Taylor Sheridan, of Yellowstone fame, continues to share his vision of life in the series 1883. This prequel to Yellowstone is the story of a wagon train journey of immigrants, cowboys, and the Dutton family from Fort Worth in Texas to the mountains of Oregon across the great plains. But the wagon train never makes it to Oregon. And nor do most of the people.
Episode 1 warns of what is to come. The beautiful young Elsa wakes in the middle of carnage. An Indian war band is slaughtering the immigrants; they are seeking justice. Elsa choosing to fight rather than be captured and sold into slavery defends herself by shooting an Indian warrior but is pierced through by an arrow. This introduces the driving theme of 1883. Freedom is worth any price. Even death. Only in the last episode will we discover if Elsa will live or die.
The series is about a search for freedom. Elsa’s freedom first and foremost. The frontier represents freedom. Freedom from the oppression of civilisation. Freedom from expectation and a tamed future. Her changing clothing symbolises this during the series. It changes from frilly feminine and constricting to free: men’s jeans, cowboy chaps and a vest from a Native American tribe.
And in this surge for freedom, Elsa has truly lived. She has, in the words of a key character, ‘outlined us all. I’m 60 years old and she out-smiled me, out-loved me, out-fought me…. She’s outlived me. She’s outlived all of us.’
And this is because Elsa chooses. She refuses to be a passive person but obtains her freedom with her choices. ‘Yes, Freedom has fangs. And it sunk them in me. I chose to love him. He chose to love me back. Then chose to protect me. Then a man we’ve never met chose to kill him.’ These lines are narrated by Elsa as she chooses to shoot, in cold blood, the captured and wounded bandit who killed her fiancé.
Freedom is to be found and taken. Even if the choices lead to death. Once you grasp this theme you won’t be surprised to discover that Elsa dies in the last episode. She is even buried in the place of her choosing. Taylor Sheridan’s message: freedom is worth any price. This is how we should live.
It’s enthralling and wonderful. And with the beautiful scenery of Texas and Montana – the scenery of freedom – you’re tempted to say ‘yes’, freedom at any price, even death is worth it.
But here’s the thing. And it’s an ironic thing. To justify a vision that freedom is worth any price, Taylor Sheridan must offer a vision of life after death. He must offer heaven. The title of the last episode which is primarily about Elsa’s death is titled, ‘This is not your Heaven.’ Elsa, won’t live in the frontier land – the Eden sought by the immigrants – but be in her own heaven.
Very early on we know this heaven won’t be the Christian one. After the initial scene of death and carnage, the episode leaps back to the start of the wagon trail journey. We meet Elsa’s aunt and her cousin. They are narrow-minded, spiteful, judgemental, cruel, unloving and Christian. But don’t worry they are dead by the end of episode 2. And even their deaths are telling. The cousin dies because of her mother’s fear, anger and judgementalism. And then the mother finds apparent freedom by taking her own life.
Not only is the Christian God written off but he is utterly absent. No one mentions God. No one talks about God. And when the word God does appear it is as a curse, goddam, or an exclamation of surprise. ‘oh, my god’. There is no belief in justice from a higher source and no pastors, priests or the like appear in the story, which surely is a reverse anachronism. The land is utterly godless and apparently better off for it (despite the awful bloodshed in every episode.)
And that’s why it is ironic that Taylor Sheridan offers us a vision of heaven. For heaven is an entirely Christian concept, especially in the way Taylor conceives of it. His picture, which I’ll share more of below, is of a new creation, like the wilderness that the wagon trail rolls through, but unspoiled by humanity, hatred, sin and death. So, it is doubly ironic. Taylor’s vision of life is for us to seek our personal freedoms at any price, even death. Life is to be defined on our terms alone, without a narrow judgemental and awful God. And yet to make this worthwhile he has to offer us a heaven. We discover this vision of life after death in Elsa’s death.
So, what is this heaven that Elsa goes to? It is the heaven of her choosing. In her words, ‘There is a moment where your dreams and memories merge together and form a perfect world. That is Heaven. And each heaven is unique. It is the world of you. The land is filled with all you hold dear and the sky is your imagination.’ We then see Elsa on horseback greeting Sam her Native American lover.
‘My heaven is filled with good horses, and open plains and wild cattle and a man who loves me. It is always sunrise in my world. And there are no storms. I’m the only lightning. I know death now. I’ve seen it. It had no fangs. It smiled at me. And it was beautiful.’
The irony in all of this is that though Taylor Sheridan has rejected a transcendent creator who made the great plains in all their majestic wildness and danger he still must reach for a Christian vision of heaven. This is what Elsa describes – a new creation. A land of good horses and open plains and relationship and love. A life of life after death. No other belief system offers this future: a real and new creation with physical bodies. This is the Christian vision of life after death. It is paradise. It is Eden on the other side of the resurrection. It is what the immigrants on the wagon train and the Dutton’s were searching for. You could almost lift it from the pages of the Bible.
Except you can’t quite do that. The Bible’s picture of the new creation is God coming to earth and humanity gathering together in all our diverse individuality to worship and enjoy the God who gave us life – both the first and the eternal life. We aren’t individuals seeking our own freedom but a community of people caught up in the freedom provided by God. This new life of freedom, found in Jesus, unfolds in the new creation God has provided for us. Here’s God’s vision of the life that is found in life after death.
1 Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”
Revelation 21v1-5
1883 is brilliant, but its vision of freedom and of life after death is utter fantasy. A few questions pierce through the story telling myth. Why is it that Elsa would end up in her own heaven? What kind of universe is it that there is a life after death? How is it that Elsa’s choices make this heaven? And what if Sam, her Native American lover, chose a different heaven? And if there is life after death, why would this life be good and physical? Wouldn’t nothing or perhaps, some awful reality make more sense - given the brutality of the life already experienced? Or, if there is a God who cares about justice, why would Elsa end up in heaven? Was she really justified in the lives she took and the choices she made?
Taylor Sheridan’s vision of life and life after death falls deeply short of what God offers us in Jesus. Jesus chose to give up his freedom and have his blood spilt on the cross so anyone could come to him and obtain freedom: freedom from sin and its consequences, the freedom to serve God and the freedom of the new creation. This isn’t narrow, spiteful or vindictive but profoundly loving and merciful. Jesus chose to make freedom available for us and offer us life after death because he paid the price for justice. Understanding this vision for life, God’s vision, will give you life and freedom.