A video of faith-shaking proportions.
Nothing like the most epic battle of all-time (and even beyond that) to start the day.
Since the dawn of man, depending on what you believe, there has been a war waging between God above and Satan down below for the ultimate of spoils and the most divine of creations: the very soul of humanity. It’s a battle waged in dark alleys and brightly-lit sanctuaries, in high rises and slums, in barrooms and boardrooms and bedrooms and ballrooms, a battle that has outlasted every other war combined and multiplied infinitely, and one that, if ever truly won by either side, would alter the entire fabric of life, the universe, and everything. Again, depending on what you believe.
Either way, though, you better believe it’s a skirmish that makes for great moviemaking. Over the last century both God and the Devil have been portrayed onscreen innumerable times by innumerable types like George Burns (God), Al Pacino (Satan), Morgan Freeman (God), Tim Curry (Satan), Alanis Morrisette (God), Jack Nicholson (Satan), Groucho Marx (God), and Elizabeth Hurley (Satan). And in the following montage from Filmscalpel, they all get their due.
What you’re looking at here is an eight-minute video that has compiled two dozen examples of the Heavenly Father and the Fallen Angel as depicted by cinema across the decades, Satan on the left looking right and God on the right looking left, each pair squaring off for a stare-down There are terrifying and hilarious examples of both deities on display here, but the real star I think is us and our neverending fascination with our celestial puppet masters that causes us to reinvent and redefine them generation after generation.
This video is presented by one of my favorite sites, Filmscalpel, and is the sixth and final installment of the “Pretty Messed Up” video series conceived by Dutch director Peet Gederblom, whose work outside this series we’ve featured before. After you’re done with this video, be sure to hit that Filmscalpel link for the rest of the series, not to mention all the other great work the site produces.
Related Topics: Religion
