Overview
Although Oedipus the King has been cited to be an unsuccessful movie with regards to the number of viewers it lured, Everyman can be considered to be even more unsuccessful. It was released in 2002, directed by John Farrell. It constitutes of a cast with figures such as Gabrielle Amos as good deeds, Daniel Maher as the angel of death, and Robert Kane as Everyman. The play from which the film is based was originally referred to as The Somonyng of Everyman (which may be translated to The Summoning of Everyman), but it is typically referred to as Everyman by most people.
Plot
The play uses allegorical characters to analyze the impasse of Christian salvation, and how people must act in order to attain it. The foundations of the play/movie is that the deeds of each man, whether good or vicious, will be tallied by God to determine the afterlife. The play was supposedly composed in the 15th century, and this is a manifestation of how dated it really is. There is a hint of the concerns that people of the time had, and of the most apparent one is of divine acts.
It is a fiction movie that follows the lines of an angel of death passing a message to a businessman and letting him know that his life is just about over. The businessman is also informed that he has to give a comprehensive account of all his deeds before his final day. The entire film, just like the play, revolves around the message from the angel. It is based on a timeless spiritual myth, one that has incessantly been propagated by many religions across the globe.
Theme, Success, and Impression
Many people can relate to this movie, particularly because it delves into matters that affect them-religion. It can be categorized as a religious film in the way that it makes the viewer contemplate more on their moral state. As stated earlier, it did not do well in the market as Farrell would have hoped, but there are some indications that it was never made to do so. It was filmed on a very tight budget, and the plot is somewhat a cliché. It was very predictable to extents of being boring, which played a part in making it a flop.
On the other hand, it is effective in achieving the goal of making the audience contemplate on their moral states. Since it is timeless, it was applicable then, and is still applicable today in the 21st century.