Friday, November 19, 2004
The Incredibles
I realize I'm late with this, but I just saw The Incredibles last night and I want to talk about it. Well, about one particular aspect of it.
First of all, what a fun movie. Mrs. Lorrimer and I had a great time -- it's been a while since I seriously wanted to stay in the theater and watch the next showing right away. As has become the norm for Pixar, almost everything about this movie simply works -- it's funny when it tries to be funny, surprising when it tries to be surprising, and even has some compelling drama in a couple of places.
The superhero stuff is classy and fun, as it should be in a movie like this. The powers, costumes and names all seem right. Those of you who know where "Lorrimer" comes from know that I have a special place in my heart for superhero stories that focus on the day-to-day real life emotional complications of people with superpowers, and this movie obviously does a thorough job of this. Treating superheroes in this way is no longer anything like a new conceit, but it's still a pleasure.
However. There's a deeper pleasure I take in superhero stories that actually examine the politics of the superhero. The Watchmen is the classic example of this. The essential question is whether superpowers give someone the right to impose their will on the non-powered public -- even if they're doing so out of a desire to do good. With great power comes great responsibility, but that's far more complicated that the latest Spider-Man movies will ever even consider dealing with.
Now, I wasn't expecting or even hoping that a kids movie like The Incredibles would have anything to do with the ethical ramifications of superherodom. I certainly wouldn't complain if it avoided the subject altogether. But Brad Bird's script goes out of its way to raise these very issues -- superheroes being sued and then relocated by the government, superpowered children competing with regular humans, etc etc etc -- and then resolves them in the most backward, fascist, reactionary way imaginable. When Elastigirl tells her superpowered son that everyone is special, he replies, "That's the same thing as saying no one is." The badguy makes a huge point about not having any innate superpowers. He starts the movie ashamed of his lack of specialness, becomes a badguy as a way to compensate for it, and is both mocked and defeated exactly because he is a normal human. The theme of this movie is that some people ARE more special than others, and should act accordingly.
Again, I loved the movie, and I wouldn't bring this up if the movie didn't specifically raise the issue first. But as has been pointed out repeatedly in grownup comics like The Watchmen and in any sort of critical analysis of the superhero genre, there's a big problem with saying that a subset of people should be able to impose their will on the masses, maybe even more so when the identifying characteristic of the subset is innate. The idea of the superman is dangerously close to fascism. If I had a better education or a lot more time to spend on a silly blog, I would quote Nietzsche and whoever else and back up this point with solid research -- but you get the idea.
I'm curious if anyone else agrees with me on this, or if I misread what the movie is actually saying about superheroes. Whether this matters or not is a different discussion; I enjoyed the hell out of the movie and plan to see it again in the theater and to buy the DVD.
¶ 2:12 PM
I realize I'm late with this, but I just saw The Incredibles last night and I want to talk about it. Well, about one particular aspect of it.
First of all, what a fun movie. Mrs. Lorrimer and I had a great time -- it's been a while since I seriously wanted to stay in the theater and watch the next showing right away. As has become the norm for Pixar, almost everything about this movie simply works -- it's funny when it tries to be funny, surprising when it tries to be surprising, and even has some compelling drama in a couple of places.
The superhero stuff is classy and fun, as it should be in a movie like this. The powers, costumes and names all seem right. Those of you who know where "Lorrimer" comes from know that I have a special place in my heart for superhero stories that focus on the day-to-day real life emotional complications of people with superpowers, and this movie obviously does a thorough job of this. Treating superheroes in this way is no longer anything like a new conceit, but it's still a pleasure.
However. There's a deeper pleasure I take in superhero stories that actually examine the politics of the superhero. The Watchmen is the classic example of this. The essential question is whether superpowers give someone the right to impose their will on the non-powered public -- even if they're doing so out of a desire to do good. With great power comes great responsibility, but that's far more complicated that the latest Spider-Man movies will ever even consider dealing with.
Now, I wasn't expecting or even hoping that a kids movie like The Incredibles would have anything to do with the ethical ramifications of superherodom. I certainly wouldn't complain if it avoided the subject altogether. But Brad Bird's script goes out of its way to raise these very issues -- superheroes being sued and then relocated by the government, superpowered children competing with regular humans, etc etc etc -- and then resolves them in the most backward, fascist, reactionary way imaginable. When Elastigirl tells her superpowered son that everyone is special, he replies, "That's the same thing as saying no one is." The badguy makes a huge point about not having any innate superpowers. He starts the movie ashamed of his lack of specialness, becomes a badguy as a way to compensate for it, and is both mocked and defeated exactly because he is a normal human. The theme of this movie is that some people ARE more special than others, and should act accordingly.
Again, I loved the movie, and I wouldn't bring this up if the movie didn't specifically raise the issue first. But as has been pointed out repeatedly in grownup comics like The Watchmen and in any sort of critical analysis of the superhero genre, there's a big problem with saying that a subset of people should be able to impose their will on the masses, maybe even more so when the identifying characteristic of the subset is innate. The idea of the superman is dangerously close to fascism. If I had a better education or a lot more time to spend on a silly blog, I would quote Nietzsche and whoever else and back up this point with solid research -- but you get the idea.
I'm curious if anyone else agrees with me on this, or if I misread what the movie is actually saying about superheroes. Whether this matters or not is a different discussion; I enjoyed the hell out of the movie and plan to see it again in the theater and to buy the DVD.
¶ 2:12 PM
Comments:
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you know what i found interesting about the "villain" in the movie; he goes out of his way to talk about how when people want power, they get guns, and that "some countries" have all the power because they have all the weapons. the movie seems to be condemming that concept. now, while i know that this is a pixar film, and pixar is cool, i find it... ironic, shall we say... that the film was produced(?) by disney, and that disney is a corporate superpower that gives a huge amount of support to the republican party and perpetuates the violent, senseless, megalomaniacal, militaristic policies of the bush administration. ah well, whatcha gonna do.
did you catch the map of emeryville and oakland on the gps system of the car at the beginning of the film? i saw the movie at the new emeryville movie theater and there was quite a reaction from the audience when the zoom-up on the map happened and you could see adeline and stanford and shattuck... very cool.
oh, and i was at your subway station today... i call it the josh station. did you know that your name only has 1 "r"?
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did you catch the map of emeryville and oakland on the gps system of the car at the beginning of the film? i saw the movie at the new emeryville movie theater and there was quite a reaction from the audience when the zoom-up on the map happened and you could see adeline and stanford and shattuck... very cool.
oh, and i was at your subway station today... i call it the josh station. did you know that your name only has 1 "r"?
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