Paul Verhoeven discussing Jesus of Nazareth.

In my opinion people should be obligated to wear dress clothes when attending a serious discussion about a creative work. But then, Jesus didn't preach to crowds of ties and cuff links, did he?



If the world was shaped to my liking, there also wouldn't have been this drinking fountain right in front of me, nor would there have been an elevator just to the left (not pictured).

Not since I saw Lynch speak at UC Irvine on the topic of transcendental meditation have I enjoyed as surreal a cinephilic experience as last night: Paul Verhoeven at Powell's Books engaging in dialogue concerning the recent English translation of his novel Jesus of Nazareth (Jezus van Nazaret). Unlike the Lynch lecture, however, the focus of the night was indeed Jesus. Another difference is that Verhoeven alone answered all Q&A questions.

Twice he greatly impressed me. The first time was when an elderly-type white haired man stood and asked what was so endearing about the mythology of Jesus. Verhoeven answered that Jesus was supposedly god-as-man on earth, as opposed to god in heaven or gods in mountains. The second time a twenty-something wanted to know if there was a common divinity among prophets of different religious backgrounds. Verhoeven answered that there certainly was. The kid then asked, if their source is a shared deity, why aren't all religions in harmony? Verhoeven replied that Muslims, for example, believe that Muhammad's words supersede the words of the Old Testament, and that Christians, for example, believe the same about Jesus, and also believe you can't enter heaven unless you accept Jesus, and that doesn't leave much middle ground.

These replies impressed me because they were succinct and thoughtful. Other topics wowed me by their idiosyncrasy. Hearing Verhoeven speak, naturally, and thankfully, isn't much different than watching a Verhoeven film. He proposed the idea that Jesus was actually just a highly talented exorcist, and that he was notable most of all for this trait. He refuted the scholar whose claim was that Jesus was a homosexual (the "ultimate attack"), and suggested instead that the scholar was gay. He also stated that Jesus' libido was "annexed" by the kingdom of heaven.

The final audience question was what Verhoeven would say to all the churches and Christian communities if he was able to say one thing to them on the topic of Jesus. Verhoeven replied that he didn't write the book specifically for the Christian community or to carry a message to anyone, he simply wrote the book in order to instigate discussion, contemplation, and reflection. He said that his book represents his thoughts, based on twenty years of scholarly study (as he enjoyed saying), and nothing more. Of course he has to say this, given the nature of his book, but it's still great that he can say this. He knows what he's doing, just as I know he only wrote this book to prepare people for his Jesus movie (his favorite New Testament movie is Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew, but he doesn't feel a great one has been made yet).

Starship Troopers.

There's a genuinely gripping moment about 2/3 of the way through Starship Troopers. An evacuation plane (piloted by the only pilot crazy enough to attempt this rescue mission, Carmen Ibanez, the ex-love interest of Johnny Rico, who will soon become Lieutenant of the group that is the target of this particular rescue) has landed in the midst of a significant strategical offensive initiated by the alien bugs. The bugs have a brain, and the brain has manipulated the Starship fleet by transmitting false orders over their communication systems: the bug brain orchestrated an ambush. The roughnecks caught in this trap are retreating into the plane. Lieutenant Rasczak has already perished (death from a bug), and Dizzy Flores has just won retribution for his death by tossing a grenade into the mouth of his monstrous murderer (kind of - Rico shot Rasczak before the bug could finish him, so technically Rico is Rasckzak's murderer). She is one of the last on their way to the plane. Rico, her new lover, the lover she has dreamed of having for years and years, a lifelong yearning that has only recently flourished, shouts for her to come aboard. As she turns and runs toward the plane a bug appears behind her, and the bug devastatingly inflicts mortal wounds upon her body. Rico's retributory slaying of the bug allows Flores to make it on board the plane with her injuries. As the plane begins to leave the co-pilot, Zander Barcalow, the former competing love interest between Rico and Ibanez, signals for the final two turret roughnecks to board. They run towards the plane but are incinerated by giant bug leaders of the approaching horde.

The plane takes off. Barcalow tells Ibanez that Rico is aboard the plane. Ibanez has no knowledge of Rico's love affair with Flores: it is in that moment that she learns Rico is still alive, as she was falsely informed of his death on the battlefield at an earlier point. In the back Rico holds the dying Flores in his arms, but it is not a sad moment, because Flores, with her dying breath, assures Rico that all this was worth it, because she was finally able to be with him, the one she always loved. Flores dies in Rico's arms.

The truly powerful moment comes then: Rico, assuming leadership of the squadron, rushes to the cockpit of the plane. He orders an all-out nuclear assault on the bug planet. He doesn't acknowledge Barcalow or Ibanez, he simply issues the command for planetary annihilation. Though his request will be denied, and through all that has happened before and will after, the true drama in this scene, for me, is the red-eyed Rico, who has been transformed by war in ways he never imagined, in ways the audience never imagined. His story we enter at its beginning, back in his high-school days, when he was still in love with Ibanez, and Flores was annoying and meddling along the peripheral.

It's those red eyes that are genuinely gripping. I can accept this moment because I can accept what surrounds and houses it. I'm not fucking around when I say that amid all the sci-fi lunacy and ancillary drama of the film, all the other badass shit going on, it's a truly powerful and meaningful message on warfare, and a sadly fatal moment for the human spirit.