Fifield and Milburn Symbolism?

I have written another article on Milburn and Fifield. Maybe it's crap, but it's fun to think about. http://www.reelholes.com/2012/06/30/dissecting-prometheus-part-3-man-vs-nature-vs-god/ I will repost it below: [img]http://www.reelholes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/milfif.png[/img] Fifield and Milburn represent another aspect of the science versus faith argument of Prometheus. The key to understanding the symbolism is in the odd nature and attire of Fifield, and their professional identities. Let’s start with the latter. Fifield is a geologist, and Milburn is a biologist. Why this is important is perhaps obvious as they are both men of science, but looking at their respective positions within science we can see a deeper meaning: Man versus nature, or earth. Man walks among nature, tries to understand it, tries to humanize the many beasts it finds as pets, and dominates them. Nature does not understand this concept, it just is, and is unwilling to trust or be manipulated by man. Even when man wins and conquers and domesticates the earth or its beasts, in the end, the earth still wins and we find it’s simply untamable. Look at the dichotomy of the characters. Man, biology, Milburn is only interested in itself, not the “spiritual” as he sneers about Shaw’s remarks on a creator. Humanism only makes sense to the biologist. Man, biology, Milburn attempts to befriend the earth, geologist, Fifield, but Fifield is both disinterested and distrustful of man, biology, Milburn. Man even tries to extend his right arm to him in order to shake nature’s hand, but nature wants nothing of it. In the rover, Fifield tells Holloway that he can’t tell him if it’s “natural” or not, but he can tell him that it’s hollow. Nature, the geologist, is really telling him it doesn’t know if it’s man made or not man made, but that there’s nothing in it. The geologist only recognizes the non-humanistic traits to what it encounters. Fifield in the temple deploys his “pups” and howls like a dog. This is nature allowing its beasts to run wild. When Fifield sees the alien bodies, he panics, wants to go back to the ship. This is another act of nature reacting against not only man, but mans searching for the unknown at the expense of nature and the earth. When man uses the elements and nature to tap into the unknown, we create things like weapons of mass destruction. Fifield is railing against such tampering. Nature doesn’t understand spirituality, the unknown, and is mentally unaware of its surroundings, it just is. Milburn, the biologist, studies the alien body, but decides he won’t go the way of the spiritualist either, especially because he is now confused: all his life’s study is now in question. Man, when questioned with the unknown would rather go with only what it “thinks” it understands: Nature. The two walk away, and are “lost”. Only the spiritual has guidance from their “god” (in this case, the Titan Prometheus). Nature does not lead itself, and man that only follows nature is without any kind of guidance or direction. This is symbolic of the stupidity and pride of man who is only concerned with the natural sciences and are arrogantly self-assured in their own limited knowledge. God, (in this case the Titan, Prometheus) tells them they are lost, and orders them to stay put, not to move, basically “not to wander aimlessly without guidance.” They of course disobey, going where they want. When they are told later that there might be something else with them, something they don’t understand, instead of staying put, they wander off, trying to make sense of it themselves, wandering in what they perceive is the opposite direction. They then decide to go to the place of the spiritual, but are not guided to do it. They wander in, look at the giant head, wondering what it is, trying to understand the spiritual using only their “natural” means. [i]Then something terrible happened. "Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, 'This is what the Lord spoke, saying: "By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified."' So Aaron held his peace" (Lev. 10:1-3). [/i] Now many things are happening. Fifield is stoned.(profane fire) Milburn and Fifield have entered the temple, Like the sons of Aaron, they have entered in an unworthy, unspiritual manner. God is about to become angry. [i]From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom. And the people became impatient on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” Then the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died (Numbers.21:4-6).[/i] Serpents are sent among them, and not normal serpents. When the serpent emerges in front of Milburn, Man attempts to conquer and understand nature yet again. There is another visual clue in this serpent, dubbed by the production team as the “hammerpede.” It is white in color, the color of judgment and righteousness, but it has pigmentation of light blue and yellow beneath its skin, possibly due to the lighting in the temple at the behest of the director, making it look paler. Think about those colors however. When we first meet Fifield he is wearing a tie-died jacket with exactly these same colors. Why? A coincidence? No. What does Milburn attempt to do at what he perceives is nature, but is a symbol of judgment, spiritually reflecting the same colors worn by nature? He extends his right hand to it in a symbol of friendship, the same arm he extended to Fifield wearing the same colors earlier in the film! And that arm is broken. What happened symbolically earlier in the film is happening in a much more violent fashion, and is about to get worse. Notice that during much of this sequence, Fifield is looking away, backed up against Milburn. Nature does not understand the spiritual, and cannot see the symbol. When Fifield, nature attempst to attack the spiritual, it is burned (fiery serpents), blinded, and- get this – controlled! While man cannot control the natural world, Prometheus tells us that the spiritual world CAN control the natural world, and will do so in order to judge us or bless us, or even create us. Fifield also is being judged for his “acidic” treatment of Milburn earlier. The snake enters Milburn, and eats him from within, making him “hollow.” Man tries to understand and explain the spiritual in natural terms, but dies trying. He is judged by his mouth; by his words. There are things in the universe that are unknown to man and will always be that way. Fifield, Nature is commanded by God to become a symbol of judgment against the Prometheus. When he arrives in front of the ship, he is in a broken position, put back together in a way that is impossible for the natural to do or for man to understand. Thus, man and nature, while they have no concern for the spiritual, are judged by it whether it acknowledges it exists or not.