Allie Fox, played by Harrison Ford, is an inventor, husband and father of four, living in the United States in the 1980s. He is devoted to his inventions, and extremely critical of his country and its capitalism, materialism, consumerism. It seems to me that he was fanatic from the very beginning, since he was obviously "filled with excessive and single-minded zeal," which is how Google defines fanatic. This does not mean he should be considered "crazy" yet, however it was already a problem since it interfered with his functioning – he was not doing what he was employed for.
In the beginning of the movie, or the first act, this fanaticism brings him to quit his job, giving up his family's only income. He then decides that they will immediately move out of the country, to Central America. He makes this decision so quickly that they do not make any plans – they simply leave, without selling or renting their house, even leaving the dishes in the sink, and having absolutely no clue where they will be living. This doesn't seem so bad yet – it is impulsive, fun, they are going on an adventure, and the whole family is happy, even Mother. But looking back, this was the first step in the degeneration of his mental health, the first step of his downfall. Of course his family do not start to see something wrong until they arrive in the town he had bought without having seen it.
The second main incident that contributed to his downfall would probably be the arrival of the three armed men he invited to his town (although the ice melting on his way to the native village also did). This pushed him to attempt crazy things to get rid of them – first telling them they were infested with ants and burning all their furniture, and when that didn't work, attempting to freeze them to death in Fat Boy. Allie had changed enough to consider killing as a good solution to his problem, and that is the biggest step he took towards insanity. He had lost the little respect his son Charlie still had for him. Even though somehow killing them seemed to make more sense than destroying all his furniture.
The last important incident occurred when the family reached the missionary's settlement. During the night, Allie set their church on fire, simply because he disliked the missionary and disagreed with his views and teachings. Taking that action was the culmination of his mental illness, the final straw. He was shot; and although his family cared for him and were sad to see him die, they were also relieved.
Solid response, I like how you touched early on about how Fox seems crazy from the get-go. From the very first time he spoke, Fox's character just seemed off to me. I almost half expected some of the crazy things that happened in the film, just from seeing the fanatical devotion Fox seemed to have for his ideas. His brilliance covers well the fact that he's crazy, because he is able to be productive by inventing things. I think that if he wasn't an amazing inventor, and was a real person, people would have serious concerns about his mental state.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I think is important to note, is how helpless Fox's family is to his command. He is the patriarch of the family, always asserting his dominance over his family. He tells them they're picking up and moving, and they do it almost without question or hesitation. In asserting his control, Fox even goes as far as calling his wife "Mother" instead of by her actual name. There are families that do that, but it should be noted that in the essence of script-writing, her name isn't just her name, but partly how we see the relationship between characters.