As many a fan has done before me in this past month, I wanted to take the opportunity to express to yourself and everyone involved how grateful I am for the film. It has taken me well over a dozen viewings of “I Want To Believe” to even begin to wrap my brain around and process the multiple meanings and implications of this incredibly layered film. I feel as though with each viewing I find something new, another revelation dawns upon me. It's absolutely invigorating and so sadly lacking from the majority of contemporary art. It reminds me of the amazing months my literature class spent immersed in “Hamlet” when I was a teenager, reading and rereading, always to happen upon a new dimension of intent and intensity.
"The X-Files" was and remains one of the most influential, innovative, socially and politically important series ever made. It rose above sci-fi gimmick to create two monumental characters struggling with the often opposing influences of faith, science, love, philosophy and the paranormal. Two characters battling the world and seeking a truth they would eventually learn to find in one another. The second film is ahead of its time, dealing with the thematic elements of love and redemption on a skewered moral compass. "The X-Files" was and is relevant, intellectual, and will always be important and light years ahead of its time. The lessons I learned from the series as a youth have sta yed with me through to adulthood and to my great benefit. “The X-Files: I Want To Believe” is one of the best films I have seen in quite awhile and it most certainly upholds the integrity of the characters and the series as a whole. If the striking themes and messages are being overlooked, that is the fault of a public wrought with bloodthirst and willingly dumbed down by the media, not the result of nor the fault of the film. The cross-editing that opens the film is impeccable, the performances are top-notch [most notably Gillian Anderson, who never ceases to be a revelation with every new project], the cinematography and direction are flawless, the words are stunning. It seems the moral issues plaguing our protagonists are perhaps too relevant for our present societal state. This is one amazing film and I find the fact that its lack of overt sexuality or multiple explosions may be working to its detriment absolutely abhorrent. It is what "The X-Files" always was: vastly intelligent, incredibly motivating, deeply moving. This film holds a mirror up to society and I feel society is perhaps largely not ready to accept that the reflection is not necessarily one-hundred percent positive.
Thank you for making a brave and haunting story that reached so far beyond the surface. Thank you for subtly developing the layered relationship between Scully and Mulder to exactly the place that makes absolute sense for them, given their history and the time that has passed. Together, they always anch ored the incredible and made it believable. “I Want To Believe” continued the tradition of how their personal conflicts carry over into their work, how their own lives are mirrored by those they encounter, how their past choices are constantly reflected back upon them. This, to me, was a dark and moody film concerning one couple's struggle to reconcile within themselves and each other the opposing forces surrounding them and within them. Two people so consumed by a need to save what has already been lost, seeking relief or redemption for a self-perceived crime or sin, that they nearly destroy the very thing that offers them any solace or comfort in the world.
“I Want To Believe" challenges its characters and its audience. One of the most striking aspects of this film, something that perhaps many are not willing to or are afraid to consider, is that the "monsters" were very real, very tangible. These monsters were not garbage men or flukemen. They were, rather, the scariest kind imaginable -- they were human beings. We may fear the unknown darkness and the creatures under the bed, but the creepiest kind of predator is the one next door. The parallels drawn and the connection between the boy and the Russian doctors are terrifically complex. Both cases concern the medical profession going to great and perhaps unethical lengths to save a patient [the young boy, the former alter boy]. As the story unfolds, the uncomfortable questions begin to arise. The Russian doctor was not having women kidnapped and murdered for sport, he was going to extremes to save a patient. This doesn't make his actions excusable or morally acceptable, but do his motives partially negate the horror of his actions? Father Joe violated the innocence of nearly forty young boys, yet castrated himself against his urges and has spent most of his life repenting for his sins. While his crimes are atrocious, does his own disgust at what he's done and the faith he holds so dear help to heal him in society's eyes? Can it in his own? How shall we interpret Father Joe's apparent psychic abilities – a gift from above, a gift from below, or merely the words of a man desperately seeking redemption on earth? His psychic abilities are called into question, most directly by Scully, yet we have [and always have had] the implications of Scully's own possible psychic abilities. A phenomenon she questions in Father Joe and fears within herself; a phenomenon that has quite possibly led her to Mulder and he to her on countless occasions. If God is speaking through Father Joe, is the man forgiven? Must we then follow this example? As one doctor plays Frankenstein in a makeshift facility, another doctor endeavors other extremes to save her own patient. Scully does not take lives to save Christian, yet just as the Russian, she is performing excruciating procedures in order to prolong a life that may already be lost. How far is too far? When does a human being cross the line from righteous to wrong? I found it bold and daring of both Dana Scully and the filmmakers to explore the issues and consequences of a self-professed Catholic doctor performing stem cell therapy in a Catholic hospital – to explore where Scully's faith ends and where her science begins. How those two forces within her intertwine, how they battle. How complex and fascinating Scully is, then, not to mention brave. A woman so determined to save a life that she will stand up to the beliefs of her religion and draw her moral compass not from her faith, but from her medical training and her own determination. Could it be said that this same determination is what eventually led the Russian doctor to condone murder? Are we all susceptible to such a horrific loss of perspective?
Scully and Mulder are struggling to find redemption for the past: she for giving up on their son, he for losing his sister. The ways that our heroes connect to their separate quests is in direct correlation to what haunts them most as people. Mulder searches for the agent with the same renegade and obsessive mentality he searched for his sister with, wanting desperately to believe she was alive. His passion is blinding and he falls so far into the dark abyss of frustration and self-loathing, one fears one day he may not emerge. Mulder sought to proceed based on something intangible: pure and unrelenting hope. Scully, conversely, let a daughter die to save her from pain and gave a son away for the same purpose. She selflessly acts in what she believes to be in the best interest of those she needs to protect, wanting only to save them from pain and in doing so bears more than her own share of sorrow. Scully adamantly fights for and does not give up on her patient not only for his life, but also to save his parents from the eternal questions and doubt she faces regarding her own decisions. Her scene with the Fearons on the steps strikes a chord in me each and every time. Scully stands firm and poses the question: “What if we made the wrong choice?” She is certainly speaking to the situation at hand, but the emotional depth and gravity Ms. Anderson lends to the scene sparks an image of William in my mind, even Emily. Like Mulder, she too is proceeding based on the hope she manages to hold onto, the small glimmer of light they see in the darkness. Though these characters may place their faith in different realms, it is this faith that drives them forward and always has. As these two characters are in ways so vastly different from one another, the hope they have as they fight the world manifests itself in a unique and highly individualized manner. While the protagonists fight to save what has already been lost, they nearly lose each other. The quest that unites all three couples in this film [Scully and Mulder, the Fearons, the lovers] is, to me, the struggle to win the greatest battle: the fight against lost love.
Thank you, so very much, for giving us something beyond vacuous entertainment this summer. Thank you for the intellectual challenge, thank you for making us think. I truly feel that “I Want To Believe” was largely misunderstood and I hope in the near future this is rectified. I liken it to "Bonnie & Clyde" syndrome. It seems to be yet another film that critics and society alike are not quite ready for, yet is in reality a beautiful and moving work of art. Maybe there's hope ...
Cheers,
Caileigh
Los Angeles
