Dear Ken, Indra, Bill et al,



I'm working on an issue closely related to this in a book on the 
Dardenne brothers, whose film The Son (2002) is loosely inspired by 
the Jamie Bulger murder (by children, not by a serial killer), and by 
Abraham and Isaac.  I'm finding Rene Girard incredibly useful.  For 
Girard, who doesn't mention Hitch, the kind of association of 
religion and crime would be seen as backwards.  Girard says that 
violence enters a society, and each violent act calls for another 
one, through mimesis and need for revenge.  Religions developed as a 
way of stopping the violence by condensing it into one figure, the 
sacrificial victim, that would pay in blood for the stability of 
society.  In modern societies, thankfully, we have the law, we have 
education and learning, and work, everything that keeps - not our 
brains occupied, but our hands.  The violence of religion is the 
violence directed toward one for all.

If you look at it from an atheistic point of view, which I prefer, 
Abraham looks like a murderer.  If there is no god, then he is just a 
guy who wants, for whatever reason, to kill his son. Maybe he is 
angry at the treatment of Ishmael and this is seen as just 
retribution?  Or maybe he thinks he hears god's voice, and is simply 
insane (the link between insanity - though not this time sexual - and 
religion).  Thank goodness we have the law to limit such Psychotic 
behavior.  If you look at it from a theistic point of view, then 
perhaps God (and I'm not sure the change of name matters) is laying 
down the law to Abe.  Abe doesn't want to do it, but it is the law, 
and that's the only thing that is going to give us a society, i.e. 
fulfill the covenant.  So he decides to do it.  And presto, the law 
avoids the death.  The law is just plain good despite how it seems

Religion and myth generally as I read Girard are the first steps 
toward law.  Girard would never say that "Religions develop by social 
groups as supernaturally-sanctioned stories for the theft and murder 
of others."  I think the best way to look at this is to take the 
believer's insight - the law (and not a strict adherence or "tough" 
law) domesticates and diffuses the call of violence.  That's its 
purpose.  But hearing voices is simply insanity and can make anyone 
kill in the name of anything.  Many film killers are under the 
impression that they are doing good, at least by the voice. Maybe by 
showing us "bad" religion, Hitchcock wants to point us toward "good" 
religion, or even point us toward rational law.  A rational law would 
have to be constantly reevaluated.  Religion isn't bad as a step 
toward rational law, but it is perhaps not so great as a step back from it.

It seems to me that Zizek is actually not far off when he talks about 
Hitchcock in his Pervert's Guide.  The violence of horror films often 
comes to show us that the civilizing function of religion and the law 
is not up to preventing unhealthy drives or the proliferation of 
violence.  The interesting thing about the Dardennes is that their 
film hints constantly at horror, but the main character works toward 
the civilizing aspects of the law, of education.  That's almost 
unheard of optimism in the cinema.  In the Son, and I'm purposely not 
giving the narrative away, the father of the son understands that he 
is alone with the boy "on the mount" as it were - without god.  He 
feels murderous rage, but he understands the law and keeps the blood 
from rising to the surface.  The Dardennes are diametrically 
anti-Hitchcockian, anit-Zizekian from this point of view, because 
their films aren't about fulfilling our murderous desires/nightmares, 
but teach us how to prevent them from taking shape.  I would be 
interested in hearing about other films in which horror is averted, 
in the name of the law instead of religion....

Joe Mai

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