The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living.
(Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC
We are simultaneously scared and excited by death. Death you might say consumes us, or rather, we consume death. Death has become a commodity. We live in a world, which is dominated, and even controlled largely by mass media, what Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer call the culture industries (1993: 1). In today’s society, this has become a visual domain consisting of television, cinema, advertising, pop fiction and the Internet, simultaneously reflecting and influencing society, exemplifying a ‘commodity culture’. Death is visually fascinating, whether it is the dying, the dead, or fear of dying- war, terrorism, or even apocalypse, death is seen as a sight of spectacle and voyeurism in our society. In a post 9/11 world (assuming this as a massive rupture in Western societies view of death and destruction) we have become sadly fascinated with images of death. However, it isn’t necessarily within the war machine, it is the sublime and tragic death in recent natural disasters, as well as a fascination with dead celebrities, or even the execution of Saddam Hussein (Foltyn 2008: 7). I wonder if it is purely just a sick fascination and reality check, or if rather it is the fact that we cannot imagine or comprehend our own death, so we seek to shock ourselves with the death of others. We have become desensitized to visual images of death, therefore we constantly seek further into this taboo to try wake ourselves up, to realize death becomes us. Within this paper, I seek to explore the representation of death in the films Southland Tales (Richard Kelly, 2006) and No Country for Old Men (Joel Coen, 2007) and how death linked to the body and furthermore the corpse, has become a commodity in our culture, extorted not just through its simulated versions on film, but also through a wide range of mass media, which capitalizes on it, rendering the dead body an ‘infotainment’ commodity (Foltyn 2008: 4).
…Our own death is indeed quite unimaginable, whenever we make the attempt to imagine it we [only] really survive as spectators. At the bottom nobody believes in [their] own death… in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of [our] own immortality (Freud 1953, 304-5).
Death is seen in Southland Tales, as a post 9/11, post-apocalyptic American society. Which has become consumed by fear and capitalism, as the Bush administration has put cyberspace under government control, through USIDent, as the World goes into WW3.
This is a time not so far removed from the reality of today, perhaps even a tragic look into the future, there is a drastic fuel crisis, the war on terror has spread to Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, and North Korea, and America has become governed by a totalitarian regime. Fear of ‘ Big Brother’ in the guise of USIDent, an identification and tracking system controlled through televisual screens, rendering people as disposable identities. Life is taken at will, and the only real escape, if only short lived is through drugs or suicide. It’s bleak, Neo-Marxist underground groups seek to abolish the governments capitalist regime, and juxtaposed to this is an environmental crisis, prompting the development of an alternative energy source. Fluid Karma, developed by the company Treer, is this new energy source, which works by quantum entanglement the pull of the oceanic tides. Tested as a drug on soldiers in the Iraq war, run by a cult-like Baron who is not only obsessed with Fluid Karma, but also with sex, linked both to consumption and the machine. Death is exemplified in Southland Tales through biblical references to an apocalypse, death in war, suicide, and the government’s sinister right to shot at will. The death of the physical body, as a disposable everyday occurrence, is shown firstly through the nuclear attacks on Texas, which wipe out two whole cities during July 4th celebrations. This is shown using a hand-held camera documenting a suburban street and house hold enjoying family festivities, when the ground is shattered by a large bang, proceeding to the vision of an atomic mushroom, and screen thus fades to light, signifying an end to life.
This is how the film opens, followed by television screens of the present day, three years or so after the attacks. The use of the hand held camera offers a realistic home video style sequence, the realism making the images even more shocking.
The mushroom cloud, within our society signifies significantly the horrific attack on Hiroshima, which can be seen as sublime, as it is beyond our minds comprehension. Jean-Francois Lyotard states that, in the sublime there is a crisis where we realize the failure between the relationship of our imagination and that of the faculty of reason (Appignanaesi et al. 2004: 22). Sublimity, Lyotard says occurs in the unrepresentable, the instance; ‘the now,’ not ‘what is happening?’ but instead rather ‘is it happening?’ the sublime he states is beyond cognition, ‘presenting the existence of something beyond representation’ (Silverman 2002: 228-229). Death of the individual body due to sickness we understand, but larger scale terrorist attacks, mass murders and death in war is harder to fully comprehend unless we are physically apart of it. Private Pilot Abilene can be seen as the films prophet, he is the all seeing narrator, physically scared by a ‘friendly fire’ in the war, his scar resembling a looking glass around his left eye, which can perhaps be seen as a symbol of his all seeing power.
…This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a whimper, but with a bang. (Private Pilot Abilene, Southland Tales)
This scene shows Private Pilot Abilene (Justin Timberlake) have a drug induced hallucination due to injecting Fluid Karma into his blood stream. We see Abilene (also worth noting he shares the name of the city in Texas which was blown up) in a hyper real moment, fringed with a sense of absurdity, loaded with satire, against America, consumerism and the war on terror. The girls dancing are like pornographic simulations of Marilyn Monroe, objectifying their bodies, in latex nurse costumes. The camera follows Abilene has be stumbles his way through the girls dance, drinking Budweiser and all the while singing to The Killers song, ‘All The Things That I Have Done.’ What is important about this scene, is the way it represents death, Abilene is making a statement about his place within the war, he is singing the lyrics “I’ve got soul, but I’m not a Soldier…” What’s significant is he has blood down his chest and back, like a religious shield almost, and the fact that he is drinking Budweiser is significant, because Budweiser, along with Hustler is sponsoring the war on terror. So Abilene is saying basically F*** the war on terror, consumerism and America. the lyrics exemplify the social construction of identity, what we do and look like has become who we are. furthermore Abilene is saying he is not a ‘soldier’ because that is just a social construction, and the only real identity we need is empathy, a ‘soul’ beneath the social ‘armor. This scene can be seen therefore as exemplifying a social death (Hallam et al. 2001:63), Abilene doesn’t want to be a soldier, and doesn’t want to be apart of a war which has become just another capitalist machine (Bogue 1989: 100-103). He has witnessed Fallujah, been scared both physically and emotionally and now in this drug induced karmic moment, realizes he wants to follow ‘The Road Not Taken‘ (Frost 1916).
Southland Tales not only emulates our anxiety of the death of the body, through the terrorist attacks on Texas, as well a death of our social identity, it is also represented through the threat of suicide. This is referenced four times, when a character feels life is worth ending. What’s interesting is why the use of guns to the head becomes the ultimate way out. This perhaps creates a dualism between the gun culture as a commodity in America, and also the war on terror. Another important element is the fact they live in a society run by surveillance cameras, which not only watches their every move, but has snipers ready and waiting to shoot to kill, if needed. So surely the idea of putting a gun to the head- quick and relatively easy, is far more appealing than being shot by someone else? It is also worth exploring the quote ‘I’m a pimp and pimp’s don’t commit suicide’ which is repeated throughout the film, through different characters. It can be understood according to Kelly in terms of America’s depiction of pimps, as ‘tough guys’ and suicide represents a sense of giving up, defeat, so the quote ‘I’m a Pimp, and Pimp’s don’t commit suicide’ can be seen as saying ‘I’m a tough guy, and we don’t give up’ (apparently in an EMPIRE interview 2006). Finally the most obvious representation of death within Southland Tales is represented through the biblical apocalyptic death, as Abilene says …This the way the world ends, not with a whimper but with with a bang.
Another way of viewing death is exemplified through the article ‘The Body in Death’ (2001) Hallam et al. explores the relationship between social identity and the body. Drawing from theories regarding the body in crisis (Shilling 1993; Featherstone 1991) they seek to challenge the limitations of previous social theories regarding the body. Featherstone and Shilling argue that appearance, “gesture and bodily demeanour” become representational of that individuals identity (Featherstone 1991: 189; Shilling 1993: 1). This idea is juxtaposed to earlier theory, which saw identity through the mind, and the body only as a ‘container’ (Hallam et al. 2001: 63). I would argue that the body is a social construction (Shilling 1993: 62), and our true identity lies within the people who know us; furthermore we live on in their memories, even without a body. Using the death of a celebrity for example, we can see that they are immortalized in death, so much so, that fans will pay to see their grave site, or buy their biography, thus companies turn their death into a commodity: pumping out documentaries, books, bio-pics, memorabilia…the list goes on. The body can be seen therefore as a socially constructed identity, and a critical key to our existence (Hallam et al. 2001: 71). Juxtaposing however is the idea that a person can undergo a social death, so a loss of social identity, yet still be physically alive. This can usually occur when a person’s body is not in its prime. Society seems to only place a full sense of identity on the physically sound, even perfect body; thus the sick, the old and the overweight become outcast, and can socially die (Mulkay 1993 sighted by Hallam et al. 2001: 63).
In No Country for Old Men, the representation of death doesn’t just occur in the literal sense, but also in the haunting images, and in the persona of the killer, who can be seen to represent ‘Death’ in entirety. Set in Texas in 1980, it is the story about an ex Vietnam War veteran, Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a contract killer Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), and a Sheriff- Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones). Moss (the films protagonist) is out hunting when he stumbles across a scene of a mass murder, a drug deal gone wrong. The darkness in this scene is exemplified through the Coen’s visually confronting cinematography- broken glass, bullet-ridden cars, bodies of humans and even a dog lies decaying in the Texan heat. A pick-up truck, which is full of heroin, sits conflictingly as a symbol of foreboding. Tracking his way out further into the harsh Texan Landscape, Moss goes in search of the drug money, discovering it next to a dead body, decaying under a tree- and it is his for the taking; regardless of the dangerous consequences. What’s important about this scene, and many of the scenes to follow, is the use of visual motifs, the landscape, the tree, the dead dog, these all set up an ideological critique on mortality. It’s what is said in the images and not in the dialogue, as the images tell us everything- sweeping shots of the vast Texan landscape, harsh and remote, a boot-scuffed floor that added a more horrific element to the already graphic death scene; the crack of light beneath a door blotted out by Chigurh’s menacing shadow.
The most important element is the fact the film reaffirms what we already know, humans are not immortal we will die. However, when Moss, our leading hero is killed, we are shocked, as Hollywood doesn’t usually kill the ‘good guy’ especially not the leading protagonist. We are suddenly drawn attention to the fragility of life. Moss’s death shows us something more real about life, and it terrifies us. It’s the moments off screen, and the lingering emptiness of some of the images that tell us far more about death. The fact that Moss is, or was, an ex Vietman Soldier, shows us his apt ability at facing death, he has seen it, and so has Chigurh and Bell, the filming is cultural, we live in a world dominated by these images of death, yet we cannot comprehend our own mortality, we struggle with this concept, and it surrounds us. Ultimately No Country for Old Men is telling us that violence, and death, is nothing new to our society, there is a war on terror, and its closer to home then we comprehend (Mellen 2008: 8). Another representation of death within No Country for Old Men is Chigurh’s method of a ‘coin toss’ in order to gamble between life and death, this is not an unusual concept, but it is a terrifying one, as we are unable to comprehend our own death as it, thus when we are asked to choose between a possible life or death, we realize just how inherently fragile our bodies are. Whilst in Southland Tales death is threatened through the use of a gun, and through ultimate apocalypse, in No Country for Old Men, death is seen brutally through Chigurh- who is quoted as being in line with ‘the bubonic plague’ and not only is he a representation of death itself, but also his weapon of choice is a cattle air compression gun, which shoots a hole through through the head.
Death is everywhere. It is not only there on the screen, but it is there in society. It is about the body, and about the mind. As seen through the example of celebrity, identity can be immortal, our bodies however are not. We are both fascinated and petrified of death, we cannot comprehend our own death, so we seek pleasure and/or shock in seeing death, and in seeing dead, dying, and decayed bodies. What the mass media does however, is capitalize on death, death has become the new social taboo; we are no longer shocked by sex in our society, in fact we live in an overly saturated sexed up commodity culture. Southland Tales and No Country for Old Men represent death as we know it, although both films draw no illusions to immortality, they simply state we are mortal, and death is imminent. If your lucky, you will live on in the memories of those left behind, and perhaps in a history book…but then it won’t really matter will it? The basic fact is, your death will become a commodity.
Bibliography
Elizabeth Hallam, Jenny Hockey & Glennys Howarth (2001), ‘The Body in Death’, in Contested Bodies, Eds. Ruth Holiday and John Hassard. London and New York: Routledge: 63-77
Chris Shilling (1993), ‘The Socially Constructed Body’ in The Body and Social Theory, London: Sage: 1, 62
Hugh. J Silverman (2002) ‘ The Suspense’ in Lyotard: Philosophy, Politics and the Sublime, ed. Hugh J Silverman. New York, Routledge: 228-229
Joan Mellen (2008 ) ‘Spiraling Downward: America in Days of Heaven, In the Valley of Elah, and No Country for Old Men’ in Film Quarterly, 61(3) spring: 8
Jacque Lynn Foltyn (2008 ) ‘Dead famous and dead sexy: Popular culture, forensics, and the rise of the corpse’, in Mortality, 13(2): 4, 7
Michael Featherstone (1991), ‘The Body in Consumer Culture’, in The Body. Social Process and Cultural Theory, Eds. M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth and B.S. Turner. London: Sage: 189
Richard Appignanesi, Chris Garratt, Ziauddin Sardar and Patrick Curry (1995), Introducing Postmodernism, Cambridge: Icon Books Ltd: 22-23
Ronald Bogue (1989), ‘Desiring Machines, the body without organs, and the nomadic subject’ in Deleuze and Guattari, London and New York: Taylor & Francis Group: p100-103
Robert Frost (1916) Mountain Interval, New York: Henry Holt & Company.
Sigmund Freud (1953), ‘Thoughts for the Times on War and Death’ In The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Vol. IV. London: Hogarth Press: 304-5
Theodor Adorno & Max Horkheimer (1993), ‘The Culture Industry: enlightenment as mass deception’, in The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. Simon During. London and New York: Routledge: 1
Filmography
No Country for Old Men, Joel Coen, 2007
Southland Tales, Richard Kelly, 2006/2007
Seashells and sunflowers, money oh my 