The War for the Castle of our Imagination
by Yervand KocharOne of the most unfortunate events that deterred a healthy development of a motion picture industry is that its childhood tragically coincided with the childhood of Communism. The Soviet era of Communism was the first totalitarian regime that recognized the power of a moving image and used it fully to align masses with its party line. Not unlike the liberal-Democrat film and media machine that so disgracefully uses it today and by far exceeds the standards of tasteless social realism initiated by their Soviet forefathers.
Understandably, I float in a much generalized stream but nevertheless the essential point of this thought is well anchored in the truth. Let me try to substantiate myself with an example.
Did you notice how often when one prays in the movies or TV something of a terrible nature, usually involving lots of blood, happens to him or her?
It seems that prayer is the most dangerous human activity on the screen. See it for yourself – see how many movies you can count from 1971 till present where a hero was able to complete any prayer, even a short one, without being interrupted by some kind of a life threatening attack.
It becomes habitual; as soon as someone kneels to pray you know something bloody is on the way to happen. So after seeing someone attacked by some horrifying creature as they pray, one simply concludes that prayer is a dangerous activity to be avoided, at least in public.
Our image addicted mind being systematically exposed to the variation of the same image, subconsciously creates a simple defense mechanism such as “prayer=danger” or “prayer is not safe.” The more natural the image of someone’s skull cracked during the prayer becomes to us, the more the defense mechanism solidifies itself regardless of our will.
We are being indoctrinated image by image. Even the knowledge of it being a manipulation cannot resist the logic of an imaginative mind, which believes what is sees not what it’s told.
Well, one can argue that it is not done on purpose but simply to add dramatic effect. This explanation can make sense within the pathetic frames of our contemporary culture where the only way to achieve anything close to dramatic is by mocking the sacred and meaningful, and the only way to be courageous is by ridiculing a sacred ritual or a tradition, (with no repercussions, by the way).
Prayer used to be considered a powerful weapon against everything evil, in fact, the only secure weapon in this uncertain universe of ours. Prayer used to be the impregnable castle of our higher being, a castle where we could safely retreat from the injustice and vanity of the world. It used to be until 1960’s when the movie industry in the United States became fatally infected with the virus of Christ-hating Communist scum imported from the Soviet Union and Europe. The virus was injected in 30’s and took only three decades to fully destroy the immature and naive imaginative immunity of the American cinema.
That miserable demon Lenin said once, “Cinema is the most important among the arts” and this, in turn, became a mantra of Communist infiltrators who systematically invaded Hollywood in the 1930’s.Lenin’s atheist-demons demolished thousands of churches and hanged clergymen all over Russia. Within twenty years after the revolution, the Bolsheviks successfully removed everything sacred from the landscape of the religious Russian soul. Now it was time for America.
They knew that America communicated to the world and within itself through cinema. Being a young culture not equipped by an extensive mythology, America, more than any other land, was deeply rooted and dependant on the movies as a source of a national imagination. Movies for America were as important as the Iliad for the Greeks — and planting Commies in Hollywood was nothing short of sending a wooden horse to the Trojans.
The scope of the Communist infiltration is immense and frightening. It was one of the most effective, cheaply done and brilliant political moves ever executed. In fact, its impact was so powerful and enduring, that till this very day, even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, we still see its destructive tendencies rolling in our movies by the inertia of ignorance.
Unbeknownst to many well-intentioned filmmakers, it is still the same Trojan horse of nihilist-demonic religion, of ugly antichrists that is peacefully parked in the castle of our imagination. And because some of us still reject our staggering defeat and stupidity and naivety that let us accept the gift of our enemies, they still make movies trying to glorify those who came to destroy us just as they destroyed the God-fearing and God-Loving Russian peasant who was not allowed to go to church anymore and upon witnessing the horrors of Christian persecutions was now afraid to pray at all.
They tortured and murdered Christians in Russia and unable to do so in America, using the imagination of sick and hateful writers and directors, they tortured and murdered them in the movies.
Mutilating praying people in the movies was just a preview of this gruesome historic series. But it was powerful enough to inspire many sequels. And these sequels were not produced by Communist spies but by our “own Homers” who were not only as blind as their Greek forefather but also stupid and desperately ignorant of the fact that they were telling the story of their enemy.







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36 Comments
I wish you would have provided examples of Prayer=Danger. I'm thinking hard and I've only come up with "In Bruges." Maybe my problem is that prayer is so rare in movies that I have few movies from which to choose.
Respectfully, if I can't even think of movies with this association then the indoctrination must not be taking hold in my case.
Yervand,
Thank you for stating the not-so-obvious.
This subversion of our innate goodness becomes easy when there are no teachers of the fact of our own present divinity and our ability to instantly connect with the allness of God(Good) through prayer.
People, hold on to your Love(God) and practice prayer in your daily return to God(Love) and little-by-little, we all will see the flowering forth of beauty, courage, and goodness, as originally designed.
Thank you for your reminder to us of what's under attack and its importance.
I enjoy your columns and look forward to them. Thanks for your courage
I'm lacking for examples too. I can think of a movie where someone is almost killed while praying, but I don't think 'The Mummy' can be considered the most highbrow of entertainment. Perhaps I just havn't watched enough films.
The example that immediately popped into my head was Fredo in The Godfather, Part II.
Thank you for pointing out this technique.
And also, thank you for the grace and authority, with which you judged the Communists. We've long had the Nazis to kick around in our movies, but we're only just beginning the process of reviling the Communists as they deserve. Most voices that do so are too tentative, or lacking in style, but you do wonderfully with your condemnation.
[...] Como não poderia deixar de ser, o resultado do Oscar não agradou muito à linha editorial do site. Em especial, a escolha de Sean Penn como melhor ator por encarnar um gay deixou os rapazes em polvorosa, a ponto de gerar posts que começam da seguinte forma: [...]
Actually, the most dangerous activity seems to be walking around a darkened house in one's underwear. At least, if one is female and attractive.
Does Conan's prayer to Crom count? I, too, need a few more concrete examples of the prayer/danger theory. A church full of people got burned in "The Patriot," but that was clearly shown to be an act by the villain of the piece. I'm also not sure I agree with the main thesis, especially since it was during the period that the author cites (30's through 60's) that Hollywood turned out its biggest number of religious epics.
"The scope of the Communist infiltration is immense and frightening." While I agree, in this era of Democrats it is chic to call oneself a communist, I'm not sure how much of this was the direct result of an active, directed infiltration of Hollywood.
Any examples of powerful, influential people that were direct plants of the USSR?
The article might be interesting if the author could write more coherently. The author should substantiate his arguments, not try to "substantiate myself." If the goal is to find literate conservative thinkers in Hollywood, it looks like this site still has some work to do.
I think you could add to the author's arguments that "church=danger." How many times, from the obvious The Church to End of Days do heroes go into Churches to seek refuge from metaphysical evil only to be attacked in the church? What other negative associations come from religious movies made in Hollywood? The Gathering, Stigmata to name a few. A good example of a film where a church plays a positive role is Home Alone.
Don't expect the leftists to do anything but hit the snooze alarm in their heads at such articles. It was subtle and brilliant. I've read enough KGB histories to know this country was barraged by communist spies, both from the KGB, but also Comintern, university exchanges, the works, starting in the 1930s. But since left=good to the tunnel-vision liberals, no amount of history or evidence will persuade them to give up their inane "causes."
Think of poor Aunt May in the first Spider-Man. Just because it's "lowbrow" like this or The Mummy doesn't make it a poor example. Same with The Patriot – the church burning was done by the Big Bad, sure, which makes the point all the more strongly – "Your faith and your God are no protection." It may be all the more effective this way – how many more people watched these two movies than something like "Religulous"?
Mr. Kochar,
Thanks for an interesting observation. My observation is that if I see a character in a current movie praying, he will turn out to be a perv, a psychotic killer, or a hypocrite.
Well written and argued, but built on a shaky foundation. One understands that the "communism LIVES secretly in Hollywood!!!" meme has been floating around the right-wing talking-points bin so long (and yet having so little effect in all that time, hm…) it must be hard to find a new angle. But still… no.
The juxtaposition of prayer/religious-iconography and horror-imagery is as old as the Middle Ages for Christianity, and older than THAT for the rest of history's various religions. Even in films pre-1960, it's not unusual for prayer – formal or informal – to occur at moments of desperation, darkness or despair. DeMille's "Sign of The Cross" intercuts a dungeon of Christian Romans in various stages of prayer with unheard-of-at-the-time carnage in the Colloseum for dramatic effect. "Night of The Hunter's" villian quotes scripture and addresses God directly while beating small children and comitting knife-murders, and enters the film jovially CREDITING The Almighty for inspiring and approving of his most-recent killing…
CONTINUED:
…
The modern "prayer (usually Catholic) = evil" trick generally goes back to The Exorcist, and if THAT'S to be the case-study the argument presented falls apart almost-completely: The Exorcist is one of the most religiously-devout films ever made. And whether intentionally or not, most of the sacred-meets-profane horror flicks that came in it's wake have that element in their DNA. In fact, horror tends to be the most traditionalist of all genres – the artistically indefensible "Friday the 13th" movies doing a better job propagandizing for the "religious right" than it does for itself: "Don't have sex, don't drink, don't indulge in sensory pleasure of any kind OR ELSE a goalie will kill you with a machete." If we were a Muslim nation, Jason Vorhees would be beheading burqa-less girls instead of topless ones.
Maybe (probably) I'm just naive, but I usually appreciate those moments of prayer. I tend to think of it as the characters knowing they're facing their darkest moment and needing the courage and strength to suffer through it. Unless they're specifically praying for their life and then are immediately slaughtered – then yeah, I can definitely see that as a swipe at the uselessness of religion. Otherwise, I like to think it does heighten the drama, easily but hopefully honestly, and gives a bit of humanity to the characters.
Then again, I LOVED last week's episode of House with the priest.
Aw, c'mon. Most of the dead teenager movies had slashers who were either jealous of the dead girls' boobs or frustrated that the right-wing campers were having the sex that the unkempt lefties couldn't get.
Excellent take on religion in film Yervand. The last time I saw someone do something religious that seemed understanding was a father placing a crucifix in his son's hand when the kid died. Sad and sentimental.
Even more dangerous than that is if the young female in the darkened house decides to take a shower.
That sort of ties into the original post: Lefties don't believe in prayer or personal hygiene.
I too enjoyed the last episode. I think it explained rather well the Christian idea of everything working together for good. Many people assume that when we accept Christ we believe everything that happens to us will be good. It won't. But God can work through the bad things in life to some good end. Like the bad things in the Priest's life leading him to House who could find out what was wrong with him. Not that God caused the bad things to happen, they would have happened regardless, God just works through them.
Another example: My father has diabetes (brought on from a life of too many sweets). Because of this he has regular doctor visits to verify he's keeping everything under control. On one such apointment the doctor noticed a lump that was growing on my dad's neck. Turned out it was cancer. It was caught early enough that they could remove it, and my dad has been healthy since. That is everything working together for good.
I understand what you're saying Yervand, and I know i've seen movies like that, but for the life of me I can't put a name to any of them at the moment.
Reading through the posts I noticed that many had not noticed this prayer= death in many movies pre 1970. Well growing up in the USA I did not either. I remember the day Yervand said to me that almost every-time some one prays in a movie in the US they get killed, or something awful happens.
After he told me that, I started to see this in many movies, even though I had never noticed this before. And that is how indoctrination works.. we do not even realize we are being 'washed' but we are, we are being desensitized and well trained.
The reader must remember, Yevand grew up in a communist country, he not only grew up among all repression of religion… his grandmother was a top KGB agent. That being said, he is privy to things we think are not. As we have grown up with these images, we never even think to notice. What we do notice is the effect of these images in our daily lives, in the destruction of our culture, beliefs, and family. It has become so offensive now, that it is time for everyone who loves this country to stand up and take notice that movies have contributed a great deal to our decline…coincidence or malice?
There are no coincidences in the movies.
Very insightful, Yervand, wonderfully expressed. And the wooden horse has a big PC painted on it, and we can't toss it out of the castle. But oh…we're working on it, my brother. We're working on it.
The French Revolution, history's first mass secular social movement, was violently anti-Christian. Hundreds of priests were killed and churches desecrated. The Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917 used that Revolution as a model for their own. Christianity became a target and atheism became the State religion. The same happened in Spain under the Russian -supported leftist government after 1936. And in Cuba. The point is that leftist governments are always quick to move against Christianity- the State will supply the gods: Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Ciacescu, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, Mao Tse-Tung etc. Why is the modern left so quick to excuse the excesses of islamists? It's not that liberals love that religion. The reason is that Islam is anti-Christian. The tendency of US liberal Democrats to raise their current president to idol status is to be expected. That's what leftists do. Nietsche pointed out that when god is dead, men of power will take his place. He was right. The liberal assault on religion, ie Christianity, can be expected to continue. Communism killed 100 million people in the name of equality and social justice. Atheism turned out to be even more savage than leftists consider Christianity to have been.
My step-grandfather was a Lithuanian sent by the KGB in the 30s to infiltrate Hollywood. When he became disillusioned with Stalin after the crackdown on the Jews in the late 40s, he tried to leave. He met with a "boating accident." My grandmother, a communist sympathizer who traveled to Moscow in the 30s, was terrified and also died mysteriously not long after. As a child my father always told me that they were both murdered by the KGB.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, would be good way of understanding the lack of outrage from the left. Especially silent is women libber's on how some Muslims disgustingly treat their women. Where is the cry of outrage? I guess because they can't help the women libbers movement, they are of no use to them.
"Little Big Man" – the minister in the stage coach gets killed by an arrow that goes right through the Bible he is holding into his heart.
I will have to search out the citation from my books at home, but the history of Communist infiltration of Hollywood was one of failure during the 1930s to the 1950s. Very few movies were made from overtly or covertly Marxist or pro-Soviet scripts. When the Comintern complained to its handlers about the lack of output, they were told to be patient, that it was very difficult to get these themes into production. Meanwhile, the handlers were living a high lifestyle in Hollywood — definitely better than back home in Moscow.
The balance really shifted in the 1960s, when the Red Scare faded and Communism was no longer viewed as the existential threat that it had been. That allowed Leftist views to be explicit in American movies.
I think you could add to the author's arguments that "church=danger." How many times, from the obvious The Church to End of Days do heroes go into Churches to seek refuge from metaphysical evil only to be attacked in the church? What other negative associations come from religious movies made in Hollywood? The Gathering, Stigmata to name a few. A good example of a film where a church plays a positive role is Home Alone.
Don't expect the leftists to do anything but hit the snooze alarm in their heads at such articles. It was subtle and brilliant. I've read enough KGB (Cheka, etc.) histories to know this country was barraged by communist spies, by the KGB, Comintern, university exchanges, the works, starting in the 1930s. But since left=good to the tunnel-vision liberals, no amount of history or evidence will persuade them to give up their inane "causes."
Excellent! Your spot on! it's so true. I'm beside myself right now. Hundreds of movies that have that same scenario. Prayer=Death… It's amazing. Someone is praying…Guaranteed they're either dead or mangled in less than a minute. But wait!!! It's done for dramatic reasons they'll say. It's just scarier that way??? Well yes, it is scarier that way, CAUSE we have been BRAINWASHED to believe it in that form. Hence, DON'T rely on Religion or prayer, because it won't be there for you in the end. besides it's all make believe. God doesn't exist, believe in us, we'll help you. Your so right on….BRAVO!! Almost all butcher movies, monster movies, devil movies…THE SAME DEAL…your dead if you pray!
"The Passion of the Christ" where Jesus is praying in a garden when the soldiers come and take him away to be whipped, crowned with thorns and then nailed to a cross. It's a nightmare.
I've always noticed that, soon after some little chippie takes off her bra she becomes the next victim. My younger sister calls it "killing the boobs"
In War of the Worlds the minister walking forward in peace and reciting a Psalm is vaporized by the alien.
I think the "person killed while praying" has less to do with anti-religious entiment and more to do with the evvil of the bad guy attacking.
I mean, you have to be pretty low to attack someone while THEY ARE PRAYING. (The Patriot)
The other reason could sometimes be that the character has fianlly found peace (somehow) and is ready for IT.
but I can name some counter-examples (Tyler Perry films, Forrest Gump)
How about Thomas a Becket??? Isn't that the "canonical" example?
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