In Christianity the Devil has always been the angel that fell, the great deceiver, the one who appears as an angel of light. Someone who takes many forms to do his work. In modern society God has taken over the role of the one that takes all the different forms and is yet the same God. Buddha, Allah, the Judeo-Christian God, all are assumed to be the same God by quite a large number of people. And when all you’re interested in are the general ideas of who God is, it’s understandable they all look the same. To someone who doesn’t like X-style of music, all music of that style all sounds the same. And any blatant differences don’t really matter. And people who love the style see just how different it really is. For example, techno; it’s catching on. More and more people can tell that one song goes 87 beats per second and the other goes 88 beats per second and that’s a world of difference.
It’s all about the presentation. That’s the general idea of “Bedazzled” and “The Devil’s Advocate.” An acceptable front is being displayed while underneath it’s just a game to get the souls. They reveal themselves in whatever way is most pleasing to their victims. It’s not until the intended victim gets to know the devil that he can escape and by then it’s typically too late. In both movies the devil is using sex to sell himself. “Devil’s Advocate” presents the devil as a man with an entourage of beautiful women just waiting to sleep with his associates. “Bedazzled,” on the other hand, takes the notion that the Devil makes a tease of a woman who’s just out to use his flesh suit to lure deprived men. In both cases the victims are too devoted to their significant other to be swayed by the Devil in that area. But then who doesn’t appreciate having other women, besides the one they’re with, find them attractive. For all intensive purposes the lure works in both cases.
Appearances are easy. If the Devil wanted to scare the hell out of you he’d appear as a pitch fork wielding monster; which he does in Bedazzled. The idea is that no matter how much the devil wants to be your friend, there comes a point where he needs to instill fear in you. He’s not perfect. It’s inevitable you’ll try to walk away eventually. For Kevin Lomax in “Devil’s Advocate” the fear is instilled by the murder of his coworker who he knew was in on some company destroying secrets. The Devil effectively made an indirect threat to Lomax to not cross him. In “Bedazzled,” Elliot doesn’t get indirect threats. When he tried to not take his last wish the Devil revealed a very nasty side of himself to get him back in line.
It’s all an illusion. Flesh suits, fantasies, and false promises are all the Devil has to offer in both films. Lomax finds out that the company he’s working for is built on lies and secrets. The company’s secret shredding parties are a sign that its existence is hanging in the balance. Eddie knows it and plans on telling the authorities and he ends up dead for it. Lomax’s wife is seeing what’s really going on and it ends up killing her. All the while the Devil is waving carrots in front of Lomax’s face. Eddie’s death is just a terrible tragedy which he claims to have no involvement with. His wife’s death is a result of her going crazy and killing herself. But that’s okay because in true ruler fashion he offers him his own sister as an alternative in order to keep the bloodline pure. Eddie was no big deal. He wasn’t much of a lawyer anyway.
Bedazzled takes a different spin on the devil and his fantasies but the same general object lesson. There’s always some “little” mistake she makes with his wishes. When he confronts her on it she plays the crying game and begs his forgiveness. And since he’s Elliot, he does and shoulders all the blame on himself. After a nearly perfect wish he realizes that Allison is a different person in every one of his wishes. He realizes that it’s all just an illusion like the video he saw at the start.
Then there’s that lucky break at the end. Hollywood has a thing for the hero killing themselves as though it’s some kind of Christ like thing to do. Which it would be: if Christ had committed suicide. There’s a difference that Hollywood tends to miss between killing ones self and accepting one’s role in life and accepting your death brought about by circumstances out of your control. Slaughterhouse 5 nails it. “Devil’s Advocate” blows it. Lomax, being turned off by the prospect of incest, shoots himself in the head to foil the Devil’s plans.
Bedazzled goes with a more permanent solution: selfless acts of kindness. Elliot decides that he just wants Allison to be happy which, is one wish that the Devil can’t screw up. And it also happens to void the contract releasing his soul from the Devil’s grasp. It turns out Elliot is just too nice of a guy to be corrupted. Lomax, on the other hand, is a little shaky in that area. At the opening of the film he’s defending a guy accused of molesting a little girl. The defendant is practically getting himself off in the courtroom and not in the legal sense. Lomax notices this and heads to the bathroom to deal with this moral dilemma. As a lawyer his job is to defend people regardless of their innocence. As a human being he’s obligated to not defend such a despicable person. After he wins the case the story takes off. He later learns his defendant was found with a little girl stuffed in the trunk of his car. And that’s when he begins to have his doubts about the greatness of his winning streak as a lawyer. In the end killing himself both saves the world since apparently the anti-Christ is Satan’s grandchild and manages to avoid ever having to win another case with a rotten client; only to end up back in the bathroom where, in this “choose your own adventure” movie, he makes the other choice to drop the client in open court.
But the Devil isn’t done yet. Lomax has an ego to feed and the Devil knows just want to give it. Lomax resists doing the news story about dropping his client which would get him a ridiculous amount of publicity but eventually the ego wins and the reporter is granted a phone call. Not too surprisingly the reporter turns out to be another incarnation of Satan himself. For all the things “Devil’s Advocate” did wrong it managed to do one thing right; it didn’t pretend the Devil was a one shot jockey. In Bedazzled it’s left as though the Devil is done with Elliot and as though the Devil works by making contracts for people’s souls. If the contract doesn’t work the Devil’s work is done and he moves on. The Devil of “Devil’s Advocate” plays a much more sophisticated role.
It’s all about persistence. Smash and grabs are for amateurs. The Devil carefully examines his prey and then tries tactic after tactic until one works. It’s a constant race between the Devil and your grave because once you hit six feet under it’s all over. The Devil started off strong with Lomax and was in such a hurry to get the anti-Christ conceived he didn’t give Lomax enough time to prepare. The Devil failed to realize he hadn’t jumped ship to the dark side yet. But that’s okay, the Devil learns from his mistakes and begins the process again but this time a little bit slower.
Put them together and you get a decent picture. Bedazzled had a lot more fun with the Devil and presented him in a way that makes you consider that the Devil will never give you what you really wanted. “Devil’s Advocate” gives the impression that he does but there are strings attached. And not just to your soul. The Devil destroys the people who work for him and the people who work for him destroy those they come into contact with. The main problem with “Devil’s Advocate” was that it played the sex card way too much. The Devil was completely out of touch with what his client wanted. I’m not sure at which point the Devil decided that Lomax would be down with incest before making the offer. “Bedazzled” was about the Devil figuring out what Elliot wanted and then screwing it up for him. In the end “Bedazzled” wins out simply because it’s fun. “The Devil’s Advocate” makes a movie out of a straw man argument and fumbles.
12-25-2003