(HOST) Commentator and Vermont Humanities Council Executive Director Peter Gilbert is fascinated by how national media invoke Vermont as an idyllic place. But when he recently watched a movie that presents Vermont as a place apart – in a fallen world, he found a story teeming with symbolism.
(GILBERT) I’m continually struck by how American society sees Vermont as a special – even idyllic – place, with picturesque towns, natural and pastoral beauty, and virtuous character to boot! The movie Baby Boom, with Diane Keaton, is just one example. It’s flattering, but we Vermonters have to remember that Vermont’s not the only beautiful state with charming towns and decent people!
I was surprised, nonetheless, when I heard that Vermont plays a role in Will Smith’s recent film "I Am Legend." It’s a sci-fi story about a scientist who may be the only survivor of a virus that’s wiped out humankind. He’s in New York City, trying to find a vaccine for the virus, and trying not to be killed by former humans who now act like they have rabies. But there’s a rumor that there’s a colony of survivors – up in Bethel, Vermont.
Frankly, I thought the plot sounded silly, but I was intrigued with Vermont’s being portrayed as essentially the second Eden, a beautiful garden where humankind can begin again. The plot’s also reminiscent of the story of Noah’s ark, isn’t it: only the few on Noah’s ark survive the Flood and live to start the world anew.
And so when "I Am Legend" came out on DVD recently, I rented it. I was surprised by the number of not-so-subtle religious — specifically Christian – allusions. In the opening scenes, for example, amidst ruined and empty New York City streets, there’s a poster that reads, "God Still Loves Us." We see Smith on the cover of ‘Time’ Magazine: the headline asks, Is He the Savior? When Smith is attacked by a pack of zombies, he’s rescued by a woman driving a car with a crucifix hanging from the rearview mirror. And, she tells him, it was God who told her that there’s a colony of survivors in Vermont, and God who told her to turn on the radio so she’d hear Smith’s broadcast telling potential survivors that he’s alive.
And there are are multiple gratuitous references to butterflies, symbol of resurrection. In abandoned Times Square there’s a billboard for the musical Wicked, explicitly raising the issue of sin and punishment. Will Smith hunts a deer in Central Park, but a lioness attacks and kills it before he can; the "Peaceable Kingdom" isn’t so peaceful any more.
Smith is obsessed with the refrain of Bob Marley’s reggae song about faith, "Don’t worry about a thing. Every little thing going to be alright." And there’s the Vermont town’s name – Bethel, which means "House of God." Bethel is also the place in the Bible where Jacob dreams of a ladder stretching between Heaven and Earth.
I won’t tell you whether or not Will Smith ends up being a Noah-figure, or a martyred savior of humankind, but I will tell you this: the footage at the end of the film of the survivors’ colony in the idyllic Vermont town, with beautiful autumn leaves and bells ringing from the church steeple? It was actually filmed in West Amwell, New Jersey.