Decalogue I and V

In the Decalogue films, the movie portrays separate stories that each depict one of the Ten Commandments. They each attempt to show what God meant by his words in the commandments, so they expand on the meaning more than just the literal words. In this way, the film acts as midrash, or commentary on the ancient Hebrew texts. Also, much like how many parts of the Bible are up to interpretation, these stories shown are up for interpretation. There is no in-your-face meaning, instead the viewers must focus and struggle to interpret the stories for themselves.
In the first film, there are visuals that help the viewer find the meaning. The one that comes to mind is the computer. Pavel and his father trust that this computer knows all the answers, and even trust it with Pavel’s life. However, Pavel ends up dying because he trusts the computer, showing the meaning of the first commandment “thou shalt not have strange gods before Me” meaning that there is one true God.

The next film we watched was the fifth. The fifth commandment is “thou shalt not kill”. The film shows a story of a man who commits murder in cold blood, then he himself is hanged. This shows that the film is attempting to depict that God meant “thou shalt not murder”. This subtle difference makes a big change in the meaning of the commandment. It implies that killing is sometimes necessary/ For example, in times of war, or when people are a menace to society. In order to stop more murders, a murderer may be killed. Overall, the film works to show the commandments at work in everyday life. Although they are not always clearly visual, they are always at work.

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