Christ Figures: What Does It Add?

One of the pertinent questions that was raised this past week about Christ figures in film was: what does it add?

It seems as if every character in every movie can be seen in some way as a Christ figure. Just go back and read Kozlovic's article. He seemingly name drops every major character from every major film. For Christ's sake (pun intended) he names John Connor from Terminator 2: Judgment Day! I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how John Connor is in any way a Christ figure.

The Four Faces of Christ?

There are some legitimate Christ figures in film. Characters like Neo from The Matrix and at least three characters – Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker – from Star Wars and its various sequels that could be considered Christ figures depending on how one views them. That said, not every main or heroic character in every movie needs to fit into the Christ-figure category. While Kozlovic goes to extreme lengths (25 different categories, really?) to try and shoehorn in almost every character from modern cinema, the designation just does not fit certain people.

Which brings me back to the point: what does it add? Does categorizing John Connor as a Christ figure add anything to the Terminator franchise? Personally, I fail to see one way in which it helps the narrative of the story to see him as one. Also, I highly doubt it helped the box office of the films either (in this case I am referring to the three sequels: Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation because John Connor, despite what Kozlovic writes WAS NOT in The Terminator except as a fetus in Sarah Connor's uterus at the end of the film) because the movies already had built-in audiences. Adding the Christ-figure designation might help some movies at the box office, but the sequels to The Terminator did not need such help.

So where is the advantage of calling John Connor a Christ figure? In my humble opinion, there is none. While Christ figures do exist in film, they do not exist in every film.