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From the Disney animation Sleeping Beauty
I think the modern world is seriously pursuing evil. The level of violence in films, for example, is breathtaking. Where before evil was a force to be fought against, now it just stands on its own. That is why I no longer go to movies. Even an innocuous-sounding film suddenly bares its teeth at me. I am sometimes left with the images for days.
I think modern people have no tools, as in religious beliefs, and better yet Christian beliefs, with which to fend off and attack evil. One defense against evil would be not to let it so easily and permissibly into their lives, which is happening more frequently these days. This easy acceptance of evil leads to people openly courting it.
Angelina Jolie is acting in the 2014 movie Maleficent which recounts the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty through the eyes of the evil fairy queen Maleficent. Jolie is starring as Maleficent. In the original Disney fairy tale, Maleficent was overlooked at the christening of a baby princess Aurora. As revenge, she curses the princess and says she will prick her fingers and die at her sixteenth birthday. Merryweather, one of the good fairies, changes this curse to a prolonged sleep, until a prince comes to awaken her.
Maleficent looks foreboding in the 1959 animated Disney version, but she has a colorful and flamboyant presence. Her exaggerated persona is contrasted with the gentle and pretty Aurora, and Aurora's quiet confidence assures us that she will win over this evil fairy. All is well that ends well, as all young children know about fairy tales, which simply means that good overcomes evil.
Not so, in Jolie's postmodern version.
Jolie's costume is a drab, ugly brown sack. She has on long and exaggerated horns. Although the Disney Maleficent also has horns, hers are smaller and look like they are part of her head gear. Jolie's horns look like a darker version of a goat's horn. In Christian iconography:
Satan has most often been portrayed...as a horned creature, red in color, often having the hindquarters or body of hoofed animals, particularly the goat. These depictions are notable in their resemblance to the Canaanite gods Baal and Moloch, the Greek deity Pan, as well as prevalent conceptions of the major male god in Pagan and Neopagan traditions, such as the "Horned God."I think it is intentional that Jolie look more like Satan's accomplice than the colorful evil fairy from the Disney animation.
Jolie was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly about the film, Here is what she had to say on what she thinks are the redeeming qualities of Maleficent:
EW: So there are some redeeming qualities to Maleficent the witch?It is clear that Jolie sympathizes with evil, despite her initial outburst of "It sounds really crazy..." I think she was just taken off guard with the question, which squarely described Maleficent as a witch rather than euphemistically calling her a fairy (good or bad).
Jolie: It sounds really crazy to say that there will be something that’s good for young girls in this, because it sounds like you’re saying they should be a villain. [Maleficent] is actually a great person. But she’s not perfect. She’s far from perfect.
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at the baby Princess Aurora's crib,
from the 1959 Disney animation
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from the Disney animation