On a very long flight from Vancouver to Cairo, I got the opportunity to watch a couple of movies on board and one of them was The rite (2011) staring Anthony Hopkins. The movie is based on true events which talks about Michael who attends a seminary school and then decides to give up his position due to lack of faith. But he is reluctantly sent to Rome to attend an exorcism class by Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins) then he should give his final decision regarding his career.
In Rome, Michael sees the process of exorcism of a pregnant teen which was raped by her father and consequently got possessed. From here I want to start my discussion because in all movies about exorcism the exorcists are always men, while victims are women. Church has represented power throughout history and consequently this power is represented by masculine figures. Besides, in this movie we see that this girl, who is a victim of rape, is the one who is possessed by devil not the criminal who is her father. Another point that indicates the status of marginalization of this character is that she doesn’t have a name which denies her existence within the movie and on a broader basis where the existence of many raped women is denied by different societies.
The link between women and (d)evil has started since the creation of Adam and Eve and how history made Eve the one responsible for our expulsion from heaven because she listened to devil’s words. Therefore, this idea is still present in a movie produced in 2011 where the girl is being punished for nothing and this brings back to our mind the stereotype that always accuses women for being responsible for the rape in different cultures. Afterwards, this girl and her baby die because she is weak and can’t defeat the devil while the masculine characters survive until the end because they are powerful and are able to defeat the devil despite of how strong it is. Besides, as we have seen woman plays a secondary role because another character is Angelina who is taking the same course with Michael. Angelina in different scenes in the movie always walks behind Michael as his shadow. She never takes the lead and just follows his instructions. Therefore, I think this character could have been eliminated without affecting the plot.
On the other hand, it’s quite interesting that Hollywood still produces movies about exorcism in a time when people believe less in religion. Moreover, it’s always faith and religion that save victims from the devil again in a time where people believe more in science more than anything else. Isn’t this quite contradictory? I mean to try to convince people to hold on to their faith as the only power to conquer the evil. Or maybe evil here holds a meaning beyond the literal representation of devil? Realistically, our world now is dominated by evil as there are hatred and wars between different nations, we human beings represent evil as well because we constantly destroy our own plane and occupy others’ territories. Therefore, we need good souls as Father Lucas to create a better world. But still the good souls are represented by religion and the director chose the Vatican as a place of actions to emphasize on this point. And above all the good is represented by men who are supposedly the ones who will save us in the end.
Although I can’t deny that I enjoyed the great performance of the whole cast, but still I’m waiting to see a movie where women are exorcists, “priests” and can finally occupy powerful positions.
I’m sure this day will come!