Nature of Evil in 2 Films

A strong sense of imagery related to an equally strong sense of the nature of good and evil can be found in William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) and Francis Coppola's The Godfather: Part II (1972). These films seem unrelated otherwise--one is set in rural New Hampshire, the other in the urban world of gangsters in the late 1950s and early 1960s; one has fantasy elements, the other is firmly set in reality and history. Both films have a strong sense of the spiritual and of the nature of the evil that opposes it, however, and both make good use of the every element of filmmaking at their disposal.

Dieterle's film is based on a short story by Stephen Vincent Benet, and Dieterle brings his capability with German Expressionism to a rural setting to create a world that never existed and make it very believable. It is evident from the beginning of this film that the course of the story will be unusual, for the first thing we see is a silhouette of the devil trying to tempt Daniel Webster from the path of righteousness as the American orator is writing a speech. The composition and the lighting in this sequence show the scene to be a deliberate evocation of characteristics rather than reality. Webster sits at a desk with a quill pen writing on a large pad of paper, and the background is not realistic but sets the orator and his desk in a sort of limbo, separated from the rest of the world. The devil is heard in a whisper that makes it clear he is intruding in

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rom his bond. Evil is dark and frightening, and it is always present--Mr. Scratch appears in the barn as if passing by. He hears his name spoken and there he is--he is always watching and listening, waiting to answer the call. He is deceitful. His world is a world of weariness and pain, as can be seen from the faces of the terrible group he summons to be his jury. The pacing of the film also contributes to the sense of unreality. The story moves rapidly along, introducing fantastic elements seemingly from nowhere in a way that turns the world upside down--Mr. Scratch kicks the ground and a chest of gold pops up; Scratch lights his cigar without benefit of a match; a man dances to death and his soul escapes as a butterfly speeding away in the night. All of this prepares the viewer for the opening of the doorway to hell so the dead criminals who will be the jury can file out and take their places. The Devil and Daniel Webster is in black and white and makes strong use of contrasts of light and dark, while Godfather II is in color and uses a desaturated color scheme and sparse lighting to create a sense both of richness and menace, two elements which are mixed in this film of the disintegration of a wealthy and powerful fa

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