The Mosquito Coast
When we first watch this film, we notice the huge step that Harrison Ford has taken away from his usual role as the hero or the rogue hero. Allie is a stubborn, unstable, antisocial person that is unable to make rational decisions after a while and is not fit to run any civilization, no matter how small. His inconceivable paranoia causes him to dramatically alter the lives of his and his family because he makes them move away from the disaster land called America.
Act 1 was the first 35 minutes and other than them leaving America for a rural area in Honduras, the main scene that was important was Allie and his family finally arriving in their newly won land. He gives a speech to the natives. During this speech I feel like his vision might not be the worst idea because he is asking for the peoples opinions and is not treating them like slaves. This is the beginning stage of his road to fanaticism. Fanaticism is widely excessive or irrational devotion, dedication or enthusiasm.
During Act 2 The scene where the Reverend comes to bring the jars of fruit that his wife has made to check up on Allie and his new attempt at a utopian society occurs when both the Reverend and Allie are basically fighting over who is best to lead a society. Allie has this hammer in his belt and it is a perfect shot from High Noon with a gun on Gary Cooper. It’s like a standoff at the ok corral and is a perfect example of conflict that those two characters feel during the entirety of the movie. Both of these men are very alike and mirror each other at times because both men are consumed by self-righteousness and completely unable to take responsibility for their mistakes and admit any flaws to themselves or especially their families. In this scene we see his educational background and how it is shaping his warped view on the world and feeding his fanaticism.
There is a second scene in Act 2 that I found important. Allie uses his native people practically as slaves them to help lug the parts up the hill to make the ice machine was somewhat similar to the slaves lugging the bricks to build the pyramids in Egypt. No matter what Allie pretends to be trying to save the world by getting rid of the corruption, he himself is corrupting his new utopian world when he makes the ice machine and essentially industrializes his new home. He sees himself as the last real ma alive and that his ideas and inventions are the only thing that will save our universe and the human race.
One of the big scenes in Act three was at the very end of the film during the voice over that Allie’s oldest son gives. His father dies and the last voice over says that ‘when my father was alive the world was old and small and one my father died the world becomes limitless. The quote, “He’s a good father and a bad father. He’s a monster, a clown, a fool, a genius” (Pfeiffer 157) shows the unique diversity of Allie’s character and his development throughout the film. His father was influencing his views on the world and telling him how to think and was such a controlling force against his family’s life. His excessive fanaticism of a utopian society with just the simple life and his inventions led to his family’s destruction.
I am glad that you have included the second scene from act 2 that you have mentioned. Visually, this is the beginning of where we see Allie's limit of what he can do on his own. He can buy a piece of land, but when it comes to physically shaping it, he can not do it on his own. Dragging the cargo up the ramps was all happening because of Allie. It mirrored slaves building the pyramids. Instead of being driven by whips, they were driven by Allie's empty promises and giant personality.
ReplyDeleteIn a similar way as the construction process, Allie needs help when the bad guys come to Jeronimo. In a way, Allie enslaves his oldest son by forcing him to do things that Allie physically can't and Charlie morally doesn't want to. As a kid, he was killing the men in a horrific sort of way. Allie didn't even explain it to his son. He just commanded him and then didn't allow him to go back to save them once he realized they were going to die in fire.
This fallible nature of Allie reflects many aspects of colonization during phases of imperialism. Plantations were owned by men who had slaves do the harvesting for him. It is a concept very far removed from a simple farming family which it seems like the family had back in America.
Zoe Hall
ReplyDeleteI appreciated your incorporation of different scenes into your blog. You deviated away from the obvious scenes which everyone else (including myself) analyzed. I'm not sure if I really agreed with your analysis of the first scene you discussed as an indication of fanaticism, at least in terms of your definition. You state "This is the beginning stage of his road to fanaticism. Fanaticism is widely excessive or irrational devotion, dedication, or enthusiasm." I don't think this is really shown in his speech to the natives, as you also expressed, I felt like this was the only time in which I could get behind his idea. I think the best examples for when his fanaticism is expressed in this way, would be in scenes where he shows absolute disregard for other people's feelings (the hardware store), livelihood (the asparagus farmer), or safety (shipping his family off to Mosquito Coast). His irrational devotion to his ideas causes him to completely regard the rest of humanity, and worse, causes him to think that he is doing the right thing for them and by them.
I really liked your parallels in Act two not only to the reverend but also to the villagers as Egyptian slaves. Fanaticism has been a recurrent vein throughout history and it is shown through these parallels. Religion has commonly been the factor behind fanaticism and the dismissal of lives deemed inconsequential, whether it be that of the Christians and their Holy Wars (relating this to the Reverends personal holy war, and Allie's technological war) or the Egyptian Pharaohs understanding of themselves as gods and their fear of death.