I watched Elf, the Will Ferrel movie, a couple times over the holidays. I’d seen it before, but for some reason hadn’t remembered it being as good as I found it during this recent holiday season. A few things came to mind. Note in the following commentary that I’m neither religious nor especially well-read, so I apologize in advance if I sound glaringly uninformed.
Although the ending feels forced and contrived, I thought this was a very entertaining movie. Will Ferrel is a tall guy, so his Buddy the Elf is not only a giant among elves but bigger than most humans. While at first take he appears to suffer from schizophrenia, after a couple minutes it becomes clear to any sympathetic interlocutor that he’s more or less in charge of all his mental facilities, due to his force of personality and readiness to defend his position. He debates both a coworker and a boss on what it’s like in the north pole and on how natural it is to sing (especially in the north pole). Anyone with a hermeneutic of generosity for Buddy the Elf realizes that he’s not crazy, but inspired.
It occurred to me that the whole movie might be interpreted as a Christian allegory, and I wondered whether this is accidental or intentional. Replace “on the naughty list” with “going to hell at the present rate”, “belief in Santa Claus” with “belief in Christ”, and “Christmas gifts” with “divine gifts”, and the rest works itself out. Faith is discussed explicitly, and some of the main rules of religion–no salvation without faith–are affirmed. Singing isn’t something you do in the north pole, it’s something you do in church. The father, meanwhile, undergoes repentence, finding himself eventually back on Santa’s nice list. How very American: good, clean humor that’s pseudo-explicitly religious.
Another thing I picked up on, whether or not intended by the filmmakers, is that Buddy the Elf seems to be based on Dostoyevsky’s Mishkin in The Idiot. Mishkin, having spent several years in Norway with a doctor who was treating his epilepsy, goes to Russia to make contact with his remaining family. Everyone is taken by his apparent simplicity, but it becomes evident that he is capable of great depth of thought and action. Also, he gets along well with children and falls in love with a mean woman. Here the resemblance ends, as Buddy’s relationship with his family strengthens and improves throughout the film, while Mishkin’s family distanced themselves from him. Also, Buddy eventually managed to score with his girlfriend and turn her good, whereas Mishkin failed at this. Interestingly, Mishkin, according to whatever literary authorities, is Christ, so since Buddy is based on Mishkin…
Next time: commentary on the phallus represented by the whale that sees off Buddy on his journey out of the north pole.
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