Rent The Milky Way (1969)

Surrealist satire on religious dogma - The Milky Way review by DJ

My parents loved all of Buñuel's movies in the 60's and they are always avant-garde surreal. This is one of his best and wanted to watch it for myself as it's a classic. This is his atheist take on Christian dogma and specifically the Catholic Church but it's also worth remembering always that it's meant to be surreal, so it's not supposed to make sense as random weird things happen.

The story is about two impoverished people set off on a pilgrimage from France to Santiago-de-Compostella, it's their spiritual journey but it's also a road movie. The journey has strange thing happen to them, which is random and odd, but it's supposed to be absurd and surreal. The film questions the Catholic church and major beliefs it holds and ridicules them, I don't think it's offensive but it shows them as absurd as ideas themselves. The hypocrisy of dogma and it's actual practical implications to the guys on their journey. When the film goes in directions which are very heavy in it's religious criticism, it will turn it around into a funny light relief, for example should Jesus shave? things like that. All the events that happen with a religious context, are real historical events taken into this film.

It's a film of it's time but I greatly enjoyed it and it's a funny surreal film. I enjoyed their road trip!