Redemption for humanity

Student’s name:
Professor’s name:
Course:
Date:
Redemption for Humanity
The Virgin Spring is a Swedish film produced in the year 1960 and directed by Ingmar Bergman. In 1950, Akira Kurosawa in collaboration with Kazuo Miyagawa directed the Japanese film, Rashomon. Although these two films are different regarding their setting and country affiliate, they both bring out the theme of redemption for humanity. These two films are the perfect illustration of the proverbial saying; every cloud has a silver lining as in their difference they present similar situations that challenge the redemption for humanity. This paper provides a critical analysis of the films The Virgin Spring and Rashomon and how they depict the theme of redemption for humankind. This paper will give a brief summary of the two movies and illustrations from the films based on the characters and events that take place in the film about redemption for humanity.
Ingmar Bergman based the story of the Virgin Spring on a rape violence committed by two herdsmen on a virgin girl (Karin) from a wealthy family whose father after welcoming the herdsmen and their boy to his home find out that they raped and killed her daughter. In a fit of rage, the father (Tore), kills the men and the boy. Karin had been sent out by Tore to take virgin candles to the church and was escorted by her servant girl (Ingeri) who out of fear refuses to proceed to the church through the forest. Ingeri practices the worship of Odin but does it secretly.

Tore sets out with his wife to find the body of their daughter; he asks God for forgiveness because he killed the two men and the innocent boy. Tore makes a promise of building a church at the place where his daughter was murdered. He lifts his daughter up and from the position where her head lay a spring of water comes out which Ingeri uses to clean her face. The end of the film shows Mareta (Tore’s wife) crying as she confesses to Tore the jealousy that she felt because of the relationship he had with their daughter. She uses the same water from the spring to clean the mud from her daughter’s face.
In Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, three men, a priest, a commoner and a woodcutter are sheltering themselves from a rainstorm. The priest and the woodcutter narrate to the commoner the story of a samurai who was murdered and his body left in the forest. The woodcutter had come across the body while passing through the woods and called the authorities while the priest had met the samurai and his wife the previous day. As they are the only witnesses, they were both summoned to the court to testify what they knew about the dead samurai. The only other people who are involved in the case are the direct witnesses, the samurai, his wife and the bandit (Tajomaru) who supposedly killed the samurai and raped his wife. Different stories are told by the Samurai (through a white veil medium), Tajomaru, and the wife. Both the samurai and his wife tell the same story to some point, that the Tajomaru kidnapped them, bound the Samurai and raped his wife in front of him. The difference in the story that these three witnesses tell lies on the reason as to why the Samurai ended up dead.
Later in the film Akira reveals that the woodcutter was also a direct witness to the murder of the samurai but did not confess this in court. The dilemma of where the expensive dagger belonging to the samurai’s wife (which was also used to kill the Samurai) went is finally understood when the priest reveals that the woodcutter took the dagger. The film comes to an end when the three men, the commoner, the priest and the woodcutter find an abandoned baby at the gate and the woodcutter decides to take it home for care. The priests then understand that although the actions of the woodcutter earlier were immoral, there is still goodness in him.
In, The Virgin Spring film, Tore in a fit of rage killed the herdsmen after finding out that they had raped and killed his daughter. His actions are followed by his plea to God for forgiveness. He looks up to the heavens and says “God have mercy on me for what I have done.” (Tore). This action of seeking forgiveness from God prove that Tore sees his actions as immoral and regrets what he has done. A film review article views the characters of the movie as having a psychological conflict that was formed as a result of the immoral state of their society (Franz, 187-191). Tore is seen to be in psychological distress after killing the herdsmen in his house. The fact that he is in distress and his actions do not sit well with him proves that there is a ray of hope for redemption. His request to God for forgiveness and he needs to build a church where her daughter was killed, further, supports his quest for redemption.
The water spring that flows from where Karin’s head lay after her father, Tore, lifted her head from there is symbolic of a silver lining of hope. A review of The Virgin Spring film shows a similar spring of water at Karna parish church in Östergötland which was believed to have the powers to heal (Arde, 102-104). Clearly, this church was what inspired Ingmar to include the idea of the spring in the film. Just like the actual spring, at the end of the film, Ingeri is seen cleaning her face, and arms using the water from the spring. This is an act of ridding herself of the sins and mistakes that she had committed against Karin. By cleaning herself, the film portrays the theme of redemption for humanity.

The water from the spring symbolizes the hope for a silver lining, which even though the actions committed against Karin are wrong, the waters have offered her and her family redemption. Karin’s mother also uses the water from the spring to wash off the mud from her daughter’s face which symbolizes the act of cleansing her from the immoral acts that had been done to her. It’s a sign of purifying her dead body. The idea that Tore comes up with of building a church where her daughter was murdered coincides with the location of the stream. This means that when people attend the church, they will also access the spring waters that provide them with hope and heals them. The spring of water is thus the clearest part of the film that shows the possibility of redeeming humanity.
Through Ingeri’s character from the movie The Virgin Spring, the possibility of redemption is seen. Ingeri, the servant girl who accompanied Karin to the church, witnessed the rape and death of Karin but did not say a word of what she saw until after the herdsmen had shown up at the house. She also practices the worship of Odin, a cult prevalent at the time in Sweden and she is pregnant but not married which at the time was considered as moral decadence. Andrew Franz in his review of the film takes note of the crimes, ethical issues, and societal conflicts that are brought out in the film (Franza, 187-191). Ingeri is jealous of Karin, and her jealousy pushes her to remain silent while she was being raped and murdered instead of helping her. At the end of the play she confesses her sins and when the family goes out to seek Karin’s body, she cleanses herself with the water from the spring which shows her renewal and purification through the water.
Some of the things done by the characters are against redemption such as the killing of Karin and selling off her clothes to her mother prove that as much as redemption is portrayed in the film, there are those who do not get a chance to be redeemed or who are beyond redemption. The three illustrations from The Virgin Spring film are proof that redemption is achievable. Although the likelihood of achieving redemption for humanity is slim, if well nurtured it can manifest itself well. The building of the church symbolizes a promise of offering redemption to more people through religion.
In the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, the characters provide different stories. The three accounts provided by the bandit, the wife, and the samurai are all different though they revolve around the same action, the death of the samurai. Even the samurai himself, provided a different account of the story to maintain his honor. Nick Redfern explains how different shots are used to create and recreate the death of the samurai as narrated by each one of them. (Redfern, n.p). This gives the audience the ability to analyze each situation and figure out which character is telling the truth. In this case, all the characters alter the actual information for their benefits. The bandit confesses to the crime but refuses to say exactly why the fought between him and the samurai started. In his acceptance of his crime, killing the samurai, the bandit shows the potentiality for change. By accepting what his crime is, he moves a step closer to redemption.
Douglas Holt notes how Kurosawa, re-enacts the different version of the death of the samurai to project each witness’s point of view. The three individual are describing the event from firsthand but over very different explanations which create a dilemma as to who is telling the truth. Similarly, in court cases, today, the information provided by firsthand witnesses may vary, in an attempt to distant oneself from the crime creating a dilemma (Rashomon dilemma). The difference in information given creates a relativity of truth which assesses and analyses the case to obtain the actual truth (Holt, 57-62).

In the film Rashomon, the woodcutter while at the court does not reveal that he was at the scene of the crime while it happened. He carefully hides this information for his benefit which is later revealed towards the end of the film. Similarly, in a review on the socio-legal issue, witnesses are seen to change stories and create new ones that portray them as the characters whom they want other people to believe they are. These stories, when keenly analyzed show that they reflect the witnesses personal insecurities and self-reconstruction mechanisms through denial (Kamir, n.p). By hiding this information to the court, he ensures that they do not find out that he had the missing dagger which belonged to the samurai’s wife and which is also the murder weapon in the case.
The priest while conversing with the woodcutter, comes upon this information which makes him judge the woodcutter as being a thief (a bandit), for stealing from a dead man. Tajomaru confirms this while at the court when he confesses to the murder of the samurai, but he says that he had left the dagger on the dead body. The possibility of redemption in the case of the woodcutter is seen when they reach the gate and find the abandoned baby. The woodcutter tells the commoner and the priest that he would keep the baby. Although he hid the dagger, this act shows his hope for change. By doing a good deed, he demonstrates the possibility of redemption for himself.
At the end of the film, Rashomon, the rain stopped, and the clouds opened revealing the sun. This is in contrast to the beginning whereby the film starts with the three men, the woodcutter, the priest, and the commoner seeking shelter to avoid the storm. The rain stopped after the priest had had a revelation that the woodcutter had a light of hope in him, which meant he would not be destroyed by the wrong doings he had committed by lying in court for his interests. The clearing of the sky is symbolic in that it shows the possibility of redemption and is a sign of hope that humanity will not be destroyed by its evil deeds.
Just like in The Virgin Spring, some of the actions taken by characters from Rashomon are against redemption like when the woodcutter hides the dagger and refuses to reveal any information about it probably because of its worth. Even after being confronted by the priest, the woodcutter mentions nothing of whether he would return the dagger to the authorities.
Both The Virgin Spring and Rashomon are films that have used the social injustices and immoral actions in the society to bring out the theme of redemption. In both films, events and proper characterization by the directors have showcased the moral decadence that people take for granted which continue to push away our chances for redemption. In The Virgin Spring film, the rape and death of an innocent girl lead to more deaths as Tore kills the culprits. In his seeking for redemption, he chooses to build a church where his daughter died, to act as a reminder of what he did. In the film, Rashomon, the death of the samurai, is faced with much confusion as different stories of how he died are narrated by the witnesses. The end of the film, however, shows the possibility of hope as the rain stops and the clouds clear. The two films through their depiction of what happens in the society have managed to show there-there is always a ray of hope, a silver lining for better days. These films demonstrate the hope for humanity redemption.

Works Cited
Franz, Andrew. “Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring: Cultures in Conflict.” Contemporary Justice Review: Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice. Vol. 11, no. 2, 2008, pp. 187-191, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10282580802058445 Accessed 11 December 2016.
Holt, Douglas. B. “Rashomon Visits Consumer Behavior: An interpretive Critique of Naturalistic Inquiry.” Advances in Consumer Research. Vol. 18. 1991, pp.57-62 http://acrwebsite.org/volumes/7136/volumes/v18/NA-18 Accessed 11 December 2016.
Kamir, Orit. “Judgment by Film: Socio-Legal Functions of Rashomon.” Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities. Vol. 12. Is. 1. No.2, 2013 http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1223&context=yjlh. Accessed 11 December 2016.
Lunde, Arne. “The Virgin Spring Review.” The Moving Image. Vol. 8, no.2, 2008, pp. 102-104, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/262591. Accessed 11 December 2016.
Redfern, Nick. “Film Style and Narration in Rashomon.” Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema. Vol. 5. Is. 1-2, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17564905.2013.10820070. Accessed 11 December 2016.