Christian cross symbolism cut?

Justin said:

Just checked my copies of both TVYNS and Extended Director's Cut and that shot is most definitely still there.

Thanks, Justine, I will definitely check again :)  I'd swear it was missing from the DC, but it might be some other version I saw … thanks.

EDIT: Of course, that s/b: “Thanks, Justin”.  SHEESH, sorry about that.

Father Bowdern said:

Wow … that's a great symbolic I never noticed … smart, smart, smart!

Father Bowdern

Ya know, I notice more potential symbolisms almost every tiime I watch it. Here's a stretch – in Iraq when Merrin heads to the Pazuzu amulet cavern, he walks down the wall of one of the excavated chambers. He “crosses” (sorry) an intersection of the walls and, so help me, it looks like he is “trampling on an inverted cross”. This impression was especially intense in full screen editions in which the “arms” of the “cross” are somewhat shortened; it is somewhat attenuated in widescreen, but (to my eye) it's still there. Like I said, it's a stretch, but it would be an interesting resonance with Merrin's pride … and it might darken the museum curator's words to Merrin, “Evil against evil” … i.e., Merrin as a prideful cross-trampler 😉

Father Bowdern said:

I'll look for that, granville, when I watch the film again. The one thing I've always noticed in the Northern Iraq scene are the men with their pickaxes hammering away at … nothing. Some will swing and hit dirt, while a small group never touches. I can never figure that one out because Friedkin was so meticulous. Of course, the actors could have been on a particular sacred ground where destruction was not allowed. I wish I had never noticed it …

Father Bowdern

Thanks for that bit of data, Fr.  Yes, next time I watch the movie, I will look for the hit-and-miss pickaxing. Thanks for the heads-up.

(Let me reiterate that you may not find the “cross-trampling Merrin” very credible. It's just that once I saw it, I keep looking for it, and it's always “there”.)

Father Bowdern said:

gran, could it be possible that it's Merrin's shadow (or perhaps that's what you're saying)? I don't doubt you a bit because Friedkin was so meticulous with every scene.

Father Bowdern

Could be his shadow, but it's not his shadow that I ever noticed :)  Rather, it's the intersection of the wall-tops where he walks down the “upright” beam of the “cross” …

Father Bowdern said:

Ah, got you … I will definitely look for this. BTW, I love those scenes in the Iraqi dig. Of particular note, whether by “nature or nurture,” I find it very unique that a fly lands on Merrin's hand when he inspects the Pazuzu amulet.

Father Bowdern

Yes, like you say, whether by design or not, the sound engineers crank up the bee-buzzing around that moment, iirc – I thought it was flies buzzing until I found out it was really bees… first time I saw the Merrin fly and heard the bee-buzzing the thought popped into my mind, “How clever – suggesting Beelzebul, the 'Lord of the Flies'.”

Looking forward to more conversations, right now I need to head for bed.

Yes, the sound design terrified me in early viewings, then with TVYNS in the theater, the sound was incredibly enhanced, and all the more frightening – Friedkin did so much magic just with the soundtrack 🙂

I love it :)  Ya know, that gunshot ALWAYS startles me, even when I remind myself it's coming. I liked the enhanced soundtrack but I'm not too hot on the new music which was played during the “Chris calls Howard” scene. I think it worked better in the “Kinderman tells Karras about the details of Dennings' death” walkabout scene – it's grim and a bit uncanny. But I think it plays too early in the Chris/call scene and delivers a sense of weirdness, when the scene – if it needs any music at all – seems to call for tonal pathos (mother angry FOR her child's feelings, daughter feeling abandoned)…