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ATTENTION CONSERVATION WARNING: Long, long post ahead. Dubious theorizing ahoy!
Six months late to the party, as usual—but I just saw this on DVD, and it did not disappoint.
I want to look at some points and questions that have already been raised in the thread:
From whence spring meek-and-mild Jim's reserves of violence?
Can we at any point consider Jim to be "Infected," even metaphorically?
Why do the Infected not attack one another?
There's a scene that hasn't gotten much attention in this thread, and to me it's the key scene—the bit at the cheeseburger stand, where Jim wanders off on his own and is attacked by an Infected boy, whom Jim kills, ostensibly in self-defense. When he exits, he is shaky—but does not tell Selena what happened inside.
After this scene, up until the end of the film, Jim does not kill any more Infected.
He does not act when Frank becomes Infected; he does not participate in the shooting at the mansion; during his rampage in the rain, he sets the Infected Mailer free, rather than killing him; he uses Mailer as both a distraction and a hunting hound; Jim kills every soldier he can get his hands on—except the two who have been Infected by Mailer.
Why do the Infected not attack one another?
This film is, as have been pointed out, a parable of dehumanization—a process which goes on at several levels: the Infected become literally unhuman; the survivors must harden themselves to the prospect of violence; the soldiers objectify as Other both the Infected (who want something of them) and the "ladies" (of whom they want something).
And there's something horrible about the glee with which the soldiers mow down the Infected, as if they were playing a video game; something unseemly about the way that Mark gives out a jubilant whoop as the service station explodes; something disturbing about the scene in the never-filmed "Radical Alternate Ending" where Selena is blowing the heads off wandering Infected from a distance, teaching herself to use a rifle—or as if she's playing a video game.
Now, violence in video games is cathartic, and can help you deal with your own feelings of powerlessness and frustration—and it's harmless, because, you know, nobody really gets hurt, do they?
Why does Jim go into the cheeseburger stand by himself? It's a foolish thing to do, given the circumstances: the possibility of finding survivors there is minimal, there's nothing of value to be foraged—why, it's as if Jim wants to be attacked...
Try this on for size: Jim has awoken into a nightmare world. He's lost everything. Selena won't sleep with him, even though he practically is the last man on earth. He feels frustrated and terrified and powerless.
The Infected are the manifest symbol of everything Wrong in his world.
And violence can be cathartic...
And, you know, it's not like they're really human, so killing them doesn't really count... does it?
Maybe Jim walked into that diner hoping (probably unconsciously) for the chance to open up a big can of whoop-ass. That hopeful "Hello?" (which, y'know, was such a good idea back in the church) may as well be a neon sign reading ZOMBIE BAIT.
But when the attack comes, it's a child. Bad enough. But the child speaks—the only Infected in the film to do so.
I hate you.
Now this is interesting, because it does a couple of things. First off, the fact that the boy speaks at all makes it impossible for Jim to continue to regard the Infected as mere objects, or even as "mindless killing machines": he knows now that there is sentience there, albeit crude and one-note. When a school of sharks smell blood in the water, they'll go into a feeding frenzy—they'll bite each other, and some will even bite their own tails, if they get them too close to their mouths. The Infected aren't like that: they retain an awareness of self (I) and also awareness of not-self (you).
Secondly, what he says provides an interesting perspective on the nature of Infection, and the motivations of the Infected. If they retain the concept of Self and Other—I and You—it's no great stretch to extend that to the group—Us and Them. In other words, the Infected have become in effect a clan, a race, perhaps even a separate species—and they are rampant xenophobes. I hate you = Infected hate uninfected. And apparently the Infected can recognize each other on sight: the scene with the full-length mirror made that point—a Siamese fighting fish will attack its own reflection, but the Infected soldier just made a few dominance grunts. Again, the Infected not mindless killing machines like Romero's zombies—they're an angry mob.
(It also served to disturb the hell out of me, just thinking about it: imagine being in telepathic contact with an Infected, hearing its thoughts—nothing but an endless loop of I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you I hate you. Disturbing.)
After the events in the diner, Jim kills no more Infected. Why?
Maybe Jim has become small-i infected with empathy, or with identification—seeing the Infected as full-blown chronic victims of a "disease" that in most of us lies latent, surfacing only in rare, mild episodes.
Or maybe he feels that the Infected, as in effect a new breed of being, cannot be judged by human standards. I dunno. The Infected kill because they must, because they are compelled by a consciousness that has shrunk to the size of I hate you. They cannot be expected to do otherwise, anymore than a lion can be expected to adopt a vegetarian diet.
Jim does pass a harsh judgment on the soldiers, killing apparently without compunction; retain their full cognitive functions, but have by choice and by design reduced their worldviews to a xenophobic Us and Them—rejecting their God-given consciousness and conscience, dehumanizing themselves on purpose—an unforgivable sin. So he either kills them or engineers for them to become Infected—but never both.
And I would argue that Jim kills with a sense of purpose—the purpose being escape—rather than out of blind anger. Like the Infected, he kills because he must (though his reasons are very different from theirs) and takes no pleasure in it.
I can't help but think of Jim's experience in the diner as a sort of inoculation—or maybe it's the point at which his fever breaks, so to speak, and he goes into remission. It's still a vague and ill-formed idea, but it's one I haven't heard yet.
Anyone have any thoughts? |
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