Love overcomes?

May December (2023)
Director: Todd Haynes

A May-December marriage is between two people with a wide age gap. May refers to the proverbial spring (of life), while December refers to late autumn or winter.

The story is based on the 1997 infamous case of Mary Kay Letourneau, an elementary school teacher in Washington, aged 34, who had sexual relations with her 12-year-old student, Villi Fualaau. She was charged with rape. She delivered a love child during the trials. She was later imprisoned for breaking a plea agreement. After her release, the teacher and student married in 2005 and went on to have a set of twins. Mary already had four children when she was teaching Villi. She was having troubles in her marriage and was diagnosed as having bipolar disease. Both Villi and Mary justified their actions as acts of love.

This film revisits the Mary Kay-Fualaau family in 2015. The timeline is out here. The couple has three kids, including a pair of twins. An actress, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), who is to play Mary's part (Gracie in the film, Julianne Moore), drops in the household to get a feel of things to play the role. At the end of the day, the viewers get more than what they bargained for. It tries to dive into the family dynamics as their second born (the twins) graduates from high school. Elizabeth tries to do more than is needed. She tries to interview Gracie's immediate family and ex-husband to get a composite picture of what made Gracie and Joe (Villi's part) get together. She also tries to evaluate the family dynamics.

What we gather is a domineering, control-freak kind of a wife who wants to have the final say in everything. She creates an aura of calmness and a business-as-usual atmosphere at home. In reality, at best, she is passive-aggressive in getting things done. She is disliked by many and is a registered sex offender. She continues receiving hate mail. People boycott her. Joe, on the other hand, appears unsure about everything. He is a passive member of the family. It seems like he has had arrested development, missing all the late teenager's years of exposure. If we remember, he was burdened with father's duty at 13. As the movie progresses, we can see that Joe has second thoughts about the arrangement but lingers on for the children's sake, not wanting to be the cause of their psychological well-being. In real life, Villi and Mary Kay divorced in 2019.

The actress Elizabeth, on the other hand, is no saint either. She uses her unique position and feminine charm to extract all she needs from people around here, including bedding Joe, for her career advancement.

An interview with a Tamil actor still at the height of his career and has a late teenage son comes to mind. When asked about the pros of marrying early, he replied that one's life is more malleable when young. Marrying young gets one to mould himself to fit the demands of the new family. Delaying one's marriage to a later makes one develop routines and idiosyncrasies that are challenging to shake off, quickly creating friction. I disagree with that statement. Getting committed at a tender age to the whims and fancies of the raging hormones, ill-prepared for the challenges of family life can be disastrous, too. The appreciation of the wedding institution and the willingness to uphold it at all expense would ensure success. 

Bending the minds towards one particular narrative would ensure the continuity of the status quo. Some call this 'Peace on Earth'; others call it the domination of the elitists. When the mind becomes inquisitive and screams to break free, they call it a revolution, which can be 'Hell on Earth'!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

When the hunted becomes the hunter!

Prey (2022)
Director: Dan Trachtenberg

When the film 'Predator' came out in 1987, it was a hit. It was the time of American jingoism. The free world believed that America was the only superpower around and only they could give the best solution to all of world problems. Rambo and his First Blood franchise did just that. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Muscleman from Austria, did not want to be left behind. After fighting baddies from all four corners of the world, it was only natural that our Mr. Universe try a hand at muscling down enemies from out of this world. 

When 'Predator', a sequel to 'Prey' in terms of story timeline, came out, it was a super duper hit. Shot in the lush forest of South America with cinematography completed with sense-around movie theatres, moviegoers thought that was the pinnacle of Hollywood's moviemaking.

The movie developed a cult following. Comic books were rolled out, bankrolling on its success. Board games and computer games ensued. After all possible clientele were exhausted, the natural course of action was collaborating with followers of the 1979 'Alien' franchise. Since the main characters of both 'Alien' and 'Predator' fought extra-terrestrial forces, it was only logical that fighting matches were fixed between these two alien forces. Numerous spinoffs were churned out subsequently.

Following the 1987 film, many sequels came out with not-so-creative titles. 'Predator 2' (1990), 'Alien vs Predator' (2004), 'Alien vs Predator 2' (2007), 'Predators' (2010) and 'The Predator' (2018). 

After exhausting all avenues of reaping profit from the 'Predator' franchise, the logical next action plan is to return to the basics. So they went to the beginning, pre-independent New World, in 1719, when the Comanche people roamed the land freely. The first Yautja, the villain, probably landed on Earth and started his hunting expedition. 

In keeping with the times, the cast and the storyline are kept politically acceptable to the people in Hollywood and the viewing crowd at large. The protagonist has to be a lady, of course, and from a minority group, a Native American. Comanche language is spoken liberally throughout most of the film. The whites are depicted as uncouth, uncultured and heartless carpetbaggers. 

Everyone is a hunter here. The Yautja hunts for sport. The Comanches hunt for survival to satisfy their basic needs of food and shelter. Over the generations, the Comanches have developed a symbiotic relationship with Nature. They hunt what is needed and maintain peace with their surroundings for generations. The French hunters depicted here are observed to be evil, hedonistic, self-serving people who turn violent because they can. They abuse Nature by hunting bison indiscriminately for monetary gains and torture the Comanche for the kick of it. 

In its visually pleasing display, we experience the hunted turning the table against the hunter in the thick of American wilderness at a time when being civilised meant staying in zen with Nature, not abusing and raping the environment for personal gains. The prey becomes the predator for survival. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.