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By E.A. Barrera
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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox. |
“It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.”
Proverbs 25:2
King James Bible
“THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE” is a solid, if not often campy thriller involving the nightmares and paranoia many science-fiction fans crave.
The intellectual romance between former FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully is once more on display in the understated way the 1990’s television show teased fans for nine seasons. And beyond that is the continued theme of the program - the religious mantra of “I want to believe” applying to everything from the existence of God, to extra-terrestrials, to the concept that science can both be our saving grace and our harbinger of doom.
Running rampant through the film’s story of mad Russian scientists scheming to build a new human being through the stolen parts of kidnapped women, is a constant attack on the Catholic Church and the debate over which “religion” - science or Catholicism - best represents the power and will of God. It is a massive broadside against the strongest Christian sect in the world, with the message loud and clear that Catholic clergy represent either hypocrisy and danger, or at the very least, an indifference to human suffering.
The film’s structure is the classic story of a hero returned. Mulder (David Duchovny), the brilliant FBI profiler who spent his life in search of the missing sister he believed was abducted by aliens, is needed once again to help search for a female FBI agent who has disappeared. Though long retired from the FBI and considered a crank, Mulder is asked to return due to the use of a psychic former Catholic priest (Billy Connelly) as the only lead the FBI has to locate the missing agent. The FBI approaches Scully (Gillian Anderson), a medical doctor and scientist who has also abandoned her FBI career. Scully is asked to locate Mulder for the case, and reluctantly agrees.
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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox. |
The heart of the series “X-Files” was always the understated and building romance between the scientist and Catholic Scully who does not believe in aliens, versus the eccentric agnostic genius Mulder. One has faith in the simultaneous existence of science and God. The other has faith in the existence of everything but God.
The television show never saw them kiss or go to bed during all but the final episode of the series, and at key, random moments, the simple gesture of them quietly holding hands, fueled the intensity fans had for that romance. Near the last episodes of the television show it was revealed that the two had in fact become romantic and even produced a child (who was given up for adoption).
But series’ creator and producer Chris Carter never chose to make their romance the focal point of any episode. It was always treated as backdrop to the main events and thus when it was finally fully exposed in the last episode of the film, it was treated matter-of-factly. In this film (the second feature film of the series, ten years after the first feature’s release and six years after the series concluded its television run), their relationship is still treated as an understood, minimal backdrop to the larger action. The two are living together and have all the casual intimacy of a couple who have been together for years.
This relationship outside of any formal marriage is one small thematic rejection of Catholic thought. A large one is the Catholic hospital where Scully now works - attempting to save the life of a boy with Sandhoff Disease even as the hospital’s catholic management decides to send the boy to a hospice, refusing to treat him due to excessive costs and the futility they see in treating him for an incurable disease.
However the largest rejection is realized in the role of Connelly’s character of Father Joseph Crissman. That character is a convicted child-molester whose eyes bleed during particularly horrific moments of psychic insight. He is seeking some form of redemption from God for his crimes and sins. But the interaction of Scully with Crissman - the animosity and fear she displays towards him from the outset - is coupled with another running story line, which is Scully’s own crises of faith.
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| Courtesy of 20th Century Fox. |
For if the heart of the X-Files has been the sexual chemistry between Mulder and Scully, the soul of the X-Files has been the entire subject of faith and the search for a mystical truth.
“This movie is all about faith,” said “X-Files“ co-creator Frank Spotnitz in an interview with Collider.com magazine. “I’m very interested in faith, and the question of faith. The ending that we came up with – which I think is really the only ending, even if you are a believer, is that you must find god through faith. It’s not going to be proven to you. That’s what I believe as a non-believing spiritual person. If there is a god, it is going to require your faith to find him. That’s what was so beautiful about the movie to me, and beautiful about the character Father Joe, this kind of monstrous person, who it is up to your own thoughts to decide if he found redemption, and about Scully’s journey.”
Scully’s fear of the fallen priest and her battles with the Catholic administrators of the hospital create a touching emotional base for her relationship with Mulder. He is a man of passionate faith for his mission. As with her doubts about the Catholic Church, so linger Scully’s doubts about Mulder’s crusades. But in the end, she always returns to the Church, her belief in science, and her love for Mulder.
“THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE” is not the best episode of the series. It sometimes drags and there is a silliness about the story’s conclusion that may have been done for comic effect, but only results in breaking the fun of the tense buildup to that climax. The acting is excellent and the photography wonderful. It carries all the mood and eerie feel of the best aspects of the original television program. But there is an unfinished quality to it all that may be the basis for future films, yet makes this film feel incomplete and rushed. In order to love this film, one should definitely “want to believe” in the future of the series.
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E.A. Barrera has been writing on politics, land use, arts and culture in San Diego since 1997. He has won six San Diego Press Club awards for Journalism in the last three years. He is a life-long resident of San Diego County. He is currently waiting for the Baltimore Orioles to break out of their 11-season slump and regain their former glory.
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