The Fallen Hero
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Harrison
Ford usually plays the hero in his films or even a rogue-turned hero. Over his
career, this is the character archetype that he has developed into. In Mosquito Coast, one can actually argue
that he is a sort of fallen hero. Even though Allie (Harrison Ford) degenerates
into fanaticism that eventually leads to almost destroying his own family, I
would still argue that he plays the part of the fallen hero. Maybe because of
his usual archetype as a rogue or lead hero, this film was a very complicated and
ambitious film from an artistic point of view (Pfeiffer 159).
In the
very first act of the film, the audience can see Allie take the first step
towards fanaticism when he decides to not show up for work on the asparagus
farm. Allie instead acts very rebelliously and tries to convince his boss that
his invention is worth the time that he took off from work. Here, he shows his
first step towards fanaticism in his inventions and actually causes harm to
another person in order to achieve his invention. This harm may not be physical
harm, but instead, Allie is harming his farmer boss's business and harvest.
In the
second act of the film, Allie's step towards fanaticism comes when his
invention Fatboy explodes and kills the three marauders inside. At this point,
his colony of Geronimo also gets destroyed in the process. He began showing
signs of fanaticism with his fear of the three marauders invading his colony,
but he truly did not cross the line until Allie threw away his moral
convictions and resigned to inflicting harm on the three marauders. Allie
originally intended for the three to simply go to sleep and become frozen,
which indicates to the audience that Allie did not really intend to kill the
three. However, due their actual deaths, Allie finally crossed the threshold
into a point of no return. This event sparked a fuse in Allie to rebuild his
colony elsewhere and cross into fanaticism by eventually lying to his own
family about America being blown up and destroyed.
In the
last act of the film, Allie's final step towards fanaticism becomes realized
when he burns declines to travel downstream towards Hatty's home and chooses to
travel upstream instead. This act of defiance harmed the family because they
all wanted to return to civilization. Another instance of true fanaticism was
when Allie burned down the church due to pure hatred of the Reverend. This is
important because he did not care about anyone's well-being anymore and chose
to only satisfy himself. He truly became obsessed with himself and his way of
thinking, and Allie did not stop until there was no one standing in his way.
Overall, Allie truly stepped into chaotic fanaticism and almost did not redeem
himself until the very end right before his death.
Smith - Comment
ReplyDeleteI agree that Harrison Ford’s character has changed but I would not exactly call him a fallen hero strait away. I found him to be the opposite of a hero but I did not see him in this light until I read your blog. I think that in Star Wars he was an actual fallen hero and I did not see many similarities between their situations or actions. I may have just been biased and missed a different point of view. When watching this film I continued to hate his actions and decisions. Even from the beginning I appreciated his ingenious inventions and his ideas but his conspiracy theories and the way he treated his family kept him from being any sort of hero in my eyes.
Your scenes were well chosen and I feel like they depicted very good images of the turning points in Allie’s fanaticism. I had not noticed the business cost that his invention would have cost his boss. I agree completely with your second scene but I do not think you put enough blame on him about bringing in his son to help him freeze these three men. Killing them was an accident but it could have been avoided if he hadn’t invited them there in the first place. It just showed that he makes mistakes and that he should take responsibility for them. Last of all, it is not clear if he burnt down the church on purpose or not but when the final voice over of his son comes on at the end, it is the first sign of his acceptance and a possibility of a happy ending.
In Mosquito Coast, Harrison Ford goes against his character type. Ford, while usually portraying the roguish anti-hero, plays an insufferable, condescending individual. Allie is a man who is obsessed with his vision of what he believes America should be. To accomplish his goal of creating a perfect civilization, he will slowly degenerate into a man with no humanity. Allie changes very drastically throughout the film. He wants things his own way, and will step on those who oppose him.
ReplyDeleteI thought that you picked very good scenes to illustrate how well Allie's downfall occurred throughout the movie. The scene where Allie refuses Mr. Haddy's offers really seals the deal in the fact that Allie is now insane. He wants to help his family, but will not take help from a "savage"