A Film About Purgatory

(Spoilers)

            Religious symbolism and discussion has been very common in film.  From Boys Town to Les Miserables, faith and religion have played a part in some of the largest stories in Hollywood.  One overlooked film however that does touch on an actual greater truth is the movie Jacob’s Ladder.  There is a quote that does go on to discuss religion directly in the film, but the overall pretext actually does gives a pretty strong understanding of purgatory and letting go of the earthly self.  The film has provided a direct portrayal of what purgatory is like and the deep spiritual truth behind it.

             Jacob’s Ladder follows the story of Jacob Singer, a Vietnam veteran who has returned home despite being severely wounded during an attack in the war.  While doing his job as a postman in New York and living his day to day life, things seem to start changing oddly.  Throughout his daily adventures, weird evemts keep happening as his chiropractor’s office mysteriously disappears without a trace, is injured and then taken to a hospital where the people are severely misshapen, and he meets a man who claims the government experimented on him during the war, just to name a few of the crazy things he sees throughout his journey. All the while, he is being haunted by the memory of one of his sons who died before the war.  However, this all proves to be an illusion as he was actually mortally wounded in the attack at the beginning of film and at the end he finally accepts his death as he passes on into heaven.

            The film is loaded with symbolism and sets up its twist very well. Throughout the film, he is being told in several ways that he was dead the entire time, from a doctor in the hospital who is experimenting on him to a woman who reads his palm.  Meanwhile, misshapen creatures and strange occurrences keep appearing to commit odd acts on him from almost running him over to being some of the doctors working on him in the hospital.  At the same time, his girlfriend named Jezebel is trying to keep him moving throughout all these occurrences as though nothing is wrong. All of this keeps driving him to keep moving as he tries to find the answers to what’s going on that he needs.

            What’s going on is best explained by his chiropractor Louis.  As he notes:

“Eckhart saw Hell too. He said: ‘The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of life, your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you", he said. "They're freeing your soul. So, if you're frightened of dying and ... you're holding on, you'll see devils tearing your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freeing you from the earth.’”

As noted previously, Jacob was fatally wounded during the attack in Vietnam.  So throughout the film, he is desperately clinging onto life as the “monsters” he sees try to make him cope with the fact that he’s really dead.  Of course, Jacob fights this interpretation and clings to whatever he can of his old life to convince himself he’s still alive (including his girlfriend Jezebel, who in a deleted scene is revealed to be himself, representing the part of him that is trying to keep himself bound to this world). So the entire film is about angels preparing him for heaven while he desperately fights to stay alive.

            This is actually extremely close to the Catholic concept of purgatory.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

"To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the 'eternal punishment' of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the 'temporal punishment' of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.”

In simpler terms, upon death some souls will face a sort of punishment when they die.  This is designed to purify souls that are still in God’s light after death but have been bound to the earth by sin.  In the process, the soul is purified of these attachments and made pure so that it can enter into heaven.

            This is the plot of the film Jacob’s Ladder.  Throughout it, “creatures” or misshapen appear to Jacob and start stripping his life away, including telling him that he is dead and taking away parts of his life like his chiropractor’s office.  Naturally the human instinct is self-preservation, so this appears as terrifying to him.  Even in the face of God’s coming glory, his soul remains impure and attached to things on the earth.  However, like in purgatory he is eventually cleansed of these attachments as he accepts his fate and is taken to where he belongs.

            Overall, this further shows that inspiration can come from an unexpected source. Though likely not intentional, the film does serve as an appropriate allegory for purgatory.  It shows man’s fear of death, his need to release his attachments, and questions frail reality.  For this reason, it illustrates an eternal truth to be grasped. Inevitably, it can serve as a source of divine inspiration, even if that was not part of the idea behind it, just like with Frozen.