Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Many Happy Returns
I am quite frankly surprised that The Mummy Returns has not been the subject of more doctoral dissertations. I watched it one and a half times on FX tonight, and it is truly rich with intellectual content. Although people probably think of it primarily as a careful historical study of the Imhotep dynasty in Egypt, it is also a philosophical treatise well on par with anything by Camus or Sartre. And of course every word is pure poetry; one can't help but mentally diagram the sentences as one watches, and those diagrams dance on the sweetest wings of gossamer.
The greatest thing about The Mummy Returns (and The Mummy, for that matter, though I've not yet seen The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and thus cannot comment on its content) is that it treats the ancient Egyptian religion as being in fact the one and only true and correct religion. The Egyptian afterlife actually exists and mummies go to and from there with shocking regularity. Prayers to gods like Anubis and Osiris are wholly effective. Old Egyptian religious texts make magic happen. Frankly, I think it's all a bit of a threat to Our Christian Nation. Where was James Dobson on this one, huh?
I have to admit that this is not the first (or first and a half, I guess) time I have seen The Mummy Returns. Once, when I was in college and at my parents' house over break, they went out of town for the weekend. My sister and I had a party, which apparently in our view at the time involved getting chili cheese dogs from the Sonic and watching both Mummy movies back to back. There was no one else on the guest list. But who needs friends when you've got Brendan Fraser in the room, right? He's a complete wiz at Scattergories.
I am quite frankly surprised that The Mummy Returns has not been the subject of more doctoral dissertations. I watched it one and a half times on FX tonight, and it is truly rich with intellectual content. Although people probably think of it primarily as a careful historical study of the Imhotep dynasty in Egypt, it is also a philosophical treatise well on par with anything by Camus or Sartre. And of course every word is pure poetry; one can't help but mentally diagram the sentences as one watches, and those diagrams dance on the sweetest wings of gossamer.
The greatest thing about The Mummy Returns (and The Mummy, for that matter, though I've not yet seen The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and thus cannot comment on its content) is that it treats the ancient Egyptian religion as being in fact the one and only true and correct religion. The Egyptian afterlife actually exists and mummies go to and from there with shocking regularity. Prayers to gods like Anubis and Osiris are wholly effective. Old Egyptian religious texts make magic happen. Frankly, I think it's all a bit of a threat to Our Christian Nation. Where was James Dobson on this one, huh?
I have to admit that this is not the first (or first and a half, I guess) time I have seen The Mummy Returns. Once, when I was in college and at my parents' house over break, they went out of town for the weekend. My sister and I had a party, which apparently in our view at the time involved getting chili cheese dogs from the Sonic and watching both Mummy movies back to back. There was no one else on the guest list. But who needs friends when you've got Brendan Fraser in the room, right? He's a complete wiz at Scattergories.
