Popular Culture Review Vol. 22, No. 2, Summer 2011 | Page 53

Y Si1YoCreo 49 what Jaimes Guerrero refers to as The Sacred Feminine Principle” (xii). These women “lead the way, through traditional women’s leadership and authority, to reclaiming the earth, humanity, and all our relations via an ecoethics of reciprocity” (xii). While the film does not focus on eco-criticism per se, the image of the sacred tree/Izzi as dying under Tommy’s constant taking of her bark underscores the idea of reciprocity. Ultimately, it is Izzi who guides Tommy, and thus the viewer, away from the physical and into the realm of the spiritual. The idea of women’s authority also proves interesting with regards to the film. The Grand Inquisitor, in Izzi’s novel, is incensed at Queen Isabella. While outwardly, he remarks that she is a blasphemer by looking for the Tree of Life, the implication is that he also resents a woman both governing alone— Izzi’s novel does not have Queen Isabella married to Ferdinand—and also interpreting scripture. This coincides with medieval prohibitions against women preaching or interpreting the Bible. Queen Isabella not only seeks immortality, but she utilizes the Book of Genesis as confirmation that the expedition into South America is not in vain. In a later scene, where the Grand Inquisitor prepares to execute many of Queen Isabella’s followers after first torturing them, he tells them, “Our bodies are prisons for our souls. Our skin and blood are the iron bars of confinement. But fear not, all flesh decays. Death turns all to ash. And thus, death frees every soul.” He later continues, “The Day of Judgment is irrefutable. All life must be judged. All life is accountable.” Clearly, he speaks of judgment here in Christian terms, in that of heaven and hell. The film does not place its values in such constructions, acknowledging only that life and death are intertwined and both must be embraced fully. Silecio instead implies that, by murdering the Queen’s supporters, he in fact does them some great favor by “freeing” them from their bodies . He places no value on life, and indeed, places himself in a position of being able to dole out life and death, godlike, and thus he fails, the movie implies, to be human. Queen Isabella rationalizes her command that Tomas seek out the Tree of Life because it will “free all mankind from tyranny.” As Tomas prepares to set out on her quest, she gives him a ring and promises that on the successful completion of his mission, “And when you return, I shall be your Eve.” Queen Isabella’s misstep is to focus too heavily on earthly immortality, a step pointedly shared by Tommy. Balance comes through experience life and death as they happen: to fight death means to live forever in frustration and in opposition to the human experience, to hasten death cheapens the joy and fragility of life. This overriding philosophy again sets the story as being especially Buddhist, where life and death exist as one process of being. One of the foundational tenets of Buddhism focuses on the idea of impermanence, and thus life as we conceive of it should not be clung to. Izzi embodies this view of thinking. In one scene, she describes to Tommy the Mayan creation story of First Father and his bodily sacrifice to create the world, which is subsequently formed from the parts of his body. She describes this sort of death as “an act of creation,” an idea that Tommy cannot