Film Comment: Rubber

Rubber (2010) is a film only a true film geek (like me) could appreciate.  It is an absurdist horror film about a serial killer who is a rubber automobile tire.  This sounds silly, and would lead one to expect something similar to the inspired insanity of the comedic cult classic, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.  Rubber is not a comedy.


Robert (the tire) rises up from the desert sand one day and stands up on his tread.  Then he starts to roll.  Along his randomly meandering way he learns that he can, by intense concentration, cause things (tin cans, birds, rabbits) to explode.  It is only one small step up from rabbits to people.  The killings are depicted in all the gore and visual nastiness of the most extreme horror films.


Killing randomly as he goes, Robert becomes obsessed with, and begins to follow, a young woman who is driving alone on the desert highway.


Robert, of course, is not real, he is a character in a film which is being observed by a group of people, the audience, standing in the desert sand, using binoculars to observe the events as they progress.


The audience is totally helpless, exposed to the elements and the desert, so engrossed in watching the action that they fail to take care of their own needs.  No one even thinks to eat.  Late that night they all fall asleep on the desert sand.  When the members of the audience wake up, they are very hungry and selfishly fight among themselves for their share when their desert guide throws a cooked turkey into the sand.  The guide doesn't tell them that he has loaded the turkey with poison and they all die a painful death.  Only an old man in a wheelchair survives, because he was suspicious and refused to eat the turkey.


Of course, none of this makes any sense.  That's the entire point of the film.  In the first scene, one of the main characters tells us, "The film you are about to see is an homage to "no reason," that most powerful element of style."


The internet is buzzing with discussions about this film.  Most say that this is not about the tire at all, but is about the relationship between movies and their audiences, more specifically, how skilled directors can draw their audiences in and cause them to become involved in the film, in some cases becoming part of the film.  I see something deeper, I see "no reason."


We all have underlying world-views, presuppositions we use to make sense of the world around us.  In the case of this film. "no reason" is the real message of this film.  Life is meaningless. There is no purpose.  There is no absolute truth.  The only constant is randomness.  Whatever happens, happens for no reason.  Whatever one believes or does is acceptable and no one has any basis for questioning the actions or beliefs of anyone else.  Does this sound familiar?  It is the aggressively and rapidly growing worldview known as post-modernism, the logical and inevitable end result of secular humanism.  Though it grew out of naturalism, rationalism, and humanism, it declares all religious, philosophical, and political paths to be equally valid, even when their truth claims are mutually exclusive.  In its declaration that all "truths"are true, it in effect declares that there is no such thing as truth, there are multiple truths.  Your truth might not be my truth.  Nonsense rules.  Logic and rational thought are rejected.


The Bible has an answer to this nonsense:

"And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,  Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.  And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this?  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel,  If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.   This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus"
Acts 4:1-13.


 

A Little Fable

I believe that "A Little Fable" is in the public domain.  If I am in error on this I will remove it immediately.

A Little Fable, by Franz Kafka.

""Alas," said the mouse, "the whole world is growing smaller every day.  At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when at last I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into." "You only need to change your direction," said the cat, and ate it up."

When I was in college, there was a student there, a very free-spirited girl, who had a reputation for never missing a party.  She was friendly, never met a stranger, and everyone liked her.  Then, one day, she disappeared.

Eventually, her body was found and her murder was linked to a serial killer after one of his victims was able to escape.

Everyone was talking about the case.  When the idea was advanced that the girl contributed to her own murder by the situations in which she placed herself, one person became incensed.  "You're saying that she deserved to be raped and murdered!"  Others insisted that no, she did not deserve to be raped and murdered, but she did place herself into dangerous situations which she could have avoided if she had chosen to do so.

We sometimes create our own boxes, our own mazes, our own traps, our own prisons.  There is an old Southern saying (I've "cleaned it up" for this blog), "If you walk in the sewer, you will get sewage on your shoes."

We all make many choices and each choice we make in a particular direction, good or bad, makes it easier to make the next choice in the same direction.  It also makes it less likely that we will turn around and go back the way we came. (Remember our old friend, μετάνοιά/repentance, from the 9 February 2011 post?)

Each bad choice we make can limit our future choices and we can paint ourselves into a corner.  This is an American idiom which calls to mind the image of a man with a can of red paint who begins painting the floor as soon as he enters a room.  When he reaches the far corner of the room, the only way out is to walk back across the wet red paint.

The foolish mouse in "A Little Fable" made poor choices, increasingly boxing itself into one particular direction.  When it finally realized its error, it turned around, and there was the cat.