The Flickering Flame Dream

In order to create a movie from the written story of Dante’s The Divine Comedy Inferno Canto 1, the look, mood, and theme must all possess an understanding of faith, hope, and the senses. These senses, characters, and settings must also bring about thoughts of past, present, and future endeavors. Each scene will bring about images to open up the viewer's mind through some of the five senses of sight, sound, touch, taste, and texture. Each scene or episode in the movie will turn the old writings of good and evil into a modern day good and evil plot. The first scene will touch base with familiar territory.

One day “John Smith” left everything behind and ventured out into the smoky mountains in an attempt at rejuvenation, and to find true purpose through a walkabout. The forest looked passable at first glimpse, but as he walked into the wider-than-a-semi-truck-and-cloud-reaching trees his mind grew full of questions. “What will this view bring?” Will the forest bring forth enlightenment or an endless hell?” The forest started to swallow John up as each step took him into the unknown thick wooded hollows. The foliage on the forest floor slowed the pace with grab-me vines full of bloodletting knives. “What a time to pick a walk into nowhere during a midlife crisis thought” John as he crawled onward into the foggy abyss. Smells of aspen and pinion trees. Day turned to night as the mountains and trees covered the light. As the path looked endless, more obstacles befell John with dead trees, stopping, and sometimes tripping up every step of the way. The dead trees looked half alive, and half dead, making John feel the same way. John’s legs grew tired with every trip, fall and sprint. Soon the path disappeared within the tall figures. A glimpse of a shadowy figure appeared.

Night turn to gloom with a glint of light. John’s trek looked hopeless until a slight warmth filled his body through a beam of light. The shadowy figure revealed itself as a beacon of light showing over the mountain top. The light seemed to show the way through the trees and upward toward a mountain blocking the fiery figure above. The fiery figure prodded John in with enticing warm beams of light. This new path seems too easy. Thoughts of John’s past endeavors came to mind with work and family. Just before John’s mind brought on the daydream he caught a glimpse of movement in his path. The bushes and foliage looked as though they were moving about swiftly and silently. The camouflaged moving figure slowly revealed itself as a leopard. The cat-like creature brought on more memories with work and family. John didn’t like to remember his past dealings and choices that turned fatal. Scenes of fellow coworkers and business clients lashing out at his bad choices of selfishness made things worse. John was just doing what he thought was best, but turned out to be different for those on the receiving end. Soon John would feel what his clients and coworkers felt with bad decisions and choices of miss guided direction through more obstacles of holidays past.

John hadn’t felt such burning fire in his legs since a passed stint in the Marines. Long marches came to mind with heavy equipment piled on your back, burning in your knees and legs. The pain will work its way throughout your entire body. The long assent upward slowed with the setting sun. The hill just kept on going and going as a toy with an endless supply of battery power. More thoughts of obstacles came to John’s dizzy mind. Each thought was a separate television screen full of audio and visual messages. The look of that past animal made John feel like food for the folly. John’s belly started to ache due to several missed meals. Trying to smell food to eat, but only whiffing in dirt with a hint of tree bark. Thoughts of himself food for the predator pummeled his daydreams further into a deadly cat and mouse game. For a minute John thought he was back with his family enjoying a tour of the local zoo. John’s children used to love the movie called The Lion King. Everyone thought the lion represented strength and endurance. John sure wished he had the Lion's strength and endurance. For every good memory came many bad memories of lashing out at his family. The lion stopped John in his tracks. John thought he was still in a nightmare with memories of a family visit to the local zoo. More images and video blurbs popped up at every step. “Not another jaunt down memory lane” thought John. The constant array of family fights made John wish his past was just a dream. Little did John know that his nightmare was bound to be a visit to purgatory or could John’s dream be a movie where he is scrooge visited by the ghost of Christmas past, present and future?

The pain and agony of defeat came closer to John. Only remnants of faith and hope remained. Hairs started to stand up on the back of John’s neck. A sense of danger came over his body. Was someone or something following John? Another video jumped into John’s mind. This video revealed a past affair that turned to a movie similar to “Fatal Attraction” where the mistress constantly stalks and harasses her lover to death. John realized what was following him was a she wolf. The she wolf looked as though she were in heat or about to attack her prey. Each step forward and upward felt as though each step were in reverse. John asked himself “should I take the light or the night?” Each of the past obstacles seem to reveal a hidden truth or meaning.

The path John started on seemed easy, but grew infinitely unbearable as past memories of failure and guilt clouded John’s mind. Just when he thought his life was over another video appeared. The video turned into a wraith. The wraith gave only a riddle as it jumped out of the video. “Choose your path wisely,'' said the Wraith. There’s no turning back. One way looks and feels good while the other proves fatal. The wraith concluded with a gesture to follow into paradise.

The movie concludes with two endings. The first ending, John takes the high road to redemption where by he momentarily escapes hell. The second ending John continues to follow the wraith who promises paradise. Paradise turns out to be a tour to hell in the end. John was given two choices of redemption with the high road or the low road. I would rather take the high road in hindsight. What would you take?

Written by David Brent Eaton

Part of college assignment to write your own a story after reading Dante’s The Divine Comedy Inferno Canto 1.

December 4, 2003