Juan You: Decalogue (Movie Post #2)

Before entering this class, I had never heard of the term 'mid-rash' before. However, when watching two of the Decalogue films, I immediately understood why it is successful. It is short, to-the-point, and conveys deep concepts that can be thought-provoking to a audience. Each film conveys a commandment, and all the stories are not tied together in any way.

The first of the ten conveys the idea, “I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me”. In it, we are introduced to Krzysztof, who teaches his child Paweł all the fascinating aspects of reason, essentially using logic to solve all problems and seek answers. Even in his explanation of death to his son, Kryzystof uses a certain reasoning that eliminated any ideas of the supernatural aspects in death. Unlike his sister Irene, Kryzystof does not revere a spiritual God, he instead uses reasoning to control aspects of his life, to which he could be described as a agnostic being, even though to a certain extent, Reason is his God. But when Kryzystof loses his son due to his miscalculation, the audience is shown the faltering of those who rely on only reason. There needs to be a certain spirituality that everyone believes in.

In the end, Krzysztof goes to a altar, has a fit of rage and anguish, but finally goes down on his knees and uses the ice to trace a cross onto his forehead, while the statue of the Madonna cries for him. Because of his disbelief, he is rewarded with tragedy and loss. This is the cost for one who disregards not only God, but a belief in the mystic. Though reason and logic can be used in everyday life, it cannot predict everything; it cannot predict nature, or the sacred.

The other film shown to use was the fifth Decalogue, illustrating the commandment “Thou shall not kill”. It shadows the actions of Jacek Łazar, a young man who commits the ultimate crime of murder. His victim was the lecherous and cruel taxi driver named Waldemar Rekowski. Though he was unaware of the taxi driver's cruelty, Lazar kills him for no apparent reason.
Jacek's crime obviously lands him in jail, and his lawyer is Piotr, a young idealist. However, there is little he can do to help Jacek avoid the death penalty, of which he disapproves.
Neither Jacek nor his victim were very nice people. In fact, one could even argue that neither deserved to live. But like Piotr, the film depicts to us the morbidity and coldness of death. Wo are we to judge who deserves to live? Yes, both Jacek and Rekowski deserved death, but who are we to carry out such punishment? Jacek's actions results in his own death, of which he does not seem to mind. Ultimately, no one deserves to die. It is almost as if Jacek committed his crime for the reason of making up for his own sister's death in his hands. He makes up her death with his own death, just as the government makes up Rekowski's death with Jacek's death. Everything just results in more death, and what is the point in that?

It is interesting that we watched these two particular films, because the first urges us to believe in God, while the second tells us not to destroy God, who can be found within everyone.