Steampunk Chicago.

It has taken me a while to write an article on The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus for a very simple reason.  It is so complex and is so visually overwhelming that it takes a good week or two to really process what you have seen in the theater.  Most film school professors will tell you that Terry Gilliam is a self-indulgent and pretentious director.  I, of course, almost never agree with film school academics or critics.  I will say that the visuals in this film at times seem to overwhelm the story being told, although in many ways grand amusement is the nature of the Imaginarium itself.

Warning, spoilers follow.

In fact, one of the most puzzling elements of this movie is the very operation of the Imaginarium.  We know that  it is controlled by the mind, and that Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) and the “Devil” use it to fight over the souls of the living.  What I find most perplexing is the position of the character of God in all of this.  We have a very clear Judeo-Christian symbol in Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) who seems to be more Mephistopheles than Satan himself.  Waits slips into the roll of the serpent quite comfortably, as if he has already visited Hell and knows what it’s like.  Many online have pointed to the Jesus symbolism apparent in the character of Tony.  The problem in making that assumption is that Jesus was (according to Christian scripture) without sin and most likely did not harvest the organs of small children.  In the end, I think it is best to not view this with a western mindset regarding ideas of good and evil.

This grey area actually makes the film more interesting than a typical rehashing of the story of Dr. Faustus.  A large flaw with the film’s distribution has been the focus on the character of Tony played by Heath Ledger.  Tony acts almost as more of a Hitchcockian MacGuffin than he does as a main protagonist.  The main conflict in this film is between Parnassus and Mr. Nick.  Some have pointed to the fact that Mr. Nick might not be the antagonist, and that the “bad guy” might be Tony.  Now, Tony might not be a decent human being, but it is quite obvious from a storytelling standpoint that Tom Waits is the clear Antagonist.

Continue reading The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus: A Feast For The Eyes That Demands Repeated Viewings…