Susan Year Itch

Gods and Monsters Has "Gods and Monsters" Theme, OK?

Bill Condon, 1998

I promise you that as soon as distance permits, I will get on that Pirates of the Caribbean thing, but for now, this is more on my mind.

Gods and Monsters is a biopic, sorta, about the last few weeks of legendary director James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man), who rocked Hollywood in the Thirties by subtlely exploring the theme of the horror monster and by blatantly exploring the theme of being “light in the loafers,” as they say.*

"Whale" on the set of Bride of Frankenstein.

This film won an Oscar for best screenplay (Bill Condon) and was nominated for a couple acting awards. Not surprisingly, the Academy misses the point a little. Gods and Monsters is a beautifully filmed and well edited – let me go out on a limb here – monster. The construction of the film is much more seamless than the consciously stitched-up Frankenstein monster, and did a lot of angling and focusing and fenagling to really drive the title’s theme home (you know, “I’m a god, you’re a monster, and it’s funny because I DIRECTED movies about monsters,” that sort of thing.) But it’s not the actual cinematics of the film itself that got any attention, unfortunately, it was the screenplay.

The image searches for pictures of this movie are very, very sad, considering how pretty the film is.

This is where I go into my “the Academy clearly consists of people who have never before seen a film and must be replenished with new Academicians every year” spiel. Either that or they honestly think that the more films a picture resembles, the better it must be. Or, and this might be the case, they just decided to be “into film” after watching a biography on A&E about M. Night Shyamalan**, and every time they can spot a theme in a film, they pump their fists in the air and yell, “THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!” and pin a blue ribbon to the DVD case.

Basically, Gods and Monsters absolutely beats you over the head with the god/monster relationship. As if we couldn’t figure it out by the very title of the film, a reference to a line in Bride of Frankenstein. The Frankenstein films wrestle with the culpability of a monster who had no choice in its creation and whose repulsive differences can be instead attributed to the twisted ambitions of a creator trying to play God. The inversion causes Frankenstein (i.e. Doctor Frankenstein) to really be the monster, instead of the flatheaded screwneck we’re used to fearing. In fact, during the Frankenstein movies, Whale creates a really amazing amount of sympathy on the part of the viewer for Boris Karloff’s Monster. We find ourselves rooting for the poor misunderstood brute, whose very existence is pre-determined to be that of an outcast. The Monster’s infantile helplessness (not to mention taste for fine music) contrasts with the Dr. Frankenstein’s snooty, aristocratic background: money and power aren’t enough for him, he requires immortality.

From Frankenstein (1931). Who could hate that lovable mug??

So! James Whale’s creation of all of this puts him in the God position, and Clay Boone (Brendan Fraser), due to his over-the-top flatheaded, musclely, simple-nature, gets to be Frankenstein’s monster (his name’s Clay, get it? Like, for molding?), but in case you didn’t pick up on it yourself, he breaks it down for ya, actually saying, “I AM NOT YOUR MONSTER” while at the same time throttling poor old Whale. This follows some dreams Clay has of him assuming the roles of both Dr. Frankenstein and the monster. And that’s not all, the film closes on a long shot of Clay walking through the rain, stiffly and with his arms out. Guess what! We are all monsters, even if we’re gods, and probably vice versa. I don’t know. I’m through with it.

God, Monster, Monster, God, Panama Hat.

At the very least, Gods and Monsters is an enlightening film about Whale while going a little bit deeper into humanity’s core and all that, but it doesn’t hold a candle to Whale’s own work. But I guess it’s not trying to, and the film probably did a lot of good to moviegoing audiences who otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to any sort of exploration into these themes. I give the film four stars (it really is excellent to watch) and the guy who plays Karloff seventeen.

*You’ll hear about five hundred more euphemisms for homosexuality in the film. Also, the phrase “hard, arrogant pr*cks” coming out of Ian McKellan’s mouth is truly a delight.
**Does he go by M? Does he go by Night? Does he ever go away?