It was very layered, the contrast of a man slowly destroying his body and ignoring everybody around him trying to get him to start taking care of it, while feeling deep disgust over the way we as people are slowly destroying the planet in the face of endless warnings from activists and the scientific community reminds me of the conflict I see in Taxi Driver where a man feels deep hatred for society all the while slowly destroying himself and sinking deeper and deeper into degeneracy, becoming a microcosm of the rest of the world that he so viscerally lobs criticism at.
Still trying to figure out many things though, like the way it ended and why, what was that ending's significance if it even has any? Also, I'm surprised that the notion that First Reformed is a political film was so readily dismissed here. To me this was a film steeped in politics, a direct rebuttal to the convenience and laziness inherent in local politics that allows the average person to live in ignorance of the larger impacts of politics itself. This film was actually quite ballsy in the way it directly points the finger at the marriage of religion and corporatism that demands religious people choose money and politics over religious conviction and philosophical beliefs.
To me this film was more political than any classic political film that deals with cover-ups, elections or whatever other on-the-nose themes usually make up the political content of a film. I might get some opposition for this but First Reformed is more politically poignant than anything I've seen in awhile, because it challenges all sides of politics with no side coming out as the clear winner. It doesn't wrap up nicely and neatly, there's no conclusion or justice, instead we're just forced to think about our beliefs and ideals and for me, it forced me to actually consider why I was so disappointed that he didn't end up suicide bombing the whole church.
This is a film about an American patriot and former-military bishop who loses his son in the Iraq War (which he feels guilty about because it's a family tradition to join the military and serve) and thus he loses all meaning in his life, loses his wife, leaving himself vulnerable to radicalization which an environmentalist inadvertently does during the process of Hawke counseling him, with a new worldview which he then frames in his religious beliefs and slowly descends into a mindstate where he's willing to cause massive harm to people.
It basically plays out in the exact same way in which we're told moderate Muslims become jihadists in the middle east, after war takes their loved ones from them. First Reformed is an American-Christian jihad film, directly referencing this with a literal suicide vest as the catalyst for the events of the film.
