- Also known as:
- Unknown
- Year:
- 2003
- Predominant Genre:
- Drama
- Best Performances:
- Plot:
- Small town harbors a fugitive from justice; thinking they can exploit her as a kind of underpaid slave.
- Themes:
- Personal change
- Self-expression
- Compassion
- Totalitarianism
- Political Correctness
- Similar To (in Plot, Theme & Style):
- Revolver
- Mephisto
- Review Format:
- DVD
Rape is the New Love
Clever look at Acceptance among Whites.
The township here is only willing to accept others so long as they are born into the community in which they live: Outsiders will always be tolerated outsiders - and nothing more. A ghost town of living corpses whose repressions make conscientious civilization there impossible: A moral and emotional trap for the unwary traveler.
We come to realize that the friendliness of this White community is a mask covering the resentment of having to be nice to people you do not like simply because they are members of the same clan. This engenders the bitterness that posits others as permanently estranged no matter how acceptable they might be objectively. Yet, Whites actually need those they fear so that they can try to evade solving their personal problems by focusing outwardly onto others and away from themselves. The very attitude that makes them unhappy is the very attitude they cling to in order to give themselves any sense of who they are. After all, it is easier to take out ones frustrations on those labeled permanent outsiders, since they have less power to fight back. This also has the advantage of keeping the false relationships with insiders going, since they can then define themselves by what they are not, so that they do not have to engage in the hard work of becoming anything. As with genetics, the “gene pool“ of White social relationships becomes generationally-diluted - to its eventual demise. All attempts to protect culture lead to cultural stasis.
The film also successfully mocks the White delusion that small town life is somehow better and more human than city life by showing that such games happen in all White communities - no matter their size. Because of the decline of the family as the basic unit of White society and the resultant neurotic neediness and desperate wanting-to-be-liked that results from seeing ones culture as a substitute family. By conflating the Personal with the Political, in this way, emotional blackmail results as Whites find they do not spontaneously warm to each other; faking friendships to feel less alone. This explains why Whites can behave immorally; living in such a permanent dread of social-ostracism, that they will do just about anything to be accepted (even if the acceptance is little more than an act). It also perpetuates the decline of White culture, which continues to see the Family as the source of social ills because it has become so politicized as a form of fascist social control; producing well-paid careers for hordes of psychiatrists. This also helps explain why Whites favor a theoretical approach to life in order to rationalize rejected-because-painful emotions. They thus define themselves in terms of their weaknesses that are most-often revealed by the presence of outsiders; hence the hostility to same.
That such an excellent cast should assemble for such an unconventional narrative is little short of miraculous - despite the lead’s affected acting style. This helps with the deft characterization that properly differentiates all the characters will quietly explaining their shared goal.
The inability of Whites to trust outsiders is fully-explored by revealing White culture to be a game played to achieve the maximum exploitation of others. By pretending that if outsiders allow themselves to be exploited (ie, integrate), they will eventually be accepted – despite the fact that the day of acceptance never arrives. Whites know this fantasy makes them angry and alone because it is not ultimately fulfilling, yet fear to live without the comfort of the false social power it provides.
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