so last week I rewatched the killing of a sacred deer and even though this movie is so incredibly grim and haunting I have no problem re-watching it it is a very well done movie and even after the movie I found myself getting lost in the interviews of the director about the God complexes of powerful people and I'm just dying to share all of my thoughts with you here so welcome to Classic explained episode 23 the killing of a sacred deer so to break this movie down we're gonna use three themes one worth of reputation we'll
discuss Steven's Perfect Image the awkwardness of the dialogue Steven's outcall incident Steven's hands and gloves and Steven's detached family two King versus God we'll discuss the opening shot with the Beating Heart Steven's God complex the kids sickness Martin's symbolism the meaning of the title of the film and the ancient Greek story of the Virginia and three God amongst men we'll discuss the spaghetti scene Kim singing Burn by Ellie Goulding Kim's crush on Martin and the ending of the movie and much more and if you like this video please leave a thumbs up and a comment
and help so much if you want to see more of these please make sure to subscribe as well let's get started theme number one worth of reputation from a distance our main character Stephen represents the American dream he's powerful confident charismatic and financially successful as a cardiac surgeon he drives expensive cars and lives in an enormous beautiful home where he raises two well-behaved children with his gorgeous wife from a distance his life looks like Perfection his family is beautiful in the most conventional way he his wife and his children all have gorgeous long hair glowing
eyes and Perfect Skin however as the viewers when we take a step into Steven's house and take a step into Steven's shoes we learned that the Murphy family is far from perfect the dialogue and the body language between this family is purposely directed to be awkward it's empty and soulless and service level and so detached everything is Picture Perfect in the most Hollow way possible especially Stephen himself Steven suffers from an alcohol addiction that is so severe that he has secretly been drinking when operating on patients and in one instance Stephen failed to save a
patient while intoxicated on the job this patient happened to be the father of Martin a very young man who managed to find out about Stephen's condition during his father's operation and this entire film is a story about a man desperately holding on to his reputation at the cost of so much more in the opening sequence we see Stephen removing the bloody gloves from his hands establishing and symbolizing that Stephen is trying to maintain His image of heroism Perfection and innocence when truly he has blood on his hands and Stephen manages to keep up this facade
for quite some time this is why symbolically various characters comment on how soft and white and clean his hands are Stephen continues to hold on to his false innocence by spending time with Martin appeasing and accommodating him at his every whim and desire to stay on his good side when the sicknesses start to get serious and death is closely approaching we see the family members start to bargain and scheme behind each other's back you would expect Anna as a loving mother to offer herself as the sacrifice and save her children but she doesn't she even
negotiates with Stephen to be saved over her children Bob makes an unbelievably Sudden Change in goals and values to appease his father so he can be saved he tells his dad he wants to be a surgeon and cuts his hair as his father has always asked him to when pretty recently in the film he didn't want to cut his hair and showed no interest in his father's career Kim's loyalty lies with Martin gravitating to her Psychopathic teenage Crush pain and sickness should bring a loving family closer together but for the falsely perfect Murphy's their only
separated even further theme number two King versus God the very opening shot of the film is a human heart beating as surgery is being performed on it this is my favorite shot in the whole movie because it powerfully symbolizes the parallels between a heart surgeon and God with their bare hands cardiac surgeons are virtually able to revive human beings relief leave terminal illnesses and save lives and us as patients are so vulnerably at the mercy of their benevolence and unique power and when surgeons confidently perform life-saving acts like this on a daily basis and are
paid handsomely for it they of course develop a God complex however the mission of this film is to Showcase how a prideful and Powerful surgeon is not even remotely close to being God for example Stephen can't overcome his addiction to alcohol he's a victim of his own human brain and body also his father was an alcoholic showcasing that he can't even rise above the problems within his lineage Steven's job makes him a savior but he is not our savior as described in the Bible Stephen opposite to the idea of Jesus is consumed by his pride
so he could never come clean about his intoxication on the job so much is beyond his control and the biggest indication of this is the undisputable power Martin has over him about boy with no money recognition or Community Martin seems to be a symbol of a God that Stephen a victim of his humanity is no match against at all since Stephen's work led to the passing of Martin's father Martin has a Sinister proposal for Stephen Stephen must kill one family member of his or else all three of them die from this mysterious four-stage sickness paralysis
followed by self-starvation followed by eye bleeding and finally death you could look at this proposal as an ultimate test for Stephen on truly playing God bringing balance to the world with prosperity and tragedy life and death and this entire relationship between Martin and Stephen is inspired by the ancient Greek mythological story sacrifice of aphogenia which you could also easily call the killing of a sacred deer in the story King Agamemnon is on his way with his army to the Trojan War during this journey he kills a sacred deer that belongs to goddess Artemis Artemis is
offended by this and retaliates using her wins to neutralize agamemnon's ships she states that King Agamemnon and his Army will not reach Troy unless he kills his eldest daughter if ijinia offering her as a human sacrifice in exchange for the sacred deer and there are a multitude of different conclusions to this ancient story but in most cases Agamemnon reluctantly but eventually sacrifices his daughter and the main point of this story for this movie is that Agamemnon represents Stephen and Artemis represents Martin and most importantly just like Stephen agamemnon's love leadership pride and reputation is tested
by an uncontrollable external force a societally powerful man is rendered powerless and reminded that he is only a man no matter what his community thinks of him and more importantly no matter what he thinks of himself theme number three God amongst men Martin has many symbolic moments of being Divine or at least the cynical idea of what God is for example he says to Kim the idea of separating dogs fighting scares me in our world whatever God or gods are above us do allow for the humans below them to engage in conflict with the consequences
of pain and suffering he also bites his own arm mocking the idea of a perfectly Fair World which the god or Gods above us have not created and in this scene where he is eating spaghetti he mentions how he believed he and his father had similar styles of eating spaghetti until he found out that everyone actually eats spaghetti that way again Martin seems to be highlighting the unfairness of life and the insignificance of one individual and their father using himself as an example he didn't have enough of a chance to learn what he and his
father truly had in common and he never will just like Martin within the story of this movie God cannot be bargained with or threatened or sold on an idea that's why he makes this point about the spaghetti right after angry desperate Anna tries to cut a deal with him and I feel like Kim's relationship with Martin represents those who are unbreakably loyal to their idea of God even if some of their values seem a little extreme in modern day Kim chooses Martin over her own family and holds on to this inner peace within all of
the chaos incredibly confident that Martin will save her from the sickness that he gave her in a way it reflects the way people look forward to Salvation when their life on Earth may unluckily be quite miserable and I think this is why she sings the song Burn by Ellie Goulding when standing in the tree with Barton in reality the lyrics are Poppy and fun and uplifting but from the angle of this film they eerily indicate how Kim finds peace within all of the disaster and destruction the burning eventually Stephen finds he has no choice but
to randomly kill one of his family members and Bob ends up bearing the fate of agamemnon's daughter princess he is the most innocent party in the story yet pays the greatest price for the immoral actions of others Stephen is cruelly reminded of his humanity and his powerlessness as a man on Earth and a thing from a cinematographical standpoint that's why the wide shots are often so big and so high above our characters we're being reminded that no matter how societally powerful or powerless we are on earth we are just men of earth nothing more and
when Martin inevitably wins this battle the song Lord our ruler starts to play the lyrics of the song highlight the Divinity compassion and selflessness of Jesus it's like a final cry for us to remember who we are and Who We should strive to be we can't be as prideful as Stephen and shouldn't be as vengeful as Martin or else we all lose especially the sacred deer who never deserve to suffer alright that's my analysis subscribe for weekly videos and please send me recommendations and please let me know your thoughts and ideas around the killing of
a sacred deer I would love to discuss I hope to see you again and thank you so much for watching see you later
