Politics, Religion and Mass Hysteria: A True Masterpiece of Cinema, Ken Russell’s The Devils.

Religion has been used to generate mass hysteria for political ends for thousands of years now. But there have been few films that show the process so clearly. Ken Russell’s film, The Devils is the movie about EVERYTHING: the spirituality and lust in love; the madness and transcendence of sexual repression; using the threat of an imagined enemy to create state sponsored terror; justifying the use of torture to extract forced confession…. Watching this movie one can imagine the twisted and tortured mind of Roy Cohn while watching Vanessa Redgrave suffer the madness of desires that she demonizes and projects onto others. Not to mention the hypocrisy of Ted Haggard, Larry Craig and so on and so on.

This is a truly important movie. And it is simply criminal that it isn’t available on DVD. The VHS tape version is poor quality, and it has been cut. However there is a petition to Warner Home Video. And if you’ve seen this film and want to make sure others can, please sign the petition. If you’ve haven’t seen the film, read what others have to say about it, and then sign the petition.

Comments

[Duper]

Truly, one of the most important films ever made, and an absolute masterpiece of skill to boot. (Derek Jarman's contributions alone qualify it for classic status.) I agree, lack of DVD is criminal. It should never ever be out of print, like so many classics never are. I signed the petition quite a while ago and even wrote WB a few times. It has been on the release schedule or rumored to come out a few times but it never seems to happen. There's something fishy about it, especially when you consider all of the extremely obscure garbage with no audience that makes its way to market...I wonder if there isn't someone in charge somewhere who would like it to disappear forever. I try to share this film with as many people as possible. Thanks for keeping the petition alive.