Rhapsodies

For this week’s theme I chose something I think I’ll call celestial trials… that is to say court cases in the afterlife.

The first film on the list, Micheal Powell’s, A Matter of Life And Death, better known as, much to the consternation of star David Niven, Stairway to Heaven.

Niven plays RAF squadron leader Peter Carter. On May 2, 1945, his bomber is about to crash and in a desperation move, since it beats being killed in the crash, plans to jump out of the plane without a parachute. Before he does this, he contacts headquarters where he talks to June an American Radio Operator from Boston (Kim Hunter). During their conversation, they fall in love. 

Meanwhile, in a waiting room to the afterlife, Peter’s fellow airmen are waiting for him. It turns out due to the fog the angel on duty, Conductor 71 (Marius Goring) missed him. Soon after Peter washes ashore amazed to be alive. He meets June in person soon after, and their romance blossoms. 

When the Conductor 71 arrives to take him to the afterlife he demands an appeal. So now he must defend his life so that he can spend the rest of his life with his true love.

This film is amazing in every way. The visual style is amazing done like the Wizard of Oz, only in reverse, with the afterlife in black and white and the real world in amazing technicolor. The practical effects are nearly as good. The best being a huge escalator and a long zoom where the celestial court is revealed to be a spiral galaxy.

My favorite part about this however, is it’s probably the best handling of skepticism in a fantasy film I’ve ever seen. For most of the film it’s never completely clear whether Peter is talking to ghosts, or is hallucinating from a head injury. Neither is it clear whether his doctor, (Roger Livesey ) believes him beyond recognizing symptoms of a potentially deadly head injury (at least not until he is killed in an accident and is made Peter’s defense council) but he believes it’s vital for Peter’s recovery to hold onto the metaphor.

In the next film on my list, Albert Brooks, Defending Your Life, Brooks plays Daniel Miller an advertising executive who dies when he crashes the car he just bought for his 35^th birthday crashes into a bus. 

He finds himself in Judgement City, a place where the newly deceased are judged to see if they are ready for the next step in their existence, or sent back to earth. However, in the process he meets, the almost too good to be true, Julia (Meryl Streep) and immediately falls in love with her. Now it’s not just about what happens to him. It’s a matter of staying with Julia, who’s transcendence is almost a given. 

This film was… okay. There were plenty of funny bits but for the most part, it didn’t grab me. The new age scenario including the rules of reincarnation and the old chestnut of only using 90% of your brain doesn’t really hold up. Things seem to be biased even before the trial begins, with normal Daniel getting a relatively cheap hotel, whereas saintly Julia gets pampered at a place that puts the Ritz to shame.

Not to mention the way the “residents” of Judgement City behave you can’t help wondering if it’s all worth it. Finally, since the dead are not being judged on having a moral life but how they dealt with fear, one can’t help wondering if the system is biased towards sociopaths.