Wes Anderson’s movies typically play with the discrepancy between their cheerful storybook visible fashion and their extra somber subject material and themes. Asteroid metropolis is maybe the clearest instance of this trademark. After a blinding framing narrative that situates the story as a play inside a documentary inside a tv program, an upbeat and impeccably composed title sequence follows a practice via a vibrant desert as Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boy’s “Final Practice to San Fernando” performs. .
The alien’s descent on the heart of the movie is a type of divine revelation, an indication from heaven for many who desperately want it.
The upbeat jazz/bluegrass crooning matches the painted desert completely, however the repeated chorus (“In case you miss this one, you will by no means get one other one”) provides the music a deeply melancholic tone; the music, just like the movie, is about final possibilities.
Asteroid metropolis is a movie about unhappiness, though that’s self-evident in a Wes Anderson movie. However particularly it considerations two individuals – Jason Schwartzman’s Augie Steenbeck and Scarlett Johansson’s Midge Campbell – whose grief has left them with out route and at risk of inflicting themselves irreparable hurt (Midge calmly speaks of suicide as a practical inevitability , whereas Augie admits that it is actually dangerous that they commit suicide). latest ideas about abandoning his household). The titular Asteroid Metropolis and the alien encounter they expertise, the movie’s music and script recommend, is their final likelihood to keep away from destruction. An indication comes down from heaven; as Johnny Duncan sang at the start of the movie, “In case you miss this one, you will by no means get one other one.”
The descent of the alien on the heart of the movie is a type of divine revelation, an indication from heaven for many who desperately want it (it descends from a lightweight within the sky, among the many individuals, earlier than ascending once more; a baby later writes a music in regards to the expertise referred to as “Pricey Alien, Who Artwork in Heaven”). The characters who see the alien know they’ve witnessed one thing paradigm-shifting, one thing so cosmically important has are essential to their very own lives.
However how precisely? The creature descends, takes the city’s titular asteroid, poses briefly for Augie’s photograph, after which leaves. What does all this do? imply? The characters should cope with this query, with their private issues, and with the intersections between this stuff, whereas underneath the fast authorities quarantine that follows.
Watching these characters wrestle to know a divine revelation of unclear that means, I considered Martin Luther and his distinction between “God hidden” (God is hidden) and “God revealed” (God revealed). For Luther, God’s infinite greatness over humanity implies that even when God reveals Himself, He stays hidden from us; God’s revelation is each enlightening and complicated. We think about God as a result of God has revealed himself to be good and loving via Christ, however we additionally know that God works in terrifying, horrible ways in which we don’t perceive and that appear to contradict the goodness revealed in Christ.
‘Doesn’t matter [what the play means]. Simply maintain telling the story.”
What are we to make of a God who loves the world a lot that he provides it his solely begotten Son, who needs that nobody ought to perish, however who additionally predestines numerous numbers to everlasting damnation, who sends plagues, earthquakes and wars into the world he supposedly Loves? For Luther, the reply is past human understanding. We will solely cling to what God has revealed to us, all of the whereas trembling at what God has not revealed. Christ is nice; Is that the tip of the story? For Luther we can’t say; we are able to solely hope. God is meaningless, and for that purpose His revelation is at greatest solely partially intelligible.
I feel Luther would really feel at dwelling in Asteroid Metropolis. He would really feel at dwelling among the many younger stargazers who excitedly conspire to share this marvel with the remainder of the world, and he would really feel at dwelling among the many stern navy males who concern the hazard the alien would possibly portend. Nonetheless, he would really feel most comfy with Augie, who close to the tip of the movie stops enjoying his character, leaves the set of the play and confronts the director, demanding an analysis of his efficiency. and begs him to clarify what all of it means. .
Luther, I feel, would additionally really feel at dwelling within the director’s sneakers, telling Augie that his understanding of the play is much less essential than his willingness to take part in it: “It does not matter [what the play means]. Simply maintain telling the story.” This acceptance of uncertainty and continuation of religion regardless of itself jogs my memory of a sermon Luther gave on the Canaanite girl in Mark 7, the place he says:
After we really feel in our conscience that God is punishing us as sinners and deems us unworthy of the dominion of heaven, we expertise hell and assume that we’re misplaced eternally. Now whoever understands the actions of this poor girl, God takes his personal judgment and says: Lord, it’s true, I’m a sinner and unworthy of your mercy; But you’ve promised forgiveness to sinners, and you haven’t come to name the righteous, however, as St. Paul says, “to avoid wasting sinners.”
God’s revelation in Christ, for Luther, is one thing that should be understood and proclaimed towards the whole lot else, even towards apparently contradictory revelations from God. The Cannanite girl is an instance of religion as a result of she will assert God’s guarantees to God himself; Likewise, Augie finds the energy to return to the play even when the director refuses to clarify its that means to him. Within the play, Augie begins a reconciliation together with his spouse’s household, and Midge leaves him her tackle, seemingly pausing her overdose plans in the meanwhile.
It seems that Johnny Duncan and the Bluegrass Boy’s warning is being heeded; Augie and Midge might not have gotten the message, however it modified them anyway.
God speaks, and God says “sure” to humanity, “sure” to relationship with us, “sure” to our salvation regardless of our unworthiness.
To be trustworthy, I did not discover this ending satisfying on first viewing. I additionally discover Luther’s divided view of revelation unsatisfactory. I can not consider it with out additionally pondering of Karl Barth’s rejection of it within the second a part of Church dogmatics. In brief, whereas God is certainly infinitely higher than humanity, God’s totality is revealed in Christ, and never merely in a single a part of God; there is no such thing as a different “hidden God” than the one made recognized in Christ.
The movie gained me over on the second viewing once I realized that Augie’s perspective on occasions, his confusion resulting in a grudging existential acceptance, shouldn’t be the one one current. The movie even jokes about this early on, when he lastly tells his kids about their mom’s demise, suggesting, “Let’s simply say she’s in heaven, which in fact does not exist for me, however you are Episcopalian.”
Augie’s son and the opposite younger stargazers instantly really feel an nearly apostolic conviction to share their alien encounter with the world. The youthful ‘house cadets’ are additionally enthralled, and Tex and the opposite locals are solely too glad to affix the kids in celebrating. For each character thrown into confusion by the alien encounter, one other instantly receives it with pleasure.
The stranger, this signal from heaven, is definitely complicated; however the play’s director encourages Augie to “inform the story anyway.” For as darkish and unusual as Asteroid Metropolis is, its thematic core is optimistic: God’s goodness doesn’t depend upon our skill to know or anticipate it, and our confusion supplies much more alternatives for God to point out us benevolence (” You may’t get up.” stand up should you do not go to sleep!” the actors sing within the movie’s climax).
Asteroid metropolis as a movie expresses the idea that God speaks, however questions whether or not that speech is intelligible. But the truth that God speaks in any respect, clearly or not, is so exceptional that it bears repeating and pondering time and again.
As Christians, religion permits us to take this conviction and take a step ahead: God speaks and God says “sure” to humanity, “sure” to the connection with us, “sure” to our salvation regardless of our unworthiness. God loves Augie and Midge, and each reap the benefits of the alien’s unusual origins lengthy earlier than they perceive it.
But the very best particular person to be in Asteroid Metropolis is a baby, who sees the alien and experiences it with easy pleasure. By religion we reply the query from the nursery rhyme: “Are you buddy or foe?” with the response: “Good friend!”
However even after we cannot do this, even when, like Augie and Midge, doubt and confusion crowd out all room for pleasure, God nonetheless works for our good. In spite of everything, Johnny Duncan was mistaken; there is no such thing as a “final likelihood” to expertise God’s mercy, no pit of despair so deep that God won’t descend into it with us like an alien right into a crater.
In spite of everything, you possibly can’t get up should you do not go to sleep.
