In stories about the interactions between gods and man, faith is often a major component of the story – this is most especially true in the Greek myth of Theseus, the Athenian hero and adventurer who achieved great deeds and slayed many monsters in his time. Theseus’ story is expanded upon and altered for the 2011 film Immortals, directed by filmmaker Tarsem Singh, turning his original tale of overall adventuring and derring-do into a dark tale of revenge against the mortal king Hyperion. The use of faith as a theme in Immortals is effective, despite its changes to the overall Theseus myth, as it allows for a more coherent and interesting examination of the shared faith men and gods can have in each other.
The mythic representation of Greece in the film is one in which immortals can kill each other, and where men have begun to lose faith in the gods’ existence. It is a world that does not believe in the myths – as Cassander says of the gods, “they are metaphors, son, nothing more.” The character of Stavros is another worshipper at the altar of man’s own abilities, since he is a thief who simply does what he needs to do to survive: “When I was just a boy, I prayed to the Gods, for a horse. The Gods never answered me. So I stole one, instead.”
Theseus, as a character, must wrestle with his faith (or lack thereof) in the world of Immortals. Theseus does not believe in the gods at first, being trained only by an old man who teaches him of the stories of the gods. His lack of faith is directly contrasted with that of his mother, who still believes in the gods – once she is killed by Hyperion, Theseus’ quest for revenge brings him into contact with forces that make him believe in her stories. Being instructed to return home in the middle of the story to bury his mother is one instance in which he must acknowledge her righteous faith in the gods. It is through the experiences of the film, and his relationship with the oracle Phaedra, that he begins to believe in the possibility of the gods actually existing – Phaedra’s ability to accurately predict the future shows Theseus the possibility of the divine being real.
Theseus is not the only character who must wrestle with his faith – Zeus and the gods have their own conflicts with belief in the film. Zeus himself has tremendous faith in Theseus (having disguised him as the old man of the boy’s youth to train him), and feels as though he has the wisdom and strength to lead the realm of men. In Olympus, there are many scenes of Zeus and the gods contemplating their level of involvement in Theseus’ quest; Zeus believes they should not meddle in the affairs of humans, as he has sufficient faith in Theseus and the rest of mankind to perform their tasks without their help. This is a significant throughline for the film, as the gods must have faith in man and not the other way around. At one point, Zeus actually kills Ares for interfering in the human realm, reminding Theseus he must act on his own to justify the gods’ faith in him. “Prove me right,” he says, outlining the main vehicle of faith in the film – characters believe in each other to do the right thing, and so the burden falls on them to follow through.
Through the course of the film, the gods’ faith in Theseus is rewarded, and vice versa. Just before Theseus’ brave defense of Mount Tartarus against Hyperion’s armies, Theseus tells the men of their own godhood and reminds them that they must act on their own agency without needing the Gods to help them – that they must “Fight for immortality!”. Of course, it is only once the Titans are released that the Gods feel compelled to act in man’s interests, the men having earned this support through their bravery of spirit and independent action. Once Theseus takes his revenge but is mortally wounded, his faith is rewarded by earning a place among the Gods.
The theme of faith in Immortals is presented in an unconventional way; instead of the film mostly being about a person coming to have faith in the gods, it is about a give-and-take in which the gods learn to have faith in man as well. The world of the film is one where gods and men could not be further apart in their level of involvement, and the events of the film draw them together. The most striking thing about the presence of faith in Immortals is that it draws on our humanistic drive to do better; we do not need to rely on a higher power doing things for us, because we earn their favor by doing things ourselves. I find that this applies particularly well to today’s world, in which spirituality has taken a backseat to practicality and secularism; finding a way for the divine to enter our lives without disrupting our need to accomplish things on our own is very important. To that end, Immortals is a film about the gods that men can become.
Works Cited
Hamilton, Edith. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes. Little, Brown & Company,
1942.
"Immortals." Sight & Sound 22.1 (2012): 67. Art Source. Web. 21 May 2014.
Tarsem (dir.). Immortals. Perf. Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Stephen Dorff. Relativity Media,
2011.
