Film Comment: Un Chien Andalou

I have written before about the modern relativistic idea that there is no absolute truth, that even the idea of truth itself is meaningless.  This anti-intellectual philosophy is rapidly becoming the predominant view in much of modern Western civilization.  The statement that all philosophies are true actually means that none are true.  There is no basis for determining what is right or wrong.  What you declare to be evil, another person might declare to be good, and you both have no valid reason for your claim.  Everything is subjective, based only on opinion.  There is no universal logic, There is no universal sense.  There are no universal ethics. There is no universal meaning.

This idea has begun to become mainstream, but it is not new. “Pilate said unto him, What is truth?”  John 18:38

In the most studied short film in history, Un chien Andalou (An Andalusian Dog, 1928), director Luis Bunuel (1900, Spain – 1983) and surrealistic painter Salvador Dali  (1904, Spain – 1989) collaborated in coming up with totally unrelated scenes that they patched together in no particular order.  Their intent was to offend the society they despised.   Bunuel said, “No idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted. … Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything.”

Bunuel and Dali wrote the film together, with Bunuel directing.  There is no plot or continuity of ideas, just one shocking image after another.  The image almost universally recognized as the most shocking is the one in which a woman’s eyeball is sliced with a shaving razor.  Many have tried to interpret the film along preconceived philosophical lines, but all have ultimately failed because the message is that there is no meaning.

Christians utterly reject this world view because we know that absolute truth does exist.  Jesus is The Truth.

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6