I think we should also show people Michael Reeves' "Witchfinder General", a film about the brutality of a sadistic and cruel officially-sanctioned witch hunter in Britain. Though I admit that film may be considered a bit too graphic by some, hey so was the harsher 'Passion of the Christ' and people thought that was okay to show younger people because it's message was important. "Haxan" and "Witchfinder General" are important films for pointing out the dangers of intolerance, jealousy of your neighbors and the insanity caused by mass hysteria and people bowing down to the status quo when an 'authority' is obviously in the wrong and seems 'hell bent' on increasing human suffering.
It's vital to learn from the mistakes of history so as not to repeat them. In a current world often at wars connected to conflicting fundamentalist religious beliefs, and an environment where people are quick to want to persecute others for having different religious views from their own, it's important to remember a time (which I call the Age of Unreason) when religion went very wrong and church elders were complicit in the deaths of (what has been estimated in the) millions of men, women and children. Much of this was due to fear and/or hatred of anyone who looked or thought different than you. The extremists in any religion can potentially allow things to go too far in the wrong direction. The enemy isn't religion, but atrocities committed under the banner of religion.
Christensen's classic silent film (pronounced 'Heck-sen') was indeed controversial back in its initial release and many might still find it controversial today because of its indictment of elders of the goodly church. A church that in this case was definitely in the wrong. Many accusers were common people who wanted to be rid of enemies or were fearful of others or just plain loony, but the church helped foster an environment of superstition and an overwhelming paranoia that evil incarnate and its sworn agents were waiting around every corner. (Ouch! I stubbed my big toe. I couldn't possibly take responsibility for my own actions and consider that I might have been temporarily clumsy so I must have been bewitched!).
Some modern audiences may have a bit of difficulty getting through the film (as they might with many silent films). We've become quite accustomed to 'talkies' by now and its odd to look back at that bygone silent era if you've never done so before. The director himself and others (including critics like Ebert) have said that silent films work great for horror's nightmare landscape where excessive dialogue or explanations could get in the way of the unsettling mood. The director (who played the role of the devil in this film) also said that Haxan wouldn't have been effective if the devil would have spoken in the film, it's better for viewers to imagine that for themselves. This Scandinavian film is beautifully shot despite containing some none-too-pretty images. Well-crafted sets and lighting and a cast ranging from established actors of the day (in their country) to amateur unknowns does a good job overall in bringing the recreations to life. The scene of the witches' broomstick flight is a well-done special effect for the time.
Haxan is in a documentary format with dramatic recreations of the witch accusing and torturing to obtain confessions and includes stuff right out of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' (that infamously repulsive 1480's witch hunters' handbook of choice written by two Dominican monks who had previous papal sanction to hunt witches and whose writings in the 'MM' embraced highly sadistic methods). It starts with discussing primitive belief systems about the nature of the world and proceeds to discuss the types of women accused of witchcraft and the progression to their sham of a trial/interrogation/torture session and their execution, often by burning. There is some great iconic horror film imagery contained in Haxan where it seems to interpret those olde tyme artistic depictions of witches and their alleged Sabbaths. The type of imagery that bored priests sat around envisioning and dreaming up back in those days. It's ironic that ultra-religious types complain the most about horror films when some of their former religious leaders long ago helped to dream up some of the visions later contained in horror films.
Haxan reminds us that alleged 'witches' were people like: folk medicine practitioners, old impoverished women with physical deformations, or simply women that someone else had a disagreement with and figured would be easy to dispatch of by accusing her of what was considered that worst of crimes. People were quick to condemn anyone they saw as different from themselves and accusation of being a witch was the same as a conviction and death sentence, the interrogation/trial was really just a formality where they would torture you to coerce a false confession and get you to name other witches, who would then also be condemned to death. To paraphrase and old hair product commercial a few decades ago: 'You name 20 witch friends and they name 20 witch friends and so on and so on '. This led to the senseless death of millions of people.
The last part of the film takes place in more contemporary enlightened times (early 1920s) and basically states that we've come a long way and that in more modern times hysterical or different people are simply put in sanitariums. Yay us! We've come so far *cough*
The Criterion disc I watched also contained the 1968 version where the film was re-edited and given a (horribly out of place) jazz score and voice-over narration by William S. Burroughs replacing most of the inter-titles.
It's not a typical new-fangled blockbuster Hollywood film full of explosions and car chases, but it is worth seeing if just to remind us of the dangers of what mankind is capable of doing. Man's inhumanity to man (and woman) indeed!
It's vital to learn from the mistakes of history so as not to repeat them. In a current world often at wars connected to conflicting fundamentalist religious beliefs, and an environment where people are quick to want to persecute others for having different religious views from their own, it's important to remember a time (which I call the Age of Unreason) when religion went very wrong and church elders were complicit in the deaths of (what has been estimated in the) millions of men, women and children. Much of this was due to fear and/or hatred of anyone who looked or thought different than you. The extremists in any religion can potentially allow things to go too far in the wrong direction. The enemy isn't religion, but atrocities committed under the banner of religion.
Christensen's classic silent film (pronounced 'Heck-sen') was indeed controversial back in its initial release and many might still find it controversial today because of its indictment of elders of the goodly church. A church that in this case was definitely in the wrong. Many accusers were common people who wanted to be rid of enemies or were fearful of others or just plain loony, but the church helped foster an environment of superstition and an overwhelming paranoia that evil incarnate and its sworn agents were waiting around every corner. (Ouch! I stubbed my big toe. I couldn't possibly take responsibility for my own actions and consider that I might have been temporarily clumsy so I must have been bewitched!).
Some modern audiences may have a bit of difficulty getting through the film (as they might with many silent films). We've become quite accustomed to 'talkies' by now and its odd to look back at that bygone silent era if you've never done so before. The director himself and others (including critics like Ebert) have said that silent films work great for horror's nightmare landscape where excessive dialogue or explanations could get in the way of the unsettling mood. The director (who played the role of the devil in this film) also said that Haxan wouldn't have been effective if the devil would have spoken in the film, it's better for viewers to imagine that for themselves. This Scandinavian film is beautifully shot despite containing some none-too-pretty images. Well-crafted sets and lighting and a cast ranging from established actors of the day (in their country) to amateur unknowns does a good job overall in bringing the recreations to life. The scene of the witches' broomstick flight is a well-done special effect for the time.
Haxan is in a documentary format with dramatic recreations of the witch accusing and torturing to obtain confessions and includes stuff right out of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' (that infamously repulsive 1480's witch hunters' handbook of choice written by two Dominican monks who had previous papal sanction to hunt witches and whose writings in the 'MM' embraced highly sadistic methods). It starts with discussing primitive belief systems about the nature of the world and proceeds to discuss the types of women accused of witchcraft and the progression to their sham of a trial/interrogation/torture session and their execution, often by burning. There is some great iconic horror film imagery contained in Haxan where it seems to interpret those olde tyme artistic depictions of witches and their alleged Sabbaths. The type of imagery that bored priests sat around envisioning and dreaming up back in those days. It's ironic that ultra-religious types complain the most about horror films when some of their former religious leaders long ago helped to dream up some of the visions later contained in horror films.
Haxan reminds us that alleged 'witches' were people like: folk medicine practitioners, old impoverished women with physical deformations, or simply women that someone else had a disagreement with and figured would be easy to dispatch of by accusing her of what was considered that worst of crimes. People were quick to condemn anyone they saw as different from themselves and accusation of being a witch was the same as a conviction and death sentence, the interrogation/trial was really just a formality where they would torture you to coerce a false confession and get you to name other witches, who would then also be condemned to death. To paraphrase and old hair product commercial a few decades ago: 'You name 20 witch friends and they name 20 witch friends and so on and so on '. This led to the senseless death of millions of people.
The last part of the film takes place in more contemporary enlightened times (early 1920s) and basically states that we've come a long way and that in more modern times hysterical or different people are simply put in sanitariums. Yay us! We've come so far *cough*
The Criterion disc I watched also contained the 1968 version where the film was re-edited and given a (horribly out of place) jazz score and voice-over narration by William S. Burroughs replacing most of the inter-titles.
It's not a typical new-fangled blockbuster Hollywood film full of explosions and car chases, but it is worth seeing if just to remind us of the dangers of what mankind is capable of doing. Man's inhumanity to man (and woman) indeed!