The movie depicts, among others, the filming of "Hail Caesar!: A Tale of the Christ". Since the main movie is called "Hail Caesar", maybe that is implying that it's also a movie that is a "tale of the Christ?"
Scarlett Johansen the mermaid as the virgin mary, with the secret child who is orphaned and adopted being like Jesus adopted by Joseph?
Mannix being tempted by Lockheed could be Jesus tempted by Satan?
The Divine Presence is never shown in the movie, nor is Jesus' face, although his back is. Is this implying that the "divine presence" in relation to Jesus was not his person or body, but in his spirit? At one point the comment is made that God is in all of us.
The blond male in the ocean with the 11-12 secret communists could be Jesus in the storm in Galilee. Getting picked up by the sub could be the Ascension. Could the sailor dance scene be suggesting Jesus was gay or that it was "metrosexual", like outwardly gay, but secretly communist?
Clooney getting slapped by the director for professing communism, drinking something that puts him to sleep, and waking up in the company of the 12 underground communists could be a reference to the Passion and Resurrection, whereby Jesus was slapped by a guard, was given something to drink after which he died, and appeared to the disciples. Is this implying that Jesus was only put to sleep? The underground communists are called The Future. Is that saying that communism is spiritually futuristic, or that resurrection will occur in the future?
One review says:
http://www.alternet.org/culture/hail-ca ... t-seems-be
some of “Hail, Caesar!” is not subtle in the least. It features George Clooney as a manly movie star of the early 1950s named Baird Whitlock, who plays the lead in a deadly sword-and-sandal epic set in the time of Jesus. (Yeah, it’s called “Hail, Caesar!” The subtitle is “A Story of the Christ.”) Baird is one of those postwar actors who became huge by doing exactly what he was told and is now almost forgotten; he isn’t anyone specific from Hollywood history but he’s a little bit Kirk Douglas (except worse), a little bit Victor Mature (except better) and a little bit John Wayne (except not as much of a dick). But don’t assume this is a “Clooney movie”: Baird is not a hero, a villain or even a buffoon, and remains pretty much a cipher throughout the film. It takes him quite a while to figure out that he’s been kidnapped, let alone why or by whom.
Clooney in fact plays the MacGuffin in this movie, to use Hitchcock’s terminology; he’s a plot device around whom the main characters revolve.
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Amid all the more obvious levels of inversion and subversion and satire at work in “Hail, Caesar!” Eddie may be the most extraordinary of all. Has any movie about Hollywood, ever, depicted a studio boss as a selfless and idealistic figure, and explicitly compared him to Jesus Christ? Only the Coens, I suspect, could come up with such a peculiar and brilliant counter-narrative.
If you think I’m kidding about the Christ part, or if you suspect the Coens would only employ a devout Catholic protagonist as an object of scorn and derision, well, I’m totally not and they actually wouldn’t. Not because the Jewish brothers ..., are all that interested in Roman Catholic faith as such. But it presents an intriguing narrative challenge, and mockery is way too easy.
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The first shot of the film (if I remember correctly) is the image of Christ on the cross, above the altar where Eddie makes confession — every single day. Even Eddie’s priest tells him that it’s way too often and that his sins barely register, and that’s about as snarky as the movie gets on that issue.
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I’m not super religious when it comes to spoilers (or when it comes to religion), but it wouldn’t be fair to tell you much about Baird’s kidnapping or what it’s all about. Except — I can’t help myself! — that Herbert Marcuse is involved, and that I believe he is the only real-world individual to be named and portrayed in this movie.
OK, so H.Marcuse is compared to God or else his message is portrayed as direct real truth in that he is the only real individual in the movie as a character, and the movie is otherwise allegorical? That is, what H.Marcuse explains about economics are the real facts of the mechanics of the world?