My wife and I caught the recently restored, uncensored version of Ken Russell’s The Devils. I’ve heard so much about this film, about its truth-to-power, about its blasphemous imagery and willingness to confront an uncomfortable, but true story, head-on.
It’s been a few days since seeing the film, and my thoughts have had time to settle. The Devils originally premiered in 1971, and the film was censored at home and abroad for its content. I can see why, and while it’s an uncomfortable watch, it is one of the most necessary and powerful films I may have ever seen. I don’t say that lightly.
Ken Russell’s The Devils is as much a film about a conspiratorial witch hunt to usurp power from a free city and consolidate it under Cardinal Richelieu in 1600s France as it is about the unholy union of church and state. It’s a film about using the fear of God as a cover for power. In a time when access to education was limited to the elites and plague festered, superstition and carnival-like hysteria undercut sanity and common sense.
The Devils is not technically a horror film, but it very much is one in spirit. It’s unsettling, haunting, and terrifying, complete with complex characters. It’s one of the most powerful examples of moral decay I’ve seen on film, and the irony is that it’s a film about religion.
In an era when book bans are increasingly common, when news is highly polarized and endlessly editorialized into bad-faith soundbites and “gotcha” moments, The Devils is more than an echo. It’s an ear-splitting siren.
As much as it scares me, I take comfort in the fact that so many people are rushing to the theater to see it, that there are showings nationwide and a fervor to see a film that is as impactful today as it was in 1971.
We will not go the way of Loudun or Father Grandier. We can and will overcome the devils currently wielding a double-sided sword of government and religion. We will endure, so long as we speak our truths, share our horrors, and educate each other. It’s on us to keep the institutions of art and learning alive.
Keep creating. Keep learning. Keep sharing.
We’re all in this together,
Scott
