The Beginnings of a Crazy Idea for a 'Secret Mark' Movie

No, not a boring documentary filled with academic fuddy duddies.  A real movie with an actual screenplay, actors, sets etc.  I had this idea watching Black Swan the other day.  I don't know what it was about watching Natalie Portman and the other Jewess gave me the idea.  I think it was because the Black Swan is so visually striking. 

In any event, the basic concept.  The movie is set in two periods - ancient Alexandria and modern America.

The overarching point - the cosmic 'big cosmic truth' is 'one.'  It can't be divided.  It is revealed only to those living a solitary existence and the truth's revelation leads to the persecution of the one's to whom it is revealed. 

A dazzling visual experience both in the past and in the present and beyond all distinctions of 'time.'

The basic plot Clement while defending the transgendered Alexandrian Christian community from Roman suspicions.writes the Letter to Theodore.  It is passed on through a few hands to reach the modern age where its revelation to Morton Smith leads to his persecution (i.e. defending himself from the accusation of having forged the letter, personal questions etc.)

I have always thought there were interesting parallels here.  I don't know if I have to 'defend' him from charges of 'deviant' sexuality.  The movie is more interesting if you have Smith wrestle with who is, why he is so interested in the truth at the cost of not raising a family etc. 

I am not interested in the question of whether Smith wrote the letter.  I consider that something for academics with too much time to waste.  I am more interested in the following the unconscious parallels between the two men and their respective ages. Clement and the persecutions of Alexandria, Smith and the attacks against his person. 

I think the passing of the document down to the eighteenth century and the copying into the blank pages of the Voss book would happen right at the beginning, connecting the two men.  Then, the discovery of the manuscript at Mar Saba.  Then Smith struggling with the interpretation of the text, interspersed with moving dialogue in Alexandria at the time of Clement. 

The 'church of eunuchs' would have the effect of appearing like some lost civilization at the bottom of the sea.  The world closing around them, Imperial power and Clement's strategy to survive, the wicked Emperor Commodus, intrigue at the court with Marcia and her eunuchs.  There's a story here.  Sort of like the Julia Child movie but developed for the Da Vinci Code/Sci Fi crowd. 

It's just finding the time to make it all work.  I know the question will be raised - why develop Alexandrian Christianity in this way?  Why emphasize the eunuch ideal?  The answer is that anyone who has ever studied the material will know that it is always rising to the surface.  These people the words literally:

When ye have trampled on the garment of shame, and when the two become one and the male with the female is neither male nor female

There is a symbol here that connects Smith to the ancient past.  It explains why he was the one to discover the manuscript.  Why it was this American scholar and not any other who searching the library that day in that year.  It is about the attainment of truth in this mortal life. 

I will say it again, I think there is a compelling movie here.  Even if it becomes the nightmare of everyone who has argued for the authenticity of the discovery

I think it could be called, the Brides of Christ or something like that. 

I know its crazy and this is like so far removed from what everyone else out there think Christianity is all about but they are studying another tradition - not the Alexandrian tradition before Nicea.  I also think it is timely with all the public debates about homosexuality, marriage and the Church. 

I always divide ideas into those that 'have legs' and those that don't.  This one has legs. 

The bottom line is - what else are you going to do with twenty years of studying obscure religious traditions?