The art of the deal
The film Solomon Kane (2009, directed by M.J. Bassett, was a brave attempt to give an origin story to Robert E. Howard’s mysterious puritan avenger. Within the first few minutes of the film, Kane is thrown into a confrontation with a being known as the Devil’s Reaper – and it’s not just his life that is at stake, but his very soul. “I am here to claim you, Solomon Kane,” the Reaper says. “Your deal is done.”
Kane is taken aback by this statement, and viewers who were familiar with the original source material might have been too. In the context of the film, though, the Reaper’s statement shouldn’t be that surprising. After all, Kane is fresh from having callously, even maliciously, despatched a number of men, some of them part of his own crew. If anyone were likely to have made some sort of deal with the devil, this piratical man seems a good candidate. And the Reaper is quite insistent that such a pact exists. “There was a deal,” it tells him, “And your soul is the price.”
It could be argued that the Reaper is the servant of the Prince of Lies, and that its words can’t be trusted. But there is no apparent reason for the Reaper to lie. From the moment it appears, the Reaper seems to have the upper hand: its first demonstration of power forces Kane to scream and collapse to the floor, clearly afraid. The Reaper seems confident that Kane will bow to the inevitable. And when Kane refuses to do so, the Reaper is quite ready to use its superior strength (and the longer reach of its sword) to defeat him in combat. The idea that the Reaper would throw in a flimsy lie to try to distract Kane really doesn’t seem that plausible.
As you sow, so shall you reap
It seems likely that there was an actual pact with the devil, and that the price was Solomon Kane’s soul. That begs the question of how such a pact was made. It seems fairly clear that Kane himself never explicitly, or knowingly, made a pact. “What deal?” he demands of the Reaper. “I made no deal.” Kane might be lying in a desperate attempt to save himself, or to stall for time, but he seems genuinely surprised and angry. His protestations continue, as he tells the Reaper, “You cannot take my soul”, and “The Lord protects me.”
It’s possible that Kane sold his own soul implicitly, rather than explicitly, by turning to a life of evil and committing terrible sins. However, there’s a difference between being a sinner and making a pact with the devil. And the Devil’s Reaper talks quite specifically, and repeatedly, of a deal with a set price, when it could have simply said something along the lines of “Your life of murder and greed have damned you.”
And if Kane had damned himself by becoming a sinner then surely the devil would not have been able to claim his soul until he died naturally. If the Reaper were able to claim a person’s soul (along with their life) as soon as they committed a sin, there would be no opportunity for them to repent or to mend their evil ways. In such a world, there would be no possibility of redemption. A deal, on the other hand, is the sort thing that might have terms and conditions that would allow a soul to be claimed at a specific time, or under certain circumstances.
Unhappy in their own way
If Solomon Kane did not make the pact with the devil, there is only one other person who could have done it: his father, Josiah. Even in the dark and turbulent world inhabited by Solomon Kane, it may be difficult to believe that a man would do such a thing to his own son.
But from the first time that we see the rather dysfunctional Kane family, it’s obvious that Marcus is the most favoured of the Kane siblings. It’s not clear whether Josiah Kane likes, or loves, his eldest son more than his youngest. It’s possible that he’s simply a man obsessed with protecting the family line, with fulfilling his duty to pass on his titles, lands and wealth in the proper manner. When it comes to Solomon, though, Josiah does not care about the boy’s wishes or his future happiness. “What you want is of no importance”, Josiah tells him bluntly, and then proceeds to disown the boy.
Desperate times
Imagine Josiah Kane’s position when Marcus lay comatose after his fall from the cliff. If Josiah genuinely loved Marcus, his love and his grief would have motivated him to find a cure for his eldest son. Even if Josiah only cared about the continuation of the family line, he would still have been strongly invested in restoring Marcus to health. Josiah would have had the option of naming Solomon as his new heir, but by that time the lad had undoubtedly fled. Josiah wouldn’t have known where to find him, or even if he was still alive.
Besides, Josiah was angry with Solomon – for his initial defiance, and for being the cause of Marcus’s accident and the ruin it might bring to their family. In fact, for all Josiah knew it might not have been an accident. Josiah could have been forgiven for believing that Solomon had tried to murder his brother out of anger or spite, or the desire to hit back at the father who had cast him out.
Whatever reason, or combination of reasons, led to Josiah’s decision, he was clearly desperate to bring Marcus back. Josiah admits as much to Solomon. Describing the bargain he made with Malachi, Josiah says, “I offered him everything I had just to bring Marcus back to me”. It’s possible that this ‘everything’ included Solomon’s soul.
A truth that’s told with bad intent
Malachi’s words seem to confirm that Josiah sold his son’s soul to the devil. When Solomon Kane confronts him, Malachi taunts him with his father’s actions. “Your father was a child”, Malachi says. “A pathetic fool who made a pact with the Devil. He betrayed you. Your soul is damned.” The implication of Malachi’s words is clear: Josiah betrayed Solomon, making a pact with the devil that forfeit Solomon’s soul.
Of course, it’s possible that Malachi is lying about the pact – either about its existence, or about Josiah being the one who made it. Like the Reaper, though, Malachi’s lying to Kane would do nothing to help his plan. When Malachi taunts Kane with his father’s alleged actions, everything is going the way he wants it. Malachi has successfully lured Kane to Axmouth and is about to unleash the fire demon to take Kane’s soul to hell. Malachi has done what his master asked of him.The only reason for Malachi to lie would be to make Kane suffer, to get in one extra little twist of the knife. Malachi is, or at least was, a human being, and perhaps he’s not above taking a little malicious pleasure in goading his adversary. His next words suggest as much, when he asks Kane, “Are you still the good, loyal son?”
Such guilt
But if Malachi’s words are a lie used as a weapon against Kane, surely there were other words that would have hit home a little harder, truths that would have wounded him deeper. After all, Kane was responsible, albeit not deliberately, for Marcus’s injuries. And it’s only been a matter of minutes since Kane killed his own father in the dungeons, the latest casualty of the chain of events that Kane set in motion on that fateful day.
Also, if the pact is a lie, then Malachi chooses to use exactly the same lie as the Reaper. It’s pushing the bounds of credibility to believe that that was a coincidence, that Malachi and the Reaper both just happened to come up with the same story to use against Kane. It’s entirely possible that Malachi knew what the Reaper had said to Kane in Africa. But it does seem far-fetched to imagine that Malachi would remember the lie that the Reaper told Kane and decide to recycle it months later.Darkness and chaos
All in all, the evidence does suggest that Josiah Kane made a pact with the devil, selling Solomon’s soul in return for a cure for Marcus. The film may feature an array of evil sorcerers, witches and demons, but it’s the Kane family that is the true dark heart of the story. Solomon became a cruel, evil man in the face of grief and guilt, and familial rejection. Josiah was callous, or distraught, enough to sell the soul of his own son to the devil.
But perhaps the most horrifying thing about this whole situation is the implication that one person is able to sell the soul of another without their consent. No wonder Solomon Kane sounded so aggrieved when the Devil’s Reaper revealed the truth.
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