Before the New Hollywood era blossomed in the late 1960s, heaven and angels dominated the American movie landscape's spiritual realm. Films like "It's a Wonderful Life," "The Bishop's Wife" and "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" were the norm, complete with witty, eccentric angels and uplifting messages.
When the Hays Production Code died off with the old studio system in the 1960s, filmmakers had wider latitude to explore darker themes.
Belly of the Beast
"Rosemary's Baby" was the first big cinematic bat out of hell in 1968. Much film criticism focuses on the Hollywood satire and in-jokes. It's an old saw that actors would sell their souls for stardom. In the case of "Rosemary's Baby," an actor (John Cassavetes) sells his soul and rents his wife's womb out so Satan can sire a son.
But the film also seems to be saying more, specifically about religion, urban culture and feminism. The actor's wife (Mia Farrow) is from a conservative Catholic family in Nebraska. New York City, where the couple lives, is portrayed as a den of sin, with witches around every corner spinning evil webs.
The film came out just as the women's movement got under way, with gender roles and expectations questioned. Farrow's fight against the coven suggested a subtext that she was fighting to be in charge of her body and resisting any influence on her pregnancy from the coven, or the Establishment in this context, suggesting a pro-choice message five years before Roe vs. Wade.
Out, out, damned spirit
Aside from Roe, another phenomenon reared its spinning head five years later: "The Exorcist." The film was based on a novel by William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the screenplay. He grew up in a strict Catholic household, attended Catholic schools and considered becoming a Jesuit priest before choosing a writing career. Blatty said in an interview for Gadflyonline.com that he based the book on a real American exorcism reportedly performed on a young boy in 1949, but the novel and the film's structure suggests more at work.
The female lead is an actress, (Ellen Burstyn), who is an atheist. Her daughter, Regan (Linda Blair), whom a demon targets, loves doing arts and crafts. This artistic thread seems relevant because of the times. The early 1970s was a turbulent era when the power of organized religion was waning, especially among youths in the counterculture, much of which was fueled and aided by the artistic community.
Time magazine asked "Is God dead?" in a 1966 cover story on how some academics began questioning whether God has a place in the modern world, and U.S. church attendance began falling steadily in the mid-1960s, then the "Exorcist" novel and film arrived in the early 1970s, featuring an atheistic actress and her artistic daughter who plays with a Ouija board no less. The Jesuit priest who saves Regan was having a crisis of faith himself and considered leaving the order.
In an interview with movies.ign.com, Blatty was asked about how the novel affected him, and he said it "very much strengthened my faith," just as Father Karras' wavering faith was restored before he died saving Regan. The film's denouement put an exclamation point on this, when Regan kissed a priest who was a friend of Karras', suggesting a warning to the wavering masses: Rediscover God or descend into the abyss.
In Part 2: "The Omen" and "The Amityville Horror."
Frank Rossi - I'm an amateur film historian, with an emphasis on the studio-system and "New Hollywood" eras, roughly 1930 through 1981.
