Red and God

I have seen a lot of posts by other classmates that suggest that the old man in the movie Red represents God. While this is definitly an interesting idea, I disagree. I think a lot of people may be mislead by the fact that we watched the movie for religious studies. I admit that there are a lot of strange coincidences that occur in the movie that suggest that he is in some way supernatural, but I do not think this is grounds for assuming he is God.

When Valentine and the old man meet for the first time there is huge contrast in their personalities. The old man does his spooky prediction thing, and Valentine is thouroghly disgusted, confused, and intrigued. If this were the only scene that involved the old man, I might agree with the idea that he is in fact God--a strange old man that predicts the future and seems to provide philosophical insight into Valentine's life. However, as the movie progresses we see the old man more, and begin to see his character develope. He changes from being a mysterious hermit to a complex and influential character who reveals his emotions, regrets, and hopes.

The change in the character of the old man is also almost mirrored by Valentine. She starts out as this naive model, obsessed with her lover, but morphs to become more like the old man was in the beginning of the movie. I think this is shown in the scene at the model runway when Valentine predicts what happened to the old man in his previous life as a judge. This is what made the play come full circle for me becuase in a way the roles of Valentine and the old man had been reversed. If one is to make the argument that the old man represents God, based on his predictive powers in the beginning of the film, then Valentine must also be accepted as representing God. I don't, however, think this was the point of the movie.