Begotten
Remember to read thoroughly the “Read Me First” post on this blog before responding to this post. You may discuss any—or a combination—of the following as long as it results in three (3) 5-7 sentence paragraphs.Be sure to attach your name, and the person's name to whom you're responding, at the beginning of your responses. Comments that do not meet the minimum requirements will be deleted.
I hope everyone isn't too fazed by this movie, which, for all intents and purposes, is considered a text by New Literacy Studies' standards. Here I am asking for you to do three things:
- Explicate the movie
- Expand or expound upon anything that was said by a classmate during the viewing
- React to the movie intelligently, coherently, and substantively
NEXT WEEK'S ASSIGNMENTS (please click on the assignment title for the link to the actual text):
Response Journals for...
1. Theodore Roethke's "The Waking"
2. Franz Kafka's "A Hunger Artist"
3. William Butler Yeats' "Leda and The Swan"
4. Begotten
Prof. Ferrante
posted by Garth Ferrante @ 11/26/2006 04:04:00 PM
13 comments
13 Comments:
TO:MR FERRANTE
FROM: KARLA QUINTERO
WHAT IMPACTED ME THE MOST ABOUT THE MOVIE WAS HOW GRAPHIC THE FILM WAS. AT FIRST I WAS NOT SURE WHAT IT WAS ABOUT,BUT AS SOON AS "MOTHER EARTH" CAME OUT I STARTED TO REALIZE THAT SHE WAS A SIMBOL OF A NEW LIFE SINCE SHE CAME OUT AFTER "GOD KILLING HIMSELF". THE OTHER THING THAT CAUGHT Y ATTENTION WAS WHEN THE COUGHIN APPERED ANDDISAPPERD IN FRONT OF MOTHER EARTH BECAUSE I WAS NOY SURE WHAT IT WAS TRING TO SAY,BUT AS THE FILM CONTINUE i ADE AN INTERPRTATION THAT THE CAUGHIN WAS A FORESHADOW OF HER DEATH.
My interpretation of the film after finding out the names of the major characters were that "SON OF EARTH - FLESH ON BONE" was he reprsented humanity. He was the weakest character in the film. MOTHER EARTH seemed untouchable for a while and she always seemd to walk proud. I have no idea why They would have "god" killing himself, to anyone reading this could you please try and answer that 4 me.
Jean M.
Vienna Mouzon
Summary of the film "Begotten"
The word "gotten" means to get. The word "be" means I am; you are (thou art)also be can be used as a prefix for an affect. In this case I belive the director picked the title for the film to mean " Somemthing is going to get something." The film depicts how the humanity has to suffering and battle the good and the evil. God killing himself is the inner battle people fight with in themselves. Mother Earth represents the inner goodness that sometimes we do not listen to. The son of earth (flesh on bone) stands for the worldly desires(evil) the flesh can't fight. The poem describes the film because it clearly express the detail of a film stands a language that speak with out words.
To: All
Obviously this is a film from ancient times, B.C.
“God killing himself” the first character was standing next to a small house, began to stab himself and cut away his flesh. Getting rid of evils and cleansing his system (maybe of demons).
Bleeding profusely, he fell to the ground……
Shortly afterwards, a woman walked from behind the first character and was rubbing her pregnant belly. A man or a boy came into the picture and Mother Earth shed a few tears and began to rub his head. “Mother Earth” now had a baby but he was a man or boy. I didn’t see any sex act, so I am assuming it’s a virgin birth (new life).
I saw a group of people walking with lanterns. The finally found the boy or man grasping for breath, and began to torture him. Maybe they didn’t like the idea of Mother Earth having a child. He was dragged by the neck for a long time and was still alive. Another group of men seemed to have compassion on him - they killed a chicken and threw the blood over him.
Chicken blood is something I am familiar with, it is a way of taking demons or ghost from someone. So clearly, in my opinion, they were removing demons from the boy, who is “Son of Earth- Flesh on Bones.” The name fits perfectly “Flesh on Bones.” They even put a gag in his mouth to prevent anyone from hearing him scream.
Then, new life began, flowers sprang, Mother Earth died.
I am still not sure what cutting up of the body parts meant. I never actually saw that. Does anyone know what that meant?
In response to Vienna, I agree that the flesh is “evil.” and that God killing Himself, reminds us of the crucifixion of Christ.
Jean Turner
Response to Karla,
I concur with you that the graphics in the film are intense. I presume that this is due to the age of the film and also, as we discussed in class, it almost seemed as if there is a glitch in the playback.
I don't understand what you mean by the word "coughin" or "caughin." I can't find it in the dictionary. Can you explain?
Thanks
Jean Turner.
To Professor Ferrante
from Loreen Hanna
i have to say that this film waas one of the most intense films i've ever watched in my entire life,i don't think i'll ever watch any thing like this.I have to be honest i didn't get anything from the film until about the last few minutes of it, i started to put things together in my head to try and figure out the concept and the point of the film. Of course all my guesses were wrong but it doesn't matter that's the whole point of learning is to get things wrong the first time and then try to learn from the mistakes. This movie was kind of weird but in a good way, and it was definetely a great experience and sort of a challenge, i guess we need a film like that once in a while to work those brain cells of ours. I definetely know the difference between a movie and a film now. Thanks Mr. Ferrante for such a great experience.
Loreen Hanna
To Mr. Ferrante,
My interpreation of the film after figuring out the names of the main characters of the film and the class discussion about the movie was completely different than my interperation at the beginning of the movie, at first i thought it was some kind of joke or prank,i didn't think it was serious. I had no clue at first but after the class discussion and the names of the characters, it all started to make sense. This film is trying to prove something in a different language. Each character was a symbol of life and the suffering stands fo hell.
Loreen Hanna
To Vienna
From Loreen Hanna
I like how you interpreted the title of the film, it makes a lot of sense.The Film reflects on life, what humans go through and how we have to battle good and evil every day of our life. There are two categories in life good and evil, one of them leads to heaven and the other leads to hell. It's really up to us to choose which category we belong to. It's an either or situation it can't be both and it can't be a little bit of each.One thingthat i don't get is why you said that God killing himself is the inner battle people fight within themselves, does that mean we have to destroy ourselves the way he did, or does it mean that there is a person inside everyone of us that we try to get rid of in order to let another person come out, or in other words a letting different side of us come out.
To Prof: G. Ferrante
From: P. Sellers-Bradford
Biblically we are taught that God created man first from the dust of the earth and He breathed life into man’s body. Later, God created woman by putting the man to sleep, utilizing his rib and forming her body. The film “Begotten” simulates God using a razor to remove his own flesh. Through His shedding of blood and eventual death it created a woman (Mother Earth) who rose from His body. The woman, in turn, gathered God’s sperm and placed it into her vagina, became pregnant and delivered a son so that the life cycle could continue. Was it essential for God to die to give birth to mankind?
The film shows cannibals taking Mother Earth and her son into the wilderness for a sacrificial ceremony. It appears that they castrated the son’s penis and pushed it into Mother Earth’s vagina then buried the body parts into the earth to symbolize that life would continue to grow. It is stated in the creation story that flesh is made of the dust from the earth and shall return to the earth as dust. The coffin they carried exemplifies imminent death and burial, something that we all shall do. During funeral ceremonies it is stated, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.”
Let’s remove the gory details of expression in this film and get to the point. We are taught that the living God is here forever. This metaphorical theory (film) dispels the belief that that God is alive and the creator who formed man, then woman and children. The question once again is posed, which comes first, the chicken or the egg?
To: Prof. Ferrante
From: P. Sellers-Bradford
Abstract presentation is questionable because they are not saying this or that. Rather, it is left up to the individual to think whatever they see, think or feel. I was moved by my classmates’ reactions to the gory details that made all of us squeamish during the film. To tell the truth, I would prefer not to watch this type of presentation. I am opened minded. However, this was just something that I would not view if given the choice.
At first I was as puzzled about the purpose of the film. It was difficult to watch because of the graphic details of self-mutilation, sexual acts that included castration, damage of the woman’s vagina and killing. Additionally, the chicken slaughter and spreading of blood reminded me of voodoo (voodoo), superstitious belief of African diasporas. It was hard to sort the film’s real meaning until we had class discussion and the unveiling of characters. Then, I’m still uncertain if I received the real meaning.
To: Professor Ferrante
Fr: Mary Garcia
This Film gave me the interpretation that it's about evolution. In the beginning God is killing himself and it's a way of creating a new life. When Mother Earth comes out from behind him he was already dead which means he created her. Mother Earth gets God's semen without any physical contact except for stroking the penis. She uses it to inseminate herself by putting it in her vagina. This was the other way of creating life. She gets pregnant and another life is then born. Towards the ending when Mother Earth is killed and Son Of Earth is killed their body parts were taken Mother Earth parts seemed to go to the water and Son Of Earth parts were buried in the ground. The Plants then died and then were re-born which all boils down to Rebirth. It all had to do with the rebirth and Flesh On Bone Which was Son of Earth was humanity this is us.
To: Professor Ferrante
Fr: Mary Garcia
My reaction to this film was that it had alot of meaning while being silent. The main thing was that with no words being said you really had to observe what was happening. Before, they showed the names of the characters such as God, Mother Earth and Son Of Earth which were the three main ones I knew it had to do with rebirth. My conclusion to this was when Mother earth took God's semen to give life. What I mean by to give life is that she inseminated the semen in her vagina to get pregnant. Then at the end when Son Of Earth was sacrificed to bury his body parts as a way of rebirth. The way the rebirth was shown here was by the body parts being buried in the ground the plants died and then were reborn. As far as Flesh On Bone it directly relates to us as humanity.
Response to Karla
Fr: Mary Garcia
I Also feel that the coffin Mother Earth sees while walking outside is foreseen as death. We are given life but we all have to die one day. What I interpreted there was that we are given life for a short period of time and then we have to go. Which if you look deeply into the film God gave his life for us and we have to give our life back to him.
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