The dark humor Australian film Bliss (1985) carries the potential of evoking deep reflection on one's life and maybe even create an existential crisis from a moralistic perspective.
Bliss may be described as a story of atonement, spiritual re-birth & the transformation process, self actualization, truth and enlightenment whose main theme is that even when deemed socially acceptable and 'Joy'ful, each man ought to reflect upon his role and 'fruit' (ie the outcome of his contribution) in the world and select to follow the path that resonates most deeply with his conscience. Doing this is the only way he can be happy to leave the physical life.
The film introduces a very relate-able character, the regular middle-aged white man, Harry Joy and his family in metropolitan Australia. They live the ideal Western life. He sells advertisements for a living and loves his wife, Bettina. They have an enjoyable existence in their nice house. Although he is quite average and lacking originality, no doubt, he feels successful and happy about his place in the world. Even his fruit, his children, look well set for the world; his son is about to study to become a doctor while his daughter (Lucy) will become a social worker. He was such a model citizen that he got along with everyone. He even believed in the goodness of society as it was. For instance, he believed everything he read in the newspaper.
It is not by chance that Harry likes to tell stories and has found they help him to wing through life to avert unpleasantness. The opening scene begins with Harry Joy telling his family a story around the dinner table. Only a second viewing of the film reveals that this story telling is symbolic of how nothing about his life is real. Everything viewers see is an illusion.
Later, viewers realize that the wise-sounding narrator has been none other than Harry. In keeping with the concept of rebirth, it is no surprise that he uses the distant third person to describe his earlier life when he was still the 'old Harry Joy'. The narrator has grown spiritually into a new man and can no longer identify with his former self.
Harry Joy has a heart attack and is dead for 4 minutes during which he has an out of body experience (OBE). He floats above trees and looks down at his body when he has the desire to return to his body to atone for his lifestyle. His OBE is the story's 'inciting event' that completely changes the pace and direction away from those of the story's opening scene towards the gradual beginning of Harry's process of transformation. The OBE forces him to deeply feel the extremes of 'heaven' (blissful pleasure) and 'hell' (torturous pain) for the first time. Ultimately, he decides that he did not want to die and so returns to his body to continue living.
The story's conflict begins from this introduction to good and evil. The film treats the next scene as a peeling away of the illusion to reveal the dark realities of human life. Within this context, it challenges the viewer to see human life as reaching at point of purgatory and therefore an opportunity for Harry to make choices so as to expatiate his sins. To an extent, the film condemns ostensibly 'good' Western civilization. These systems collectively become Harry's antagonist. With Harry's newfound conscience that represents a force for 'good', this conflict plays out in chain of events that occur immediately upon his return to life. Life becomes nothing short of punishment-filled 'hell' as he is now on the receiving end of a corrupt society from each encounter.
- This starts from as early as the church leader, a symbol of religion, whose apathy, shallowness and spiritual incompetence fail miserably in satisfying Harry's search for deep answers about 'heaven' and 'hell'. The confession of Alex Duval (discussed later) is reminiscent of how the church condones the world's sinfulness by accepting confessions but not bringing about remedial change of any type. Ultimately therefore, the church is arguably portrayed as a false prophet of sorts; only pretending to offer enlightenment and truth.
- Policemen, symbols of the justice system, refuse to believe the truth that his car was wrecked by an elephant that sat on it. They are no more competent at recognizing truth than some of his friends who think the truth (of the elephant case) is only a lie. They beat him up to punish him when he symbolically belches garlic (a sulfuric odor), a symbol of freeing himself from lies (evil). Ironically however, the policemen are more forgiving when he tells them a story that he has stolen from some other source.
- Harry's business partner, Alex Duval symbolizes the apathy displayed by the average employee of corrupt institutions. Although he knows all the insider details to take a stand, he feels too fearful of losing his money and lifestyle to do anything about it. So, as if writing away his sins through confession, he has sacrificed time each Saturday for 10 years to make detailed reports of the evil to which he is an accomplice and then files them away within the private confines of the office. He calls his weekly sacrifice his 'punishment'.
- Every member of Harry's ostensibly perfect family symbolizes the unwholesome of many human relationships. Each member lives some significant dark lie. For instance, his wife and close friend / younger business partner (Joel) are having an extramarital affair, his daughter Lucy incestuously performs oral sex on his son (David) who is symbolically dressed in a Nazi uniform. She does this to finance her drug habit. The son not only encourages his sister's habit in the seediest way but is also a chauvinist and lacks loyalty to his father. David's disloyalty is especially ironic because he (David) wants to follow his father's footsteps to partner with a 'successful' businessman known to have a questionable character. David would not mind investing in putting his father away in a mental hospital to avoid his father's opposition. David's character remains so one dimensional that its reprehensible nature is unavoidably clear even in his character's down moment. He sprays carcinogenic insecticide inches above the full dinner table to kill a few mosquitoes while the family debates how they can admit Harry into the psychiatric hospital. Like Lucy, David is another of Harry's fruit for which Harry must also atone. Joel's many elaborate practical jokes in which he pretends to be seriously hurt by gasoline explosions and so on is similar to Harry's tales. However, they suggest a choice to be careless about something that is a serious matter.
- Adrian, Harry's client, a symbol of self-aware corrupt higher-ups, is so resigned to the nature of things that he knowingly continues to sell cancer causing substances to the unknowing public while his wife dies of cancer. Unlike the conscience-stricken Alex Duval, he embraces corruption with no regrets. He represents human scum, with no real worth. Not surprisingly, this type of person can only think of quelling Harry's new found conscience chatter by hiring sex workers, a sign of the exploitation of others. This otherwise largely undeveloped character evokes disdain. He is a lost soul, a mindless mass of flesh going through the motions of an ostensibly 'successful' life. With all the biblical references, he may be seen much like a slave for hell, working to bring corruption to mankind.
- The psychiatic hospital and the warden are symbols of the supressed truth and institutional social services (hospitals, schools, etc). The warden is a truth-killing, sociopathic money grubber who plays with the lives of people in their care like pawns on a chess board. Ironically, the only 2 characters (Alex Duval and Harry) admitted for isolation from society are those who are most in touch with integrity, truth and moral conscience. However, the hospital is like a soft form of imprisonment that represses them and keeps them away from society. Rather than harnessing the good they offer, these patients are kept only for the sake of getting a commission. The character 'Selda' (who transforms into 'Honey Barbara' later on) is evidence of this. Like Harry whose moral conscience has been ruffling feathers, she too had been considered 'crazy' by the mental health system and was therefore hounded like a criminal.
In short, the antagonism of 'evil' will not allow Harry to freely act according to his conscience and remain happily in society. His true rebirth finally occurs when, as the narrator explains the "old Harry Joy" 'met his end' (a point that coincides with his wife's suicide). He drives his car through the jungle to its final resting place among trees and wades through muddy waters to a commune. It is at that point that the narrator changes to the first person 'I', speaking of seeking a quieter place and Honey Barbara.
Character Transformations
Only two characters are fully transformed. Honey Barbara transforms from being a prostitute (hired by Harry's former crooked client) to a self-actualized woman on her own path in the forest. Her process preceded and inspired Harry's very palpable transformation. It is not surprising that she is the only one from Harry's past that is featured in his new life.
After all, the women in his life are symbolic of what he seeks. It is therefore not surprising that he begins to seek out the already self-actualized Honey Barbara upon Bettina's death. His focus had changed and his transformation was nearing its completion. Her (at least partial) aboriginal roots also symbolize not only getting closer to the land and roots but, considering the historical marginalization and exploitation of aboriginal peoples in Australia by white peoples, Harry's new found ability to care for others. He no longer seeks only to exploit her sexually but to bond more deeply. Indirectly, this union also atones for his son's Nazi antics, pimping activities and involvement in drugs (which are in stark contrast with Honey Barbara's health food and back-to-nature lifestyle).
The final act of the story is a reminder that transformation take time. For instance, even though the new Harry is staying in the jungle with Honey Barbara's father, he tells his un-original stories. The fact that he has settled in with the father of the symbol of his end goal suggests that, although he has been reborn, he is with a parent figure because he is only in his infancy stage. In contrast to this story telling (seen since the first scene), the final scenes involve the telling of his own original and real story. He has therefore ended his transformation into the man he is meant to be.
The fact that Alex Duval is happy to assume Harry's identity in the hospital shows that his character started its process of transformation, first towards some type of 'joy' (as the name suggests) but without wishing to advance beyond the safety of being another 'Harry Joy'. After all, Alex is not fully resigned to corruption as Harry's client. The contrast between Harry and Alex Duval's character even provides a subtle suggestion that Harry's heart attack might not have given him insight into the ways of the world he had not previously had. Harry had always been Harry 'Joy', capable of those worldly insights, even before his heart attack. Consequently, the only difference between these 2 'Harry Joy' characters was that, unlike Alex Duval, the real Harry Joy was more motivated to transform his life.
Other Symbols
Honey Barbara is a symbol of what Harry needs to become transformed. She refuses to talk to him ever since she left him in the city because he resisted his higher conscience and still chased after the trappings of his old self. She had always had an affinity to bee honey. Knowing this, he plants special flowering trees near her home to eventually win her over. He knows that, if the bees can access the flowers of these special trees, she will recognize and appreciate the enhanced flavor of her bees' honey in April when the bees normally starve and produce low quality honey. He refers to the 8-year process of watching the plants grow his love letter to her. This is a reminder that becoming transformed is a process that requires patience and nurturing. The unfolding of this process is realistic and therefore an attractive feature of the film.
Honey Barbara's transformation may be compared with that of Mary Magdalene, the woman in Jesus' life who had been rumored to be a prostitute. She helps Harry towards his transformation. However, in keeping with that Magdaleine parallel who was said to have witnessed the christ's crucifixion, burial and resurrection, Honey Barbara appears strategically placed into Harry's life from his hell-like existence.
However, the fact that bee honey symbolizes delight and joy in the bible is noteworthy as it suggests that to some extent and despite his imperfections, even Harry helps to deliver Honey Barbara to a higher level of what she always was.
When she tastes the honey that is higher quality than normal, Honey Barbara's transformation advances and she makes amends with Harry. They start a new life and produce a daughter. At that point, the daughter becomes the narrator (a skillful touch for telling a story of personal transformation). The love relationship between Honey Barbara and Harry symbolizes the completion of transformation for both. Their union even suggests the reconciliation between forces of exploitation that he represented on one hand and on the other; the exploited (not only the marginalized aboriginees but other exploited groups like women who had been sexually exploited).
The transformed couple of Harry and Honey Barbara symbolizes transformed humanity. They quickly disappear from the plot and their daughter symbolizes the good fruit they leave behind to the world. It is therefore no wonder that, when a branch falls on Harry, he has no further desire to return to his physical life (as he had during his first NDE). He therefore now chooses to die finally. The casual drink he has with his daughter has the feeling of Christ's last supper. In contrast to the start of the film, his daughter uses truthful and original stories to close the story.
The transformed couple of Harry and Honey Barbara symbolizes transformed humanity. They quickly disappear from the plot and their daughter symbolizes the good fruit they leave behind to the world. It is therefore no wonder that, when a branch falls on Harry, he has no further desire to return to his physical life (as he had during his first NDE). He therefore now chooses to die finally. The casual drink he has with his daughter has the feeling of Christ's last supper. In contrast to the start of the film, his daughter uses truthful and original stories to close the story.
Needless to say, Harry and Honey Barbara's new daughter essentially replaces his first daughter's hugely contrasting character whose name (Lucy) is reminiscent of 'Lucifer' who is often depicted as a rogue angel. This replacement suggests that 'good' triumphs over 'evil'. In the end, Harry Joy transcends and accomplishes Bliss.
The trees and the extent of their presence in the film have always symbolized Harry's progress in his process of rebirth, transformation and protection (from the 'other' world). As he rose through the sky during his OBE, Harry felt himself 'stroked' by 'green' and 'leafy' matter. Although present, they were sparse. However, in the jungle, he obsesses over having as many of them around him as possible. In fact, he plants many of them daily. He has become so connected with the forest that he feels how their growth "affect" him.
Audience Reaction
The film's demands on the audience to ponder deeply on 'dark', more thought-provoking material might explain why this masterpiece failed to garner the popular vote when the film was initially released. Just under half of the audience was said to have walked out. Perhaps it is best approached for those intrinsically interested in the genre rather than those only seeking entertainment.
Unfortunately, for those relying entirely on shortened versions of the film to capture the message, some parts of the film can be difficult to follow because explanatory, arguably important moments of the original cut were edited out. For instance, Lucy, his first daughter's character is not a familiar face or well developed. However, apparently out of the blue and without followup explanatory scenes, she is seen on the highway from a distance flagging down and then getting into a car. In another scene, her character appears from a distance behind semi-shut venetian blinds at night for around less than a second. In both cases, her character and what she is doing are hardly recognizable (specifically, she was apparently prostituting herself on the highway and then having the incestuous relationship with her brother behind the semi-shut blinds). Consequently, the significance of those moments that were left in the film can be easily lost. For instance, the significance is that, although the daughter is not a central character, her supporting role is as Harry's 'fruit'. Her character reminds viewers that an individual's chosen path affects others, even their offspring.
CJ
Once Upon a Writing Block
Once Upon a Writing Block
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