Damn Devil

Mythology Goes to the Movies

Over the past 500 years, a few good stories have been written about men getting into  trouble with the Devil. There is also the flip side plot, about the Devil getting into trouble with humans. These stories are based on the myth about the Devil aka, Satan, aka Lucifer.

In other cultures, which are non Judeo-Christian, this wicked angel has other names. Indeed, devils, or demons, are a universal thing. Which tells us that human beings, for thousands of years, have had a mechanism to explain why people do bad things to other people. Or other sentient beings, like people who kick little puppies. Or kill them for the sheer satisfaction of doing so. Such an incident happened in Los Angles recently. A street thug pulled a gun and shot a guy’s 4 month old puppy.

Puppy killers have no souls. They are slaves to their hatred.

Perhaps the most famous story of man versus the Devil is Faustus. Faustus is that guy who makes that deal with the Devil, you know what I speak of, the Devil gives a guy what he thinks he wants, riches, talent, and the guy gives the Devil his soul.

He becomes a slave.

I use the pronoun for the male because women don’t get into this game very much.

The Faust story has been turned on its ear many times. Especially among the writers of the golden age of theatre in England. Both Christofer Marlowe and Ben Johnson wrote plays about the Devil. Marlowe wrote Doctor Faustus. His play follows the storyline laid down in Germany about a professor who isn’t happy enough with his success. Faust is  envious. He wants a different kind of success that will bring him a beautiful woman, and the social life he craves.

You could say that Faust is the first victimless victim. My theory on Faust is that he’s a guy going through his middle aged crazies. You know what I mean. Someone who has done well in life, but then the guy, at 50, wonders where his life went. They wonder why they didn’t pursue the career they really wanted. And why is it they don’t have a pretty young thing to sleep with. So in walks temptation, in the guise of the Devil himself.

Now Faust can say, “The Devil made me do it.”

The Devil doesn’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do. I mean, give the Devil a break. He didn’t make those decisions about what work to pursue. Faust made those decisions.

The plot of Ben Jonson’s play, The Devil is an Ass, turns the Faust plot on its head. Jonson places the blame squarely where it belongs; on the human element. I admit that this play is a favorite with me.

The plot goes like this. A young devil wants to go to Earth to tempt people. The Devil laughs at the boy, telling him the humans will tempt him. The youngster says,
“Please, Satan, give me a chance.”

The little guy is confident he can bring people to hell.

Poor kid. The Devil tries to warn him, but hey, a young person has to learn some things first hand. Even a little devil. Because this little devil gets caught up with a bunch of n’er do well humans, and before the end of the play, he’s screaming to get back to hell.

“Get me away from these humans!”

No one can tempt you like another human being can.

George Abbot and Douglas Wallop, when they wrote the musical, Damn Yankees, took the Faust idea and mixed it with Jonson’s idea. The film version came out in 1958. For some of you, that is ancient! But the concept is eternal. The difference between the old Faust, and this modern, American version, is this: Faust ends up in hell because he won’t redeem himself. Especially after he doesn’t marry the girl he impregnated. The poor young woman commits suicide. Back in Faust’s era, to be pregnant out of wedlock was a huge deal. But Faust cares not a wit.

Faust is a loser.

Come to think of it, Faust is a good story for today’s crowd. There are plenty of single guys out there who don’t marry the girl they impregnate. I’d say they are the real devils on this Earth. That is what Jonson would say. And I agree.

Mostly, modern movies of the past 40 years have turned the devil into a monster. They have it completely wrong. That image, of the devil with red eyes and sharp teeth, is really a projection of humans as helpless against the devil. The real “devil,” according to the Judeo-Christian myth, is Lucifer, the “fallen” angel, who was, an archangel. You can bet that he is one, handsome dude. Lucifer’s big sin was to disagree with Jehovah over the humans that had been created in Jehovah’s image. So, according to the myth, they had a little argument, that turned into a knock down drag out fight. Lucifer, and his gang, lost the war in heaven, and they got evicted.

The myth that Satan (the name means, adversary) ended up in the underworld is just like the myth of Zeus and the Titans. The Titans ended up in the underworld because they lost their war with the Olympians .

There are many other versions of the Faust story. Like Hans Christian Anderson’s The Little Mermaid. That is one of the few stories about a woman who sells out for what she wants.

There is also Bedazzled, a film written by Peter Cook, and another musical, Little Shop of Horrors, which was an off Broadway show that went to greatness with two movies being made of it.

The plot of Damn Yankees reveals the theme of the 1950s, in that one could beat the devil, and redeem themselves in doing so. Joe Boyd, the middle aged man who meets Mr. Applegate, the devil in Damn Yankees, doesn’t step wholly into the shoes of a Faust. Joe, when he makes the deal with the devil, negotiates an escape clause into the contract. That is a business, or American, attitude. The concept is to have a fall back position. We call it planning.

Sure, Applegate turns Joe Boyd into Joe Hardy, a 22 year old baseball player with a way with a bat only a god could have. He brings the Washington Senators out of their doldrums to winning the pennant. Nonetheless, Applegate wants Joe’s soul, so he sets him up to pass the deadline for his escape clause. But Joe is an American of the old school. He doesn’t think of himself as a victim. He’s a can do kind of guy. He promised the fans a pennant, and he delivers, even after Applegate turns him back into the over fifty year old, Joe Boyd.

Boyd beat the Devil. He was not Faust but an American man with the power to say no to the lie of a life Applegate had given him. Because Joe is not a slave. Joe’s soul belongs to Joe.

Herein lies a lesson for all Americans to ponder. Indeed, the entire world’s humans need to be presented with this question. Will you be a slave, i.e., sell your soul, to whatever devil wants it? Or will you live free?

The difference between the story of Faust, and the story of Joe Boyd, is the difference between America, and the rest of the world.