{"id":1355,"date":"2007-09-16T21:14:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-16T21:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/cronenberg-on-atheism-and-explicit-violence\/"},"modified":"2007-09-16T21:14:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-16T21:14:00","slug":"cronenberg-on-atheism-and-explicit-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/cronenberg-on-atheism-and-explicit-violence.html","title":{"rendered":"Cronenberg on atheism and explicit violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
The press screening for David Cronenberg\u2019s Eastern Promises<\/a><\/i> started almost an hour late, so I saw the first 71 minutes but had to skip the last 25 due to a prior commitment. Apparently I missed \u201cthe scene everybody is talking about\u201d, in which Viggo Mortensen fights a man to the death \u2014 in the nude.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ah well, maybe one day I\u2019ll get around to seeing the rest of this movie, though I\u2019m not particularly keen on revisiting the hour-plus that I have already seen \u2014 mainly because I found it pretty dull. In the meantime, I am intrigued by how Cronenberg defends the explicit violence in this interview<\/a> with Reuters:<\/p>\n

There is a moment in the Russian mob movie \u201cEastern Promises\u201d when the level of violence rises so high that the audience lets out a collective gasp, followed by a ripple of nervous laughter.<\/p>\n

But director David Cronenberg and his star Viggo Mortensen insist the vicious climax to a murderous bathhouse battle between mob killers is an essential part of the movie, bringing home the reality and the finality of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cMurder is a serious thing. I am taking it very seriously,\u201d Cronenberg told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Toronto International Film Festival<\/a>, where \u201cEastern Promises\u201d had its premiere on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an atheist,\u201d Cronenberg said. \u201cTo me an act of murder is the act of total destruction, it\u2019s absolute. There\u2019s no comeback, there\u2019s no going to heaven, that\u2019s it. And it is very easy for that to be veiled or covered up, in a movie especially.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it makes perfect legitimate, artistic and, if you push me, moral sense as well to do that this way.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Make of all that what you will.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The press screening for David Cronenberg\u2019s Eastern Promises started almost an hour late, so I saw the first 71 minutes but had to skip the last 25 due to a prior commitment. Apparently I missed \u201cthe scene everybody is talking about\u201d, in which Viggo Mortensen fights a man to the death \u2014 in the nude. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCronenberg on atheism and explicit violence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The press screening for David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises started almost an hour late, so I saw the first 71 minutes but had to skip the last 25 due to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/cronenberg-on-atheism-and-explicit-violence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cronenberg on atheism and explicit violence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The press screening for David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises started almost an hour late, so I saw the first 71 minutes but had to skip the last 25 due to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/cronenberg-on-atheism-and-explicit-violence.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-16T21:14:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/Ru4BL0vyg4I\/AAAAAAAAAo0\/goHfJhNQobo\/s400\/easternpromises-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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