2024 marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the German-American film "The Neverending Story" (Wolfgang Petersen, 1984). When it was released, it was the most expensive film produced outside the United States or the Soviet Union and was an adaptation of the first half of the novel of the same name by German writer Michael Ende (Germany, 1929-1995). Although for the author of the book the film was only "a gigantic commercial melodrama based on cheesiness, fluff and plastic", it managed to captivate -with its unforgettable soundtrack- a whole generation of children who captured some of the deepest messages contained in this classic of young people's literature.
Michael Ende Biography
Michael Ende was the only son of the surrealist painter Edgar Ende (one of the "degenerate" artists according to the Nazis) and Luise Bartholomä, a physiotherapist. His childhood was marked by the artistic and bohemian environment in which his father moved. In his youth he participated in an anti-Nazi group called "Bavarian Free Front" while he was a student, but had to leave his studies to serve in the German army. Later, his family moved to an artists' area in Munich, which left a great influence on Ende.
After joining the anthroposophical school of the philosopher Rudolf Steiner and premiering his first play "Ya es la hora" (dedicated to the Hiroshima massacre), Ende studied acting at Otto Falckenburg's school in Munich and published his three most famous plays: "Jim Button and Luke the Machinist" (1960), "Momo" (1973, surreal and metaphysical in nature, banned in communist Germany for the harsh social criticism it represented) and "The Neverending Story" (1979). He married and lived in Rome for 26 years with the singer Ingeborg and, after his wife's death, he married for the second time with the Japanese Mariko Sato. Anecdotally, he was a great fan of turtles, which appear in several of his novels.
The cosmos is an amphitheater
In an interview at the end of 1983, Michael Ende stated that he was "convinced that outside our perceptible world, there is a real world from which man comes and towards which he is heading again. It is an idea I discussed at length with my father, to whom I owe what I am and the idea of the world as something mysterious. For me nature is not a mere sum of chemistry and physics", that he would have liked to have children, that he tended to depression, that he considered himself a Christian, that he believed "that we live in that promised world right now and that there is an infinite hierarchy of higher intelligences... such as the so-called angels and archangels". He also stated that "humanity is the navel of the world. For me, the cosmos is an immense amphitheater where gods and demons watch what we do here, otherwise I don't understand why we would have to live".
When asked why God permits evil, he answered: "Because it is necessary, evil is as necessary as good. In the story of Christ's salvation, Judas is completely necessary. Desdemona is as important as Iago. The historical and aesthetic point of view knows no morality." And he also affirmed that he was no longer interested in politics because he was one of those who "in 1968 followed the hopeful path of the student movement; however, the orthodox instated a psychological terror where I felt like the last child. I couldn't believe that all that stuff about Marx and long hair would lead to real solidarity."
The references of "The Neverending Story".
His novel "The Neverending Story" has obvious philosophical and literary references. In this apparently naive adventure story appears the idea of emptiness and the concept of "nothingness"; the journey of the warrior Atreyu; the swamp of sadness and the wisdom of the old turtle Morla, the luck of the dragon Falcor or Fujur; the power of believing and the sphinxes of the Southern Oracle; the theory of reflections, projection and the courage to confront your true self; the courage to leave fear behind, the power of dreams and the importance, in such superficial times, of imagination.
As in Greek, Jewish, Hindu and other philosophies, the concept of being or not being and the consequences of denying yourself are present in this novel. Ideas from Hegel, Kant, Heidegger and Sartre's existentialism are manifested in the story in different ways, but with the same message: nothingness is the opposite of being, of true being. In the Door of the Mirror, Atreyu faces one of the greatest challenges of the human being: the confrontation with the true self. There, where "kind people discover that they are cruel and the brave become cowards. Because when confronted with the true self, most people run away". This message is part of the thought of Jacques Lacan and his work on "the self". From the title of the book there are reminiscences of Nietzsche's eternal return.
Beliefs and the meaning of existence
Throughout the story, Atreyu is rescued at various times by a lucky white dragon: the beloved Fálcor or Fújur, present in the most difficult moments, supporting him and encouraging him to believe again. This "lucky companion" is present in several millenary civilizations, such as the Chinese, and is part of how unexpected and surprising the road can be. Another key moment in the story is Atreyu's encounter with Gmork, a mercenary wolf from "nowhere," who tells him about the power of dreams in human life and how fantasy has no boundaries. When humans stop believing, desiring and dreaming, existential absence grows and threatens our true selves. As Gmork says in the novel, "If people stop believing, their existence becomes meaningless and easy to control. And whoever is in control, has the power".
The Christian background of "The Neverending Story".
Knowing Michael Ende's background and life, it does not seem too adventurous to discover also a Christian background in this universal classic. Some examples could be: the importance of reading and books (the book of the story-the Holy Scripture), salvation comes from a child (Bastian-Christ), redemption through an apparent failure (Atreyu-Christ), the leading role in the story of a girl (the childlike Empress-the Virgin Mary), sadness and hopelessness as a weapon of the forces of evil (the sinking of the horse Artax in the swamp of sadness, the nihilism of the old turtle Morla, the advance of nothingness - the action of the devil on souls), the importance of naming (the name "daughter of the moon" given by Bastian to the infant Empress - the name God gives to all his creatures and to the people he entrusts with special missions in the history of salvation), every new beginning when it seems that all is lost (Bastian's reconstruction of Fantasia - the redemption of Jesus Christ who makes all things new after the destruction wrought by sin), etc.
I remember seeing the 1984 movie for the first time at the cinema when I was four years old and many times afterwards at the cinema and on television. Although logically at that time I did not understand everything I am writing in this article, I found its ideas fascinating and useful for my life. When in 1995 I decided to give myself completely to God, I remember having in mind the scene in the movie in which Atreyu overcomes his fear and crosses the dangerous passage between the sphinxes of the Southern Oracle to carry out the mission he received. May Michael Ende enjoy forever in the True Paradise.
