An analysis of Steven Spielberg's film "Disclosure Day"
The encounter between humans and extraterrestrials, or the search for other intelligent beings in the universe, is a recurring theme in science fiction. Steven Spielberg's new film, Disclosure Day (Romanian title: Day of Truth)Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T..
Extraterrestrials in fiction are most often an image for something else: a symbol of the search and mysteries of the universe; a way to talk about racial issues or colonization; an image of man, a way to look at ourselves "as in a mirror"; and, last but not least, a way to suggest otherness, to the point of speaking about transcendence or even God.
Spielberg's film Disclosure Day focuses on the last two themes: an idealized image of man, and the suggestion of transcendence; perhaps even a hint of foreshadowing of the Savior.
The film's plot can be summarized, without major spoilers, in a few phrases: a semi-governmental organization has been hiding, since the 1940s, the existence of extraterrestrial beings arriving on Earth. Two people, a man and a woman (a symbol of a new humanity?), are endowed by the extraterrestrials with special communication powers, and are pursued by this organization, which tries to stop them from revealing the extraterrestrials' existence. It is implied that, in fact, the organization prefers to use the information extracted from the extraterrestrials for military purposes.
The action takes place while Earth is under the threat of a global catastrophe, probably a third world war. Unlike another recent film that presents a first encounter with another intelligent species, Project Hail Mary, we are left with a sense of mystery, wonder, and the unknown in the face of this alien species (in a way, it's a pity we can also see them in the film; if we hadn't seen them at all, the mystery would have been greater). We don't find out why they contacted humanity, why they haven't shown themselves to others until now, why they allowed themselves to be mistreated and used by humans all this time (perhaps an echo of the Savior's descent?), nor exactly how they communicate. One of the characters, a young woman who had been a novice at a monastery, expresses her fear that the existence of extraterrestrial beings superior to humans could cause humanity to lose its faith in God, and initially opposes the disclosure of their existence. She therefore suggests that these beings can be seen as an image of God, and which could obscure – or even question – His existence.
However, she seems to change her mind, especially after a discussion with the abbess. She asks if the abbess believes there can be other beings in the universe, even though Genesis states that God placed man to rule over other creatures. The abbess replies: "Genesis says "on Earth"!" And in turn, she asks if she believes God created such an immense world only for man. A question that has often been asked since Ptolemy's cosmological model, which placed Earth at the center of the universe, was replaced by Galileo's model: Is it possible for us to be alone in the universe? How can we imagine that God can take man seriously, an infinitesimal speck in such a vast universe, and in what sense can we still be considered the "center of creation"? Questions that have destabilized some believers since Galileo, and which the abbess dismisses with a smile and a single phrase. Of course, a slightly simplistic phrase – much more could be said on this subject – but we are in an action film, not a philosophical one.
In another key passage, we are told that extraterrestrials consider empathy to be a higher degree of evolution, which we refuse (or postpone) to achieve, and that would be our biggest problem. Like the test in the film Blade Runner, empathy (which is nothing other than the ability to to feel together with the other, therefore a form of love) is what distinguishes humans or, in this case, "evolved" humans − that is, transfigured? can we say, deified? − from machines.
However, the greatest strength of fiction does not lie in explicit words, in a message easily translatable through rational discourse. These discursive passages can get lost in the plot and go unnoticed by those not particularly interested in philosophical matters. The film's main power lies in the mystery deliberately left unspoken, in what these beings expect from humans, and the way humanity, on the verge of war, can be saved by this mystery. Who are we? What could we become if the struggle for power didn't push us from behind, if we didn't want to use even God for earthly purposes, if we accepted to listen to what would be revealed, if we wanted to find out the truth?
This is what the film implies, without revealing it. Ultimately, the central mystery cannot be spoken. A true artistic creation is, at its core, apophatic, and the power of truth lies in the fact that it cannot be exhausted in words, because it is an image of God: “I am the truth” (John 14:6). If God is mysterious, then man is too, and his path towards empathy – towards love! – is also inexpressible in words. „Don't be afraid of what you don't know!” ("Do not fear what you do not know!"), is the only direct message from the extraterrestrials that is revealed on screen.
Certainly, other types of fiction also speak about the mystery of man and his possible salvation. However, science-fiction films do so in their own way, addressing modern man more directly. This genre has taken over the role that was once attributed to stories and mythology (which Spielberg juggles with in this film too, though perhaps less than in his masterpiece, E.T. annoying).
The Day of Truth also has apocalyptic elements, not in the sense that this word has acquired in the collective imagination lately, of global catastrophe, but exactly the opposite: of eucatastrophe (good catastrophe), as J.R.R. Tolkien called it, of a happy turn of events towards another possible plane of human existence. Despite the return to some famous conspiracy theories in history – the Roswell incidents, crop circles, and UFO rumors – and despite the author's potential intentions, I don't believe the film should be interpreted solely as the expression of a real hope of meeting peaceful invaders who would solve all our problems here on Earth. I believe it should be seen as a symbol of the expectation of salvation, as an intuition that "we are not alone", but in a different sense than that of the existence of extraterrestrial beings, that the hope of being saved – or redeemed – is alive, and that, although we don't know how it will come, in each era we translate it through other artistic forms.
Thus, the science-fiction genre proves to be an artistic form in which the alien face of the extraterrestrial manages to reflect − through the encounter with mysterious beings from afar − the search for the "truly Other".
Alexandra de Moffarts