THE PROPHECY
US, 1995, 98 minutes. Colour.
Christopher Walken, Elias Kotias, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Vigo Mortensen, Amanda Plummer, Moriah Shining Dove Sneider, Adam Goldberg.
Directed by Gregory Wyden.
The Prophecy is an entertaining, though sometimes confusing, piece of supernatural gobbledygook.
It takes its thesis that there is a war in Heaven, God favouring humans more than angels. Gabriel is one of the chief warriors, comes to Earth to find a soul in an evil person who will be able to change the situation in Heaven. Simon, a good angel, is roaming the Earth, finds a soul in a general who committed war crimes in the Korean
War and hides it in a little girl in a remote town, on an Indian reservation. Vigo Mortensen appears late in the film as Lucifer.
Elias Kotias is very strong as a trainee to become a priest, who is haunted by memories of the war in Heaven. He has a breakdown at the time of his ordination and later becomes a police officer, investigating mysterious deaths – including that of Simon, which takes him to the school and the reservation. Virginia Madsen is the local schoolteacher. Adam Goldberg has a rather strange role as Gabriel’s human sidekick, doing Gabriel’s dirty work for him. The cast is good – with Christopher Walken giving yet another idiosyncratic performance.
The film was popular and led to two sequels as well as a later spin-off.
1. The popularity of this kind of supernatural film? Angels and demons? In the 1990s? Beyond?
2. The settings, the church and the ordination, detective work in Los Angeles, going out to the school, the reservation? Authentic atmosphere? The contrast with the flashbacks to the impressionistic battles in Heaven? Angels in battle, torment and defeat?
3. The special effects? The picturing of the angelic war? The angels themselves? Their movements? The portrayal of the fights between the angels on Earth? Deaths?
4. The focus on Thomas, his ordination, the solemnity of the situation and the ritual, the previous candidate, Thomas and his breakdown and screaming? The transition to his work as a detective? His faith? Hard-boiled? In action? With fellow officers? The discovery of the dead man, eyeless? The fight, Simon and his killing the man and the audience knowing this? Thomas’s thesis in the room?
5. Thomas and the transition to the reservation and the school? The abandoned town, the few children? Katherine as the teacher? The singing of the Hail Mary, the children’s choir? The celebration afterwards? The importance of Mary, her response in the choir? Her encounter with Simon? Simon breathing the soul into Mary? Mary being taken to the reservation?
6. Simon, his character, coming on Earth, the confrontation with Joseph, the fight and his death? Simon and his going west? His meeting with the general, taking his soul? Breathing it into Mary? Gabriel, the confrontation, Jerry and his assistance? Simon’s death? Thomas coming to investigate?
7. Gabriel, his personality, his role in the angels’ war? Coming to Earth, looking for Simon, wanting the soul? Jerry as his sidekick, his insulting him, getting him to do the dirty work? Especially with Simon? Gabriel, his interrogating the children, trying to find out about Mary? The background of the dead general and the Korean War? His grave, his body? Gabriel and his mission?
8. Thomas, the investigation, the discussions with Katherine, with Mary? The build-up to the confrontation with Gabriel? The memories, the rivalries, the appearance of Lucifer, his sinister presence, his motivations? Rachael and her presence?
9. The final confrontation? Thomas and his asserting himself, rescuing Mary? Gabriel and his defeat – and the future, the sequels?
