Nicholas Dease: Personal Blog 4

Fairy Tale: A true Story

Yesterday, I randomly stumbled upon this movie and, after watching it, I am fully convinced that its themes are incredibly relevant to the discussions we've had in class. Simply put, Fairy Tale: A True Story is a treatise on the power of myth masquerading as family-friendly feel good movie. The tag-line of the film, “Believe,” is central to all of the characters and this personal blog will attempt to reflect and consider specific examples of the effects belief has on the individuals in the film. At its most basic level, the movie relates the tale of two young British girls who gain national attention for photographing fairies. After hearing of this phenomenon, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle publishes their “findings” as he is an advocate of Spiritualism and states that if a believe brings joy, it should to be held. Harry Houdini, friend of Conan-Doyle and magician, agrees but only on the grounds that it does not take advantage of the believers' naivety.


Several scenes in the film point to the conclusion that fairies are nothing but an illusion yet certain plot developments suggest that belief in magic will lead to a better life in an almost pragmatic sense. In this respect, the film is similar to the Seventh Seal's portrayal of the character, Jof. Unlike the Seventh Seal, however, these themes are ubiquitous throughout the narrative and warrant further inspection. First, the step-father in the film is a chess-player and, near the end, he is pitted against the local champion, whose numerous victories have gained mythic repute along with his well-known characteristic of being mute. At the end of the film, step-father Arthur beats the mute in chess and the former-champion utters a solitary shout at his loss, revealing the truth surrounding his persona. As it turns out, the former-champion was not a mute chess-savant at all, but rather a simple man who selected this characteristic to give his identity real power through perceived power. This is evidenced by his many victories which are implied to have been won through his role-playing of this character.

Additional nods to the power of myth are in the central narrative of the film as well. When the girls meet Harry Houdini and witness his magic tricks, they ask him if he had ever revealed his secrets. To this, he responds that he would never and further that even if he wanted to, no one would listen. This statement suggests that magic is only valuable when it is a mystery and that people subconsciously want to believe it, regardless of its objective truths. To reveal it would take away all of its power. This sentiment is echoed in Rudolf Otto's description of the Mysterium Tremendum wherein he states that in gaining too many descriptions of the divine, “the fundamental fact of religious experience is, as it were, simply rolled out so thin and flat as to be finally eliminated altogether" (27). Another interesting example concerns the news-reporter who is trying to reveal the fraud surrounding the fairies. Searching only for objective knowledge, he is robbed of all the magic surrounding the phenomenon and in the end, finds the evidence to support his hypothesis. Interestingly, at this moment of realization, he encounters a gust of wind which scatters his documents. He becomes extraordinarily frightened by this occurrence and proceeds to leave, believing that he had just witnessed a ghost. Here too, the viewer is shown the power of belief. Interestingly, in debunking one myth, it is revealed that he had been dominated by another. Overall, the movie is rife with events such as these and it quite apparent that this class has primed me in recognizing such examples.