What does Black Mass even mean?
Let’s play: What’s in a name?
Black Mass is three weeks from opening in theaters, but have we yet paused to ask ourselves: Why does the big budget Whitey Bulger biopic have that title?
The easy answer is that it’s based on the 2000 true crime book of the same name by Dick Lehr and Gerard K. O’Neill. Their Edgar Award-winning novel solidified the phrase’s synonymous status with the South Boston gangster. But even Lehr, a former Boston Globe reporter and current faculty member at Boston University, wasn’t familiar with its origin before their editor, Geoff Shandler, suggested it.
“Like with every book, we were on an e-mail chain throwing [titles] around,’’ said Lehr. “Frankly I didn’t get it, but Gerry did because he’s Catholic.’’
The authors toyed with a few options — including Ties that Blind — before settling on Black Mass. The phrase, which essentially represents “a perversion of the Catholic mass,’’ Lehr explained, is a metaphor for the FBI’s corruption, with Bulger as the devil. “It plays in the idea of an unholy alliance,’’ he said.
The term might sound familiar because Harvard Extension School’s Cultural Studies Club attempted to host a “black mass’’ reenactment on the school’s campus last May. It was eventually moved off-campus, and the club’s involvement was officially rescinded. Because, as you can imagine, some people were kind of peeved.
Last September, Satanist Adam Daniels hosted a black mass at Oklahoma City’s Civic Center, which yielded this fun description by the Tulsa World:
“It will begin with music by the band God in a Machine, followed by a lecture from Daniels on the purpose of the black mass, a ritual denouncing Jesus Christ and swearing allegiance to the devil, blasphemy against Christ, and stomping on and spitting on a wafer, representing the host, the element from the Christian communion… It will conclude with a reverse exorcism, casting the Holy Spirit out of the person.’’
Daniels’ crusade was later the subject of an episode of ABC’s Nightline, which featured self-described Satanists doing pretty much exactly what the World described.
[fragment number=0]
Warner Bros. optioned the book with producer Brian Oliver in 2005 — after Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax company toyed with the rights before the book’s 2000 release — and despite some changes and delays in productionandcasting, the name remained.
“I don’t really have any insider access to Warner Bros.,’’ Lehr said. “But, then again, here, Black Mass has a lot of name recognition. I can’t imagine any other title at this point.’’
Who plays who in Black Mass
[bdc-gallery id=”108912″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com