"Stone" as a Modern-Day Biblical Story

I admit to the following interpretation as more free associative, perhaps imaginative, too, than systematic or deliberate.  I found "Stone" to be a brilliant, compelling film, but its poor showing in the box office suggests I am one of relatively few movie goers who loved it.

Ready?

"Stone" is a modern-day Biblical story.  Jack and Madylyn are the young couple we see at the outset, living an intolerably staid, oppressive life, at least far as Madylyn finds it to be.  They are Adam and Eve.

A snake tempts the couple into eating the forbidden fruit.  In the film, Lucetta offers Jack a hard-boiled egg, and he picks it up hesitantly and nibbles at only part of it.  She persuades him into eating the whole thing, a foreshadow of the seduction she entraps him with.

The snake is the Devil, of course, and perhaps it is no accident that the name Lucetta is a takeoff on Lucifer.

Which brings us to Stone, the prisoner working diligently for his release.  He is Jesus.  Stone is the titular figure, and that in itself may be telling.  Writer Angus MacLachlan situates him at the center of a decidedly religious story.

Stone discovers a pamphlet on Zukangor at the prison library, and he learns about the belief that some sort of sound accompanied the realization of a spiritual truth.  As the film progresses, we see him transform from a purely foul-mouthed, confident prisoner, to a more troubled, hesitant man who definitely hears that sound amid the din of prison life.  Perhaps, then, Stone is the messiah.

Zukangor must've been a change MacLachlan made from Eckankar, a religious movement that began in the 1960s in the US.  It derives from the Sanskrit Eka Omkāra, a name for God.

Jesus is the Galilean preacher, whom Christians have generally painted as kindly, patient and holy.  But God made him an incarnation of Himself, that is, simply as a man among men and women.  But what if, with imaginative lenses, we saw him more like Stone?

Lucetta may also be Mary Magdalene, who was one of Jesus' closest followers.  Apparently Christian beliefs that she was formerly a prostitute are unfounded.  Lucifer and-or Mary Magdalene, Lucetta is definitely a sexualized figure in the film.

Moreover, Jack may also be Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor who holds Jesus' fate in his hands, just as Jack has official say in whether or not Stone should be released.  Jesus was arrested for blasphemy, that is, for giving the impression that he was the Messiah, Son of God.