'Snakes on a Plane' review by Frank Curren

The award for Best Art Film clearly belongs to Snakes on a Plane. The film adopts and continues some of the most central religious meta-narratives of Western Civilization, imbuing the plot with deep symbolic richness and cogently commenting on the human condition.The early scene in which the amorous lovers suffer the invasion by an enraged serpent of their already cramped fecal bower, at the moment of their induction to the illustrious mile-high club, is a nod to the story of Adam and Eve. Just as the first couple at first enjoyed the favor of heaven (in modern airplane terms, the divine mile high-club) only to disobey the rules of the garden, the film's two lovers broke the airline commandment "Thou shalt despoil the bathroom with neither sex nor smoke."That the snake proceeded to gnaw upon a mammary of the unfortunate dame speaks to the difficulty of nurturing the children of lust. Literally, as her lust is enacted, her physical capacity to rear a child is destroyed. In another sense, by showing an oral interest in the nipple, the snake assumes the position of a child, hinting that the snake was born from the sin of the couple, an unnatural retribution to their most unnatural iniquity. In the next bathroom scene, we are treated to the most desired exhibition of a snake latching onto the member of an unfortunate man as he attempts to urinate. The camera focuses on the character's torso, as his painful writhing forces the attached snake to snap violently in all directions. In this shot, the snake usurps the phallus of the man, leading it willy-nilly in uncontrollable directions. Thus is a human's sexuality usurped and led astray by lust. The fact that the man suffers this painful misfortune while urinating is an obvious allusion to gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease that can cause a painful burning sensation during urination.Samuel Jackson's character is well developed and multifaceted. He is presented firstly in the tradition of the hero. As Beowulf descended the lake and slayed Grendal's mother with the sword he found at the bottom, Jackson must descend into the checked luggage compartment and slay his own serpentine opponent with the oversized harpoon-gun he fortunately discovers in a passenger's bag. The nautical nature of this weapon only strengthens the reference to Beowulf's watery exploits. However, like all well-constructed heroes, he is flawed; the Oedipal tensions of his psyche are revealed by his telling choice of curses that color that most well written of lines, "I've had it with the motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane." His subconscious desire to fuck his mother is mixed with the aggression he feels towards his father, symbolized by the phallicly shaped snake. Clearly, what Jackson has had it with is the despoliation of his mother—in this sense symbolized by the plane—by the seed of his father—symbolized by the multitudes of "motherfucking snakes" that have been released within. It is a testament to the complex nature of the film that Jackson's character can still be a Christ-symbol while harboring these Oedipal tendencies. Indeed, at the end of the film, Samuel L. Jackson shoots his ward, Sean Jones, in the chest—a clear allusion to Bernini's Ecstascy of St. Theresa. In both works the painful, piercing nature of saving grace is demonstrated. All that saves Jones is the bulletproof vest he has donned, itself an obvious symbol of the faith he has gained in his stalwart bodyguard. As Jackson constantly asserts to his fellow passengers, their only chance at survival lies in their faith of him, alluding to Jesus' similar exhortations to his followers concerning their faith in him.Although the trip depicted in Snakes on a Plane is literally from Honolulu to LA, what is really at issue is a spiritual journey occurring at the allegorical level. The nemesis, born of the passengers' sin, can only be defeated through their faith in Jackson (Jesus). In the process, a witness is delivered, shielded in the bullet-proof vest of his own faith and ready to testify against the iniquity that currently infests the modern world.