The Final Conflict

Lido

Outside a cinema that has just screened

The Exorcist

Disgusted Cinemagoer: That film was so bad I wanted to throw up.

Second Disgusted Cinemagoer: There was enough of that on screen. Why don't the Americans make quality devil movies?

Disgusted Cinemagoer: They can when they want to. Why not go and see The Final Conflict?

Second Disgusted Cinemagoer: Idiot This is only 1973.

When the Americans want to, they can make superb movies, but did not make the effort in Polanski's Rosemary's Baby of 1968, which began the cycle of possession or devil movies exploited by Ken Russel in 1970's The Devils and finally the dreadful 1973The Excorcist.

This film was so commercially successful that every producer and his dog leaped on the bandwagon but none were an improvement in 'quality' (if that word can be used in conjunction with The Excorcist) - until The Omen.

This was the first 'devil' movie in which the forces of evil won. The film was, for its type, superb. The Antichrist, a five year old adopted child named Damien, was protected by Satan, who despatched his pursuers in ways that could be considered 'accidental'. The most spectacular was when a sheet of glass lid from the back of a truck and lopped off the head of a priest.

Omen II was similar, set when the Antichrist was thirteen and learning about his own powers. Again the pursuers were killed in 'accidents' as they tried to stab him with one of seven holy knives - the only weapons capable of killing the Antichrist. It was inevitable the third film would detail the conflict between Christ and Antichrist.

Aptly titled, The Final Conflict was competently but predictably scripted, borrowing heavily from the Book of Revelations. It was so predictable in fact that even the 'twist' ending could be seen coming. Nevertheless dialogue and characterisation were both very good. Damien, now 32, was portrayed as a polite, calm and controlled figure who worked subtly rather than in the blatant physical ways shown in many earlier 'devil' movies.

Sympathy for the Devil

Sam Neill gave a superb performance. The big-budget production gave better scope for his considerable acting talents than the New Zealand effort, Sleeping Dogs. His performance was of such convincing quality that it was actually possible to sympathise with him and appreciate the viewpoint of the Antichrist who clearly believed himself to be taking the right path. He, like anybody in danger, fought to save himself (although not in the religious sense).

Nevertheless the 'accidents' scattered through the film were not so prevalent as in the earlier Omen films because here the emphasis was on the single conflict between Christ and Antichrist. Seven priests armed with the knives were done in, one after another, until only one remained; but most of Damien's effort went into 'Liquidating the Nazarene', which he failed to do during the body of the film: the entire plot was a build up to the final conflict in the last 30 seconds.

I felt this final conflict fell rather flat -but perhaps this was intentional (anticlimax for Antichrist?) The result was, of course, totally predictable, but it could not have ended differently even though Christianity does portray humans as being the victims of a tug of war between God and Satan, so their fortunes can swing either way.

Imagery such as the statue of Christ on the cross seeping blood gave a powerful boost to the convincing nature of the film. Personal choice was also emphasised: the priest had to let those he warned against the antichrist choose for themselves the correct path, rather than be persuaded. The soft green colours of the English countryside contrasted well with the conflict in the film: images of an early morning fox hunt were shattered by the imposition of Damien's activities across it.

From the technical side, the film had all the slick expertise of a big budget, major company production. It was filmed, as are most of 20th Century Fox's films, on location in England and at the EMI/Elstree studios. Overall, The Final Conflict was a neat ending to the Omen series. It maintained the high standards of believability, realism and tension without dwelling excessively on the gross physical aspects of satanism. In a nutshell, it was a devil of a good movie.

Matthew Wright