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I think I know a main reason I disliked Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth. At the time I could only articulate my dislike for Pan's Labyrinth as "it glamorizes death, and that offends me".
Someone in the poli sci/history departments printed out this article and left it by the copy machine, so I read it. It's very short: "To Resist Hitler and Survive" by Susan Neiman.
"The courage of such people should not be forgotten, but the message their stories convey is grim: their deeds cost them their lives, and accomplished nothing. It’s a message that comforts the millions of Germans who didn’t try to oppose the regime... deterred less by the Nazi terror than by a much older message: heroic action is futile, and mostly ends in death, besides."
Exactly. This whole mythos of self-sacrifice is one I find very dangerous. Who does it inspire, exactly? Who does it scare? Not that I think we're all self-interested Hobbesians. There may have been an age when people ran like lemmings over a cliff, toward the promise of valor (the Third Age of Middle Earth?) but I don't think (most of us) are in it now. Right now we're living in Idioteque: "take the money and run", when good people stay quiet to save themselves. Not an unreasonable response considering we all must stay alive; I just wonder what effect martyrdom in the movies has on the average disengaged individual who contemplates making a stand, any stand, but still would prefer not to die. They're probably going to turn off the DVD player and say, "well, on second thought... I do like my nice warm home and my nice warm life. rather not begin eternity yet."
I think the only people who find mythologized heroic deaths resonant are the people who have lost people, and all it inspires in them is anger. [and the only reason I still love The Lion King is that it's more about Simba's reaction/growth in response to Mufasa's death - and Mufasa is his father after all]
That is just my experience.
Someone in the poli sci/history departments printed out this article and left it by the copy machine, so I read it. It's very short: "To Resist Hitler and Survive" by Susan Neiman.
"The courage of such people should not be forgotten, but the message their stories convey is grim: their deeds cost them their lives, and accomplished nothing. It’s a message that comforts the millions of Germans who didn’t try to oppose the regime... deterred less by the Nazi terror than by a much older message: heroic action is futile, and mostly ends in death, besides."
Exactly. This whole mythos of self-sacrifice is one I find very dangerous. Who does it inspire, exactly? Who does it scare? Not that I think we're all self-interested Hobbesians. There may have been an age when people ran like lemmings over a cliff, toward the promise of valor (the Third Age of Middle Earth?) but I don't think (most of us) are in it now. Right now we're living in Idioteque: "take the money and run", when good people stay quiet to save themselves. Not an unreasonable response considering we all must stay alive; I just wonder what effect martyrdom in the movies has on the average disengaged individual who contemplates making a stand, any stand, but still would prefer not to die. They're probably going to turn off the DVD player and say, "well, on second thought... I do like my nice warm home and my nice warm life. rather not begin eternity yet."
I think the only people who find mythologized heroic deaths resonant are the people who have lost people, and all it inspires in them is anger. [and the only reason I still love The Lion King is that it's more about Simba's reaction/growth in response to Mufasa's death - and Mufasa is his father after all]
That is just my experience.
( a movie quiz )
