MAN FACING SOUTHEAST
[Spoilers]
A dissenting view
A film review by Steve Upstill
Copyright 1987 Steve Upstill
One of the most universally-praised films of the last year was MAN FACING SOUTHEAST. With only two exceptions, everyone I know who saw it lavished it with praise. I finally caught up with it last Friday, and I'm spoiling for a fight with anyone who would care to defend it.
One of my two dissenters described it, not kindly, as a misbegotten hybrid of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST. I concur; MAN FACING SOUTHEAST *is* indeed like an ill-starred half-breed, but without the latter's mystical power or the former's sense of humor.
But seriously, folks, I have three serious gripes with it. First, it didn't have the dramatic fortitude to be consistent. If Rantes was supposed to be this unfeeling creature, why are we never informed, or even hinted at, about the transformation which enabled him to express such joy in the "conducting" scene. He seems impassive when an Impassive Objective Analysis of Human Affairs is required, and passionate/human when that is convenient.
Second, the film tries very hard (and apparently successfully) to give the impression of addressing important issues without ever really coming to grips with any of them. Ambiguity and irresolution have their place in a well-constructed plot, but not in the kind of hit-and-run philosophical flirtation you find in this film. Sure the doctor was intrigued, engaged and depressed by encountering Rantes, but was he any different at the end than at the beginning? Did he learn anything? If so, then his treatment of the woman does a good job of obscuring it. And how are we supposed to make of the prisoners rioting while Rantes conducts? Is this supposed to matter to us, except to jerk hope out of us like romantic novels jerk tears out of adolescents?
But I guess the thing that bothers me most involves the film's single clear philosophical statement, that it is "rational" to help another, which proves that people are irrational. In fact, compassion is one of the most noble of human emotions, partly because it is irrational. The most chillingly uncompassionate people I have ever met are also the most rational. Tune in to libertarian discussions on Poli-Sci sometime if you don't believe me. The view that morality is a strictly rational phenomenon goes back to Kant, and is profoundly dehumanizing, making people into dry bearers of Absolute Good, devoid of either passion or joy, with no use whatsoever of the idea that humanity shares some common bond.
But of course the filmmakers didn't think it through that far. They tell us that compassion is rational because it's an easy, glib way of telling us how fucked up we are. The annoying thing about MAN FACING SOUTHEAST is that it is perfectly content with glibness, allowing and encouraging its audience in the smugness of frustrated hope, without ever considering the effort involved in making real change in the world. As H. L. Mencken said (more or less) "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you. If you *really* make them think, they'll hate you."
Steve Upstill
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