LOS ANGELES \u2014 Hell looks really cool, when seen through a Hollywood lens.<\/p>\n\n
The good guys in the upcoming thriller \u201cConstantine\u201d do comment on the sulfur smell in the hell edition of Los Angeles and it\u2019s a pain coping with all those extra tortured, brainless, flesh-eating demons on the 101 Freeway. But the city still looks like Los Angeles, even after an eternity of hurricane-force firestorms.<\/p>\n\n
The other place can\u2019t compete, when it comes to entertainment value.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe reason why heaven isn\u2019t shown as much in these kinds of movies, honestly, is that no one knows how to depict it in a cool way,\u201d said screenwriter Frank Cappello, after the film\u2019s press screenings.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cAudiences love to see hell. They want to see demonic images. But if you show them angelic beings, if you show them the light \u2026 it\u2019s like they say, \u2018Oh, gosh.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
So it\u2019s no surprise that \u201cConstantine\u201d offers a mere glimpse of a heavenly reward, before its chain-smoking, hard-drinking, cussing antihero is yanked back to his life as a rock \u2018n\u2019 roll exorcist. The John Constantine character was born in stacks of \u201cHellblazer\u201d comic books and, as played by the neo-messianic Keanu Reeves, is part Dirty Harry and part Indiana Jones, channeling \u201cThe Matrix\u201d and \u201cMen in Black.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
How dark is this movie? The angel Gabriel gets ticked off at humanity and decides to cue the apocalypse.<\/p>\n\n
The director and writers agreed that their movie raises big questions about salvation and damnation, sin and repentance, fate and free will. It will raise eyebrows among the 81 percent of Americans who, according to a 2004 Gallup Poll, believe in heaven and the 70 percent who believe in hell.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI\u2019m a skeptic, myself,\u201d said director Francis Lawrence. \u201cFor all I know, you die and rot in a box and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This response was par for the course, as the \u201cConstantine\u201d cast and crew fielded questions from critics and reporters, including a room full of Catholic and Protestant writers. One after another, the Hollywood professionals said they wanted their movie to inspire questions, but remain agnostic about answers.<\/p>\n\n
A Catholic priest among the press agreed that it doesn\u2019t make sense to expect coherent doctrine from a horror movie, even one this packed with references to Catholic rituals, relics and art. Yet \u201cConstantine\u201d is precisely the kind of pop-culture event that may cause young people to ask questions.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s based on a comic book and looks like a video game,\u201d said Father Joe Krupp of FaithMag.com and Lansing (Mich.) Catholic High School. \u201cLike it or not, you just know that the kids are going to be talking about this and we need to pay attention. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis movie is messy, but it does say that there is a heaven and a hell and it says that our choices are powerful and matter for eternity. It also says that each of us was created by God for a purpose. It says that several times.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Spiritual warfare is quite literally the key, with the antihero fighting to earn his way into heaven. At one point, Constantine chants Latin prayers and threatens to send the demonic Balthazar to heaven instead of hell in a brass-knuckles version of Last Rites. But just before he pulls the trigger \u2014 on a shotgun shaped like a cross \u2014 he reminds his adversary that he must \u201cask for absolution to be saved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Constantine knows how to get to heaven, stressed Cappello. He is simply too angry and cynical to obey. Seek God\u2019s forgiveness? Forget about it.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cHis pride gets in the way of him asking to be let off the hook,\u201d said Cappello. \u201cIt\u2019s basically, \u2018I\u2019m going to do it myself.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n
Yet Reeves urged moviegoers not to judge his world-weary character too harshly, because he does muster up one act of self sacrifice. In the \u201csecular religiosity\u201d of this film, that is enough.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what, you know, gives him a chance of going upstairs,\u201d said Reeves. \u201cBut \u2026 did he make the sacrifice so that he could go to heaven, or does he really mean it?\u201d In the end, \u201cthe man upstairs knows, just like Santa Claus, if you\u2019re telling a lie or if you\u2019re really nice. He knows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
And all the people said: Whoa.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES \u2014 Hell looks really cool, when seen through a Hollywood lens. The good guys in the upcoming thriller \u201cConstantine\u201d do comment on the sulfur smell in the hell edition of Los Angeles and it\u2019s a pain coping with all those extra tortured, brainless, flesh-eating demons on the 101 Freeway. But the city still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[253,421,422,431,490,1541,1551],"class_list":["post-1319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-comics","tag-heaven","tag-hell","tag-hollywood","tag-keanu-reeves","tag-mass-media","tag-young-people"],"yoast_head":"\n