What Dreams May Come

While we watched the breath taking film What Dreams May Come we were given some guidelines on what to look for when taking notes. Many things were physical attributes of the film, like what the colors symbolized and what what the camera shots resembled. Though what we were really looking for was how the film was similar to Dante's Inferno. The two stories are similar though they have slightly different moods. In What Dreams May Come the story starts out cheerful and the Nielson family is happy and the colors in the movie are bright and hopeful. Then the plot dramatically downfalls into a hell where the colors are dark and death surrounds the Neilsen family. It finally ends happily where the plot is renewed. In comparison, during Dante's Inferno the story is far darker and the plot never really resurrects into a happy ending.

Many other things were similar, for example, Chris was guided by Albert who acted similarly to Virgil in Dante's Inferno. Albert helps Chris move through hell to find Annie who is his soul mate, similar to how Virgil guides Dante through hell to find his soul mate Beatrice. In both stories the soul mates are separated from each other and their strong love never stops them from reconnecting.  The scenes in What Dreams May Come are also very similar to the sinners punishment scenes in Dante's Inferno.  Lastly the punishment of those who commit suicide like Annie are sent to hell, this idea is one that comes from Dante's Inferno. Overall it is very clear that What Dreams May Come and Dante's Inferno are very similar and it helped to watch the film to get a better grasp of hell and how people interpret it differently.