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●メル・ギブソン監督の映画『キリストの殉難』（The Passion Of The Christ）の
観客がまた死んだというニュースが報じられました。牧師が信徒のためにわざわざ
上映会を開き、そこで見ていて心臓麻痺で死んだとのこと。敬虔なキリスト教信者に
とって、この牧師の死は“殉難”と呼ぶべきなのか、それとも銀幕の幻（その意味では
「偽キリスト」）に騙されて命を落とした愚か者なのか……。
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http://www.eiga.com/buzz/040323/index.shtml
3月23日更新
メル・ギブソンの「パッション」で、またも死人が！
そんなに凄いのか
メル・ギブソン監督作品「パッション」で、またしても犠牲者が出た。21日、
ブラジル・ベロオリゾンテ市内の映画館で、43歳の牧師が同作を鑑賞中に心臓麻痺
で死亡したもの。この牧師は、信徒のために映画館を借り切っての上映会を行って
いたが、映画の半ば頃突然身体に異変を来たし、医師が駆けつけたときには既に
死亡していたという。
同作では、2月25日の全米公開直後、アメリカ・カンザス州での上映中に心臓麻痺
による死者が出ていたばかり。
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●メル・ギブソンは今度はユダヤ教ネタで映画を作るそうですが、これは
大衆娯楽の“偶像”によって歴史を捏造してきたハリウッド・バビロンの
暴走と見るべきか、それともスピルバーグの『シンドラーのリスト』のような
シオニズム宣伝のプロパガンダ映画などを垂れ流してきたハリウッド・バビロン
で勃発しつつある“内部反乱”なのか……
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http://www.eiga.com/buzz/040323/02.shtml
3月23日更新
メル・ギブソン、キリスト教の次はユダヤ教の映画？
イエス・キリストの最期の12時間を描き、物議を醸しながらも大ヒットを記録している
「パッション」だが、監督のメル・ギブソンは今度はユダヤ教を題材にした映画を企画
しているという。
ギブソンが描こうとしているのは、クリスマスの時期に催されるユダヤ教の祭り、ハヌカ
の起源になった「マカベア戦争」。紀元前2世紀、セレウコス朝シリアの支配下にあった
イスラエル（パレスチナ）で、時の皇帝アンティオコス4世による徹底した宗教弾圧に抗い、
激戦の末シリア軍を駆逐したハスモン家のマカベアらの戦いのことである。ギブソンは
この戦いについて、「マカベアたちは蜂起し、戦い、銃を放ち、勝った。まるで西部劇の
ようだ」と語っている。
かつて、「パッション」が反ユダヤ的かどうかという大論争のきっかけをつくった、ユダヤ系
の団体ADL（反中傷同盟）のアブラハム・フォックスマンは、今回のギブソン発言に対し、
「我々ユダヤ人の歴史のひとつを西部劇になぞらえてくれるなんて、ありがたいけど、余計な
お世話だね」と冗談まじりにコメントしている。
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●『キリストの殉難』（日本での題名は『パッション』だそうですので、
パッションフルーツを生かじりする気軽さですっぱい風味をお楽しみ
くださ〜い！ｗ）の上映騒動で連想したのは、1973年に公開されて米国で
前年大ヒットの『ゴッドファザー』興行記録を軽々と塗り替えたオカルト映画の
『エクソシスト』でした。
考えてみれば、「オカルト」という言葉もこの映画をきっかけに世間に広まった
ような印象があります。
●その『エクソシスト』の“悪魔の声”を演じていた女優が死亡したという
ニュースも入ってきました。
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http://www.eiga.com/buzz/040323/11.shtml
3月23日更新
「エクソシスト」の悪魔の声の主が死去
「オール・ザ・キングスメン」で、49年のアカデミー賞助演女優賞を受賞した
女優マーセデス・マッケンブリッジが死去した。「ジャイアント」や「武器よ
さらば」などに出演した彼女だが、もっとも有名な出演作は、声のみの出演だった
「エクソシスト」。リンダ・ブレア演じる少女に取り憑いた悪魔の声を担当したが、
当初はクレジットされず、ウイリアム・フリードキン監督と激しい争いになった
ことがある。その後、名前を入れる時間がなかったと弁解する製作側との間に全米
俳優協会（SAG）が調停に入り、無事マッケンブリッジの名前が明記されることに
なったエピソードは有名。享年85歳。詳しい死因は明らかにされていない。
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いくら仕事とはいえ、“悪魔の声”を演じるなんて気持ちのいいことでは
なかったでしょう。『エクソシスト』はたしか制作スタッフなどが公開後に
続々と“怪死”したという話も伝わっていたので、この女優は30年間、いや〜な
気持ちを引きずって生きてきたのかもしれませんね。
（たしか『エクソシスト』公開時も観客に死者が出たような気がするのですが、
私の勘違いかも知れません。……それからこの話には直接の関係はないですが、
永井豪氏が『デビルマン』を連載していた当時、怪奇現象が頻発して悩まされた
という話があるそうで、薄気味が悪いですが、何なのでしょうね？）
●下記に『エクソシスト』の概略（英文）を紹介しておきますが、映画の冒頭の
“遺跡発掘で悪魔を呼び覚ましてしまう”場面……あの発掘現場はイラク北部
という設定になっています。 イラク北部といえば、侵略戦争のどさくさに
まぎれてイスラエルが掠め盗ろうとしているようで……
http://www.asyura2.com/0403/war49/msg/1157.html
……今になって考えると何とも皮肉な巡り合わせ。
さて、遺跡発掘でめざめた“悪魔”は何者じゃ？
もうすぐ白人の敬虔な婦女子に取り憑くぞ〜！（苦笑）
●“悪魔の声”を演じた女優は『オール・ザ・キングズメン』でアカデミー賞を
受けていたとのこと。『エクソシスト』が公開された73年といえば、米国では
ウォーターゲイト事件が大騒動に発展し、ニクソン政権が内部崩壊を始めていた
時期でした。（翌年にニクソンはホワイトハウスから遁走。）
ニクソン政権を追及した代表格のメディアが『ワシントン・ポスト』であり、
それまで首都圏版（地域ニュース）を担当していた新入りのカール・バーンスタイン
とボブ・ウッドワードが“鉄砲玉”となってニクソンを追いつめたわけです。
ところが興味深いことに、ウッドワードはイェール大学卒で海軍諜報将校から
ワシントンポスト社に入ったという経歴の持ち主で、軍産複合体の一種の
エージェントだった疑いが強い。（このあたりの話は『静かなるクーデター』［新潮社］
を参照。イェール大学というのもスカル＆ボウンズを通じてCIAその他の軍事諜報
機関と特段の繋がりがあるので、そういう人脈がこれまで活用さえてきた可能性もある。）
……で、その新人記者コンビがニクソン撃滅の顛末を描いたルポが、調査ジャーナリズム
の古典と言われる『大統領の陰謀』なのですが、その原題が『オール・ザ・プレジデンツ・
メン』……。
ちなみに『オール・ザ・プレジデンツ・メン』は映画化されて76年に公開されたのですが、
まさにその時期に大統領選挙で、それまで誰も知らなかったジョージア州知事のジミー・
カーターが大勝する。そして当時のマスコミは「Jimmy Who?」とか「ピーナッツ畑の農園主
が突如アメリカ大統領に！」などと驚いて見せたわけだけれども、じつは米欧日３極委員会
の創設メンバーだった。（当時は「極右」のジョン・バーチ協会くらいしかこれを指摘する
者はいなかった……。怠慢か、欺瞞か？）
● ……と、雑然と書き連ねてきたのは、今回の『キリストの熱情』の公開のタイミングを
考えると、これは『エクソシスト』公開に次ぐ、キリスト教文明圏の大きな社会変動を
作り出す仕掛けなのではないか、などと勘ぐっているからです。
『エクソシスト』は“オカルト”という概念を社会に広め、一方では従来のキリスト教から
逸脱する文化流行を煽り、また一方で、その反動として強固なキリスト教「保守」勢力の
組織化を助長した。しかしこの両者は、政治的には一定の結束をして社会を非合理主義に
追い込んできたわけです。 たとえば文鮮明のカルトとキリスト教保守派が80年代の
「プロジェクト・デモクラシー」（＝世界反共不正規戦争計画）の展開で結託したように……。
『エクソシスト』は最近の心理戦争用語を使えば「畏れと戦[おのの]き」（Shock & Awe）
戦術だったといえる。そして『キリストの熱情』も……。
●『キリストの熱情』が今後20年ほどのキリスト教文明にどのような変動をもたらすか、
注目する価値がありますが、しかし一つだけ確実なことは、映画の中のキリスト様が
どんなに生々しい存在であっても、しょせん“銀幕の幻”として製造された「偽キリスト」
にすぎないということです。
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● ……というわけで、以下に参考として映画『エクソシスト』の概略を紹介しておきます。
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ワーナーブラザーズの『エクソシスト』公式ホームページ
http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/
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http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/historybottom.html
●●エクソシスト現象についての解説
as far as 500 BC Egypt, earlier civilizations believed in evil spirits.
The Judeo-Christian legend of Satan, a powerful evil being independent of God, probably began around 583 BC, influenced by Babylonians who ruled the Hebrew people.
Christianity furthered possession and exorcism as preeminent beliefs in the civilized world. The Bible carries many tales of Jesus driving devils out of various mortals. He then passed on the power and right of exorcism to his disciples.
●SATAN VS. THE CHURCH
Satan assumed a more prominent place in daily life when Christianity became the official religion of Rome. He and his minions were believed able to possess human beings and sometimes even assume human form themselves to carry out their evil purposes.
During the Middle Ages, public exorcisms proved to be popular crowd-pleasers and were often accompanied by severe torture. Victims, many of whom were only guilty of being non-Christians or mentally ill, were often branded as witches or sorcerers, to justify the Church's actions.
●POSSESSION OR NOT?
As early as 1583, the Church recognized that some forms of mental illness could cause a person to seem possessed.
In fact, the "Roman Ritual," shown in The Exorcist and first published in 1614, cautions its users to make sure the case cannot be explained by normal psychological means.
Modern psychological and medical discoveries, such as Tourette's Syndrome, have given the Church more ammunition to scientifically explain most cases of possession.
The "Roman Ritual" is now rarely used - and only in those cases where no other explanations can be found.
●THE ROMAN RITUAL
・The Litany
・Psalm 54
・Adjuration (calling on God’s help)
・Gospel readings
・Preparatory prayer
・First exorcism
・Prayer for success
・Second exorcism (commands to the evil spirit)
・Another prayer for success
・Third and Final exorcism (similar to second exorcism)
・Final prayer.
By Church law, no priest can perform a formal exorcism until he is fully persuaded of the individual's possession and receives the Church's blessing. Signs of "true possession" include speaking in foreign tongues, ability to predict the future or displaying powers beyond the person's age or natural condition.
Before beginning an exorcism, a priest usually investigates past cases to help guard him against tricks the demon might try to play.
The "Roman Ritual" begins with the priest going to confession and Mass and dressing in surplice. The priest starts the actual procedure by making the sign of the cross over the subject, himself and any bystanders, then sprinkles holy water around the room.
Next, he recites the Litany of the Saints and a selection of psalms, prayers and invocations from the Gospel, interspersing "Hail Marys" and the "Athanasian Creed."
There are also several formal addresses made directly to the demon, ordering the demon to leave the subject's body with the words "the power of Christ compels you!"
Throughout the Ritual, the priest frequently makes the sign of the cross and tries to draw the subject into the Ritual.
The demon is not considered exorcised until it tells the priest its name and its purpose. Once the demon leaves the subject, the subject is warned to guard themselves carefully and abstain from sin, to keep the demon from returning.
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http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/truebottom.html
●●この映画をめぐる実話の数々……
●児童の干渉を禁じた「Ｒ指定」を受けたことについて……
One area in which The Exorcist was definitely making the news was around the issue of its rating classification. Despite the initial fears of Warner Bros. concerning the necessarily graphic nature of some of the film's scenes, the ratings board of the MPAA had awarded the movie a lenient R rating without a single cut. "There is no confusion about what kind of film The Exorcist is," offered MPAA President Jack Valenti when some concerned parties complained that the film should not have been made available to minors, even if accompanied by their parents. Valenti disagreed, stating, "Much of what might concern some people is not on the screen: it is in the mind and the imagination of the viewer. A film cannot be punished for what people think because all people do not think alike. What might repel and frighten some people might not do the same to others."
●マスコミは賛否両論の大反響
As expected, press reactions to The Exorcist were as wildly varied as those of the public who flocked to see it, with some applauding its magical powers, while others decried its visceral force. Tellingly, very few reviewers claimed to be unmoved by the picture; rather, they either loved it or hated it.
●観客に嘔吐や湿疹が続出……（死亡事故があったという言及はない）
Whatever critics say, much of the shock value-fed by almost incredible tales of audience’s reactions. "My janitors are going bananas wiping up the vomit," complains Frank Kveton, manager of the United Artists Cinema 150 in Oakbrook. Kenton also has had to replace doors and curtains damaged by unruly crowds, and even relandscape the McDonalds plaza a cross the street where moviegoers park their cars. "I’ve never seen anything like it in the 24 years I’ve been working in movie theaters," says H. Robert Honahan, division manager at the ABC/Plitt theaters in Berkeley. "We’ve had two to five people faint here every day since this picture opened. More men than women pass out, and it usually happens in the evening performance, after the crucifix scene involving masturbation."
●ビリー・グラハムが宣教営業に利用（もうひとつの恐怖ビジネス）
Less encouraging was the reaction of the evangelist Billy Graham, who saw The Exorcist as somehow aligned with the forces of darkness, and took to enthusiastically denouncing it in public. "Billy Graham said something like, 'There is a power of evil in that film, in the fabric of the film itself,'"recalls Blatty with a genuine sense of bemusement. "Now I don't know what he was talking about. I mean, I have great respect for Billy Graham, but I thought that was one of the most foolish statements I have ever heard. I would have attributed it to senility except he was only 39 or 40 at the time. But to this day I still have no idea what he meant by that. I mean, obviously there is a power in the film to move you, to have a disturbing effect upon the viewer which is greater than the sum of its parts. It's mysterious, yes. But my God, it's not evilO"
Whatever Billy Graham's concerns, Father Thomas Bermingham was a champion of The Exorcist and agreed to fly the flag for the movie when it opened in cinemas in Europe. Here, as in America, reactions to the film were far from subdued.
"I got a call from Warner Bros. asking me to go to Milano," Father Bermingham recalls, "because they were opening there and they heard that the whole city was in uproar. They wanted to have a psychiatrist and myself present to deal with this. So I flew in and met this Italian psychiatrist - we had dinner and established a good relationship - then we had this lecture which was held in one of the great museums. The lecture was meant to last for forty-five minutes, but after that time nobody wanted to leave."
Joe Hyams recalls an equally startling commotion at the movie's opening in Rome. "I had gone there with Tom Bermingham and Billy Friedkin. The film was playing at the Metropolitan Theatre, just off this huge piazza in the heart of Rome which has these two twin Sixteenth Century churches with identical crosses on top. In Italy, of course, the film was an enormous success and I was standing outside the theatre watching the crowd go in, queuing in this rain and lightning, and loving it. And then in the middle of all this I heard some noise or commotion coming from the piazza, so I walk round andOlightning had struck one of the crosses on top of those churches! That cross was probably four hundred years old, about seven or eight feet long-and it fell right in the middle of the piazza. It was only thanks to the bad weather that it didn't fall on nine Italians because that Piazza was usually very crowded. Well, as soon as the cross fell, the local policeman immediately took charge of the situation - but nobody went near to that cross. Now, I'm skeptical, but I start to think, 'This is getting crazy. OK there's a lightning storm and the lightning hit the cross. But there's been a lot of lightning in Rome over the past four hundred years, and this happens now when our movie is opening just down the street?' We left town about three days later, and even then that cross hadn't been moved from the spot where it fell. The authorities had taped the area off while they investigated what might have happened, and every day crowds would come there to see it. I even sneaked in to see it one more time before we caught our plane. That to me was the spookiest thing that happened."
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映画『エクソシスト』の概要
http://www.filmsite.org/exor.html
Exorcist (1973)
The Exorcist (1973) is the sensational, shocking horror story about devil possession and the subsequent exorcism of the demonic spirits from a young, innocent girl (of a divorced family). The Exorcist was notable for being one of the biggest box-office successes (and one of the first 'blockbusters' in film history, predating Jaws (1975)), and surpassed The Godfather (1972) as the biggest money-maker of its time. And it remains one of the few horror films nominated for Best Picture. However, it was also one of the most opposed films for its controversial content. Roman Polanski's successful Rosemary's Baby (1968) played upon similar fears of devil possession.
The film's screenplay - a horror-tinged western (and tale of good vs. evil), was faithfully based upon author William Peter Blatty's 1971 best-selling theological-horror novel of the same name. Academy-Award winning director William Friedkin (previously known for The French Connection (1971)) created a frightening, horror film masterpiece, with sensational, nauseating, horrendous special effects (360 degree head-rotation, self-mutilation/masturbation with a crucifix, the projectile spewing of green puke (a mixture of split-pea soup and outmeal), etc.). The film also featured the terrific acting debut of 12-year old actress Linda Blair, who played the helpless girl possessed by demons.
The controversial nature of the film's content - exorcism (accompanied by blasphemies, obscenities and graphic physical shocks), was supposedly based upon an authentic, nearly two-month long exorcism performed in 1949 on a 14-year old boy (with pseudonym "Robbie Mannheim") in Mt. Rainier, Maryland by the Catholic Church (in the form of a fifty-two year old Jesuit priest named Fr. William S. Bowdern and Fr. Raymond Bishop). The official exorcism was reported in Thomas B. Allen's and Carl Brandt's 1993 book Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism. [Possessed (2000) was also a pay-TV-cable Showtime movie of the same name, starring Timothy Dalton.] The film's plot was also partially inspired by a similar demonic possession case in Earling, Iowa in 1928.
The film was enormously popular with moviegoers at Christmas-time of 1973, but some portions of the viewing audience fled from theaters due to nausea or sheer fright/anger, especially during the long sequence of invasive medical testing performed on the hapless patient. Its tale of the devil came at a difficult and disordered time when the world had just experienced the end of the Vietnam War (US troop withdrawal and the fall of Saigon) and at the time of the coverup of the Watergate office break-in (also in Washington, D.C.). Friction developed between director Friedkin and various cast and crew members during production, and there were additional post-production conflicts between Friedkin and Blatty. Other disturbing events that affected some of the film's stars (injury and death) also plagued the production.
Critically, it was presented with ten Academy Award nominations, two of which won (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound). The other eight nominations included: Best Picture, Best Actress (Ellen Burstyn), Best Supporting Actor (Jason Miller), Best Supporting Actress (Linda Blair), Best Director, Best Cinematography (Owen Roizman), Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, and Best Film Editing.
Unfortunately, the film spawned imitations (i.e., The Omen trilogy, the Italian knockoff films Beyond the Door (1974) and The Tempter (1974) (aka The Anti-Christ), the 'blaxploitation' clone Abby (1974), and the UK's The Devil Within Her (1975)), and inspired many inferior sequels of its own:
・Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), d. John Boorman
・The Exorcist III (1990), d. William Peter Blatty
In the early fall of 2000, the film was recut and released in an 11-minute longer version (and retitled as The Version You've Never Seen), with an enhanced digital surround-sound, six-track soundtrack - as a writer-producer's cut. Additional scenes that were excised were restored to the print, including Blatty's preferred ending in which good triumphed over evil. (A bantering discussion between a police detective and a young Jesuit confirmed the fact that the spirit of Father Damien Karras lived on rather than the Devil's spirit.) Other additions included a shocking down-the-stairs, back-bending "spider-walk" by the satanically-inhabited girl, enhanced scenes with Father Merrin (played by the brilliant central actor Max von Sydow who based his performance on the real-life Jesuit theologian Pierre Tielhard de Chardin), and a few other minor changes.
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After a few blood-red credits on a black background, the film opens with a prologue. The locale is an archaeological dig site deep in the arid desert of Northern Iraq - near the ancient town of Nineveh. An Arabic prayer is chanted on the soundtrack behind an image of an oblong, burnt-reddish sun. Workers dig inexorably with pick-axes through mounds of dirt to uncover ancient artifacts. A young boy in a red head-dress runs through the weaving, maze-like trenches to summon one of the supervisors. The camera shoots through his legs as he speaks in Arabic: "(Subtitle): They found something...small pieces...At the base of the mound."
Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow), an elderly, scholarly Jesuit Catholic priest and archaeologist, is told that ancient objects have been unearthed during his search for evil: "Lamps, arrowheads, coins..." Merrin inspects a small silver, Christian medallion (depicting Mary and the baby Jesus) and observes that it is unusual to find it buried in a pre-Christian location: "This is strange...Not of the same period." Merrin then digs in a crevice near the Christian objects and discovers a small, greenish, gargoyle-like stone amulet or statuette [in the figure of the Mesopotamian demon Pazuzu, known for its serpent-like phallus]. [The Iraqi sequence sets a tone of foreboding and establishes the presence of 'Good' and 'Evil' - it also foreshadows the battle between the two forces later in the film.]
In the Iraqi marketplace on the streets of Mosul, with a throbbing, drumming sound, the strain is evident as Merrin's hand shakes when he takes his heart medicine. Iron workers clang their hammers on anvils near a red-hot burning furnace. One of the steelworkers turns toward Merrin, revealing his blind right eye [an allusion to future horrors in the film]. Back in the curator's office, as Merrin eyes the ancient Pazuzu amulet, he is told: "Evil against evil." Ominously, the swinging pendulum of the clock behind him stops working. The curator knows Merrin will be leaving to go home to the States: "I wish you didn't have to go." Weary and exhausted, Merrin replies: "There is something I must do." He passes by prostrate Muslim worshippers and into a dark passageway. When he emerges in the narrow, sunlit street, he is nearly run down by a fast-moving, horse-drawn carriage carrying an old woman in a black droshky, worn over her face like a shroud.
After driving his jeep to an ancient temple ruins guarded by armed, white and black-garbed watchmen, he walks up to a full-sized stone statue of the demon Pazuzu. Nearby, two dogs begin fighting and snarling at each other in the dust. He again has a premonition that the amulet is a concrete manifestation that something evil has been unearthed - the soundtrack simulates an eerie, shrieking chord, symbolizing the loosing of ancient, pagan evil in the world. The camera zooms in on the face of the open-mouthed, fearsome creature. As he confronts the demonic statue that has been called up for protection by the amulet's discovery, the wind blows dust over the scene as he feels all around him the presence of the devil.
In a clever transitional dissolve linking two distant locales and their coincidental association, the scene from the desert (a sizzling view of the orb of the dawning sun) dissolves into the sounds and views of early morning traffic crossing the Potomac in Georgetown outside Washington, D.C. The camera zooms into one of the Georgetown houses where a hand turns on a different kind of bright light - a white electric lamp. Inside her bedroom, divorced mother and actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn, reportedly modeling her role on actress Shirley MacLaine) is working on lines in her latest script. She hears unsettling sounds from the attic similar to the dirt-digging sounds of the prologue. [This form of infestation is the first classic stage of possession.] She investigates - following the sounds to her 12-year old daughter Regan's (Linda Blair) bedroom where the young girl is sleeping. The covers are pulled back and the window is inexplicably wide open with fluttering curtains - she senses a certain coldness or presence in the room. Downstairs in the kitchen, Chris instructs housekeeper Karl (Rudolf Schundler) to purchase traps for "rats in the attic."
The next minimalist scene introduces other film characters and a 'film within a film.' On the Georgetown University campus, Chris emerges from a movie-set trailer on the set of Warner Bros. Inc.' Crash Course (now filming at locations in California and Washington, D.C.). (Later, Chris expresses how she despises the film when she describes the movie as "kinda like the, uh, Walt Disney version of the Ho Chi Minh story...") [William Peter Blatty makes a brief cameo appearance as an upset producer, telling the director: "Is the scene really essential? Would you just consider it, whether or not..."] The scene that is being filmed at the Catholic school dramatizes early 1970s student protest that threatens to tear down the historic stone walls of the university. Chris, a representative of the academic-adult population, questions the British director Burke Dennings (Jack MacGowran, who died one week after completing his scenes in the film) about the unrealistic plot of adolescent counter-cultural turmoil. One of the curious onlookers among a crowd of students, a Jesuit priest (in black) from the university, named Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller), smiles amusedly after overhearing their conversation.
A few moments later into the shoot, when Chris grabs a bullhorn and tells the rebellious students in the crowd: "If you want to effect any change, you have to do it within the system," a long crane shot finds Father Karras walking away from the crowd and the filming - he turns back to watch for a moment, and then continues his departure in serious thought. [To accentuate one of the film's themes, the actor's lines are deliberately juxtaposed with the priest's departure, since he is experiencing an inner struggle of religious faith within his own system - the church.]
After the day's shoot is finished, Chris walks the leaf-covered street from the campus to her home, accompanied by the tinkling, mesmerizing sounds of "Tubular Bells' (by Mike Oldfield). It is Halloween, and children run by in their masks and costumes. For a brief moment, a roaring black motorbike that passes behind her slightly drowns out the sounds of the bells. Two nuns trailing billowing black and white habits walk down a road in front of a brick wall. Now in her neighborhood, she turns and hears, from a distance, the priest Karras counseling a fellow priest (until his spiritual words are overshadowed by the loud, mechanical roar of an overhead jet engine):
「There's not a day in my life that I don't feel like a fraud.
Other priests, doctors, lawyers - I talk to them all.
I don't know anyone who hasn't felt that.」
As priest Karras rises up from an underground stairwell, emerging into the noisy track area of the New York City subway where the tracks spew jets of steam, the camera pans past a soft-drink vending machine, emblazoned with: "TRAVEL REFRESHED." On the dirty, trash-littered platform of the subway station, he turns to hear a tattered, derelict drunk begging with an outstretched hand:
「Father, could you help an old altar boy. I'm Cat'lick.」
Wrapped up in his own problems and unable to be charitable in this subway encounter, Father Karras turns away from the wretched man whose bearded, sweaty face is momentarily illuminated in flashes by the window lights of a passing subway.
He visits his dying, sick mother, Mother Karras (Vasiliki Maliaros) who lives in humble, pauper's conditions by herself (after he left her and moved to the priesthood in Georgetown) in a derelict area of New York City. The street, lined with run-down housing, is populated with unruly kids, drunks, graffiti, and litter. After first stopping in his own room and reflecting on his past [two photographs of his early boxing career, trophies, a childhood photograph, and a picture of a former girlfriend], he enters his Mama's room. As he carefully binds his mother's injured leg and then lights a cigarette for a smoke [atypical for a priest], he suggests moving her elsewhere, but she is a stoic, stubborn, Greek immigrant woman from the Old World, and she doesn't want to move:
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・Damien: Mama, I could take you somewhere where you'd be safe. You wouldn't be alone. There would be people around. You know, you wouldn't be sitting here listening to a radio.
・Mother: (She first speaks in her native tongue) ...You understand me? This is my house and I'm not going no place. Dimmy, you're worried for something?
・Damien: No, Mama.
・Mother: You're not happy. Tell me, what is the matter?
・Damien: Mama, I'm all right, I'm fine, really I am.
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題名には必ず「阿修羅さんへ」と記述してください。