Saturday, July 04, 2009
"Doubt" - a Postmodern Epistemology
Brilliant movie! The best description I can think of is that it is a postmodern exploration of our sources for knowledge. The movie forces the viewer to ask questions about how we can "know" what it is we feel we "know". How do we come to "feel" certain? Is faith possible without doubt? Is doubt an act of faith? Is a search for truth a journey into the destruction of faith?
All of the performances are wonderful and each character helps us visualize a different foundation for epistemology. For some, our certainty remains in question until we acquire a particular level of evidence. For others, a declaration from some source of authority helps us claim to "know" with certainty. At times, we just can't locate the reasons why we feel so certain. These characters help us see that any search for truth is not a linear path from doubt to faith to certainty; it's more of a constant interplay between all three. In the end, the movie explores the risks we take when we attempt to locate truth, a search which demands a willful sacrifice of our certainty, a deconstruction of our faith, and a full embrace of our darkest doubts.
A few of my favorite lines from the movie...
"You just want things to be resolved so you can have simplicity back" - Sister Aloysius
"Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty" - Father Flynn
"It is unsettling to look at people with suspicion. I feel less close to God" - Sister James
"When you take a step to address wrongdoing, you are taking a step away from God" - Sister Aloysius
5 comments:
Thanks for the review. I'm looking forward to watching this one now.
What I don't ubderstand is the christian who evades the real doubt issue by relying on the age old addage the Word or Bible says it so it has to be true. They seem to use the Bible as a God tool. They are some how able to interpret all human situations through their own understanding of what the Bible says. Interprreting that particular situation and using some Bible passage to support their explanatio for their outlook on that particular situation. To me that leaves very lille room for faith or doubt. those individuals seem to have such a grasp on absolute Truth they have no doubt about the fact that their explanations are always right.
Michael,
Truth isn't hard to find. Just flip on faux news. They'll be glad to enlighten you with the absolute truth.
LOL at your comment above.. I'm sure my husband will be wanting to see this one.
Thanks for the link for the html tips and tricks. I have been trying for a whole day to make a sitemap for my blog so that I can submit it to google but I'm just not figuring it out. I'm seriously thinking that the part of my brain that can understand html is not working AT ALL.
Oh well, I only wanted to be popular because I heard that it got some other mommy bloggers a new washer and dryer to review. Other than that, i'm really okay with being unknown.
Thanks Mike L,
When I saw and reviewed Doubt, myself and my friend interpreted it as a Rorschach test: that is, it deliberately leaves the film ambiguous enough so that each viewer can impose his/her own viewpoint on the film. While I think that most (if not all) art functions this way, Doubt seems to deliberately set itself up in a Rorschachian style.
As such, the film is about telling us more about ourselves, then conveying any particular message or pressing any agenda/perspective (e.g., "doubt is a good thing and helps our faith," or "certainty is better than doubt," or "we should be open to homosexuals," etc.).
So, this film, I think, exposes your interest is epistemology. I hadn't thought of it as a film that explores epistemology, but one can most certainly find epistemological issues at play: how do we know whether the priest is guilty or whether Sister Aloysius is just paranoid.
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