What happened to Harold Angel's soul?
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Naughty-God — 9 years ago(July 03, 2016 12:08 PM)
From what I gathered from multiple viewings is that Johnny's soul remained intact and it was the body of the dead soldier he inherited through the black magic ritual. That's why Cyphre (Satan) has Johnny motivated enough to murder everyone involved with the body transfer even though as Harold Angel he doesn't see himself as the perpetrator.
Perhaps it was believed by the parties involved that Johnny Favorite could inherit a new soul and start all over again vis--vis murdering the soldier and taking his soul in exchange, but like all things with mortal men you cannot trick a higher power, not even one of God's fallen servants.
I think a better twist for the movie (I never read the book) was to reveal the soldier as a clean shaven DeNiro and that would explain the whole jumbled mess Harold finds himself in towards the end. You don't need the sin of murdering the soldier to count against him, you just need all of the lives Harold took along the way to cover up his charade. -
Urmelita — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 09:26 AM)
The way I see it, the ritual transferred Harry's soul into Johnny's body, so the two actually share it. By and by, Johnny lets Harry be the one in charge, kinda hiding behind his soul, so the devil won't find him. But he's always there in the background, without Johnny knowing it, and ready to "take over" when some action is needed to cover his tracks.
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Drooch — 9 years ago(November 02, 2016 02:13 AM)
The devil tells Rourke that the hideous murders he committed to cover his tracks were 'guided by my hand, of course', so Johnny can't have been successfully 'hiding' during any of the events in the film.
When Rourke has his well acted 'I know who I am' moment at the end, I wonder if that's a genuinely confused Harry, or Johnny in denial? It's all rather complicated and not clearly explained, but basically works because the film is awesome.