I ran across
this little gem back in the old days of VHS tapes. It was at the bottom of a
bargain bin at my local record store. The tagline read “The only man alive who
can make the choice to help or destroy a mysterious force which has begun to
unleash its dread power upon the earth!” A bold statement. Even back then I was
lover of obscure films, so I snapped it up and about a week later popped it in
(I love films, but also am rather lethargic). I loved it! Sure it had a low
budget and was uneven at times, but overall it was a wild weird ride that has
stuck with me over the years. 
The film
opens with a man on a water tower in New York City firing into the crowded
streets below, eventually racking up a kill count of fifteen. The protagonist
Peter, a devout Catholic NYPD detective, manages to approach to sniper and they
talk. The gunman is perfectly calm and when asked why he’s shooting at people,
states that Gold told him to, before jumping off of the tower.  |
| Tony Lo Bianco in God Told Me To |
After that
the floodgates open and an entire slew of murders occur, all done by perfectly
calm normal people, all claiming that God told them to. Eventually Peter
discovers a link. Each of the people had contact with a bizarre underground
cult leader by the name of Bernard Phillips.
Peter goes public with the God angle
and the city goes into a panic mode, with even more copycat killings occurring.
Some of the cult members contact Peter, and a brief meeting between the two
occurs, where the detective discovers that the cult leader’s power does not
affect him. He also uncovers that a similar set of events took place some 35
years prior.
Now here is where things get weird. His
investigation eventually leads him to an old woman who is his birth mother,
having found herself impregnated by a strange orb of light while walking home
from the New York World’s Fair in 1941, and giving up the child for adoption. He
confronts Bernard and discovers the truth - both he and Phillips are the result
of "alien abduction/virgin birth by an extraterrestrial (This is beginning
to sound more and more like Mormonism). Also here it is alluded to that Heyzeus
himself was another such alien birth.
 |
| Richard Lynch in God Told Me To |
Peter is the result of his human
genes being dominant, which is why he is unaware of his true nature, while Bernard
is more like their unseen progenitor. Bernard reveals himself to be a
hermaphrodite and wishes to spawn a new species with his brother. He further
states that all of Peter’s previous attempts at children had died because Peter
subconsciously willed them to, but Bernard is strong enough to ward him off. Peter
refuses and attacks Bernard, which results in Bernard using his powers to
destroy the building and commit suicide. Peter is arrested for murder, and
responds to a question as to why he committed the deed with "God told me
to”.
 |
| Andy Kaufman in God Told me To |
A few other
things to mention here. This was the film debut of Andy Kaufman who plays a
madman police officer who goes on a shooting spree during the St. Patrick’s Day
Parade. Apparently during the filming, Kaufman, while dressed up in costume,
began antagonizing and making insulting gestures to the crowd watching the
production. He was so provocative that several of them tried to jump the
barricades to beat up Kaufman and had to be held back by the director.
Additionally
the music for the film was originally supposed to be scored by the legendary Bernard
Herrman, who was also doing music for Taxi
Driver at the time. Apparently Herrman saw the film without music and came
up with a few ideas, but died later on that day. The film was dedicated to him.
The director then approached another veteran movie composer Miklos Rozsa who
refused, stating “God told me not to.”
 |
| Alternate title and poster |
While I love
this film, critical opinion is very divided on the idea. In fact Roger Ebert
in his book I Hated Hated Hated this Movie only gave it one star. Stating, “there were times when I thought the
projectionist was showing the reels in random order, as a quiet joke on the
hapless audience. But, no apparently the movie was supposed to be put together in this way, as a sort of
fifty-two-card pickup of cinema… As I left the theater, dazed, I saw a crowd across
the street. A young man in a straightjacket… was preparing to be suspended in
midair hundreds of inches above the ground, and to escape, Houdini style. At
the moment he was still standing on the sidewalk- but, believe me, it was still
a better show.”
My
suggestion. Watch for yourself and make up your own mind. Caveat Emptor!
No comments:
Post a Comment