Huh, I guess I just really don't remember the movie at all, despite seeing it multiple times. All I remember is a glass of water and an alien.
Yes, but see, this is the chain of events implied by the film. God set up circumstances to have Mel's wife killed, so that he could apparently implant the message about "let our daughter see (talking about seeing germs in all water, so she would leave glasses all over), something about their son(i forget what that point was), and for her brother (Joaquin Phoenix) to "swing away" (using his baseball bat from his failed baseball career to fling water at the alien). Apparently the only way he could get this message through, was as she was literally DYING, and her brain was shutting down from bloodloss and, you know....being cut in half by an speeding car. Mel doesn't think anything of this cryptic statement from his wife as he watched her die, and just figured it was her brain firing off weird shit as she died. He even says this to Joaquin in the above mentioned couch scene, where Mel indicates that he saw nothing in his wife's eyes as she died, so that's why he knows there is no god. The entire film is then him wandering around, encountering the townsfolk all constantly calling him Father, and him telling them he's not a priest anymore. His lack of faith at the loss of his wife, is pretty much his single most defining trait as a character, and the fact that his faith is gone, because he is grieving over his wife, is constantly reinforced.
Then we get to the end of the film, and they find that alien in their living room, holding his son. He stands there, and the film makes a point to do that "omg he's having a eureka moment" visual cue, where they zoom in on him, I think at a dutch angle, and then his eyes move around the room, and the camera focuses on all the things, that his wife commented about. He then, after realizing all this, says to Joaquin "Swing away." Which is what his wife said, meaning he's finally learned the message, and then Joaquin proceeds to beat the alien to death with...water splashes, though it seemed that blunt force trauma was clearly working too. He then holds his son who didn't breath in any of the poison gas, because his asthma had shut his lungs so much he couldn't inhale it, thus saving him. Which Mel is weeping as he's saying to himself, basically saying it's all got to mean this, and his son lives, reinforcing this belief. Then, cut to aftermath, him going to work, which is back in the priesthood.
That incredibly convoluted series of events, kicked off by KILLING HIS WIFE, is the way god (supposedly all powerul and all knowing, can do anything he chooses) decides to convey the message that boils down to "Hey the aliens are allergic to water, splash them and you will have an advantage." But he couldn't say that. No, he had to kill his wife, several years PRIOR to the event in question, inflicting life long grief on an entire family, forcing the children to grow up without a mother, instead of just...I don't know, a phone call? A burning bush? And this is a good god, that is worthy of worship apparently, as evidenced by Mel putting the collar back on, since he's found his faith again.
And a LOT of movies do this, and it gets pretty frustrating to a lot of atheists, when we are constantly portrayed as being damaged, and that our lack of belief in invisible people in the sky, must be due to being 'angry at god", and our skepticism is often rewarded with horrific, dramatically ironic deaths.
There is an entire podcast devoted to mocking these types of films, called God Awful Movies, though they do mostly focus on actual christian cinema, as they are the most painfully guilty of this type of bullshit.
But it's a real world thing too. I remember hearing a morning radio color commentary group, comment about....I forget what it was, probably some of the criticism about a shitty movie like God's Not Dead or whatever. And they honestly said, over the radio, that the people who are angry at this film, must just be angry at god. And they weren't joking, the other hosts were all like "oh yeah, that makes sense." Because that's the ONLY version they've ever seen, since they've likely never actually talked to an open atheist in their life (I live in the south, so it's not well accepted to say I'm an atheist), so they all just see them as TV/Film shows them. These bitter, broken people just lashing out at god because feelings. When the reality is most of us come to our atheism by not finding any convincing evidence that any one invisible person in the sky is more real than the thousands of others that humanity have created over the years.
I've had people ask to my face, that very question of "why are you angry at god?" and countless other dumbass things that only illustrate how stupid they are, and lacking in critical thinking or objectivity. And frankly it annoys the shit out of me these days. It has definitely colored my enjoyment of older films/shows when looking back at them, and seeing the rather obvious religious coding in the text, intentional or not. It's so pervasive that people honestly just don't notice it, because it's all they've seen.
Anyway, yeah that's why I've changed my mind on Signs, and other religiously heavy films like Green Mile.
