ETERNALS as an Exercise in Art as Worldview
When coaching friends in the basics of art appreciation, I often remind them that artworks reflect the worldview of the artist(s) that create them. A “worldview” is a particular philosophy of life or conception of the world, including one’s “navigational grid” for living in it. If that’s true, then artists can create artwork that:
explains and celebrates their own worldview,
critiques, condemns, or at least urges discussion about a worldview with which they disagree,
expresses someone else’s worldview (like an artwork commissioner), and/or that
they claim doesn’t have a worldview (which, ironically, is a worldview in itself!).
On this basis – that art reflects the worldview of artists – I encourage my friends to look for an artist’s worldview when observing a particular artwork. To do that, I advise them to approach a work of art as a conversation with its artist/creator. As with any good conversation, this means engaging with an attitude of humble inquiry which asks questions and listens attentively. Such “listening” means asking (through observation, not actual, literal conversation) questions about the artist’s use of their genre’s “elements of art” to express their worldview.
For example, to discover the worldview conveyed in a work of visual fine art (e.g., a painting or drawing), we humbly ask questions about how the artist uses things like line, color, form, shape, space, texture, value, mark-making, and materiality. Artforms like music, film, dance, sculpture and others add their own spin on these elements of art and yield other questions to ask. When carefully used as fuel for humble questions, these elements often reveal vast amounts of worldview information. This, in turn, rewards an apt “listener” with many happy benefits, including:
rich intimacy with the artist (even if they disagree with their worldview),
stronger analytical skills,
increased humility, and
a well-developed worldview of their own.
Though I’ve written and taught on this topic many times, what compelled me to write this blog was my recent viewing of the film-art, Eternals. This is the 2021 Marvel Comics “moving picture” directed by Chloe Zhao. I was so fascinated with it from an art-communicating-worldview perspective that I watched it twice in one day. Consequently, I am still being richly rewarded with all four benefits of “listening” I listed above.
In the rest of this blog, I’ll share a few random observations on Eternals that came from my “listening.” Each one is based on asking questions about how the entire production team (screenwriters, producers, director, actors, director of photography, costumers, cinematographer, hairstylists, set designers, etc.) used film-making elements of art to communicate their worldview: lighting, sound design, camera movements/angles, cutting/editing, dialogue, makeup, costume design, camera angles, dialogue, character development, frame composition, color, pacing, soundtrack, visual effects, and more. On that basis, the list below represents only a fraction of the fruit that’s come from my “conversation” with the artists who created Eternals. I’m providing it to show you how richly rewarding this type of “art appreciation” can be!
If you really want to exercise your own “listening” skills, you might watch the movie yourself BEFORE reading my list, below. As you watch, listen by asking humble questions about the way the filmmakers used the filmmaking elements I listed in the preceding paragraph. When you get answers – and you WILL get answers! – write down what you find out as possible worldview points the artists are trying to convey through their film-art. Then, take your list and compare it to what I’ve discovered. There should be similarities. Of course, our personal opinions about these worldview elements my differ widely, but that’s a different issue. What I’m after in this blog is to encourage the skill of listening and art-appreciating observation that leads to discovering an artist’s worldview claims.
1. From the opening moments of the film, the artists explicitly offer their narrative on some of the most foundational facets of every worldview: the origin of the universe, the origin and problem of evil, the solution to the problem of evil, the possibility and/or presence of a transcendent being (or “god/God”), and more. That’s our introduction into the entire work of art, which is presented as a commentary on the introduction’s worldview summary.
2. Our introduction to the Eternals (the superheroes of this “superhero” movie) shows that the artists clearly value some version of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Notice the diverse genders, nationalities, and origins of the actors which play these roles. This is definitely not a Caucasian, heterosexual male ensemble akin to Aquaman, Superman, Batman, Ironman, and Spiderman! And that is a worldview statement for sure.
Sersi, an Asian woman played by Helen Chan of the UK
Ikaris, a Caucasian man played by Richard Madden from Scotland
Thena, a Caucasian woman played by Angelina Jolie from America
Ajak, a Latino woman and the leader of the Eternals played by Salma Hayek
Kingo, a Middle-Eastern man played by Kumail Nanjiani from Pakistan
Sprite, a Caucasian woman played by Lia McHugh from America
Phastos, an African American man played by Brian Tyree Henry from America. This character is also the first homosexual superhero in the Marvel Universe.
Druig, a Caucasian man played by Barry Keoghan from Scotland
Gilgamesh, an Asian man played by Ma Dong-Seok from South Korea
3. Several positively-postured mini-speeches and declarations throughout the movie, along with corresponding plot points and actions, emotional content, context, lighting, and more reveal the artists’ solidarity with (and positive promotion of) several facets of America’s current pop-culture worldview.
Above all else, follow your heart. What that means, of course, is detailed the movie.
Personal choice and self-determination are supreme values, whether related to one’s vocational course, gender selection, relationship decisions, sexual decisions, relationship to authority, lifestyle choices, and basically every other facet of life.
Love is The Cardinal Virtue. What the artists mean by this is explored throughout the movie. One clear facet of it is that love protects its object(s).
Family is what you make it… it can be a group randomly thrown together that sticks together through time, for example. Whatever your family is, loyalty to it is supremely important.
Homosexuality is good, normal, and right, as is homosexual marriage and parenthood. To think otherwise is uninformed, childish, ignorant, and just plain wrong. It’s important to note that Eternals was the first Marvel movie with an explicitly homosexual superhero (Phastos). The way the artists share this character’s story, struggles, decisions, and declarations very clearly communicate their pro-homosexual worldview.
War is never the answer. This speech takes many forms throughout the movie, but of course, being a superhero movie, it is filled with lauded characters perpetrating violence and warlike activity. In that light, the Eternals are wrought with angst and conflict – albeit, in a sometimes-humorous way – over their own inconsistencies in this regard. They fight robustly about the reality/use of war and violence within their own individual psyches, among each other, with humanity, and with the worldview’s deity (Arishem). Taken as a whole, it seems that the artists say that war isn’t the answer, but they’re not convinced that that’s actually true, at least not all the time.
4. There is one god (e.g., a supreme being, “Prime Celestial: Arishem the Judge”) who is creator, sovereign ruler, and judge of the entire universe and everyone in it. The way the artists designed this god-character says a lot about who he is, and quite possibly by extension, who they perceive god/God to be. For example, they designed him as a roughly-textured, rock-like, unmoving slab with multiple, un-animated eyes and a deep, masculine voice. This translates as a god who is emotionally and relationally cold, powerful, all-seeing, and fearsome. Other artistic decisions reveal this god to be prone to error (i.e., makes mistakes), confusion, and extreme self-centeredness. He is more like a virus, really, that justifies his genocidal actions against Eternals, Deviants and humans for the sake of propagating his own species (Celestials). In sum, he’s the transcendent “bad guy” in the film, and perhaps in the artists’ worldview.
5. There are sub-gods… something like angelic beings in a Judeo-Christian worldview. These are the Eternals themselves. It’s important to note that the Eternals have surpassed the label “superhero.” They possess powers, and have responsibilities and attributes that least vaguely or partially reflect divinity. However, in the end, they are created, mortal, “programmed” beings; pawns in the hands of the worldview’s god (Arishem) just like humans are.
6. The Eternals, or sub-gods, are angst and conflict-filled within and between themselves over all kinds of questions regarding right and wrong. In many ways, the film is a commentary on that situation – and the worldview that’s conveyed seems to be, “everybody’s confused, nobody knows, and there’s no moral stability for making good/right decisions in life.” The film’s deity (Arishem) offers no help in resolving this conflict, for he, himself, is part of the problem! Instead, the artists point us to look within ourselves, follow our hearts, and/or rely on situational ethics for answers. This worldview element prevails throughout the film, giving it a pervasive air of moral and ethical chaos which the artists seem to be saying is the unfortunate, unresolvable truth about life in this world, and in throughout the universe.
7. The Eternals, or sub-gods, are filled with every kind of vice common to humanity: pride, envy, lust, jealousy, sloth, and more. It’s important to note that such things are clearly presented as vices; destructive to self, others, and creation. The Eternals’ relationships, working life, internal life, and general existence is marked – even overrun at times – by these vices. In this way, they resemble the ancient Greek, Roman, Far-Eastern, and Egyptian gods from which they are explicitly referenced. The end of the film explicitly connects these resemblances in its postlude animation and imagery.
8. There is a radical struggle among all the creatures in the universe – Eternals, Deviants, and human beings – between free will and divine sovereignty. The movie does not resolve this struggle, but shows its intensity. If any resolution is to be had, my observation is that it falls in favor of free will (informed, of course, by the artists’ worldview of love, family, heart, etc.) regardless of – and often despite – divine preference.
9. Technology is a mixed bag. Sometimes it’s good, and sometimes it’s bad. It is omnipresent, though, and the movie seems to present a worldview that is highly ambivalent about it.
That word – ambivalence – characterizes the worldview held and presented by the artists through their artwork, Eternals. Ambivalence generally means a strong pull in two opposite directions. Such ambivalence is so strong throughout the movie on so many levels and with so many characters and storylines that many film reviewers noted this fact. At times, the artwork breaks through in favor of one direction over another very clearly (as in, for example, it’s uber-clear celebrations of homosexuality, and the artist’s worldview of love and family). Even with these things, it seems to me that the artists themselves, at least by “listening” to their artwork, are extremely ambivalent people. Whether that’s true or not, they have definitely created an artwork that provokes and explores ambivalence as that which dominates their view of the world (i.e., their worldview).
OK, all that was “listening.” Rich, huh? Indeed! There are so many worldview discoveries if we just take time to humbly listen to artists through their artworks!
Now, it's a whole different thing to engage what we’ve discovered by asking questions and making our own decisions about the artists’ worldview. My observations above have not crossed over into that important stage of art and worldview appreciation. Indeed, it’s a topic for a different blog. You may already be writing that blog yourself as you’ve reacted to some of the worldview assertions, above. That’s good, as long as it’s done in a respectful and humble way. As such, that, too, will reinforce the four benefits of humble art inquiry I listed above.
Thoughts?