Seite - 140 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Band 05/01

eco-terrorism. Second, upon realising the vest has been discovered, Mary’s hus- band ends his life brutally with a shotgun. From here, as he grapples with the environmental issues that led to this suicide, Toller descends into radicalism, apparently conceiving a plot to use the suicide vest himself and commit a similar act of eco-terrorism. His rationale is at the same time starkly understandable and completely unsanctionable, and the viewer is left to wait as the film moves inexorably towards the dedication service, which seems to be Toller’s target. At face value First Reformed is a film about the place of religion in a mod- ern age when worldly forces like politics, money and industry dominate our existence. However, the film’s deepest thematic concern is with the struggle for faith, characterised through the problem of spiritual self-neglect. Schrader demonstrates this simply and powerfully: the protagonist’s malnourishment is used to represent spiritual malnourishment. Toller subsists on a meagre diet of bread and alcohol, which Schrader presents in such a way as to pervert the eucharistic allusion inherent in this aesthetic. This is clear from one particular image in the film, where, in an early scene, Toller sits alone in his stark kitchen, dipping bread into a bowl of whisky. Schrader’s wide angle and long take serve to isolate Toller in this shot; there is no sense of communion in the act, only a profound sense of aloneness. This is compounded by the austere editing and use of sound, especially the heightened sound effects of the mundane elements of the scene, like the scratching of the threads as the bottle cap is unscrewed. Furthermore, by substituting whisky for wine, Schrader retains the façade of the eucharistic allusion while stripping it of its substance and its interiority. The effect of this is to evacuate the act of its spirituality, and so to pervert the eucha- ristic image of spiritual nourishment. The consequence of this diet adds another level to Schrader’s symbolic con- nection of Toller’s spiritual and bodily health. As the film progresses, his physical health deteriorates as a sign of his unravelling spiritual health and, incubated in his isolated and conflicted psyche, sin surfaces. Toller’s spiralling descent into radicalism coincides with the rapid failing of his body; his racking cough and bloody stools become outward signs of an inward spiritual sickness. Yet the film climaxes with a moment of astounding self-realisation, where this sickness is acknowledged as sinfulness. Just as Toller is about to go through with his act of mass murder, Mary arrives unexpectedly to attend the dedication service. Her arrival opens his eyes to what he is about to do, and the psychological horror causes Toller to spiritually disintegrate. Raving, he wraps barbed wire around his torso so tightly that it draws blood. It is a moment of terrible self-flagella- tion, which emerges from the impulse for penance but fails drastically. Howev- er, the ending is not void of redemptive hope. This redemption is never explicit, and the film’s ending is deliberately ambiguous: Toller, wrapped in barbed wire and – for the first time in the film – clothed all in white, prepares to end his life; 140 | James Lorenz www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1