The Milky Way

The Milky Way by hispanic director Luis Bunuel shows a combination of philosophy and entertainment. There is no doubt that Bunuel likes to sort of almost play with the audience and their thinking. Bunuel works constantly throughout this specific film to change and develop the audience. His way of film could maybe even be seen as a trick or play on our minds as he wants us to believe the film is just about solely religion and his opinion on it, but it goes deeper than that, he works to have us unconsciously form our own opinion and how we think about religion ourselves. He wants to get a reaction out of the audience. He is so good at doing this that he can even get to the heads of individuals in the audience that are not even religious. Most importantly he shows the hispanic movement of surrealism throughout his works and specifically The Milky Way. I honestly do not think he could have portrayed surrealism any better than he did in this film. Many film directors would be hesitant to undergo such a controversial subject as it difficult to discuss it in the right. Only a certain number of people I believe are able to gracefully do it, but Bunuel is one of those people. He refuses to give the audience a free pass to religious ideas. He does such an amazing job of not only giving a plot and allowing us to follow along with Jean and Pierre and intrigue us in, but force us to critically think deeper as to what their encounters are really meaning. I would like to highlight and go into an analyzation to one of the specific scenes that caught my eye and offered and even greater support to my claim. The Jansenist/Jesuit duel shows once again how Bunuel makes us critically think through the use of introspection. Bunuel transforms ideas about the controversial subject of religion between Jansenist and Jesuits into a physical form of a sword fight. He ensures that you’re not only hearing about the controversiality, but physically seeing it as well.