Film Comment: Doctor Strange (2017)

Doctor Strange (2017), seen merely as film, is very enjoyable and technically well made. It is equally funny, frightening, visually amazing, and thought provoking. The acting is top-level and the music perfectly fits the film.

The story is based on the comic book character created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in     1963.  Doctor Strange is a brilliant but hideously arrogant neurosurgeon.  He is a totally unlikable man, and is verbally and emotionally abusive of everyone around him, even the fellow doctor who considers herself to be his girlfriend.  As an atheist, he derisively rejects any mention of God or the supernatural. Then, his smug life is totally shattered as his talented hands are mangled in an especially violent automobile crash.    

Stephen’s entire self-worth has been built around what he considers to be his obvious superiority to those around him. He cannot accept that his prior life is gone. He desperately spends his entire fortune on increasingly experimental and questionable medical procedures. He is still broken with no improvement in sight.

Eventually his search leads him to Kathmandu and a secretive school led by a mystic known as The Ancient One. She claims to be thousands of years old. The Ancient One opens Strange’s eyes to the unseen world surrounding him.

This is an origin story and Stephen eventually becomes a Master Sorcerer charged with protecting the world from supernatural threats from powerful otherworldly beings. He has become a full-fledged hero even though he still carries just a touch of his former arrogance.

Doctor Strange is directed by Scott Derrickson, a publicly self-acknowledged Christian, and, while the film is about personal redemption, it is not a Christian film. There is no mention of Jesus at all.

Christians are commanded to stay away from magic and the occult. Magic is essentially the quest to use knowledge of spells, objects, and rituals to cause the universe (read spirits, demons, Satan, and God) to react in specific ways. This is the way in which Stephen Strange becomes a sorcerer. He is merely a man who learns how to manipulate space and time and how to leave his physical body to move about as his spirit self.

The primary sin is to place oneself in the place of God. This is essentially what magic does, harnessing supernatural beings and forces to impose one’s will upon the universe. It has no place in true Christianity.

Some commenters have said that director Scott Derrickson has used Doctor Strange’s eastern mystical roots to hint at a deeply Christian perspective on reality.  For example, the Ancient One teaches Strange that what we see around us is only a small part of reality. Paul says the same thing in the sixth chapter of Ephesians. Some commenters are much more troubled by the film’s roots and some denounce it.

In the film, The Ancient One is discovered to be a hypocrite in that, while fighting for Good, she is drawing much of her power and longevity from The Dark Dimension which is ruled by the utterly evil being known as Dormammu. Since she is their teacher, it must be assumed that the Ancient One’s students, including Stephen Strange, are also drawing power from the Dark Dimension. Surely he understands this once the revelation has been made and yet, he still uses the power.

Strange cannot possibly defeat a being as immensely powerful as Dormammu but he succeeds in outwitting the monster. Though Dormammu repeatedly and violently kills him, Doctor Strange has trapped Dormammu and himself in a repetitive time loop. The only way that Strange will release him from the loop is for the monster to agree to leave. Strange becomes a self-sacrificing savior who returns from the dead. This alone should be a massive red flag for Christians.

Film Comment: Daredevil

The film, Daredevil (2003), is based on a comic book series.  Daredevil is one of Marvel Comic's second-tier characters, much less well known than The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Spiderman, or the Fantastic Four.  The film includes several comic book insider references and, as do almost all Marvel films, has a cameo by the iconic comic book writer Stan Lee.  Be aware that the film, while rated PG-13, includes extreme violence and some profanity.

The superhero Daredevil is in reality blind attorney Matt Murdock.  Yes, blind.  As a child, Matt Murdock was involved in an industrial accident which destroyed his eyes but enhanced all his other senses to the point that they almost produce sensory overload.  He feels the heat of your breath; his fingers can feel the indentation in the wood produced by a pen writing on a sheet of paper on a desk;  he can sense movements in the air around him; he can hear your internal organs at work; he can identify you by your smell as you enter a room; and his enhanced sense of balance means that he has become the world's best acrobat.

By day an attorney, at night Matt becomes Daredevil, a vigilante in a form-fitting red leather suit, complete with small devil horns on his forehead.  Motivated by the murder of his boxer father, Jack "the Devil" Murdock, Matt swears to fight crime and to "seek justice, one way or another."  Matt's way is extreme violence against rapists, muggers, thieves, and other low-life scum who exist in the underbelly of the city.

The reason this film is germaine to this blog is that the film highlights the fact that Matt Murdock is, at least nominally, a Christian.  This was established as early as Daredevil #119.  Matt's Christianity was brought to the forefront by the writer Frank Miller (who, by the way, is an atheist) during his run as the book's writer and has become one of the character's most identifying aspects, playing on the conflict between his beliefs and his actions.  In Ultimate Spiderman #109, Daredevil states that he is Catholic.

Matt Murdock is a Roman Catholic and the comic books (and the film) are full of cathedrals with stone gargoyles, crosses, stained glass windows, priests, nuns, and other overtly religious images.  Matt hangs around his church and talks to his priest, but seems to avoid actual church services, though he does occasionally go to confession.  He actually believes but can't give up his quest for revenge.  He doesn't want to be a bad man, but he fears that he is a devil.

After severely beating a mob enforcer, Matt realizes he has been observed by the man's son.  He turns to the boy and says, "I'm not the bad guy, kid. ... I'm not the bad guy. ... I'm not."

Matt is stuck in the limbo in which many religious people find themselves.  He is blind, even though he thinks he can see.  People like Matt believe intellectually, perhaps even emotionally, but they are unable or unwilling to commit, unwilling to give up their favorite ways of doing things, unwilling to give control of their lives to the Lord.  They are neither hot nor cold for God, they are lukewarm.

"I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth"  Revelation 3:15-16