The great thing about long plane flights is catching up on
movies you missed. Flying back from
Slovakia last week, I was able to catch up on a couple of things, one of them
being Ron Howard’s Inferno – something I meant to see in the theater, but
somehow missed.
Inferno is the third film based on the Dan Brown novels of
the adventures of symbologist Robert Langdon. The first movie was the second
book – The Da Vinci Code. The Second movie was the first book (and my personal
favorite) Angels and Demons. This one is
the third movie and based on the fourth book, Inferno. Incidentally – the third book, The Lost
Symbol, is just not as good as the others.
The fifth book, Origin, should be out later this year. I love Dan Brown’s books, mainly because they
are heavily based in Italian Renaissance Art History, which is what I minored
in college. I still dream of writing an
exhaustive study of the Announciation in Italian Renaissance Art.
One of the preeminent artists of the renaissance was Sandro
Botticelli. He very famously painted a
vision of Hell as described in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. If you are
unfamiliar with the Divine Comedy, essentially, Dante dreamed he was guided
through Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. His
journey through hell was guided by the poet Virgil, and is the most vivid
description of hell put to paper.
Dante describes hell in nine circles growing ever smaller as
they head down to the center. Each
contains souls guilty of various sins.
The first circle was Limbo, meant for those who were not necessarily
sinful, but did not accept Christ. Limbo
is not that bad, but it’s not heaven either.
The second circle holds those guilty of lust – whose poetic justice
punishment is to be constantly pushed around by terrible winds. The third
circle holds the glutton sinners, who have to lie in a slush of garbage while
Cerberus flays them from time to time.
The fourth circle holds the greedy, who constantly have to push around
really heavy money bags. The fifth
circle holds the wrathful, who constantly fight each other over the river
Styx. Passing over the Styx, the sixth circle
is for those guilty of heresy, who are trapped in flaming tombs.
Once you get over the Styx, the circles get a little more
complicated and the layers have sub-circles.
The seventh circle holds those guilty of violence, and has three sub-circles – violence against others first (submerged in boiling blood), violence
against self second (fed upon by harpies), and against God, Art, and Nature
third (the Plains of Burning Sand). The
eighth circle holds those guilty of fraud and again has 10 sub-circles – 1,
panderers and seducers (whipped by horned demons); 2, flatterers (buried in
excrement); 3, simoniacs, or those who sell religious favors (placed head down in holes with flames at their feet);
4, sorcerers and fortune tellers (heads twisted around on
their bodies and so have to walk backwards for eternity); 5, barrators or
corrupt politicians (immersed in a lake of boiling pitch); 6, hypocrites
(walking with heavy lead robes); 7, thieves (pursed and bitten by snakes and
lizards); 8, fraudulent advisers (inside individual flames); 9, sowers of
discord (hacked and mutilated by a large demon); 10, falsifiers (horrible
diseases).
The final circle, the ninth, is all ice and contains those guilty of
treachery and is divided into 4 sub-circles: 1, traitors to their kindred (trapped in ice); 2, traitors to their
country (also trapped in ice); 3, traitors to their guests (lying down in ice,
crying tears of ice); 4, traitors to their lords (fully trapped in ice with their bodies contorted). At the very center of the
bottom of the circles is the Well of Malebolge – containing Satan himself, who
has three faces, and in each of his mouths is constantly chewing a great betrayer: Brutus, Cassius, and in the center face with the worst of all punishments - Judas Iscariot.
Now, what does this have to do with the movie? Nothing, really. But now that’s information you have and can
use to impress folks at dinner parties. At
one point in the movie, Langdon uses Botticelli’s illustration as a clue.
This movie begins with Langdon waking up in a hospital in
Florence with a head injury. He can’t quite remember how he got there or what
he was doing. He’s talking with doctor
Sienna Brooks, and she helps break him out of the hospital as someone is about
to shoot him. At her place, he finds a
projection device that shows Botticelli’s map of hell, but with extra letters
hidden in it hat then lead them to the Uffizi Gallery.
There, he slowly pieces together where he was and what he was doing.
Encountering a staff member who is surprised to see him back so soon, she leads
them to Dante’s death mask, which she says he and his friend were looking at
the other night. However, the mask Is
gone, but in looking at security video, they realize that he and his friend
stole the mask.
They learn they are also being pursued by the World Health
Organization. Once all the pieces come
together, Robert finally learns he was helping the WHO solve a riddle started
by a billionaire named Zobrist, who had become obsessed with the idea that that
world is critically overpopulated.
Zobrist created a virus that would wipe out a huge chunk of the earth’s
population. Zobrist was working with a
collection of people called the Consortium, but once they realize the madness
of his plan, they assist Robert in finding the hidden location of the virus and
attempting to stop it before it is released.
Inferno, like the other two movies in the series, is
directed by Ron Howard. Ron Howard is the perfect director for these stories. Usually, the format is that someone approaches Langdon for assistance with solving a riddle or clue that is based in art history symbology in one way or another. In this one, the twist of Langdon not knowing what that situation is at the beginning adds a sense of desperation to the story. The action is well done, and the puzzle is
entertaining. I do not think it is as
good as Angels and Demons, but I do think it is as good as The DaVinci
code. At this point, Howard and Hanks
have worked together so often that they are a clearly reliable combination for
a quality movie. The rest of the cast is also pretty good.
- Tom Hanks plays Robert Langdon for the third time, and while Langdon should still be David Duchovny, Hanks is just fine, and you can easily believe him as the smart riddle-solver, I’m just not sure on the action bits.
- Felicity Jones plays Sienna Brooks, the doctor who assists Langdon in the front half of this adventure. She’s capable and interesting, and provides a great partner to Hanks.
- French actor Omar Sy plays Christoph Bouchard, who works for the WHO and is trying to assist Langdon – or is he?
- Irrfan Khan plays Harry Sims, the leader of the Consortium who, once he learns what Zobrist’s plans were, does his best to make sure they do not happen.
- Sidse Babett Knudsen plays Elizabeth Sinskey – another WHO agent who is really trying to assist Langdon - or is she? The WHO agents are a little confusing in this.
- Ben Foster plays Bertrand Zobrist – a crazed billionaire convinced that killing millions is the only way to save billions. I found him eerily believable in this role, and it may be the first role I’ve seen him in that his slightly crazed demeanor really fits perfectly, and doesn’t work against the character.
- Ana Ularu plays Vayentha, who is essentially an assassin after Sienna and Robert.
Overall, the story is pretty good – and yes, there are some
major differences from the book, but honestly, in this case, I liked the
differences and thought they made the story move a little quicker.
7 out of 10 – it’s fine, not spectacular, but entertaining
enough. Gained points for Omar Sy and
Irrfan Kahn reuniting after Jurassic World.
Bonus – Cast Interviews!
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