As a young teen, the movie Defending Your Life provided my curious mind with an incredibly imaginative idea as to what lay ahead in the afterlife, couched in the familiar form of satirical courtroom drama reminiscent of my favorite TV sitcom at the time, Night Court. Too young to fully comprehend all of the middle-aged angst and parallels to an actor/filmmaker at a film festival that have later overtaken my awareness, what I saw in DYL as a youth was a funny story about a guy who died and was trying to get out of purgatory to move onto the next level, which growing up Catholic, to me meant heaven. Despite the topic of purgatory coming up frequently, no one seemed to able to provide any concrete information about the place, yet they all agreed that purgatory is a place where you were stuck until some divine intervention rescued you from it. I always wondered what this place would be like – a shadowy, smoky, abyss where everyone had long faces, or a bus stop that you never left until you did something good enough to make the bus show up and get you out of there. Defending Your Life goes completely against the cliché, brilliantly placing purgatory in a sunny, familiar upscale urban setting where you enjoy the comforts of your earthly home while you defend all of the choices that you have ever made in your lifetime to a panel of judges. I loved the idea that you had to effectively present your case to the court to move on to the next plane of existence, because I felt very confident that I could be as persuasive as my TV and movie lawyer idols, earning a one-way ticket onward in no time at all.
When I first saw Defending Your Life, I had no idea who Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep were, but I knew and loved Rip Torn from The Larry Sanders Show and the epic 80s sword and sorcery flick The Beastmaster. Bob Diamond was and is still my favorite character in the film, because Rip Torn carried over the same steady and in-control demeanor that he had from Larry Sanders while occasionally sprinkling in a fleeting glimpse of his evil sorcerer from Beastmaster in moments of agitation – it was truly the best of both worlds. Though defender Bob Diamond was not an exact analog to Night Court’s womanizing sleazebag with a heart of gold prosecutor, Dan Fielding (brilliantly portrayed by John Larroquette, who consequently was my acting idol growing up), both of these fictional lawyers were a commanding, persuasive force in the courtroom, and I realized that was what I truly admired about both characters.
My focus when first watching this film was on nothing more than the court case itself, and the character of Bob Diamond. It was not until I grew older that I become aware of the multiple layers playing at once in the story. For instance, mired in his mid-life crisis, the character of Daniel dies while driving his newly purchased BMW, meant to make him feel youthful and high status, suggesting that being middle-aged is truly death itself. Upon another viewing I realized DYL’s similarities to an actor/filmmaker at a film festival, as Daniel finds himself staying in the resort town of Judgment City where, he along with other visitors, have their advancement decided by a panel of judges who make their ruling based on screenings of their literal life’s work. Truly each tangent deserves a paper unto itself, and maybe someday, I or someone else will take up that mantle, but for today, this essay is focused on my new idea of purgatory based on the presentation of it in this film.
DYL added a new layer to my thinking on purgatory, in that instead of just being trapped in limbo waiting for a miracle to send you forward you could also possibly be sent back to Earth to try life over again in hopes of a better result. The idea of reincarnation was being talked about everywhere when I was a kid, and DYL acknowledges this fact with the inclusion of a place called the Past Lives Pavilion, which allows people to see who they were in previous lives. Well known celebrity proponent of reincarnation Shirley MacLaine makes a tongue in cheek cameo in the film as the host at the Past Lives Pavilion, and after watching DYL, I started to wonder how many people in my small town were people that blew it in their past life and came back to live among us mortals once again to try to get it right. Were poor drivers on the road people that could not hack it so they were sent back again? Was this their last chance to make good? Who did I know that I thought could make the cut and move on? I really considered these thoughts.
Defending Your Life provided the child me with fantastic answers that I could accept about the afterlife and reincarnation. Are those ideas accurate? Who knows. I’m not interested in finding out anytime soon, but one thing for sure is that the image of Judgment City always pops up in my head anytime someone mentions purgatory, and I am grateful for that. I will forever love the genius of Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, and last but certainly not least, my main man Rip Torn, for creating such a wonderful film that fuels my imagination to this day and reveals new layers of brilliance and insight with each subsequent viewing.
Comfort Films Episode 3: Defending Your Life (Released October 22, 2021)
