Sami Spears: Decalogue Blog

We watched 2 Polish film's that were directed by Krzysztof Keislowski, who is nothing short of brilliant. Both of the Decalogue films we watched in class left me thinking about the true meaning of life and many questions came to the surface for me. The first film, Dekalog: One, was purely heartbreaking. Krzysztof, a university professor, has a young son named Pawel. We can tell that they have a good father-son relationship. The father encourages the young boy to explore new things and allows him to use a computer to work out different physics problems. Pawel is an interesting character because he reminds me of myself. He is so young but he has a lot of character and becomes questioning the true meaning of life after seeing a stray dog he knew had died. Growing up, I too questioned this a lot and death confused me. Pawel begins to question what the point of life is and asks his father for help understanding his dilemma. "Why do people die? What is death?" asks Pawel. His father responds, "It is a memory, how people remember you." His response was somewhat cold and showed us the utter loss that we as humans can have when it comes to death. Some people are confident in what their life will look like after death. I recently had a discussion with my boyfriend about what we think death looks like to us. Personally, I believe that souls are everlasting and our bodies are just temporary. On the other hand, my boyfriend has no idea what will happen. Darkness, light, another life? His parents are very religious and are incredibly confident about how they believe life will look like for them after death. They will be united with Jesus and will be in heaven. This goes to show how comfortable and uncomfortable people are with the concept that is death. In the film, we can see that the father is unsure about death. On the other hand, his aunt is more confident and comfortable discussing death. She even wishes to enroll Pawel in classes to learn more about Jesus, and his father states, "That is fine, but only if he wants to." Throughout the film, we can see the connection and trust that the father and son put into the computer. They do math on it and even ask it questions about life. This connects us back to the first commandment, "Exodus 20:3: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” This commandment conveys the message that God should be put first and there should be nothing else the person is worshipping and is devoted to. In this film, the father and son put their devotion and trust into the computer. The computer is concrete and will give information immediately. God does not work this way because we need to have faith. One concept I wanted to bring up is the man on the ice with a fire going. I believe that this man represented God. He saw and watched the young boy fall through the ice to his death and he shed tears, yet he did not interfere or save the boy. We can tell that he is saddened by this, but does not speak or act. At the end of the film, we see the dad seek help from God because he is grieving. He goes to a shrine and uses holy water, however, the holy water is frozen just like the ice on the lake was. He then gets angry and disrupts the shrine, making a candle hit Mary and causing her to weep, just as the man at the lake with the fire did. All of these hidden signs make this film spectacular and eye-opening and lead to the deeper meaning of what life truly means. 

The second decalogue film was very hard for me to watch because of how heartbreaking it was. This is the honest truth of our society, however. This film takes a more controversial and political viewpoint, portraying the conflict between death and Christian values. The sixth commandment in the bible is "Thou shall not kill." In this film, we watch a young 19-year-old boy, Jacek, take the life of a middle-aged taxi driver, Waldemar. Waldemar is seen as not a stand-up man but rather takes off in his taxi when people need a lift and keeps his eyes on a youthful girl. After a meal, Jacek decides he is ready for his first kill. He grabs a lift with Waldemar and uses a rope to strangle and suffocate the unknowing driver. His death was long and painful. This scene was incredibly hard to watch because of its longevity, showing the fight that Waldemar gave for his life but failed. Later, Jacek gets arrested for murder and is convicted of robbery and murder. This is where Piotr comes into the storyline. Piotr is a lawyer who takes Jacek's case and defense. He argues to the judge that the death penalty is immoral and the judge did not budge after hearing his plea. This is where the controversy begins. Jacek opens up to Piotr about the death of his sister, and how he feels that he is guilty for it. He also wonders what his life would look like if that were to never happen. This gives the audience a newfound sense of empathy for Jacek (only a small amount- don't get me wrong). When the sixth commandment states thou shall not kill or murder, then the killer or murderer gets killed by a mass of people, isn't that contradictive? We can see when Jacek is opening up to the lawyer that he is becoming vulnerable and might have a sense of remorse. His cruel act might have been him acting out because of a tragedy that occurred to him. He blamed himself for his sister's death, therefore maybe taking another life was the only way for him to be punished properly in his mind. The state performed premeditated murder on Jacek, how is this justifiable? The Godly character in the previous film also appears in this film. He is seen carrying a ladder, which could be symbolism representing the staircase to heaven. Jacek is seen in a physical altercation with the Godly man, throwing him down in the restroom. This can be representative that many people take their anger out on God when something does not work in their favor. Both of these films were eye-opening and hard to watch, and both ended in death. The characters are complete opposites yet possess similar struggles of faith and being stuck in a hard place. Midrash definitely is present in the films and viewers, making the meaning of the commandments personal by the storylines and realistic conflicts.