I picked this movie up on Blu-Ray for my birthday, and have watched it again, and will watch at least one more time before I write my take on it. The film came out in Los Angeles shortly after my mother had come to visit, and right before her cancer would begin to rapidly bloom within her, and then take her life less than two months later. My viewing of the film at that time was entirely tinted by our family's impending loss, and I am not kidding when I say that the film, with it's Mormon-ish cosmological take on the creation and family, on death and the meaning of life, felt as if it had been released for me alone, to help me through that time. It is really that deeply personal take on the film that has prevented me from writing about it any sooner.
Jennerstein, just quickly, Jack is the oldest, and the one who is later played by Sean Penn. The youngest boy, the one who plays the guitar, is the one who dies at age 19. I was able to pause the Blu-Ray during the scene when his Mother receives the telegram reporting the news of his death. The boy died in a car accident in Mexico City in what appears to be the year 1968. Jack, too, seems to die, which is what I think happens when he crosses the threshold in the desert, and is reunited with other souls. I haven't read this take any other place, but I think that the view of the bridge, right at the end of the movie, foreshadows Jack's suicide (which partly explains his look of resolution as he leaves his office and makes his way to the bridge, and the conscious decision he seems to make in the desert when he crosses through the door).
The real question that I have is this -- what are we to make of the middle brother? I'm not entirely decided, but I am currently working from the theory that the third brother is OUR proxy, a witness to the creation. Jack is a type of Cain, the youngest is a kind of Abel, the parents are Adam and Eve, their neighborhood the garden of eden, and we are all of the other descendants, left to consider those archetypes. This is my uncommitted take after two viewings, though I will have to see it again to see if this interpretation stands up to closer scrutiny.
Jennerstein, just quickly, Jack is the oldest, and the one who is later played by Sean Penn. The youngest boy, the one who plays the guitar, is the one who dies at age 19. I was able to pause the Blu-Ray during the scene when his Mother receives the telegram reporting the news of his death. The boy died in a car accident in Mexico City in what appears to be the year 1968. Jack, too, seems to die, which is what I think happens when he crosses the threshold in the desert, and is reunited with other souls. I haven't read this take any other place, but I think that the view of the bridge, right at the end of the movie, foreshadows Jack's suicide (which partly explains his look of resolution as he leaves his office and makes his way to the bridge, and the conscious decision he seems to make in the desert when he crosses through the door).
The real question that I have is this -- what are we to make of the middle brother? I'm not entirely decided, but I am currently working from the theory that the third brother is OUR proxy, a witness to the creation. Jack is a type of Cain, the youngest is a kind of Abel, the parents are Adam and Eve, their neighborhood the garden of eden, and we are all of the other descendants, left to consider those archetypes. This is my uncommitted take after two viewings, though I will have to see it again to see if this interpretation stands up to closer scrutiny.
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