Transit: our Natural State, or Hell on Earth?
Reply
Author Archives: thiemecw
Killing Time or Staying Pacified?
My media diet consists mainly of YouTube videos and Netflix shows and movies, with the occasional movie rental or purchase through a service like VUDU. I tend to do most of my viewing on my phone since it provides me with the flexibility to watch anywhere I want, whereas my laptop or the television downstairs don’t afford me the same luxury of consuming media in bed or at the dining room table during lunch. I do still prefer to use my laptop or the television downstairs for movies or longer binges of television shows.
The contents of my media diet is somewhat unchallenging and falls into two fairly distinct categories for me. I mainly watch either light-hearted comedic content or construction based/educational videos. Some examples of the kinds of light-hearted content I consume includes Community, Adventure Time, and most of my news which I get from sources like the Daily Show, The Late Show, or Last Week Tonight. I find that as important as it is to stay vigilant to the atrocities and misfortunes befalling our world, it is also important to have an uncomplicated escape from reality. Having something simple to watch or repackaging harsh news in easy-to-digest terms helps keep each day from becoming an existential battle rooted in moral confusion. For the other half of my media diet I like to watch lots of science videos and maker videos on YouTube. Some of my favorites include Kurzegesagt, Adam Savage’s Tested, Sam O’ Nella Academy (more comedy than fact), Hacksmith, Planet Earth, and Vsauce. Liking content which isn’t challenging does not mean that I don’t like to think and learn. I find filling the quieter moments of my day with the harshness of reality to be unpleasant but filling the still parts of my life with interesting facts and projects is more fulfilling. I like to learn about things that interest me, and by learning more about the world around me I feel safer and more comfortable going through each day. To that end, I highly recommend the Kurzegesagt videos on corona virus and the human immune system for anyone worried about the current state of the world. Neither video will make the problem less significant in our world, but there is something comforting about understanding a threat from an objective point of view and disincentivizing the impulse to panic.
In regard to the specifics of my media consumption, I have found a mass incline in my screen time since the quarantine. I have watched almost the entirety of Community on Netflix and all of Avatar the last Airbender through other online resources. I think the combined boredom of being stuck inside and the nagging unease surrounding the quarantine, virus, and the implications of both have left me craving uncomplicated and comforting content. It may have developed into more of a crutch since the lockdown, but with the limited number of things to do while stuck inside it is hard to tell how much of my viewing is an escape and how much is a tactic to kill time.
A Betrayal of Trust Invokes a Further Betrayal
In this scene we see Joy negotiating the terms of her asylum if she were to turn information about her madame over to the government. This scene ties in really well with the theme of a harmful binary, which holds vulnerability inferior and opposite to agency, which can be found in “Rethinking Vulnerability and Resistance” by Judith Butler. Joy is put in a position where she is extremely vulnerable, and even though the problems she is facing are not unfamiliar to the woman working with her to gain asylum, and especially familiar to Joy’s madame, they still have no problem labeling Joy as ‘vulnerable’ and exploiting her for their own personal gain. Both the government and the madames might try and justify their actions by saying that they provide these prostitutes with protection, but at the end of the day they are more concerned with their own personal gain and consider the safety of the people they’re working with to be secondary. By putting the idea of the prostitutes being vulnerable into the forefront of their minds, people who seek to exploit these girls justify the actions by which the girls are made vulnerable. By advertising security, like the blonde woman does in this scene with the posters in the background saying it’s safe to speak out for prostitutes, and then denying any certainty of getting help after putting oneself at risk, these prostitutes are made vulnerable through betrayal after betrayal of trust, which is use to justify further betrayal and greater oppression down the line.
The Duality of the Soul
This clip depicts refugees singing together about their torment and pain as they remain in a state of transit in an attempt to flee their persecutors. Despite the director’s attempt to use this scene early in the film to paint the refugees as victims, this scene remains the most powerful depiction of humanity within the film. French philosopher Simone Weil, who starved to death while living under German occupation, believed that suffering causes the soul to cry out in two distinct voices. One voice which cries for relief, and the other which surrenders to the whims of a higher power. This scene is a beautiful and powerful depiction of the duality of the human spirit which Weil describes. These people are singing of their suffering to air their pain, but they do not beg for relief or for an answer. Through their painful song we see both a desire for an end to the suffering and insecurity, but we also see an acceptance of circumstance, and truth being felt by everyone who is singing. There are other scenes where people act more “normal”, but this is the only scene where people aren’t trying to ignore their circumstances, or ignoring their neighbors, or being depicted as helpless. Only in this scene do we see a deeper level to humanity, and emotional truth.
Popova, Maria. “How to Make Use of Our Suffering: Simone Weil on Ameliorating Our Experience of Pain, Hunger, Fatigue, and All That Makes the Soul Cry.” Brain Pickings, 14 Aug. 2016, www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/12/simone-weil-pain/.
A Once Wild Frontier
I find the theme of transit and human domination over an impossible landscape to be very powerful between these two scenes. It is very moving how, not luxurious exactly, but effortless it appears for the modern day scientists and travelers to get to Antartica. We see a group of adventurers lounging around a plane on their laptops and taking naps, and within a few hours they are safely on the ice and making their way to basecamp in a bus. The entire endeavor cannot last more than a day, and the worst hardship they might face is missing lunch or having to sleep in an uncomfortable position. In contrast we see clips from Shackleton’s famous expedition on the ship Endurance. After months of sailing to get to the bottom of the world their ship is caught in ice and they are forced to abandon it and make camp on the sea ice. After more than two years of some of the harshest conditions imaginable, including trekking over miles of uneven terrain like that which is shown in the clip with sleds weighing over one hundred pounds, Shackleton and his men were lucky to escape with their lives. Their survival became an epic tale and they never even managed to make it to the mainland of Antartica during that expedition. Nowadays that near-impossible feat can be accomplished in a fraction of the time with virtually no risks or struggle whatsoever. What was often thought of as a final frontier is all but conquered, and the extent of our progress is yet to find its limits.
A Search for an Ending
Barbershop Boogie
I love this scene so much because it is such a wholesome and humorous way to address the issues of identity which are present throughout the film. This scene highlights not only what it means to be Turkish, but also what it means to be a man. This film handles the concept of identity through many fronts. There are questions of what its means to be German or Turkish, obviously, but there are also questions of what it means to be a man, a family, or when does someone become a part of or is lost from a family? This scene takes a little pause from all the questioning and gives a nice simple answer by saying: ‘being a Turk means enjoying the culture, and being a man means being yourself no matter what others might think’, which I think is beautiful.
That Which is Uncovered
This meme originates from the basement scene in Tarantino’s “inglourious basterds” where the Allied soldiers are discovered whilst disguising themselves as Nazis. The caption translates loosely to: “the one who can see through an identity doesn’t have their own humanity interfering with their judgement”. When one thinks of a meme one usually thinks of a witty or funny commentary derived from a common experience, and given both the cultural significance of this movie’s subject matter and the stark contrast between characters, this film presents many possibilities for, mostly tasteless, attempts at humor. That is why I chose a more serious approach for this, the arguably most important scene in the movie. I was fascinated with how the character of the Nazi was portrayed as so perceptive and outgoing whilst maintaining no convincing underlying humanity. Even in this exact moment when a life-threatening discovery is made, he expresses no fear or concern, but rather seems to except the circumstances with perhaps a hint of disgust. What strikes me most about this interaction is how the Nazi is capitalizing on his lack of empathy by toying with the Allied spies. This interaction as a whole serves to reaffirm the Bastard’s mission for the audience and demonstrate how necessary this re-written vindication is against the cruelty and inhumanity perpetuated by the Nazis.
Are There Any Turns Left?
In this clip, from the 2019 film Transit, we see Georg, a refugee from an unknown conflict (presumably a modern-set WWII), fleeing from a police presence. This scene is relatively early on in the film, and does a great job of helping the viewer realize the imminent danger that is felt by, not only Georg, but all the refugees in the film. We even get to see many other refugees who were not as fortunate lined up against the wall and left to the whims of their captors. After temporarily subduing the first officer, Georg makes a run through streets and alleyways in a desperate attempt to escape. During this chase his position is revealed temporarily by a random citizen who knows nothing of his intentions or wrongdoings, and simply wants to aid authority blindly. This chase is short-lived, since Georg is able to find a small corner and gain temporary safety. This chase scene is beautifully shot, and has many angles which make the viewer feel as though they themselves are peaking out from a corner and watching the chase as a hiding refugee. I think this effect helps establish a more personal connection with Georg, and a greater sense of urgency in this exhilarating scene. This clip is important because it shows just how dangerous the situation Georg and the other refugees are in, and how essential movement is throughout the course of the film. At no point can anyone become complacent or comfortable with their surroundings, and the threat of capture is ever-present.
A Shallow Act
This screenshot depicts an actor posing as Hitler in Warsaw during the satirical film “To Be or Not to Be”. What I find so interesting about this specific scene is the look of confusion and almost bewilderment on the actor’s face when a young fan recognizes him. It is the perfect representation of how the Nazi uniform and the Hitler mustache were almost seen as a suit of armor at the time of this movie’s filming. These iconic symbols were synonymous with power and authority, and no one dared to question them, which is why, when the actor was posing as Hitler, he was shocked to have his disguise discovered. The camera angle is straight on and centers his shocked expression almost in the direct middle of the screen, further alluding to the masked humanity of the actor who is trying to disappear behind his authoritative disguise. This scene sets up a pervasive theme throughout the film, and an overall commentary on the superficial nature of the order and posing within the Third Reich. A band of actors is successful in extracting information from high-level Nazi officials by posing as high-level officials themselves, and no one questions their authority because they are in disguise and act as though they are in a position of authority. By deifying people as symbols, and losing sight of their undeniable humanity, the Nazis let themselves become fooled and easily manipulated by actors who only needed a few simple props. The reason it worked so well is because the Nazis knew the truth, that their leaders, just like the actors, were only human, but by refusing to question either, an illusion can be maintained. That is why this scene is so interesting to me. It showcases the fragility of the illusion, and yet it works so well because of the fragile illusion the Nazis themselves were trying to uphold.