Tuesday, October 9, 2012

A Buried Castle and a Buried Civilization



Sandcastle was a very interesting film, and one I quite enjoyed. In fact, outside of the ‘Gospel is Tragedy’ class and its particularly dark films, Professor Leeper has continued to show us films that I enjoy. But Sandcastle was really something else. One man created a film using nothing but sand and a camera, and he created an incredibly memorable experience out of something that seems to simple in concept. But what do I see the film representing, aside from Professor Leeper’s views on its religious themes?
This.

Okay, maybe not to that extreme, but still. While I didn’t connect the idea for a while (almost eight hours after class, in fact), I realized that Sandcastle could be a picture of the rise and fall of a civilization. From little more than nothing the founders rise and begin laying the groundwork of a society, in the form of the Creator character. Then, as the population expands in the form of the Creatures, a city is constructed (the castle), and a true civilization is born as prosperity comes to the developing area. This finally culminates in the epitome of that civilization (the party) before eventually it all comes to an end. I don’t see this as a particularly terrible end, however; out of countless failed civilizations we have seen just as many more emerge from the ashes to flourish and grow in place of their predecessors. We never know the true fate of the Creator and his Creatures, but in my mind they will simply have to dig their way out of their buried castle and start anew.
Like I said in class, it is the class cycle of seasons. The spring brings the foundation of civilization, summer displays its glorious high, autumn brings its inevitable downfall, and winter is the possibility of a new beginning even after ruin. It is similar to any collapse of a civilization or nearly any post-apocalyptic movie you can name; it may be a long time before society rekindles, but it will come.

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