Judgment In Stairway To Heaven
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Stairway to Heaven, originally titled A Matter of Life and Death, captures a distant interpretation of traditional views of Heaven, Hell, and Judgment. The directors do this by reshaping standard images of Heaven, eliminating Hell and restructuring Judgment. All together this created a vastly different afterlife than was constructed by classic artists such as Dante, and Michelangelo.
Death is uniquely contradictory in Stairway to Heaven. Death seems to be both predetermined and structured but also negotiable. Conductor 71 alludes that he knows June will live a long life, and seems to know the exact day and time to expect June to die. Additionally, the Conductor had to expect Peters death in order …show more content…
to know where to look for him, the only reason Conductor 71 made and error was because of the England Fog, not because Peter’s death was unexpected. This suggests that death is predetermined which strays from the traditional Christian belief that death is unexpected “Time and Chance overtake them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Death in Stairway to Heaven offers the idea that one’s time on earth is predestined, eliminating the idea of free will, which suggests that God knows your judgement and death and there is little a mortal can do to alter that. Additionally, death contradicts itself in this film by being both avoidable, but in the control of someone else. Death is controlled by the conductor. Medically and scientifically, in the Stairway to Heaven Peter should have died from jumping from his plane without a parachute, but the film suggest that the only reason Peter would have died was if the Conductor counted him. Even though death is in the hands of someone else and ultimately predetermined, it can be avoided by an error, thus giving slight flexibility to death as an institution. The majority of the film focuses on Peter’s appeal to the celestial court to gain additional time on earth. Death is negotiable. Peter is able to win over the court and is given a new time and date for his death because of his ability to negotiate the conditions of his death. The celestial court in itself suggests that this negotiation is not rare, there is an elaborate system set up for this procedure thus it must not be uncommon practice. This is what makes death so contradictory in Stairway to Heaven, there are loopholes that allow for death to be placed in the victim’s hands, loopholes such as errors on the part of the Conductor, and an appeals system for death to be mediated. The opening of the film shows Peter the last of his squadron alive, declaring he is willing to jump from his plane and take his own life rather than go down with the plane. Peter, throughout the first few scenes of the film goes from an accepting of death to reluctance of death. Peter falls in love with June, making him request more time on earth. Peter’s change in attitude towards death is what sets up the plot of the film, causing him to petition for an appeal of his death. The act of dying changes completely through the film for Peter, once he is in the face of death he cherishes life more fully. This is similar to Tondal in “Visions of Tondal” whom after seeing the various stages of afterlife, was more grateful and charitable in his time on Earth. Like Tondal, it is as though Peter is given a second chance at life. Conductor 71 takes on a very special role in Peter’s potential death. In the initial stages of Peter’s death Conductor 71 is largely responsible for both Peter’s supposed death as well as in an error that keeps Peter alive. Conductor 71 assumes a role of a Grim Reaper, he is death, he creates it. From the understanding of the film, the reason Peter would have died would have been if he was secured by the Conductor, however it was Conductor 71’s error that kept Peter live, thus if Peter had made that jump from his plane it wasn’t the jump that would bring him death but the job of the Conductor that would bring him death. To the directors of Stairway to Heaven death is not just an act; he is a person.
Conductor 71 transitions through the film from a reaper of death to a guide through Peter’s afterlife proceedings. Peter doesn’t actually die, but he still knows of his death and of Heaven, this is similar to the journeys that Tondal from “The Vision of Tondal”, Aeneas of “The Aeneid Virgil” and Dante of “The Divine Comedy” go one, who all get to see the afterlife without actually dying. All of these classic characters are accompanied by some figure who can pass between earth and the afterlife. For Tondal it is an unnamed guardian angel, Aeneas is accompanied by The Sibyl and Dante by Virgil in Hell and Purgatory then Beatrice his deceased lover in Heaven. Although Peter doesn’t actually go to Hell or Heaven it is with the Conductor that the matters of Death are explained. Conductor 71 switches from his role as a reaper of death to a messenger like Virgil, who was sent by Beatrice to receive Dante on earth, Conductor 71 was sent by the Celestial Court to earth to receive Peter and correct his mistake. Furthermore, Conductor 71 acts as a liaison between Peter and the judge of court as Beatrice acts as a liaison between the heavenly figure of Mary for Dante. Conductor 71 guides Peter on earth while his fate in the afterlife is decided. Judgement in the Stairway to Heaven is represented as life versus death rather than heaven versus hell. When Conductor 71 realizes his mistake, he is sent to earth to bring Peter to Heaven. Peter is reluctant of death now that he has fallen in love and asks to petition his appeal. In the celestial court Peter sends a representative (his doctor) to argue his case to the judge and against Abraham Farlan a biased American revolution solider. Directly in the case of Peter, judgement will determine if he will go to heaven with the members of his Squadron or if he is assigned a new date of death, he must prove to the court that he and June are in love and deserve more time spent on death together.
The film first shows Heaven as a check in area for souls who have just arrived. Looking almost like a doctors waiting office, the directors create a modern, less fantastical depiction of heaven than is typically seen. In “Visions of Tondal”, Tondal in heaven experiences a series of walls, tall and covered in precious stones; In “The Divine Comedy”, Dante, as he ascends closer and closer to God, can hardly describe the beauty and magnificence of heaven, all he can describe is the bright, white light. The film depicts a much more modern, modest take on heaven.
When Dante is in the Empyrean he experiences the Celestial Rose, which with Mary as its center is structured in sections of the circle, reserved to certain people. People who lived according to the Christian tradition, and people who believed in Christ. In aggregate similarity, the film represents a celestial court, which is sectioned off with seats reserved to various groups of souls (British soldiers, American soldiers, pilgrims). The celestial court in Stairway to Heaven is not modeled off of a typical court room, but perhaps the directors found inspiration from Dante’s celestial rose. Powell and Pressburger, when creating their version of Heaven, draw inspiration from classical images of Heaven, which creates a level of comfort and relatability to the viewers already perceived vision of Heaven. The directors are careful to not create a drastically obscure Heaven, which may confuse viewers.
The directors also make a point to emphases the pilots concern with receiving their wings, which directly ties them with traditional views of Heaven and angels. All angels in medieval and renaissance art (The Morgan Beatus manuscript of the Apocalypse, Bosch’s Last Judgment) are painted with wings, it is a classical image that most people associate with heavenly angels, thus making this contemporary heaven more familiar.
A stark contrast between the film and traditional renditions of Heaven is the presence of Jesus, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary. Commonly the trio is seen in artwork of The Last Judgement, and at the very least Jesus is shown. Powell and Pressburger chose to leave them out entirely. In Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, Mary and Jesus are right besides each other and in Bosch’s images of the last judgment Jesus again is seen with Mary to his right and John to his left. Typically, Jesus is seen as the “judge” in these works of art. In Powel and Pressburger’s film the judge of the celestial court is not depicted as an image of Jesus. In fact, the actor Abraham Sofaer shares no resemblance to any classical rendition of Jesus. This is bizarre because from a production value it would have been quiet easy and logical to make this character of final judgement an embodiment of Jesus Christ and the writers of the film choose not to do this. This could potentially be to diversify the audience they are reaching to, by placing less heavy religious emblems in the film it makes the film more relatable to various religious sects. Stairway to Heaven captures several aspects of life: life, death, and heaven. Different renditions of hell have been heavily recorded, from Virgil to Dante to nearly all Final judgement artwork. The idea of life in Hell heavily effects the way people behave on earth because of the rules and punishments it outlines. Hell is not represented in the film. Throughout the class we have seen very gruesome images of hell and here it is avoided all together. This may be a director’s decision to keep the film happy, lighthearted, and family friendly. Hell is scary.
The one slight similarity to Hell/purgatory in the film is the stairway to heaven which could be an allegory to Mount Purgatory. In Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”, Dante and Virgil must scale Mount Purgatory to get to heaven and this is no easy task. Powell and Pressburger produce an ascension to Heaven that is essentially a giant escalator. Though there is similarity, the journey is quite different.
As mentioned before, Peter in a sense commits suicide by jumping from the plane without a parachute. In Dante’s Inferno it is a sin to commit suicide, which would result in that soul going to hell. In this film, this widely accepted punishment is not applied, even though Peter takes his own life, he is granted a spot in Heaven. Death in Stairway to Heaven shares only some similarities with the traditional works of heaven, hell and judgement. According to traditional beliefs, Peters suicide would have granted him a position in hell rather than heaven, but, hell is not included as an option in this film
In Stairway to Heaven, none of the characters experience any punishment. In “Visions of Tondal”, for example, even people who are in a section of Heaven still experience some punishment. The King Donatus who once was evil but changed his ways, lives in peace, “The good but not very good”, but burns in a fire for three hours a day for his sins of infidelity and murder. Even the people in heaven experience punishment for some sins on earth and in the film we see Peter totally exempt from any punishment, so does the audience then assume that Peter has lived a sinless life or all of his sins have been excused. The writers of Stairway to Heaven completely readapted the idea of judgement. Judgement is typically represented after death and determines one’s placement in heaven or hell. In the film judgement becomes a matter of life versus death. In the earliest form of judgement, we studied, the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, one’s soul was weighed against the Feather of Maat, Maat was the difference between right and wrong.
A soul would be compared to Maat and that judgement would determine their afterlife. The weighing of souls against Maat gave an early understanding of standards one should live up to in order to secure a favorable judgement in the afterlife. Similarly, In Dante’s Inferno Minos hears each soul confess their sins and then determines what circle of hell the sinners go to. Each circle of Hell correlates to a different sect of sins. Followers of this belief have directions laid out very clearly of how to live their lives in order to assure a good final judgment. Every character in Stairway to Heaven that goes to heaven, goes straight to heaven. It seems as though their judgement was predetermined and is then skipped over and they are automatically placed in either Heaven or Hell.
In this film judgement is shown when the main character is appealing for more time in life. This is a judgement we have not yet seen in the class, Judgment typically referred to one’s placement in heaven or hell, not one’s placement in life or death. This notion of judgment before death in the form of an appeal suggests that death is
negotiable.
Another major re-shape-ment of judgement in the film is the lack of wrath that comes with judgment. Throughout the course there have been many depictions of wrathful Gods and judgements; In the book of Revelation from the New Testament, God creates an apocalyptic world in which to destroy evil, as a teaching this shows very harsh judgement that Christians must live their life in accordance to and show a test of true faith. Similarly, the image of Christ in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel “Last Judgement” where Christ typically is seated, calm, acting like a judge, here Christ is very active, full of energy and wrath. Contrasting these Judges is the Judge of the court of appeals of the celestial court in Stairway to Heaven, this judge represents forgiveness and negotiation The Judge is very reasonable and compassionate to Peter’s situation. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger create an entirely new world of the afterlife in Stairway to Heaven. This is an afterlife of predetermination and negotiation, it is modern and classic. These directors capture the classic with the new when they send an eccentric French conductor to emulate stoic guides such as Virgil. Stairway to Heaven is able to remain lighthearted and family oriented by completely excluding the harsh, gruesome images of Hell and creating a contemporary court in Heaven which grants life rather than death. Powell and Pressburger exhaustively restructure ideals of the afterlife while allowing subtle classic elements the audience is familiar with to shine through.
Death is uniquely contradictory in Stairway to Heaven. Death seems to be both predetermined and structured but also negotiable. Conductor 71 alludes that he knows June will live a long life, and seems to know the exact day and time to expect June to die. Additionally, the Conductor had to expect Peters death in order …show more content…
to know where to look for him, the only reason Conductor 71 made and error was because of the England Fog, not because Peter’s death was unexpected. This suggests that death is predetermined which strays from the traditional Christian belief that death is unexpected “Time and Chance overtake them all” (Ecclesiastes 9:11). Death in Stairway to Heaven offers the idea that one’s time on earth is predestined, eliminating the idea of free will, which suggests that God knows your judgement and death and there is little a mortal can do to alter that. Additionally, death contradicts itself in this film by being both avoidable, but in the control of someone else. Death is controlled by the conductor. Medically and scientifically, in the Stairway to Heaven Peter should have died from jumping from his plane without a parachute, but the film suggest that the only reason Peter would have died was if the Conductor counted him. Even though death is in the hands of someone else and ultimately predetermined, it can be avoided by an error, thus giving slight flexibility to death as an institution. The majority of the film focuses on Peter’s appeal to the celestial court to gain additional time on earth. Death is negotiable. Peter is able to win over the court and is given a new time and date for his death because of his ability to negotiate the conditions of his death. The celestial court in itself suggests that this negotiation is not rare, there is an elaborate system set up for this procedure thus it must not be uncommon practice. This is what makes death so contradictory in Stairway to Heaven, there are loopholes that allow for death to be placed in the victim’s hands, loopholes such as errors on the part of the Conductor, and an appeals system for death to be mediated. The opening of the film shows Peter the last of his squadron alive, declaring he is willing to jump from his plane and take his own life rather than go down with the plane. Peter, throughout the first few scenes of the film goes from an accepting of death to reluctance of death. Peter falls in love with June, making him request more time on earth. Peter’s change in attitude towards death is what sets up the plot of the film, causing him to petition for an appeal of his death. The act of dying changes completely through the film for Peter, once he is in the face of death he cherishes life more fully. This is similar to Tondal in “Visions of Tondal” whom after seeing the various stages of afterlife, was more grateful and charitable in his time on Earth. Like Tondal, it is as though Peter is given a second chance at life. Conductor 71 takes on a very special role in Peter’s potential death. In the initial stages of Peter’s death Conductor 71 is largely responsible for both Peter’s supposed death as well as in an error that keeps Peter alive. Conductor 71 assumes a role of a Grim Reaper, he is death, he creates it. From the understanding of the film, the reason Peter would have died would have been if he was secured by the Conductor, however it was Conductor 71’s error that kept Peter live, thus if Peter had made that jump from his plane it wasn’t the jump that would bring him death but the job of the Conductor that would bring him death. To the directors of Stairway to Heaven death is not just an act; he is a person.
Conductor 71 transitions through the film from a reaper of death to a guide through Peter’s afterlife proceedings. Peter doesn’t actually die, but he still knows of his death and of Heaven, this is similar to the journeys that Tondal from “The Vision of Tondal”, Aeneas of “The Aeneid Virgil” and Dante of “The Divine Comedy” go one, who all get to see the afterlife without actually dying. All of these classic characters are accompanied by some figure who can pass between earth and the afterlife. For Tondal it is an unnamed guardian angel, Aeneas is accompanied by The Sibyl and Dante by Virgil in Hell and Purgatory then Beatrice his deceased lover in Heaven. Although Peter doesn’t actually go to Hell or Heaven it is with the Conductor that the matters of Death are explained. Conductor 71 switches from his role as a reaper of death to a messenger like Virgil, who was sent by Beatrice to receive Dante on earth, Conductor 71 was sent by the Celestial Court to earth to receive Peter and correct his mistake. Furthermore, Conductor 71 acts as a liaison between Peter and the judge of court as Beatrice acts as a liaison between the heavenly figure of Mary for Dante. Conductor 71 guides Peter on earth while his fate in the afterlife is decided. Judgement in the Stairway to Heaven is represented as life versus death rather than heaven versus hell. When Conductor 71 realizes his mistake, he is sent to earth to bring Peter to Heaven. Peter is reluctant of death now that he has fallen in love and asks to petition his appeal. In the celestial court Peter sends a representative (his doctor) to argue his case to the judge and against Abraham Farlan a biased American revolution solider. Directly in the case of Peter, judgement will determine if he will go to heaven with the members of his Squadron or if he is assigned a new date of death, he must prove to the court that he and June are in love and deserve more time spent on death together.
The film first shows Heaven as a check in area for souls who have just arrived. Looking almost like a doctors waiting office, the directors create a modern, less fantastical depiction of heaven than is typically seen. In “Visions of Tondal”, Tondal in heaven experiences a series of walls, tall and covered in precious stones; In “The Divine Comedy”, Dante, as he ascends closer and closer to God, can hardly describe the beauty and magnificence of heaven, all he can describe is the bright, white light. The film depicts a much more modern, modest take on heaven.
When Dante is in the Empyrean he experiences the Celestial Rose, which with Mary as its center is structured in sections of the circle, reserved to certain people. People who lived according to the Christian tradition, and people who believed in Christ. In aggregate similarity, the film represents a celestial court, which is sectioned off with seats reserved to various groups of souls (British soldiers, American soldiers, pilgrims). The celestial court in Stairway to Heaven is not modeled off of a typical court room, but perhaps the directors found inspiration from Dante’s celestial rose. Powell and Pressburger, when creating their version of Heaven, draw inspiration from classical images of Heaven, which creates a level of comfort and relatability to the viewers already perceived vision of Heaven. The directors are careful to not create a drastically obscure Heaven, which may confuse viewers.
The directors also make a point to emphases the pilots concern with receiving their wings, which directly ties them with traditional views of Heaven and angels. All angels in medieval and renaissance art (The Morgan Beatus manuscript of the Apocalypse, Bosch’s Last Judgment) are painted with wings, it is a classical image that most people associate with heavenly angels, thus making this contemporary heaven more familiar.
A stark contrast between the film and traditional renditions of Heaven is the presence of Jesus, John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary. Commonly the trio is seen in artwork of The Last Judgement, and at the very least Jesus is shown. Powell and Pressburger chose to leave them out entirely. In Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, Mary and Jesus are right besides each other and in Bosch’s images of the last judgment Jesus again is seen with Mary to his right and John to his left. Typically, Jesus is seen as the “judge” in these works of art. In Powel and Pressburger’s film the judge of the celestial court is not depicted as an image of Jesus. In fact, the actor Abraham Sofaer shares no resemblance to any classical rendition of Jesus. This is bizarre because from a production value it would have been quiet easy and logical to make this character of final judgement an embodiment of Jesus Christ and the writers of the film choose not to do this. This could potentially be to diversify the audience they are reaching to, by placing less heavy religious emblems in the film it makes the film more relatable to various religious sects. Stairway to Heaven captures several aspects of life: life, death, and heaven. Different renditions of hell have been heavily recorded, from Virgil to Dante to nearly all Final judgement artwork. The idea of life in Hell heavily effects the way people behave on earth because of the rules and punishments it outlines. Hell is not represented in the film. Throughout the class we have seen very gruesome images of hell and here it is avoided all together. This may be a director’s decision to keep the film happy, lighthearted, and family friendly. Hell is scary.
The one slight similarity to Hell/purgatory in the film is the stairway to heaven which could be an allegory to Mount Purgatory. In Dante’s “The Divine Comedy”, Dante and Virgil must scale Mount Purgatory to get to heaven and this is no easy task. Powell and Pressburger produce an ascension to Heaven that is essentially a giant escalator. Though there is similarity, the journey is quite different.
As mentioned before, Peter in a sense commits suicide by jumping from the plane without a parachute. In Dante’s Inferno it is a sin to commit suicide, which would result in that soul going to hell. In this film, this widely accepted punishment is not applied, even though Peter takes his own life, he is granted a spot in Heaven. Death in Stairway to Heaven shares only some similarities with the traditional works of heaven, hell and judgement. According to traditional beliefs, Peters suicide would have granted him a position in hell rather than heaven, but, hell is not included as an option in this film
In Stairway to Heaven, none of the characters experience any punishment. In “Visions of Tondal”, for example, even people who are in a section of Heaven still experience some punishment. The King Donatus who once was evil but changed his ways, lives in peace, “The good but not very good”, but burns in a fire for three hours a day for his sins of infidelity and murder. Even the people in heaven experience punishment for some sins on earth and in the film we see Peter totally exempt from any punishment, so does the audience then assume that Peter has lived a sinless life or all of his sins have been excused. The writers of Stairway to Heaven completely readapted the idea of judgement. Judgement is typically represented after death and determines one’s placement in heaven or hell. In the film judgement becomes a matter of life versus death. In the earliest form of judgement, we studied, the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, one’s soul was weighed against the Feather of Maat, Maat was the difference between right and wrong.
A soul would be compared to Maat and that judgement would determine their afterlife. The weighing of souls against Maat gave an early understanding of standards one should live up to in order to secure a favorable judgement in the afterlife. Similarly, In Dante’s Inferno Minos hears each soul confess their sins and then determines what circle of hell the sinners go to. Each circle of Hell correlates to a different sect of sins. Followers of this belief have directions laid out very clearly of how to live their lives in order to assure a good final judgment. Every character in Stairway to Heaven that goes to heaven, goes straight to heaven. It seems as though their judgement was predetermined and is then skipped over and they are automatically placed in either Heaven or Hell.
In this film judgement is shown when the main character is appealing for more time in life. This is a judgement we have not yet seen in the class, Judgment typically referred to one’s placement in heaven or hell, not one’s placement in life or death. This notion of judgment before death in the form of an appeal suggests that death is
negotiable.
Another major re-shape-ment of judgement in the film is the lack of wrath that comes with judgment. Throughout the course there have been many depictions of wrathful Gods and judgements; In the book of Revelation from the New Testament, God creates an apocalyptic world in which to destroy evil, as a teaching this shows very harsh judgement that Christians must live their life in accordance to and show a test of true faith. Similarly, the image of Christ in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel “Last Judgement” where Christ typically is seated, calm, acting like a judge, here Christ is very active, full of energy and wrath. Contrasting these Judges is the Judge of the court of appeals of the celestial court in Stairway to Heaven, this judge represents forgiveness and negotiation The Judge is very reasonable and compassionate to Peter’s situation. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger create an entirely new world of the afterlife in Stairway to Heaven. This is an afterlife of predetermination and negotiation, it is modern and classic. These directors capture the classic with the new when they send an eccentric French conductor to emulate stoic guides such as Virgil. Stairway to Heaven is able to remain lighthearted and family oriented by completely excluding the harsh, gruesome images of Hell and creating a contemporary court in Heaven which grants life rather than death. Powell and Pressburger exhaustively restructure ideals of the afterlife while allowing subtle classic elements the audience is familiar with to shine through.