A Serious Man in Hollywood

Rating: 7/10 (16 July 2016)

Two rough but swell religious interpretations of this film follow below! Both were written on message boards section for this film. The first is by someone named Komarovski:
"I enjoyed the movie's wacky look at Hollywood of the era, but I don't think it was meant to be the focus. Audiences can't be faulted for looking only at and being disappointed by the comic relief, though, as that is how the movie was promoted in the trailers.
After the opening scene, the words "A Tale of the Christ" wipe onto the screen. We are then immediately shown Mannix to make the connection. Mannix shepherds a vast world populated with sinners, but who ultimately create good. He stands over bickering religious leaders, growing frustrated at their interpretations. Mannix considers his worst sin to be smoking, so it's no wonder the Devil, a head-hunter from Lockheed, tempts him with a cigarette as they meet in a very red restaurant. Mannix is offered an easier path, but one that leads to destruction rather than creation. To me, Mannix's struggle with which path to take is the crux of the movie. It is only after seeking his Father's advice that the decision is made.
Other elements of note are the demons (the blacklisted writers) who have stolen away Baird, one of Mannix's flock. Ultimately, the angel Hobie brings Baird back to the fold, while we see one of Mannix's truly lost ones pulled down into Hell (or the Pacific Ocean, as it were). The wayward son Baird is welcomed back, but when he extols the virtues of his captors, he is sternly punished with a regretful slap. Humbled Baird resumes his role in Mannix's creation, though Baird again shows he is not perfect when he forgets "faith.""
The next interpretation is written by someone named DaliParton, in response to Komarovski above:
"I saw it completely differently. I thought Burt Gurney (the guy who boards the submarine) was the Christ and the writers were his 12 disciples (seems safe to say they were all jews too). They made Gurney look like an old-timey-Hollywood version of the Christ - buff, blonde, blue-eyed and noble. I took him getting on the sub not as going to hell but as going to heaven, and dropping the suitcase of money as a nod to 1 Timothy 6:7 "For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it." Jesus was pretty much a straight-up socialist after all - the one and only example of him getting violent was when he thrashed the moneychangers and merchants in the temple - and the USSR was supposed to be a workers' paradise.
Also I thought Mannix was to Autolochus as Schenk is to Caesar - a "roman tribune" in the studio system ruled by a dictator. When Clooney comes back preaching the gospel of socialism, Mannix beats him like the way the Romans treated early christians.
Unrelated to all of that was DeeAnna Moran - the scheme to adopt her own child is basically a 'virgin birth.' Also her name is an anagram for "Naree Madonna" which is a little bit of a stretch with Naree instead of Mary, but if you said it outloud no one would notice the difference."
Pretty nice work by Komarovski and DaliParton. Hedda Hopper might not have liked these write-ups but Barton Fink might have. Now Mannix is a busy man. He's got to get back to Capitol Pictures' still in production "Moses and the Burning Bush" starring Baird Whitlock as Moses and Hobie Doyle as the bush.