I love that scene. This is the first American movie I have ever seen that truly takes a vehemently atheistic stand, even ridiculing those that believe.
shareI love that scene too, one of my favorites.
"I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!" -The African Queen
As a Christian, I like to point out that it doesn't make fun of people who accurately practise what the bible teaches.
For when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogus and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.
Oh, and about knocking other people to their faces when you pray: I tell you that [Hawkeye and Trapper] rather than [Frank] went home justified before God.
Oh, and if you think that last comment was sacareligious, remember that in the original context it was comparing the "top" of the Jewish totem pole to the "bottom" in a negative light.
During the song, you can hear someone (Sutherland?) going, "Christ, our royal *astrd (instead of Banner)".
I didn't care for that bit at all - it's one thing poking fun at a hypocrite who loves to "look holy" by praying in front of everyone, but the whole "Royal *astard" thing was going too far.
I always felt like they were doing that just because it was Frank, because he was such a hypocrite. They seemed to respect Father Mulcahy enough.
They call them the Diamond Dogs.
[deleted]
Yes. Frank in the movie was a raging fanatic and a hypocrite. Duvall really played him creepy. The TV Frank was as big a hypocrite, but was played more for laughs.
The way Hawkeye and Trapper set him up to get taken out in a straitjacket was perfect retribution for his two-facedness. I love that part.
[deleted]
I agree completely. That's why they did it.
shareI was watching this last night and thought of how Frank's prayer in the Swamp was nothing but showboating his religion and making himself look superior. I daresay that if he came in and just sat quietly with his head bowed, Hawkeye and Duke would have had very little to say.
shareI was watching this last night and thought of how Frank's prayer in the Swamp was nothing but showboating his religion and making himself look superior. I daresay that if he came in and just sat quietly with his head bowed, Hawkeye and Duke would have had very little say.
I quite agree. A person who is religious and really concerned about other people's souls would conversationally talk about what they believe in ways that interest others, not put them off.
You got to love the shot of Frank through the flame of the trash can fire.
Polls... One of the Main Stream Media's Jedi Mind Tricks.
When I saw this again tonight, I noted that when the Padre prays over the jeep at the end, it's probably the one time in the film he is allowed to complete a religious ritual without bumbling through it and looking foolish or being mocked.
- - - - - - - -
www.rattiganwrites.blogspot.com
www.dictionaryofhammer.com
Frank's religious belief is clearly there to be mocked, not to be sympathized with.
Remember, when we see him in his first two scenes with Ho Jon, he has not revealed himself to be a hypocrite. He prays apparently with the belief his prayers have some efficacy, not a bad thing in itself given the horror and death around him, yet treated as a joke and a reason for his social isolation not just from Hawkeye and Duke, but the rest of the camp (as the contrivance of group of passers-by suddenly bursting into their wholly mocking rendition of "Onward Christian Soldiers" is meant to convey.)
What people are grasping onto in saying that Frank is not meant as a subject of religious ridicule are the scenes that occur after we see his communal humiliation and exile; his vicious blaming of poor Boone for his own incompetence, his sleazy adulterous mechanations with Hot Lips, and his attacking Hawkeye (the only relative innocent of the Hot Lips prank, to showcase Burns' ignorance further). We have already been told to hate Frank because he believes seriously in God; only after that do we get the dessert of watching him live his life of hypocracy.