I don’t believe this is Douglas Sirk’s best film. Still, it’s my favorite. It probably has something to do with my background in Catholicism (CCD every Tuesday night). Films that address an affirmation of faith or a crisis of faith tend to affect me in unusual ways. Magnificent Obsession is never explicit in what matter of faith Rock Hudson finds after killing Jane Wyman’s husband and blinding her, but from the music cues and Sirk’s camera placement which clearly recall DeMille’s Biblical epics it has to be some form of Christianity. And with Douglas Sirk being Douglas Sirk he subtly scrutinizes and evaluates man’s relation to faith. When I first saw this film I interpreted its message being something along the lines of “faith in a higher power is stronger than faith in a master”. Though that sophomoric interpretation at that time is probably some sort of subconscious projection. Honestly I always thought that Magnificent Obsession would make a good double feature with Martin Scorsese’s Who’s That Knocking At My Door?
