Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol

The copy that I had of this film was very poorly transferred so I couldn't read the subtitles very well, so forgive me as this commentary may not be altogether accurate. As I see it Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol is about a man who is caught in the duality of things. He tries to do good, but ends up doing bad. He is called Satan at one point in the film. This duality reflects the duality of life. Who's to say what's good and what's bad? Are so-called priests who molest children people to be revered. Are these just a few rouges or is it the institution that is corrupt? In the face of injustice people have been known to do some terrible things. Communism, a reaction to the injustice of capitalism, lead to Stalinism and Maoism which became their own forms of oppression (the oxy-moron of the dictatorship of the proletariat). We see this resistance to the oppression of capitalism in the liberation theologist Saint Sebastian, but as many great leaders do, such as Jim Jones, power went to his head and he began preaching insane doctrines. At the same time, the catholic church sees the radical as dangerous, not because he is encouraging the people to leave Christianity (on the contrary, he preaches Christianity) but because he is disrupting the status quo and getting the people to think differently about their situation in life. In this way saint sebastian is very much a materialist, despite his Christianity. He preaches violence as a way of getting what you want and appeasement of the gods can mean material gain. Saint Sebastian is himself a paradox, and paradox is the theme of the film. We must ask ourselves, why was the title Black God, White Devil chosen for the English version of this film? Is the black god sebastian and the white devil the man who kills everybody towards the end (I never got his name)? I think the black god and white devil are the yin and the yang of existence: the very duality of man; the god and the devil within all of us.