‘Entertainment Weekly’: ‘Last Exorcism’ About Rise of Those Scary Christians
by Hollywoodland
Entertainment Weekly’s “racially insensitive” Owen Gleiberman’s insights about the original “Exorcist” aren’t quite as deep as a puddle, but at least his Christian stereotyping and bigotry are plenty rabid:
So what does the devil look like in The Last Exorcism? I’d be the Antichrist if I spoiled it, but I will say that the movie is a nightmare vision of the rise of Christian fundamentalism. It’s about the dark side of piety — the cultish wrath that can emerge out of the high and the mighty. At the center of it all, once again, is a teenage girl’s gnashing madness. The original Exorcist came out a few years after the feminist revolution kicked into gear, and Linda Blair’s she-devil expressed our primal fear of a newly furious, newly empowered, and newly sexualized generation of young girls, the first that seemed to be channeling wanton forces far beyond their control. …
The movie is like The Exorcist without a spine-tingling catharsis. Still, it does leave you with creepy images of a newly severe Bible-thumping underground America. That’s the thing about the devil in movies: He’s really just a mirror.
So there you go, reason #11, 422 to cancel your subscription to this left-wing rag of sucker-punchery on the off-chance you haven’t already.
Email this to a friend | Print |
Share on Facebook
| Tweet this
| 
Follow Us on Twitter
Subscribe via RSS
Got a Tip?
77 Comments
Odd. But then, as I surf EW.com fairly often, Mr. Gleiberman is not widely respected even in those parts for his film critic skills (or lack thereof).
In a more detached vein, this is disappointing if it's really what the movie is about. Because personally, I find movies like "The Exorcist" or "The Omen" far scarier than, say, "Jaws," simply because of my Christian faith and thus belief in (and sometimes fear of) the supernatural. And even the idea that something like that could happen, something science has little or no power over, is unnerving for a lot of people. So if this movie is more concerned with bashing Christianity than focusing on, you know, demonic possession, I'm afraid it's gonna fall pretty flat.
if one remembers correctly Gleiberman went around the talk show circuit claiming 'Black Hawk Down' was racist…
THAT was a hoot. Yes, the good guys were (mostly) white US Army Rangers and the bad guys were Somalis.
They ARE black guys.
So this is the take of many on the left who, clueless about the real world see everything through their little PC
prism. To his credit, Gleiberman is not always this bad; some of his reviews do get it. But the left's loathing of All Things Christian is complete, and total. As if Christians were the reason for the world's problems.
Perhaps the unfortunate Mr Gleiberman should realize that those who protect his ass from harm are largely Christian, as are the First Responders who will save his life, and the pilots who fly the commercial aircraft he flies on, and so on. Some of them are even devout.
But that would be asking a lot from someone so narrowminded…
Yeah Christians Bad. Islamists you know the head chopping, Woman Killing, Bomb carrying, Camel humping Islamists they are gooood to idiots like this. Would someone PLEASE wrap him in an American flag and drop him in a Taliban camp. He can tell his Christian jokes up to the point they lop his head off. Moron.
I once heard an interview with a well known movie critic where he was asked, "How do you get to be a movie critic?"
His answer, "Somebody gives you a job as a movie critic."
I'm glad I live in a country where someone like Mr. Gleiberman, (a man not burdened with a mighty intellect) can make a nice living ridiculing a world view that has brought freedom and prosperity wherever it was applied.
Read Nolte's review. He liked it a lot and said there was no bashing.
If Gleiberman thinks this film showcases Christian fundamentalism as scary, then how is that Nolte didn't notice that bent in the movie's thematics?
See, I think by making demonic possession scary, which in the Bible, its more about sadness or tragedy… then it feeds into the liberal premise of Christianity, the fundamental, the righteousness… from what I've read… MEN in the Bible do horrible, evil, apathetic, hedinost, tragic, and cynical things, the demons are just impairments of a sound body and mind.
I never liked Gleiberman or the other chick's reviews. They are terrible and almost always infused with political commentary.
The only reason I read EW was to read the recaps for LOST when that was on TV because that was always entertaining, thought provoking and well-written.
Gleiberman is a creep. His line about "newly empowered, and newly sexualized… young girls…" is gross. But I guess guys like him like the idea of young girls glorifying "Sluthood." D-Bag.
So, the movie bashes like The Expendables was jingoistically patriotic? In other words, some lefty critic saw it might succeed on some level and needed an anti-right tack to take against it to try to derail more actual entertainment.
I for one thought there should have been a least a few token white Somalis. : )
well, they did have ONE black Ranger…
Does that count?
"Linda Blair’s she-devil expressed our primal fear of a newly furious, newly empowered, and newly sexualized generation of young girls, the first that seemed to be channeling wanton forces far beyond their control . . ."
This is such an obviously wrong take on The Exorcist, I have no, um, faith that anything this twit says about the new movie is accurate. I guess time will tell.
'A newly severe Bible-thumping underground America'
I know, right! They're always blowing up buildings and beheading people!
You might think those are Muslims doing those things, but that's really a Zionist conspiracy…
Just think, if he said it was about Islam, he'd be a "racist."
I'm sure the islamagoons love Owen.
I've always hated EW. Owen (and Lisa Schwartbaum) have always been bigoted towards the Christian Right. Yah, EW is a leftist rag, always has been. It's not good for anything. You can get the same entertainment information anywhere on the internet. The critics over at EW have always been lightweight.
Catholics perform exorcisms, catholics are not Christians. Catholics worship Mary over God & Jesus. Catholics are idol worshipers. Catholics put a man, a priest, between themselves & God. Catholics are some of the biggest hipocrits when it comes to religion in the entire world, next to muslimaniacs (who do not actually belong to a religion, but to a theo/political cult). Any group that places the blessed virgin above & before God the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a false religion.
Obviously wrong, but that doesn't stop Gleiberman's fellow libs from agreeing with it — as far back as 1985, Stephen King was comparing the Greatest Generation's experience of Regan McNeil to their witnessing of 100,000 people doing the Fish Cheer at Woodstock not too long previously. It seems to have been their opinion, King implies, that America's kids were simply not themselves — and going to see a movie about a kid who was literally demonically possessed acted as a catharsis for the people who had to endure their own kids coming home from college for the summer and blurting out things they would never have expected their children to say, like "The President's a war pig".
The Boomers are, and have been, arrogant enough to think that their parents' generation was so close-minded as to jump to conclusions about them during the social upheaval of the Sixties. They take a perverse pride in their belief that when WW2 vets look at the Boomers, all they can think of is Country Joe McDonald shouting: "Gimme an F!… Gimme a U!… Gimme a C!… Gimme a K!… WHAT'S THAT SPELL?… WHAT'S THAT SPELL?… WHAT'S THAT SPELL?… WHAT'S THAT SPELL?… WHAT'S THAT SPELL?"
Precisely.
Been an EW subscriber for probably 10 years now. The constant drip of standard msm liberalism has slowly filled the bowl and tilted it to the left. Even in the little sidebar columns (Hot List, mini-TV reviews, Bullseye, etc.) it continues to grow bigger and bolder… and stupider.
I've learned to live with it. When you hire people like Diablo cody and Stephen King as regular contibutors, as well as the aforementioned Glieberman, you sort of have to expect it. But if it gets any worse (and it will) they will lose another reader. Which is a shame.
Exactly. I read The Exorcist after seeing the movie, the edition I read had a commentary by Blatty himself and he wrote he if you accept the existence of God you also must accept the existence of Satan, and that is the truly horrific notion. Considering that he was raised Catholic, considered the priesthood, and the basis of The Exorcist is an actual case from 1949, it is not a commentary on feminism one way or the other, but about the existence of Good and Evil and the redemption of a man who questions his own faith, in his sacrifice he saves himself.
The "bible-thumpers" I know are about peace, forgiveness, acceptance and love. Doesn't sound creepy or a reflection of Satan.
my catholic friends dont grasp the bibilical fact that " no man comes to the Father, but by me" . while they continue to ask mary for help….
The "Bible-thumpers" are "newly" severe? I'm pretty sure Gleib has been complaining about them steadily since 1980. I guess there was a reprieve for him when Obama was elected. Now apparently if you complain about the economy tanking or the debt or the mosque, you're a "Bible-thumper." Personally, I haven't touched, let alone thumped, a Bible in 25 years, and I'm po'ed about all that stuff!
Um, so feminism is Satanic? That explains some things!
He links the original Exorcist movie to — feminism? Really? wow. These libs have brains of mush. That, and they love projecting their idiotic prejudices on the American people. As if ANYONE who's ever seen that movie likened it to the damn feminist movement. And they call us nuts. And dude – I'd rather thump a Bible than a copy of Rules for Radicals [Dedicated by Alinsky to Satan].
Either you are being sarcastic or do not understand Catholicism. Honor Mary, but not worship. There is one God. When Catholics pray to the Holy Mother, Catholics are asking for guidance, like asking for advice from a friend. It is not about placing Mary above God. Neither do Catholics idol worshipers. I'm not sure where that impression comes from. Kneel before God, as Catholics leave enter and leave, during the Eucharist, because we are in the presence of the Lord. As far as placing a man between them and God, nope. A priest is there as guidance, a help in interpretation of the Gospels. Weekly Church members participate in the readings and Communion, and are encouraged to reread the readings and reflect and pray on the meaning. I'm not trying to start a fight, just clarify. I don't think there is anything specifically wrong about Protestant religions. Just saying we are all brothers in Christ, and we all believe in the big thing, Jesus died for our sins.
It takes a particular brand of demagogue to re-write The Exorcist to make it about religious fundamentalism.
Has he even seen the movie? Sheesh.
Dear Mr. Gleiberman,
Here is how you use, "The Google."
1] Enter, "The Exorcist Wiki" in the search field in your browser… it's that blank field in the top bar on the right. Now, hit the RETURN key.
This will lead you to a list of entries about the film. Click on the Wikipedia Film entry. This will take you to an article about the movie, in which it is mentioned that the book was based on the 1949 exorcism of Robbie Mannheim. The text for Robbie Manheim is blue. That's because it's something called a, "hyperlink." A hyperlink takes you to another article about… Robbie Mannheim.
2] Click on the Robbie Mannheim hyperlink.
That takes you to another Wikipedia entry about Robbie Mannheim, in which you'll discover that the name is a something called a, "pseudonym." That's a made-up name for an anonymous individual, in this case one called, "Roland Doe" (Not a real name).
See how cool this is? It can save you a lot of embarrassment too. You know, since there wasn't any feminist movement in 1949, the character the book and film are based on is actually a male… and Blatty had no feminist agenda.
Hope this helps!
Sincerely,
George
wow, beyond ignorant into malice and hate, good luck mr christian
"Linda Blair’s she-devil expressed our primal fear of a newly furious, newly empowered, and newly sexualized generation of young girls….
Actually, it expressed a primal fear of girls who can spin their heads around while spewing pea soup and croaking vile things about our mothers. What, am I being too literal here?
You might need to break it down into simpler terms, Hucbald. No need to overwhelm Gleiberman.
Others have already pointed out the huge inaccuracy of saying there was a feminist movement in 1949. (I highly recommend Hucbald's post above.) Therefore, I won't go into it here.
Even if it was because of the feminist movement (hypothetically speaking since Gleiberman's timeline is inaccurate), I'd say that the movie started to create a fear of small children much like Jaws helped out so much with people's fear of sharks. (At least it did for me. Why do really scary horror movies always have small, exceptionally creepy children?!)
Why are so many people in Hollywood anti-Christian?
It's simple: Christianity requires one to adopt high morals. That puts a damper on weekends at Malibu.
"SOB" – Shelley Winters to Julie Andrews: "…you know this town, sweetie, you can smoke dope and end up going steady with your Afghan and you're just one of the gang…"
And you call yourself "Wally in touch?"
Because he touches his Wally?
Sorry, that wasn't very Christian of me. Wait, I'm not a Christian, I'm a Catholic – I can insult away!
BRILLIANT!!!!!!!!!!
Amen Brother!
Along the same lines of thinking as the reviewer who thought the whole "Lord of The Rings" trilogy was about suppressed homosexual desires. Like "Brokeback Mount Doom" or something.
King Henry? Is that you?
"SOB" – Shelley Winters to Julie Andrews: "…you know this town, sweetie, you can smoke dope and end up going steady with your Afghan and you're just one of the gang…"
What's wrong with dating an Afghan? RACIST! ISLAMAPHOBE!
/joking
I believe his ilk are unable to ingest the clue once given.
Maybe liberalism truly IS a disease…
It is sad really…
Prof T,
When you have convinced yourself you ARE a god, you are "so totally beyond" needing salvation or even reprimand.
How dare we Christians look down our snooty noses at their despicable behavior…
They have chosen to worship themselves and Hedonism. They don't think they need God…
Therefore WE are the wrong ones, not themselves.
"That’s the thing about the devil in movies: He’s really just a mirror."
The best line I ever heard about the Devil in a movie (TV, actually) was in the "Signs & Wonders" episode of "The X-Files." Mulder & Scully are called out to investigate the mysterious deaths of former members of a backwoods "Bible-thumper" preacher who left his church to join a mainline "Progressive" church. SPOILER ALERT: the whole episode you're being led to believe that the fundamentalist preacher is the murderer when in actuality it's the progressive minister who is the Devil in disguise. Mulder says "The Devil isn't some monster with horns & a tail, he's a nice man who tells you what you want to hear."
Afghan the clothing article,
Afghan the dog, or Afghan
the gardener?
I think Somalia is racist because it doesn't "look like" the rest of the world. Obvious case of de-facto segregation. We need to intervene. Start busing some Norwegians in there.
This sexualized generation of young girls channeling wanton forces far beyond their control – do they have a sister?
having actually been there, one thinks Norwegians probably wouldn't like it much. Maybe some Venezuelans would be a better call. Or Cubans…
Interesting info. I agree that it wasn't comment on feminism. I think making the character a virginal young girl with a single mother kind of escalated the drama in the movie. In 1970s terms, women and young girls were more "threatenable" than males. And Regan's behavior when possessed was more shocking than it would have been from a boy. So it was technique, not social commentary.
"The original Exorcist came out a few years after the feminist revolution kicked into gear, and Linda Blair’s she-devil expressed our primal fear of a newly furious, newly empowered, and newly sexualized generation of young girls, the first that seemed to be channeling wanton forces far beyond their control. …"
Wow, I never got that out of The Exorcist. I thought it was just a movie about a girl possessed by the devil. I think this comment says more about Owen Gleiberman and whatever is going on in his head than anything else.
The fact is, nothing makes a liberal feel braver than to analyze other people's alleged fears. We unenlightened people are supposed to be afraid of change. Afraid of powerful women. Afraid of powerful non-white people. Afraid of our own latent homosexuality. Afraid to face facts about all the bad stuff our country has done and continues to do. Afraid to admit when we're beaten. We're all just a bunch of cowards – that's why we cling to our guns and bibles. It's all classic, pseudo-Freudian rhetorical BS, but the left sure gets a lot of mileage out of it.
Just contrast. Little children are supposed to be sweet and innocent – or at least small and powerless. We also know they're emotionally and intellectually immature and often prone to tantrums. Making them scary and/or immensely powerful violates our expectations, which can be very dramatic.
That's the thing about being a secular humanist: EVERYTHING is about YOU.
I'm confused. Shouldn't belief in Christianity less fearful of the paranormal?
Ooh, expose the dark side of .. Christianity? How edgy and creative! Allah bless him, he is an artistic genius!
It's hard to choose which is more lame – the review or the movie.
I don't know about the movie, I'm not really a horror flick fan, but bring out the "scary Christians", we have never needed them more than today!
Best regards,
Gail S http://www.backyardfence.wordpress.com
Well, they are more used to abject poverty and an oppressive government regime.
then they would be perfect for here, dontcha think?
Who said they had to like it? It would be for their own good.
good point. The state knows instinctively what we ALL like,anyway…
A far better (but still arguable) analysis of The Exorcist that many have made was that it symbolized the fear of the state of the youth rebellion to the adults in the 60's and early 70's. The fear that their children would become jacked up hippies and turn on them, sometimes violently.
I'm in such need of "salvation." Help me jeebus!
Hey stupid, it's not the Christians that want to make you and yours into Egg Jew Young or recreate the Holocaust, not in the movies, but for real.
"Any group that places the blessed virgin above & before God the Father, the Son & the Holy Spirit is nothing more than a false religion."
Amen brother, but that doesn't describe the Catholic Church. Put down the Jack Chick comix and get serious.
Ever ask a friend to pray for you? That's all we do with Mary. St. Paul instructs us to pray for each other, and the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous. Who could be more righteous than Theotokos, whom all generations will call blessed?
Which movie? The Exorcist or The Last Exorcism?
Stupid crap like this guy is what made me finally end my subscription last year, having been a subscriber since 1992. It's now written and edited by apologists who get their feelings hurt EVERY SINGLE WEEK. If you subscribe, cancel it and let's but these finger-sniffers out of business.
Presumably she was talking about the pooch-type Afghan, but when considering Hollywood, I wouldn't rule anything out.
It should. But I'm a paranoid individual. I know, I know, just one of those personality flaws I'm intermittently working on.
Radical Christianity is as much a threat to us as Radical Islam.
-The Gospel, according to Rosie.
What a joke.
I agree. If that's what this guy took from THE EXORCIST, he has no business watching movies let alone critcizing them for a living.
I used to read EW all the time. They've veered further and further left as the years have gone by, and Glieberman and Schwartzbaum's sickly-sweet, overly precious writing styles hinting at all things progressive became like nails on the chalkboard.
Progressives see things only through the prism of race, class and gender. Glieberman has obviously drunk well from the deconstructivist Kool-Aid trough, no doubt thanks to his university. So, of course,, he completely missed the religious profundity of "The Exorcist."
The intent of the original Exorcist was NOT to portray the devil as a mirror of ourselves, specifically a "newly empowered, newly sexualized generation of young girls." What a laugh! William Peter Blatty, William Friedkin and the numerous Catholic priests advising them worked long and creatively to provide a vision of evil beyond the scope of human compassion, reason or value. A "mirror", on the other hand, would show us something within our understanding. What we're shown instead is inexplicable, insatiable evil of the kind the Left loves to deny exists (note: the evil of the Exorcist is largely metaphor, i.e., one isn't required to believe in actual possession in order to believe in evil).
"The Exorcist" was meant as a challenge to faith. How can one have any faith in a loving God which allows such evil to befall the innocent? It's a timeless, philosophical and spiritual question, not some rebellious celebration of "grrrl power". To place it solely within the realm of sex/gender/class is to undermine, and actually dilute entirely, its statement regarding the nature of good and evil, something a leftist like Glieberman clearly has no interest in discussing.
The "fear" thing is huge with them! This is how they get around actually debating issues. The ironic thing is that, yes, there are imagined, prejudicial fears and real fears. For the Left, who believe evil is merely induced by societal conditions (fix those conditions, fix the evil!), there is nothing to fear…..except of course big business, religion and conservatives.
The secular mind is largely unconcerned with morality (discussion of good and evil, and its accountability) because it believes that such things are decided upon the basis of class/race/gender, a religion unto itself.
I wasn't stoned out of my gourd when I saw the film, so I didn't notice a feminist bent to the film, either. I am told you notice a lot of things in a state of "altered consciousness".
It's fairly typical of feminist deconstructivist criticism, something Glieberman undoubtedly studied. I will allow that in the early 1970s, film, as well as the rest of the culture, was certainly experiencing a loosening of strictures in terms of what could be allowed to be shown. Feminism and the counterculture it belonged to undoubtedly played a role in that. Obviously, The Exorcist would not have been made 10 years earlier, and I doubt it could be made today. But it's a complete non sequitur to take that fact, as Gleiberman does, to say that the Exorcist was therefore made to serve a feminist agenda.
The film – as shocking as it still is – is deeply centered on issues of faith; it is not about Linda Blair so much as about the priest, Fr. Karras and his struggle with the timeless, spiritual question regarding a loving God who allows innocent people to suffer. The timelessness (as symbolized via the older priest and his past experiences) addresses the very nature of man, not some newly found feminist ideology. Ridiculous.
I couldn't agree more. I've been reading EW since its inception in the late 1980s, I believe. It's liberal sanctimony has reached the absurd. I actually canceled my subscription a few months back. It's just not enjoyable anymore. They used to be much more centered on traditional reportage and review, but the opinion has overwhelmed it (the editorial columns you mention did not exist in the magazine 10 years ago). Read Stephen King's latest diatribe against Rush Limbaugh whom he lambasted for – get this! – criticizing Lindsay Lohan? King suggested that Rush should focus his efforts on "helping" her. Wow…..it's a naive bubble they live in.
Racist
You must be logged in to post a comment.