I think I know what "Knowing" is all about, but what the hell is its genesis?

Rating: 8/10 (29 March 2009)

The Australian newspaper's film critic, Evan Williams, wrote approvingly of this film assuring his readers that it was about global warming, not apocalyptic religion. I went along with that notion until the illustration from an old printed copy of the book of Ezekiel appeared on the screen. I guess Evan Williams has not spent a lot of time reading the book of Ezekiel.
That got me wondering whether Proyas had picked up funding from the people who profited from the Tim LaHaye - Jenkins "Left Behind" franchise. But the fight in which he is currently engaged with the Australian Tax Office over whether the film is "Australian" enough to qualify its investors for the Australian tax breaks would seem to suggest that is not the case
The female characters who hear the voices in "Knowing" have a fascination for the vision of the Jewish prophet, Ezekiel. This Old Testament book begins with a vision of God appearing in a chariot, the wheels of which are wheels within wheels  they can carry the chariot to and fro in different directions. The chariot is accompanied by four winged angels, each with a different face - a lion, an eagle, an ox and a man.
Ezekiel's depiction of God in all his glory is just about identical with that in the book of Isaiah and the Revelation of John, at the back of the bible. In the book of Revelation they may be identical to the four horseman of the apocalypse who are seen going about the earth as God's eyes and ears when Jesus breaks the first four (of seven) seals on a scroll that is usually taken to be the title deeds to God's creation. In fact that imagery of apocalyptic horsemen seems to be culled from the book of Zechariah, along with pretty well all of the symbolic images used in the book of Revelation. (If this synopsis is a bit dense you can get a rather more expansive explanation on my www.peterhenderson.com.au website)
So Proyas seems to have taken the four angels and dressed them up as rather spooky men with pale complexions  I thought I detected wings on one of them in their last appearance in the film. The children are conveyed into the skies by a contraption that appears to resemble wheels within wheels
The prophet Ezekiel was writing at the time during which most of the people of Israel were being held captive in Babylon by the emperor Nebuchadnezzar  a character who seems to be synonymous in the bible with Satan.
Ezekiel is even less impressed with the purveyors of organized religion than the Nicholas Cage character in "Knowing". In chapter 10 he sees God in his chariot leaving the temple in Jerusalem, and planet earth, The next time that imagery is used, God is up in heaven with Jesus in the book of Revelation.
But before God leaves the temple (and earth), he instructs a man dressed in white linen with writing implements in his hand to place a mark on all the Jews who grieve at the evil they see taking place all around them  especially in the temple. Revelation inverts this idea by having the sycophant beast of Satan putting his 666 mark on those who rather enjoy taking part in the evil that prospers on earth. So why is it only the kids who are shown receiving the mark, or more correctly hearing the whispering voices? I thought Proyas and his writers may have borrowed that teaching from Jesus about: " unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 18:3, etc. The last scene shows them romping around what may be the Garden of Eden with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as depicted by Dante at the end of Purgatory (or is it the Tree of Life in the new heaven in Revelation 22?)
The fact that the Cage character's father is a minister of religion fits with the prophecy of Ezekiel that was aimed at the priests back in Jerusalem who had not been transported to Babylon. If that is the case, Cage is lying to his son and his father when he assures him that everything will be all right.
In Ezekiel, the Jews who do not bear God's mark are slaughtered and the bodies are piled on top of each other in the temple in Jerusalem. In the film, the bodies will be piled on top of each other in what appears to be New York.
So have Proyas and his writers "got religion", or is he just commandeering the powerful religious imagery in the way that Fincher did in "Seven"? Either way he has produced a very watchable and clever film that shares with Fincher's "Seven" the striking cinematography featuring gloomy overcast skies and compelling sound design. And of course, the exemplary performances from all the cast.