There are those who argue The Godfather has Faustian overtones - “I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.”
Christopher Marlowe wrote The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in 1592 shortly before he was most likely bumped off by the Queen's spies for conspiring against the throne - The Queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, argued Marlowe had made his own pact with the Devil, broadly considered in those days of strict Protestant England to be the Pope - though more likely, Marlowe was an atheist, considered even worse by the theocracy.
Arguably a better writer than Shakespeare, Marlowe sets up Faust, the protagonist, with moral dilemmas - is it worth gaining twenty-four years of metaphysical voluptuousness when at the end of it, you are swept off to Hell? Faust certainly thinks so. The play introduced the good angel/bad angel trope (Jekyll & Hyde) that we all know is inside us but Marlowe may have been the first to externalise the daily duel. Legend has it that when the audience saw the demons on stage, they were so frightened, many became mad. There were calls to ban the production - horror films have suffered from similar attitudes ever since.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe produced his version - more directly based on older Germanic tales in 1808. Better known than Marlowe's version, this brings us to the new Czech movie Bloody Johann. You might call it a sequel.
The film starts with Faust brought back to life after centuries in the dark. He unleashes a night of terror in Prague, with vampires, zombies and mutants (or possibly mutant vampire zombies - it's hard to tell). This time, Faust has a new obsession - to get even with his past life and his family. He blames his wife Marketa for his woes (wives always get the blame). There is also the devil Mephistopheles, who controls everything like a puppeteer from afar.
By the time the night is over, there is a lot of blood and gore, which may not be to everyone's taste, but also some wit and humour - just like in Marlowe's play (the wit and humour that is - not the blood and gore)
Christopher Marlowe wrote The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in 1592 shortly before he was most likely bumped off by the Queen's spies for conspiring against the throne - The Queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, argued Marlowe had made his own pact with the Devil, broadly considered in those days of strict Protestant England to be the Pope - though more likely, Marlowe was an atheist, considered even worse by the theocracy.
Arguably a better writer than Shakespeare, Marlowe sets up Faust, the protagonist, with moral dilemmas - is it worth gaining twenty-four years of metaphysical voluptuousness when at the end of it, you are swept off to Hell? Faust certainly thinks so. The play introduced the good angel/bad angel trope (Jekyll & Hyde) that we all know is inside us but Marlowe may have been the first to externalise the daily duel. Legend has it that when the audience saw the demons on stage, they were so frightened, many became mad. There were calls to ban the production - horror films have suffered from similar attitudes ever since.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe produced his version - more directly based on older Germanic tales in 1808. Better known than Marlowe's version, this brings us to the new Czech movie Bloody Johann. You might call it a sequel.
The film starts with Faust brought back to life after centuries in the dark. He unleashes a night of terror in Prague, with vampires, zombies and mutants (or possibly mutant vampire zombies - it's hard to tell). This time, Faust has a new obsession - to get even with his past life and his family. He blames his wife Marketa for his woes (wives always get the blame). There is also the devil Mephistopheles, who controls everything like a puppeteer from afar.
By the time the night is over, there is a lot of blood and gore, which may not be to everyone's taste, but also some wit and humour - just like in Marlowe's play (the wit and humour that is - not the blood and gore)
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