The Rapture

Once upon a time there was a breed known as independent filmmakers. Usually with shoestring budgets, the indies, taking no prisoners, discarded business plans, forgot to look at marketing strategies, and the image of a proposed target audience was as abstract and surreal to them as their films often were to audiences. The indies were decidedly reactionary to the Hollywood institution. Maya Deren once said "I make films for what Hollywood spends on lipstick." It was the indies who were progressively harking back to the dawn of cinema, before the rules of filmmaking had been established and canonized.Stanley Kubrick was the closest Hollywood would get to the indie spirit, but Kubrick, for all his aesthetic brilliance, was, essentially, an academic. Whatever Kubrick's genre, be it sci-fi, porn, horror, war, swashbuckler, his approach stemmed from a safe classroom distance. Kubrick lacked the fevered intensity and aesthetic struggle of the indies, and subjects such as horror and sex were rendered as studies and, therefore, matters on somewhat safe critical ground for the mainstream.Newly minted and authorized film critics, such as Roger Ebert, would lavish heaps of praise on Dr. Kubrick, but Ebert was clearly out of his ivory towered ball park when trying to grasp the likes of Larry Cohen`s God Told Me To or Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, which is unfortunate considering Ebert once scripted for Hollywood outsider Russ Meyer.The 1990s was the last real decade of the independents. Even by then, they were becoming an extinct breed, and in their place were the new breed of timid indie-lites, who merely emulate the Hollywood recipe without having the budget for the high priced, bland ingredients.In 1991 Michael Tolkin's The Rapture did what an independent film is supposed to do: took critics by surprise. Some critics even managed praise. Tolkin followed this success with The New Age in 1994 and then, unfortunately, disappeared from the radar. The Rapture came on the heels of the previous year's Begotten (1990, E. Elias Merhige), and both are films with spiritually organic testicles.Sharon (Mimi Rogers, in a mesmerizing role) works as a telephone operator by day. It is a mind-numbingly monotonous job. By night, she likes to have sex and she has it passionately. Sharon plays the swinging game, seeking out new adventures and new partners. Swinging, however, is becoming as robotic as her day job, because, despite her passion, Sharon is seeking something more. She is seeking a personally relentless communication which at first she thought she might find through the amorous escapades of the night.One day at work, Sharon overhears Christian co-workers talking about a dream of a pearl. The pearl is something akin to an allegorical hymn for the world's end. To Sharon, it appears that those who dream of the pearl find God and the meaning of life. Sharon tries to pass herself off as a Christian, but it's a bit like someone pretending to be drunk, and her co-workers see through it.A couple that Sharon swings with cease a night of sex long enough to speak of the Pearl, which one of them has tattooed on her back. Christian proselytizers show up at Sharon's door, trying to convert her, and they too speak of the Pearl. Through the vision of the Pearl, Sharon believes God is calling out to her. Sharon is in anguish. One lover abandons her. Randy (David Duchovny), another lover, argues with her. Randy is an atheist, who once murdered for money; he sees no meaning at all in life, and compares Sharon's God-seeking to a heroin addict looking for a fix.Sharon finally has the religious experience for which she has been yearning. Like an overzealous, sanctimonious twelve year old girl at Vacation Bible School, the newly reborn Sharon begins proselytizing to callers at work. Sharon's boss, himself a Christian, tells Sharon there is a time and place for everything, but not at work. Sharon knows now that her life must be clean for God.The power of great sex prevails and Randy, seeing the light of God, marries Sharon. They have a child and join a fundamentalist group, bonding with those who want to understand God and his plans. All too briefly, Randy becomes Sharon's sole personal connection and provides the life she seeks. Tragedy prevails, however, and bathos rears its ugly head as Sharon is put through several tests. Her life is thrown into a frenzied quagmire. Believing she knows God's intention, Sharon commits a heinous crime when she feels God has failed to deliver his promise. When all seems lost, the dreaded apocalypse literally comes true and Sharon faces a choice. Will she profess her love for her heavenly Father or not?Sharon faces the same dilemma that Job faced, but for Sharon, God is no different than those countless lovers from one night stands so many years before. God screwed her, but he would not give her the personal communication that she needed. God used her and took away everything she loved. When Sharon called out for an answer, God turned his back to her and merely said, "You must still love me."The Rapture is about free will, and that includes free will to love or reject the idea of the divine. Sharon remains fiercely independent in the tradition of Bizet's Carmen. She is not afraid of the consequences, even in the threat of a purgatorial eternity. Sharon's life and choices are startling. She is a stupid, proud, passionate woman who has the audacity to tell God, "I knocked and the door was not opened. I am a stupid woman, but it's your fault I'm stupid because I asked for wisdom and you denied me. I will take the purity of my heart over your cold mind and I will not worship the likes of so selfish a lover."Of course, Sharon is as selfish as she believes God to be, but she no longer expects to be loved. The Rapture harshly embraces a defiantly feminine spirituality which rejects the barren, patriarchal idea of God.Like the late Mary Daly, Sharon goes "Beyond God the Father," and that is simultaneously liberating for her and her downfall, because she approaches her liberating moment with the black and white extremes which have characterized her entire life.In the Gospel of John, the apostles are instructed to "Go and spread the Good News." News is always new and The Rapture takes a new and refreshing approach to a subject which, more often than not, is hopelessly pious, stagnant and, ultimately, saccharine. This is one of the most challenging, humanistic and Christian films of the last twenty years.*MY REVIEW ORIGINALLY APPEARED AT 366 WEIRD MOVIES

This is a film which irradiates the life changing events of a woman who finds that in accepting Christianity and becoming "born again" she can escape her former life. Sharon, a telephone operator, is unhappy with her mundane job. She amuses herself at night by drinking, getting high and engaging in sexually sordid; uninhibited behaviors with her "swing" partner Vic. While she fills her nights with one night stands, she is unfulfilled and lonely. The film moves very quickly in the beginning. Sharon overhears a conversation in the break room at work which peaks her curiosity, some of the employees are whispering about the rapture. Then she gets a visit from two believers spreading the word who leave her with some profound questions and a New Testament. It's not long before she meets Randy on one of her nightly excursions with Vic. This is when we see Sharon's first sign of her desire to change.She begins seeing Randy (whom she discovers has murdered a man for money) exclusively and she becomes repulsed by Vic's continued sexual activity. She begins to question her lifestyle and wants to change. After a failed attempt at suicide, she accepts Christ and because of this she rids herself of everything and everyone connected with her sordid past. She soon convinces Randy to make the change with her and accept Christ. They are married and have a child, Mary. They attend church meetings together under the teachings of a boy prophet who tells the group of the impending rapture.Sharon's faith is tested when Randy is murdered by a disgruntled former employee. Sharon believes her dreams are telling her to go to the dessert and wait with Mary to be raptured. In obedience she takes her daughter to wait on GOD. When they aren't raptured, Mary begs her mother to let her die so she can go to heaven. Sharon shoots Mary, killing her. She intends to kill herself, but, suicide is a sin that will prevent her from going to heaven.A policeman named Foster, who befriended Sharon and Mary ends up being the one to have to arrest Sharon after she confesses to the murder of her daughter. While in jail awaiting her punishment, the Rapture begins, and all the prisons cell gates collapse freeing the prisoners. Foster and Sharon return to the dessert where they are raptured. Foster who was skeptical of GOD in his life sees Mary and listens to her when she asks him to accept the Love of GOD and enter heaven. Sharon refuses to relinquish her feelings of anger and disappointment in the loss of her husband and daughter. She denounces GOD and the opportunity to be with HIM.The film ends with Sharon in a dark; desolate place of loneliness. This was a great film. I viewed it twice. This a good film for those students interested in Christianity or, who have questions about salvation and forgiveness. The film not only enlightened me to some of the beliefs and principles of being "born again", but also in the transformation that happens to people when they commit themselves to a life of faith. I saw a woman who had a lifetime of disappointments fill with hope and happiness. She expected GOD to accept her as she was, be merciful and forgive her many sins and embrace her at the gates of heaven. When disappointment came back into her life she only gave GOD three chances to show up, she herself was unable to forgive HIM for her own lack of faith.

I got the movie earlier than expected which was good. I enjoyed the movie

I bought this film after watching one of Kermode`s blogs in which he stated his love of this film. It`s a unique film written and directed by Michael Tolkin (writer of The Player & Deep Cover). One of those rare movies that gets you thinking for days after. I since learned that the late movie critic Roger Ebert also loved this film. As you can see from the reviews on here, its the sort of film that divides audiences and therefore i cannot recommend it to everyone. If however you are intrigued, its certainly unlike anything else I've ever seen and Mimi Rogers is superb.

DVD non compatibile con i lettori italiani.Se fosse stato segnalato ovviamente non lo avrei comprato.Sodi buttati.

Well made movie, this time God's killing us off. When the Four Horsemen come, there are those who accept Him, those who reject Him, and each has their reasons. Good flick for those with an inclination to question Christianity, IMO.

So the premise starts well enough - a young, lovely woman lives a dreary life - she is disillusioned with her mundane existence and wants to push the boundaries to find some excitement. She turns to sex - the scenes are not graphic though there is brief semi-nudity.For Christians expecting something in the vein of Left Behind - leave this dvd behind. She meets apparent Christians, gets into the idea of the return of Christ - but from thereon it's just plain weird and WELL OFF biblical and accepted, prophetic premises. She goes into complete imbalance, seems to be around false church prophetic figures and - well - this has nothing to do with the abundant life of Christ.