To the general aduience, the synposis of the movie "The End of Days" which is publized by its producers, Universal Pictures, reads as follows:

"Jericho Cane (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a beaten down ex- cop, is the reluctant hero of "End of Days." a chilling, horrific thriller set at the cusp of the millennium. When the ultimate personification of evil is unleashed upon the world, Cane is unwittingly drawn into a heart-stopping supernatural game of cat and mouse. Now as the countdown to the end of days approaches, all that stands in the way of man

Upon, Jericho Cane's meeting of Christine York (Robin Tunney), by rescuing her from the Vatican Knights, the plot of the "End of Days" takes off on an accurate preciction of popular culture's fear about the millennium. As Jericho realizes he has to save this girl or the world will be ruled by darkness forever. Yet, this is no easy task, due to the fact that the Devil is treacherous and skillful, tempting everyone he comes upon, even Jericho. The clock is ticking and the millennium is approaching, it is nearing the end of days. And the world depends on Jericho Cane to overcome his own internal conflicts, to save them.

Many of the expert film critics would have you believe that the "End of Days" is a horribly bad motion picture. However, it is more watchable than some critics would have you believe. For example, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the "End of Days" a slightly above -average overall rating but added that "Movies like this are particularly vulnerable to logic." Ebert's statement holds true because it is the intention of mass media to encode the popular culture's fears and ideas pertaining to the millennuim as entertainment so that it is excepted by masses. In doing this, mass media influences the popular culture by instilling their own thoughts on the matter. Furthermore, by disseminating popular culture's reservations about the milllennium through the illusion of entertainment, it is my opinion that mass media lessens the fears and anxieties of the popular culture surrounding the millennium.

A number of criticisms regarding the "End of Days" have resulted from the film's gory, dark, and lustful imagery. Nevertheless, these images are essential to the film since they are the visual aids used by the mass media to encode the messages of popular culture's concerns with the millennium, which are therefore important to the film overall, seeing as the "End of Days" would have less of an impact on the mass audience without all the vivid and somewhat disguising images. Consequently, the dark imagery is necessary to the "End of Days" for the reason that it is used to create a very real representation of the Devil and in bringing all his evil to life. For this fact only, the imagery is necessary to perpetuate the liberation of popular culture's millennium anxiety. Similarly, to the film's use of gory, dark and graphic imagery, those scenes in the "End of Days" which depict images representive to God and the power of his good, are flooded with light and visually illustrate God's contrasting equality to that of the Devil.

The first scene, emphasizes the fundamental concept of religion since "The End of Days" begins at the Vatican in 1979 with the declaration being made that the chosen one is about to be born. It is here where the struggle of good verse evil begins, as there is a brief debate between Vatican officials as to whether or not to kill the chosen one at the time of her birth or to protect and shelter her from evil. The debate of this matter ends when the Pope himself decides that she most be protected and sheltered from evil, because as he states, "In killing her we will sin, and there is no redemption for those who violate the laws of God". He continues by adding that their faith must li

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