980s, objected.
The film
can be seen as Godard’s latest attack at the time on Neo-Conservatism, Fascism
and cult/pagan appeals of the tale of the virgin mother. Though this may be very difficult for true
Christians to endure, the reactionary responses are more idiotic than anything
this film could be accused of. As a
deconstructive parallel in modern time, a young lady named Mary has not had
sex, yet is pregnant and marries a taxi driver (read shepherd) to be legitimate,
no matter how long distance the marriage may be.
From
there, the film uses subtly and nuance in language, word graphics, editing,
juxtaposition and purely cinematic images to explore every aspect of fact,
myth, truth and lies you can think of. At
the same time, it inadvertently asks the question of what one do would if Jesus
was with us today, but stops just before that possibility. It also asks why Mary inspires a kind of
“hail” that is more militant than loving in too many cases.
It gets to
the core of why Christianity is behind so many good and bad things in the
world. This is a great film worth your
time and has finally arrived as lesser films like The DaVinci Code with its silly fictional extrapolations, Mel
Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ
with its mix of good moments, strange portrayals of Judaism & Satan,
homophobia and obsession with revising (and revisiting) Stanley Kubrick’s A
Clockwork Orange and Martin Scorsese’s The
Last Temptation Of Christ dealing with the opposite end of Jesus’ life in a
faith vs. dogma struggle of its own.
The 1.33
X 1 image shows its age from an older NTSC analog master that badly needs
upgraded. Note the limits of the dark
shots. This will be the last time we’ll
see this since the next step will be HD, the kind of upgrade and restoration
Godard’s library needs and deserves. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is passable, but shows its age. Extras include The Book Of Mary
featurette written and directed by Anne Marie-Mieville, theatrical trailer for
this film as well as for four other New Yorker releases including Godard’s
impressive In Praise Of Love,
reviewed elsewhere on this site. Also,
look for Juliette Binoche, who also co-stars in a good role and early
performance.
When all
is said and done, Godard says it best when he talks about the objection to his
film being a matter of “The Church” being afraid of “losing its copyright” on
faith. Once it gets that dogmatic, it is
no longer faith, but that truth can hurt.
- Nicholas Sheffo
