Tyler Baldwin - Decalogue

2/11/21 Tyler Baldwin - Decalogue

Midrash as a concept would be totally foreign to the polish viewers that the movie was made in, as well as most Americans that watch  Krzysztof Kieślowski's films. Midrash is supposed to be deep and comparative reflection on God's word in the Jewish tradition, or the Torah. After Babylonian times the law seemed not as relevant, and Midrash challenges you to analyze what the laws meant personally to you. I think this same tradition is actually very prevalent in modern Christianity, as many people pick and choose which parts of the bible to believe in, without taking a deeper reflection of why those laws are there, even if the traditional Jewish law does not apply to them.

The film medium is a great way to impose Midrash upon the viewer, as I mentioned in a previous essay movies capture your sense of sight and cause you to think more deeply than a podcast, radio show or music would similarly plea for the listeners attention. Because the Decalogue was written some 3.5 thousand years ago, film and visuals are needed to connect the abstract ideas into a regular person's everyday life. Film is a great communicator of this, would playing a video game capturing the players attention be able to achieve something similar? I think so.

Meaning in the films is conveyed through feeling and the viewer can naturally understand this. Watching the cold analytical father go to the pond last after checking every other place screams against our natural suspicion and intuition that something is wrong. The viewer can feel that the father should go to the pond to check on him but holds another god, measurements, above the sacred belief. This feeling is shared amongst the viewers and makes the viewer consider if they would have gone to the pond first, or whether they would be as lost as the father.

I think these films have done a great job in contextualizing the decalogue into everyday life, especially the thou shall not kill as I had never considered that that rule could apply to the executioner as well. I would also pivot to the film about science before God still holding up today, but personally I believe a film centered on social media, phones, etc. more akin to Black Mirror would have a greater effect on us living in the information age. What would that film look like if the creators of Black Mirror tried to make a Decalogue Series?

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