Writer/directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s Ten Thousand Saints tells a harsh coming of age story through the unique lens of a period piece set primarily in 1980’s New York. Although the film occasionally acknowledges some of the social realities of its setting (such as the Tompkins Square Park Riot and some other esoteric elements of New York’s East Village), it is not overly mired in nostalgia. In fact, the setting provides a perfect backdrop for the intense situations in which the characters find themselves. As I heard Berman describe it in an interview, Ten Thousand Saints is a film about “flawed, imperfect people in a flawed and imperfect city.”
Asa Butterfield and Hailee Steinfeld are back on screen together again for the first time since 2013’s Ender’s Game, portraying teenagers in crisis muddling their way through adolescence during the turbulent 1980’s. Instead of taking a cookie-cutter approach to adolescent storytelling, Ten Thousand Saints provides a (sometimes chillingly) realistic portrayal of its characters’ struggles. The film’s primary focus is on Jude (Butterfield), who has been making up for the absence of his father (Ethan Hawke) through heavy drug use. Jude’s friend Eliza (Steinfeld) also has her fair share of problems, and both she and Jude struggle with their problems throughout the film.
One of the most intriguing elements in Ten Thousand Saints is the amount of spirituality it features. Early in the second act, Jude and Eliza meet Johnny (Emile Hirsch), a rocker who is a part of the straight-edged scene (no sex, drugs, or meat, just hardcore music with morally upright lyrics). Johnny is a follower of Krishna, and that influence of Hinduism is felt strongly throughout the film’s second and third acts.
In the first act, there are actually a few connections with Christianity. We learn that the main character was named after St. Jude, who wrote the New Testament book of Jude. We also learn in a church scene that the film’s title is a reference to Jude 14: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones [or, with ten thousand saints].” Although the reference in the film stops there, the book of Jude further clarifies why the Lord is coming in the next verse: “To judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed…” The consequence of immoral behavior is one of the main focuses of the book of Jude, and it is also a prominent subject in Ten Thousand Saints.
Much of the book of Jude is spent describing the depravity of people who “pollute their own bodies” (verse 8). Likewise, much of the characters’ behavior in Ten Thousand Saints could easily be categorized as polluting to their bodies. At one point, Jude and Eliza wonder aloud if they are being punished for their behavior. Although that notion is quickly blown off by Johnny in the film, punishment is highlighted as a result of ungodly behavior in the book of Jude. However, I do not think that this film is trying to make a statement that everyone who does drugs or has sex is going to be punished for it, nor do I think that was the point of the book of Jude. There are plenty of other places in Scripture that point out the injustice of how the righteous suffer yet sinners go unpunished.
The book of Jude ends on a hopeful note, encouraging the Christians reading it to show ungodly people mercy while still resisting the influence of their behavior. In Ten Thousand Saints, there is also a glimmer of hope by the film’s end. In the closing narration, Jude speaks with hindsight about the events of the film and tries to emphasize the good which came out of the difficulties they faced. Perhaps that was the point that Berman and Pulcini were hoping to convey, but the dark subject matter made it difficult to discern clearly without Jude pointing it out at the film’s close.
Regardless, Ten Thousand Saints is a powerful film which is not afraid to explore some of the hardships adolescents may experience while searching for the good in the midst of it. Does it ultimately find any of that good? If you look hard enough you just might find something hopeful in the midst of it.
