Escribano Numero Dos Para El Semestre: Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Hdub for today: Parent permission letter for National Geographic project signed and returned by Friday and a one page reaction paper to the movies, art, and songs presented in class due Monday.

Handouts: Parent Permission form, Song lyrics packet.

Movies to react to:
Legend
Devils Advocate
Bedazzled
South Park: Satan's Sweet 16

Art:
Hell art (link to art shown in class)

Songs:

1. Flogging Molly - Seven Deadly Sins
2. The Devil Went down to Georgia - Charlie Daniels Band
3. Crossroads - Eric Clapton
4. AC/DC - Highway to Hell
5. AC/DC - Hells Bells

Use the movies, art, and songs to help you with your reaction paper.

Today we got through all of the movies and here is some insight on each one that we watched.

Devil's Advocate: A movie about two lawyers, Al Pacino and Keanue Reeves, where Al Pacino ends up being Satan and Keanue Reeves ends up being his son. Satan's goal in this movie was to recieve a "spawn of evil" by making Keanue and his half sister have sex. This movie was a good example of how Satan is manipulative to get what he wants and plays a lot of mind games to get you to stumble. Also, we see in this movie that Satan is not bound by death and is depicted that there isn't a lot of limitations to what he can do.

Legend: Satan lives in the deepest parts of the earth and is out to destroy all that is good and innocent. Unicorns represented all the was good and innocent, so Satan would send out his demons to find them and kill them. In this movie, we see that Satan becomes bound in lust towards a woman and wants her as his bride. It was seen that through time and patience Satan can be beaten. In a way, it is seen that he is weak in a drive for lust just as a man can be. Also, a lot of anger surrounded Satan in this movie because he rarely got what he wanted and was always out to manipulate and control others so that he could satisfy his own carnal desires. In a way, Satan was very much like a human (male) and in the end he said the he was apart of all of us. Could there be a connection between our sinful flesh and the very nature of Satan himself?

Bedazzled: Satan is depicted as a sedcutive woman. Again, a manipulative being only wanting to satisfy her own desires. I thought that this movie was a good example of how the Devil does not always get what she wants and when she doesn't her frustration and anger towards failure knows no bounds. Also, how sometimes we forget that we have free will and can put Satan's plans and schemes into turmoil just by simply saying no. It is shown how Satan will take any chance that she could get to try and control and manipulate our lives. As Brendan Fraser said, "I would do anything to get that girl," Satan was quickly there to respond and tempt Brendan so that in the end she could take hold of his soul. I think that this is a good depiction of the battles that take place in the Christian faith. Truly, as Christians believe, life is a battle for the heart of man. God wants to show us His Love and Grace so that we can get a chance to live happily here on earth and eternally in peace and joy and in His presence forever in the afterlife. Satan, on the other hand, despises God's creation and wants only our destruction and is quick to respond in situations where he can get a chance to take hold of us so that we can't share in eternal life with our Heavenly Father and instead live in eternal damnation, gnashing of teeth, and torture (Hell), when wen die.

South Park: Satan's Sweet 16: I thought this movie was a very good depiction of how our culture views Hell. We see in this episode that it's just like a big party and Satan is the host of the party. Satan is also depicted again to succumb to the desires of human flesh by wanting a party and seeks approval of others. This movie was a good depiction on how culture can put covers over how bad Hell really is, that it's going to be party time and it's not as bad a people set it out to be. This episode also displayed how religion is a joke and that it is incapable of doing anything for you. We saw this in how the priests tried to get into Satan's party to crash it but failed to do so. It is a good example of how most people believe in a Hell and that Satan exists but don't believe that there is God. There can be no shadow without light.

Things to tie together: In each movie, the color red was symbolized as the Devil and the characteristics of manipulation, trickery, empty promises, forcefulness, frustration, and anger could be seen in each movie. These movies were very good at showing what we as culture have defined Satan as and even Hell.

For now, I must sign off and I hope everyone has an awesome rest of the week.