Did the Terry Gilliam movie The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus insinuate that Christianity was founded by a trickster devil in a bet wagered against an Eastern monk?
There is a scene where the titular doctor delivers some exposition to his daughter indicating that he has become ensnared in a series of bets with a Mr. Nick -- allegedly a devil. One such wager was to see which of them could acquire "twelve disciples" first. As Parnassus explains, Mr. Nick ultimately wins the disciple bet by using terror and fear to scare twelve men into submission...and the story is accompanied with a graphic of bishops in miters.
The movie also ends with an image of Mr. Nick giving an apple to a nun.
Whatever the authorial or directorial intent, the phrase "twelve disciples" and the picture of clergy bugged me throughout the whole movie and ruined what should have otherwise been a playful romp of theatrical spectacles.
What irked me the most was the suggestion that Christianity or the Church puts limits on the imagination -- that it weighs down mental faculties. And yet pretty much every great work of art has either taken religion as a theme or, at the very least, maintained the sanctity of religion. Homer and Dante would not be readable if piety were ripped from their pages. Shakespeare might not have promoted a clear cut religious agenda, but he almost always depicted clergy in a positive light (especially given a context of Protestant England).
Anyway, it wasn't Terry Gilliam's best work. The special effects were great, but the story just didn't seem to hold together...which was odd considering that Dr. Parnassus claims that story is what keeps the universe existence. I guess the point is that the universe is the unraveling of a narrative that defies Aristotle's unities. The universe, in this film, is not a well told story. Existence is just kind of a rambling shaggy dog joke with really pretty illustrations.
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