HELLBOY & THE GOLDEN ARMY

 Based on Mike Mignola’s comic book.

The screenplay was written and directed by GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Starring:

Hellboy                                    RON PERLMAN

Abe Sapien                  DOUG JONES

Johann Krauss            JAMES DODD

Prince Nuada             LUKE GOSS

Liz Sherman                     SELMA BLAIR

I admit that from the first part of the film, I saw only a couple shots and I hastily decided that it must be a dumb work and I will not waste my time on it. Recently, however, my cousin’s teenage son told me enthusiastically that he had acquired the film on DVD. I rarely meet the above young man, but I know that he would not waste his time on a tawdry or bad film, nor would he spend money on such a disk.

 After that, I said yes to my female friend, who, as a prominent personality, received an invitation to the pre-premiere screening of the second part, but she was unable to attend the show due to official engagements, she handed the tickets to me.

 Just in case, I went with a friend of mine who I could rely on if I had needed an interpreter because the film was in English and the one they showed did not have Hungarian subtitles yet, and who was, in addition, a jovial guy, so I knew that his person was a guarantee that I would have fun even if the film had bored me.

 We sat right in the second row. My partner is sympathetic in my fixed idea that I want to be close to the film, not stare at the back of other viewers. Sitting in the first rows is like being present in the story. It is true that I only contemplate, but I feel like I am part of the film, too. I try to participate in the work with all my organs of sense, thus providing my senses with a kind of emotional bath.

 I have already several times that on this planet, there is no imagination.

 Every poem, tune, painting or film is a kind of remembrance. From the hidden chambers of their brain, creators bring forth the memories they had experienced in different galaxies and they bring them down to terrestrial reality. It is through their works that they make us see the possibilities of different ways of perception. The works are both teachings and testimonials at the same time about how many variations life forms have in the different corners of the universe.

 This planet on which we are living is a medium where several life forms are able to incarnate, where humanoids of different stages of development take on a human shape.

Here, by and large, everyone has similar physical endowments, a specific number of limbs, and organs of the same shape. Of course, there are planets where the organisms that give the dominant species are considerably more colorful and diverse. For example, in my home, too, there appeared beings whose skin was blue, or whose hair was orange.

 The creator of Hellboy in one of his previous lives had probably did service on a planet where in addition to the usual terrestrial appearance, humanoids had several other physical forms as well.

 I have written service because the artists whose task is to report news about other life forms, do a kind of service to the population of the particular planet. With their works, they help people overcome their fear of, and aversion to life forms which are alien to them.

 The story of the film takes place on a planet where, having made different compromises with one another, humanity and those who are different live together.

Those others are very different, and what is more, even themselves all differ from one another.

 The fact that the story takes place in New York should not deceive anyone.

Given that the same spirits incarnate from one planet to another – possibly putting on different life forms–, their essential selves remain the same, so in the new worlds, they call forth the usual patterns again and again.

Architects design the same building, writers present the same story in a literary form, and in general, even aldermen stick to a particular term.

The pyramids can be found on several planets, and in the same way, the exact replicas of capitals as well, or certain mythological figures.

 In the world that Hellboy represents, humans live on the surface, while malformed, demonic creatures under the ground, in the underworld. They are invisible to humans, because they do not want to see them. However, certain specimens blessed with special abilities help humans so that the peaceful coexistence could continue smoothly. In the paranormal research institute, however, humans and demons work together.

 For me, it was a big surprise that among the beings, there were some about who I know that they exist. However, since I am neither all-knowing, nor all-seeing, the fact that I have not yet met with all the species shown in the film, does not mean that they do not exist.

One of the familiar beings is the aquatic man named Abraham, a telepath with gills.

A similar species exists on our planet as well. They are called reptaliens, amphibians, because they are able to exist both in water and in an airy medium.

They visited me as well, and furthermore, they even showed me their undersea home. They like to observe humans when these latter are sleeping, but they do not want to scare them with their snake-like face, so usually, they wear a hood. On such occasions, people say that it was as if some sort of a monk had visited them. Sometimes of course this is so, but in most cases, the habit hid an amphibian.

  They are at a higher technical level than we are, but they have two groups.

The members of one of the groups seek out the company of humans and want to help us, the other group, however, look down on us, consider us, humans, inferior and unworthy of a possible cooperation.

I do not know more about them at the moment, because I have asked them not to disturb me because I have to live together with enough irrational things anyway, and my nervous system is not able to cope with their presence yet.

Fortunately, in the film, it is the specimens of the more humane group of this species who are represented, who are highly intelligent but who are not ashamed to try out deeper emotions, either.

The representation of the gaseous being in the film was another pleasant surprise for me.

In a humorous vein, every so often I say that in order to manifest itself in terrestrial existence, our spirit needs a spacesuit to survive. By spacesuit, I mean the human body itself.

The being in the film is aeriform, so he needs to put on a suit if he wants to be perceived by others. He himself would not need this, of course, because he is able to exert an influence on objects in his natural form as well. He was able to fix Hellboy, too, it was by moving locker doors that he beat up the macho hero.

In the film, the part I like is where Johann Krauss, who speaks with a German accent, revives a fighter being for some minutes by dividing himself to gain information from it, even though the being already kicked the bucket a few hours before.

It seems in the film as if it was some kind of an energy-beam which penetrates the toothfairy’s body, which is resuscitated by this means and is able to say where it is coming from.

When we refer to this technique, as I already mentioned, we say that the magician divides her- or himself with another being.

This is also how extraterrestrials communicate with me in general.

When they want to show me something, my consciousness unifies with the consciousness of one of them, and when they want to learn something about us, their consciousness fuses with mine.

We do not meet physically, but we can transmit almost all the sensations and information to one another just as if we had been present during the particular events.

It was strange to get used to the feeling that sometimes it is not only me who looks out of my head, that someone else, too, uses my eyes. On such occasions, I do not look at what I want to, but where they direct me. In such cases, my motion is slightly robot-like, too, but usually it lasts only for some minutes.

 Let us look at the film!

The main story is based on the ancient law, one people keep forgetting again and again, according to which if we suppress something, sooner or later it will rise against us.

One of the lords who were exiled to the underworld, prince Nuada, having had enough of humans’ power, decides to bring the indestructible golden army to life.

 We can hear about a new theory of creation in this film. (I would not like to talk about it, it is the film’s task.) In any case, even in war, Krauss applies the technique of fusing with the attacker and using him for his own purposes instead of fighting with them face to face. He uses a Golden Fighter against his peers.

 We can see Szonja Oroszlán’s face as well in the movie. A perfect choice for the role of the hysterical woman.

I have already explained to my regular readers that when someone is a little cross-eyed, it suggests that he or she lacks the willingness to compromise, that the individual does not tolerate any higher power except for her- or himself, and of course tantrums again and again are the reactions to everything.

 The film is full of beautifully elaborated images and the music, too, was a pleasant experience for me.

The tunes supported the message, they did not divert attention, but helped that particular chill to be even more intense at the places where it was necessary.

  I took the scene as a somewhat morbid joke where on an ugly chap’s side, a kind baby strikes up a conversation about the hero and it turns out that the lovely, tiny tot is not a child, but only a tumor on the repulsive being’s body.

 Another funny twist from fate is that the civil name of the actor who portrays the limb of Satan is Perlman. Well, Nomen Est Omen – that is, that the name fits the individual – here manifests in the way that our hero’s appearance is like that of a limb of Satan, but at the bottom of his soul, goodness and love are hiding as a pearl.

 During one of the imposing scenes, my dear friend noted that the director might hate vegetarians, because from one of the beans, a plant demon came to life, who started breaking the houses to pieces and even kept throwing cars about.

 The work is able to call forth a wide range of emotions from viewers.

In my case, the film has reached the effect I expect of each work whose task is to teach, to transmit messages – it kept me under its spell for a few days.

I hope that its creator’s perceptions will become even more refined, that he will bring forth other memories from his subconscious, too, and that by putting them on screen, he will be able to amaze millions of viewers again.