Falling Down

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

There are far too many incidents where a male goes off the deep end and becomes violent, sometimes killing his family before committing suicide. Falling Down tells a story about one such individual, but the character is complex, and there is an attempt here to explore why these individuals who feel broken by the hopelessness of their lives are ticking time bombs. The movie starts out with a close-up of the face of Michael Douglas who plays D-Fens, (the name used in the film’s credits), his mouth and then his eyes, which stresses how he views things. It’s a hot day and it is claustrophobic in his car, adding to the pressure cooker sensation experienced by the main character. He and others are caught in a massive traffic jam in Los Angeles. While they are waiting, a woman is doing her make-up and children are playing catch in a bus, trying to deal with the situation. The camera presents an American Flag, implying what America has become, a vision of life going nowhere.

D-Fens looks nerdy with his eyeglasses, white shirt and tie. He has a crew cut which makes him, contradictorily, look like a military man, maybe suggesting he wants to get out and attack. He is observing his surroundings, appearing tense, as the Garfield window doll and people honking and yelling on their cellphones are adding to his frustration. Bumper stickers say, “Financial Freedom,” which we discover the main character does not have, and “Christ Died for Our Sins,” although D-Fens does not feel redeemed. One sticker indicates a lack of caring about others with the words, “How am I driving? Dial 1-800- Eat Shit.” D-Fens’s A/C isn’t working and flies pester him. Even his window handle won’t work. He starts to swat insects all over the car, as he appears unhinged. He gets out of his car with his briefcase, looking like a man at the end of his workday, but appearances are deceiving. He upsets the man in the vehicle behind him since the abandoned car will add to the traffic problem. De-Fens tells the man he’s “going home,” which we all want to do, but with this man we learn he really doesn’t have a place he can escape to.

He starts to walk between the stopped vehicles toward an underpass embankment as he begins his urban odyssey. Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) happens to be behind D-Fens’s car. He sees a billboard that depicts a woman’s blouse that is low cut, and there is a superimposed drawing of a fellow on her upper chest who appears to be climbing out of the piece of clothing. Prendergast laughs, showing he can keep his sense of humor despite the situation. Prendergast exits his car and notices that the abandoned car’s license plate says, “D-Fens.” A motorcycle cop comes by and tells Prendergast that he is calling for a towing vehicle, which Prendergast realizes is overkill and takes too long, despite it being the proper procedure. The detective says they should just push the abandoned over to the side. The motorcycle cop says there are high speed vehicles that make that move dangerous, which shows how the cop’s rigid bureaucratic adherence is blind to the fact that nobody is moving. The civilian says D-Fens said he was going home. As the two policemen push the car aside, the civilian driver, despite the inappropriateness of the situation, makes a sales pitch for linoleum and ceramics to the cops, showing how capitalism dominates no matter what is going on. The motorcycle cop is sarcastic, saying “lucky me,” when Prendergast informs the officer he caught him on his last day as a policeman, and he becomes angry when Prendergast grabs his bike so it won’t fall. Not the best attitude to bond with others.

Beth (Barbara Hershey), the ex-wife of D-Fens, is returning home to her house at the beach with her daughter, Adele (Joey Singer). D-Fens calls on a public phone, but can’t get himself to say hello. He walks through a seedy graffiti-covered section of the city. He goes to a food market store and becomes more frustrated because he can’t get more change for a phone call unless he buys something. The owner, Mr. Lee (Michael Paul Chan), behind the counter speaks broken English, which makes it difficult for D-Fens to understand, fueling his anger. He announces that the soda he picked up is too expensive to get change for the call. He wants to bargain for a lower price. His American xenophobia surfaces, telling Mr. Lee the owner wants to take his money but won’t, “even learn my language,” arguing that is a prerequisite to be a worthwhile citizen. He lumps all Asian cultures together, so even though the man is Korean, he assumes he is from China. D-Fens says his country has given a great deal of money to Korea, and gets into a physical altercation with the man. A collection of souvenir flags spills to the ground, symbolic of the sullied image of America being presented by D-Fens’s actions to the audience, but also indicating how D-Fens internally feels that his country has declined by letting in unworthy immigrants. He grabs the baseball bat (a very American symbol) the shopkeeper reached for and begins smashing items in the store. The frightened Korean man tells D-Fens to take his money. Outraged, D-Fens says he’s not a thief, that the Korean is a crook for charging so much for the soda. D-Fens does not see himself as a criminal, but a man who feels he has been disenfranchised from the American Dream. He says he is rolling back prices to 1965 as he stands up for his rights as an “American consumer.” He channels the anger of many working-class people who feel they are being exploited. He asks the price of different products, and then smashes the displays as the owner announces the high numbers. He stops only when Mr. Lee agrees to the fifty cents D-Fens is willing to pay for his soft drink. De-Fens pays that amount, and walks out with his first acquired weapon, the stumpy wooden bat. However, D-Fens’s violence shows he has a pathology which goes deeper than just feeling disillusioned with the direction of the country.

Prendergast finds sand in a drawer of his desk, as his fellow cops play a prank on him about retiring to Arizona. They joke about how one man was run down two minutes after leaving the office on his last day by an impounded vehicle. It turns out that their joke foreshadows the serious situation that Prendergast will encounter. Sandy (Rachel Ticotin), who is Prendergast’s ex-partner, asks if he will be leaving early since it’s his last day. His conscientiousness and reluctance show when he doesn’t see why he shouldn’t put in a full day of work, even though he has been lately relegated to a desk. He looks at a photo of a young girl, and his look is sad, suggesting that his daughter died.

There is then a good segue scene showing D-Fens’s girl, Adele, as she plays with a water pistol (more foreshadowing), linking the main characters’ lives concerning children and Prendergast’s profession. It is the daughter’s birthday, and the mother is on the phone talking about a party, causing D-Fens to become even more frustrated by a busy signal as he tries again to call his family. He walks past an ominous set of large block-printed graffiti which repeats the word “KILL” several times (additional foreshadowing).

Prendergast gets a phone call from his needy wife, Amanda (Tuesday Weld) who is worried that he was making the move to Arizona because of her. He dodges the issue by saying that the main thing is that they are together. She is so insecure that she wants him home right away. So, he has marital problems, as does D-Fens. He has a snow globe in his hand and he sings, “London Bridge is falling down,” referring to the British bridge that was moved to Arizona, and where they will be going. But, we now get the reference for the title of the film, although in this story it is America, from the point of view of D-Fens, that is “falling down.” Prendergast cheers her up by getting her to sing along, and calls her “my fair lady,” the line from the song, which shows his affection for Amanda.

D-Fens looks at the city through a hole in his shoe, another image of how his view of America is from the perspective of a person on a low rung of the social ladder. He picks up an abandoned classified ads section which has circles around the previous owner’s job prospects that probably didn’t pan out. He uses the paper to cover the hole in the shoe, which is all the ads are good for, employment prospects not being plentiful for people in this poor section of town. Two Latino men approach D-Fens, harassing him, saying he is trespassing on private property and loitering. White people might sympathize with the Caucasian guy here, feeling that all he is doing is walking through an area that is different racially from where he comes from. Even though the action of the men is not justified, it suggests the many times a person of a different skin color was targeted for walking through a white neighborhood and charged with the same offenses. Also, for many impoverished people, their neighborhood is all they have left. D-Fens says there were no signs telling him to not sit there. One of the Latino men says the graffiti is a sign that warns to stay away. D-Fens sounds reasonable when he says that this is a territorial dispute and he respects that this area is their home. He says he understands their argument because he wouldn’t want them on his property. His remarks sound bigoted, but as we see later his anger is not just ethnically driven. But, they won’t just let him move on, saying he must pay a toll. They want his briefcase, which he refuses to turn over. One of the men flashes a knife. D-Fens, again erupting in frustrated rage, grabs the bat hidden behind the briefcase, and clubs the men, who flee, as he throws the bat at one of them. He tells them to “clear a path” since he declares again that he is going home. He picks up the knife of one of the young men, replacing the bat with a weapon dedicated solely to harm.

In contrast, the retiring Prendergast turns in his weapon as he looks at a newspaper article about a policeman getting shot, possibly indicating his reluctance to retire and give up the fight against lawbreakers. Mr. Lee shows up to report how his market was trashed. He is brought to Prendergast, but after explaining there was no robbery (Prendergast’s assigned department), since the man took no money and actually paid for his soda, the crime is reclassified as an assault. Lee says the man took his bat which he used for “defense.” It doesn’t click just yet with Prendergast about the license plate that said “D-Fens.”

Members of the Latino gang go searching for D-Fens, along with a young woman, Angie (Karina Arroyave), who urges them to let go of their desire for revenge and get treated at the hospital. De-Fens calls his wife again and says he is coming home for his daughter’s birthday. Beth says he can’t come home, she has custody of the child now and he doesn't even have the means to pay support, so he has no paternal privileges. She says it is not his home anymore and Adele is doing fine without him. These words hit at his failure as a parent. We now realize that he is not just some frustrated worker who was caught in traffic trying to get home. He has had severe financial and marital problems, and she is his ex-wife, who is afraid of his unstable behavior which pre-existed today’s events. Beth threatens to call the police.

The gang of youths find De-Fens talking on the pay phone. They kick Angie out of the car, probably because they believe they are doing men’s work, which amounts to acts of revenge. These guys have quite an arsenal of guns. They begin shooting automatic weapons, missing De-Fens who is behind some cars and instead they wound innocent bystanders. The gang members drive their car erratically as they try to wound De-Fens, and get into a terrible accident. Only one member is conscious. De-Fens is unfeeling about the bystanders who were shot as he approaches the car and simply says, “You missed.” He picks up one of the weapons and shoots the awake youth in the leg, acting like he is giving him a lesson on how awful it is to get shot. De-Fens takes their bag of armaments and tells the conscious car victim he needs to take shooting lessons. There are complicated emotions at work here in the presentation of the story. On the one hand we may be outraged by these violent youths who have no respect or decency for the welfare of others. But De-Fens, who acts like a vigilante who is demonstrating the anger due to wrongs inflicted on law-abiding citizens, is also unfeeling in his actions toward others, and also breaks laws because he feels he has a higher purpose to right wrongs.

Prendergast has an exit meeting with his captain, Yardley (Raymond J. Barry), a white self-absorbed macho guy who is seen punching a boxing bag in his office, turning the room into a gym. Yardley is condescending, acting like Prendergast is going out on early retirement with a reduced pension because he couldn’t cut it anymore. He implies that it may be due to Prendergast getting wounded, so he is safe now at a desk job. Prendergast is very deferential, and says no, it has nothing to do with his injury. The captain then asks about Prendergast’s kids, but he has none, since he lost his daughter, which shows how little Yardley knows about his own men.

De-Fens watches poor people on the street, with one man trying to sell stuff and another holding up a sign that reads he will work for food, which most likely adds more proof of his country’s decline. De-Fens tries to walk through an area but he meets another obstacle because there is a closed section where construction is being done. Meanwhile, Beth has called the police and talks with a cop. The film continues to add details about De-Fens’s personality. She confirms that she has a restraining order because of her ex-husband’s bad temper. She says that he never hit the child but there were times when she ran away before he could harm his wife. Beth says he has the potential for hurting others, which has been borne out by this day’s actions.

A man in the park (John Fleck) tells De-Fens that he drove from Santa Barbara and needs money and asks to lend him some cash that he will send back to De-Fens. The suspicious De-Fens wants to see his driver’s license. The man says he doesn’t have a license. De-Fens than questions how he drove a long way with no license. The guy says he hasn’t eaten in days, but he is munching on a sandwich. The beggar then has the audacity to demand money, which De-Fens refuses to give, and tells him to get a job. The man wants one of D-Fens’s bags that he can sell. De-Fens makes a decision here when he says he no longer needs the briefcase and gives it to him. This action shows he has quit attempting to be a working man who fits into society and instead embraces the bag of guns because he is bent on destroying whatever obstacles that stand in his way. The briefcase only contains lunch food, which confirms that De-Fens’s appearance of being a working man is a fake. We have here the depiction of the marginalized American white male’s anger being directed toward those he considers to be unproductive members of society who want to siphon off the hard-earned wages of the working class. This perspective however does not take into account the dire plight of the working man which may be due to exploitative employers, and does not consider how poverty-stricken members of society have been penalized by punitive aspects of a profit-driven economy.

Prendergast sees the young Latino woman, Angie, who was in the gang’s car that went after De-Fens, being interrogated. Prendergast does not yet know that Mr. Lee’s market and the drive-by shooting are connected. When the woman mentions a white guy with a baseball bat he barges in and confirms that the man had on a white shirt and tie. The detective kicks Prendergast out, not valuing the retiring veteran policeman’s help. But Prendergast looks at a city map and can see how the two altercations fit together geographically and chronologically.

De-Fens tries to order breakfast at a fast food restaurant just three minutes after the time that service ends. The employee is smug in her denial of him being able to order what he wants. De-Fens is similar to Jack Nicholson’s character in The Last Detail and Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke in that he is rebelling against the constricting rules closing in around him. De-Fens then asks for the manager, who is just as insensitive, not agreeing with De-Fens’s reminder that the “customer is always right,” a public relations line that isn’t even aspired to at this point. De-Fens pulls out an automatic weapon, which accidentally goes off, firing shots into the ceiling. De-Fens is amusing as he still tries to be normal in the midst of his antisocial behavior. He tries to placate the customers, saying he means them no harm and wants them to continue enjoying their food, as if that’s possible at this point. De-Fens almost sounds shaken as he asks again quietly for his breakfast, which they immediately give him. The implication is that an average person must resort to extreme means just to be treated fairly. De-Fens then changes his mind and wants lunch. He walks around the restaurant asking if everybody is doing okay, not in touch with the emotional trauma he has inflicted on them. When he asks one woman if she is enjoying her lunch the lady vomits out of fear, and De-Fens quips she must not like the special sauce. De-Fens is then critical of the squashed hamburger he receives which contrasts with the photograph on the wall of a large beef patty. In a way he is articulating the public’s feelings about being treated badly. But, he refuses, although dangerously, to submit to the mistreatment, unlike most submissive people.

Prendergast has lunch with Sandy. She questions his move to Arizona, noting that the decision is his wife’s idea. Prendergast says his wife only had her looks to fall back on when she was younger, and she is not handling getting older well, so he is accommodating her wishes. And he adds that the main reason he is being unselfish is because, “I love her,” which is the most important redemptive characteristic of human beings. Prendergast stands in contrast to De-Fens because the policeman can deal with the traffic jam, his family issues, and his job situation, in a civilized manner, at least up to this point, whereas De-Fens has snapped because he cannot deal with these conflicts.

Another detective interrupts their lunch, reporting the incident at the fast food restaurant. The cop says that it was odd that the man paid for his lunch. Prendergast, showing he still has game when it comes to being an investigator, remembers that the man who busted up Mr. Lee’s market also paid for his soda. He tells Sandy to find out if the man at the fast food place wore a white shirt and tie. She later calls him back and confirms the clothes, but informs Prendergast that he doesn’t have a baseball bat but was instead carrying a bag full of guns, which demonstrates how the lethal potential of his choice of weapons is escalating.

As De-Fens walks through the city’s depressed area, he encounters an African American man (Vondie Curtis-Hall) picketing in front of a savings and loan building, carrying a sign which reads, “Not Economically Viable.” He shouts out that is why the bank denied his application for a loan. He is arrested and says that is what happens to people who are “not economically viable.” The thrust here is that once a person falls on hard times the rules are rigged against him to try to recover. As the police car stops next to De-Fens, the black man says to De-Fens, “Don’t forget me.” As IMDb notes, the man and De-Fens are wearing the same type of clothes, even duplicating the tie pattern, which shows how De-Fens feels connected to this black man. De-Fens nods his head, as if promising that he, for one, knows what can happen to the unsuccessful in society. As the man is taken away, De-Fens buys a child’s snow globe (echoing Prendergast’s London Bridge globe) as a birthday gift for his daughter. He places this innocent child’s object, ironically, in the same bag next to the weapons. Later, when a man complains that De-Fens is hogging the public phone booth, De-Fens destroys the booth with gunfire. He again shows his dark humor by saying, “it’s out of order.” De-Fens has progressed to the point that he is beyond accommodating anything that gets in his way or questions his actions, which shows the danger of unrestrained individuality.

The hole in De-Fens’s shoe is getting worse. He goes into an Army surplus store. The owner is a neo-Nazi named Nick (Frederick Forrest) who listens to a police scanner. As he shows De-Fens some hiking shoes he shouts derogatory comments at a couple of presumably gay men in the store. De-Fens shows here, as he did with the protesting African American, that he is not prejudicial toward any one type of group. He doesn’t like anybody who acts badly, which includes the white workers at the restaurant or this fellow as he pulls out a handgun when one of the gay men confronts him.

Prendergast tells Angie he knows she is telling the truth about the white man who attacked her gang friends. But, he also correctly concludes that De-Fens took a gym bag full of guns off of her friends and asks Angie to confirm the number of weapons. She says there were “lots of guns,” not exactly a positive argument endorsing the proliferation of firearms.

Meanwhile, De-Fens sees a police car park near the store, and Sandy and her partner approach the establishment. Sandy questions Nick, asking if he saw a man in his late thirties, who was wearing a white shirt and a tie, and carrying a gym bag. De-Fens is in a fitting room trying on shoes. Nick pushes the gym bag out of sight and lies by saying he hasn’t seen De-Fens. He then closes the store. Nick brings De-Fens in the back which has all kinds of weapons and military gear, including Nazi books and war souvenirs. He says he heard about De-Fens’s activities during the day on the scanner, and starts to use anti-Semitic and black racial slurs. He keeps saying he is backing De-Fens because, “we’re the same, you and me.” De-Fens says they are not the same, distancing himself from this man by saying, “I’m an American,” which to De-Fens means all of those qualities that he feels are worthy, including, “freedom of speech, the right to disagree!” He calls Nick, “a sick asshole.” Nick is outraged and tries to handcuff De-Fens while spouting his racist language. De-Fens tells Nick he can’t spread his legs, lean forward, and also have his hands cuffed behind him because of “gravity,” explaining “I’ll fall down.” This is another reference to the title of the movie, suggesting that he and the rest of the country’s people are all in this precarious position. (As IMDb notes, Nick’s extreme disgust about homosexuals mingled with his preoccupation with male rape in prison, along with him standing in a position that implies he may sexually assault the bent over and bound D-Fens, suggests that Nick may be gay, and is in deep denial). When Nick takes the snow globe out of the gym bag and throws it, smashing it, De-Fens stabs him with the knife he took from the Latino man, meting out some ironic justice that takes down the bigot with a person of color’s weapon. This irony is suggested by Nick’s statement, “This isn’t one of mine.” Nick looks at his wound and says, “Oh my God,” to which De-Fens again mixes in dark humor by saying that Nick gets it, because he’s exercising “freedom of religion.” Instead of leaving, De-Fens again goes too far and shoots Nick.

Prendergast tries to do his job on his last day by trying to convince Captain Yardley and the other cops working the case involving De-Fens that he has evidence that the incidents are tied together, and the perpetrator is heading west. The captain dismisses Prendergast’s argument, and tells him he doesn’t like Prendergast because he never heard him curse, claiming that is the sign of “real men.” He also claims that Prendergast was afraid to go back into the streets. Prendergast assures him he wasn’t afraid, not saying that he took the desk job to soothe his wife’s fears. The captain here reveals his macho prejudice, showing that there are nasty people on both sides of the law. Sandy decides to help him on his quest which is in counterpoint to De-Fens’s law-breaking journey.

De-Fens calls his wife and sounds menacing, saying he is on his way home, and he realizes that he can’t turn around because his actions have put him, “past the point of no return.” He compares himself to the Apollo 13 astronauts who had to go around the dark side of the moon before reemerging and heading back to earth. He seems to know that he has gone to the “dark side” of his soul and now has reappeared as someone who can’t go back to trying to fit in with the rest of society. Even though the police who had stayed a while at her house after Beth called have now left, she lies to her ex-husband, saying they are there. De-Fens is now frightening in his single-mindedness, intimidating Beth by saying there are countries that say it’s okay, “to kill your wife if she insults you.” His argument in favor of free speech seems not to extend to one’s spouse.

Prendergast and Sandy arrive near Mr. Lee’s store to question him. After getting out of the car, Prendergast looks up and sees the billboard that a graffiti artist painted on. He is at the same spot where he was earlier in the day in the traffic jam. He now remembers the guy who left his car close to where the crimes took place. He recalls the personalized license plate read “D-Fens.” He sees Mr. Lee and calls out “Defense,” which is what the shopkeeper said he kept his bat for. Prendergast tells Sandy to find out the address associated with the plate, since a witness said the man said he was going home.

We are in another traffic snarl as people sink to their baser natures, calling each other ugly names while stuck in a sea of cars. (Too bad they don’t sing and dance as they do in La La Land, but that was a fantasy). De-Fens punches one driver who is yelling ugly epithets at a woman, shutting down the bad behavior he has been ranting against. He has traded in his white-collar outfit for what he found in the surplus store, and he now looks like a soldier, wearing what GI’s put on when going on a mission in a jungle, which is how De-Fens perceives this urban sprawl. The traffic is a mess because the street is closed off for repairs. A worker tells De-Fens he can’t pass there (not a good day to tell De-Fens he can’t do something), and that he is there to stop people from “falling in” due to the underground construction (another reference to the film’s title). De-Fens tells the worker that the street was fine two days ago and believes there’s nothing wrong, that they are just keeping inflated budgets by acting as if work has to be completed. He again voices complaints that one can hear from any average person who has suffered because of forces beyond one’s control. The worker sees a gun tucked in De-Fens’s pants. De-fens keeps demanding that the worker say what he wants to hear, that there is nothing that needs repair. Afraid, the worker tells him that there’s nothing wrong, which satisfies De-Fens, who is so self-righteous in his crusade, he won’t allow anything to contradict him. De-Fens then says that he will give him something to fix. He took a rocket launcher from the surplus store. A boy on a bike tells him how to use it because he saw how to do it on TV, satirizing the questionable skills exposed to children through the media. But the boy here innocently thinks that they are filming a show, which De-Fens, joking ironically, calls “Under Construction.” The phallic-shaped launcher and the guns could represent De-Fens trying to regain his masculinity. De-Fens prematurely (another sexual reference?), triggers the weapon, releasing his anger, firing the device under the street causing a large explosion.

Prendergast and Sandy arrive at the home of De-Fens’s mother (Lois Smith), which is where the license plate led them. De-Fens’s real name is William Foster. One of the walls in the house has pictures of a man in a military uniform, presumably De-Fens’s father. There are small American flags in a vase. The impression is that this was a patriotic family, which points to the feeling that his country has now failed De-Fens. The mother is herself defensive, and Sandy alienates her by acting official. But, Prendergast wins her over by praising her display of little crystal figurines. The woman shows them her son’s room which is very neat. She thinks he is still working at a defense plant. Prendergast senses the mother’s wariness about talking about her son. He believes she knows something is wrong with him. He gets her to reveal that her son sometimes won’t even speak at dinner. The mother says De-Fens eats like a machine and she is so nervous she chews the same piece of food. When she spits it out she says he looks at her like he will kill her. We get a picture of a disturbed control freak who can’t handle things not going the way he wants. Prendergast finds De-Fens’s wedding ring in a drawer and a picture of his ex-wife and child. Prendergast finds out the ex-wife’s maiden name is Trevino and Sandy discovers that De-Fens was fired from his job a month ago, suggesting that his mental instability was already becoming manifest for a while.

De-Fens, not following any restrictions on freedom, climbs a fence that says “No Trespassing” onto a private golf course. He tells some senior men that he is passing through. One of the men is an elitist who yells about how he doesn’t want someone from the outside interrupting his game. He hits a ball at De-Fens, who pulls out a shotgun, and calls back that he is trying to kill him with a golf ball because of his silly game. He says that the land should be used for children and families to have picnics and enjoy a petting zoo, implying the area has been cut off for those who can afford the expensive fees. He shoots their electric golf cart which then rolls off toward a water hazard. The man who hit the golf ball falls down (referring to the title again), appearing to have a heart attack. He gasps that his pills are in the cart. De-Fens has no sympathy for the damage he is causing, as if the man has received justice for trying to prevent De-Fens from passing through the fairway. He tells the suffering man he’ll die wearing his silly little hat. For De-Fens, his will supersedes the lives of others at this point.

De-Fens scales another fence as he has moved from the poor side of town to the rich one, and he sees wrongdoing no matter the economic area. He complains to a man who is having a cookout with his wife and little daughter that his barbed wire caused him to cut his hand, as if he has the right to go wherever he pleases. The man is actually the caretaker and he is barbecuing there while the owner is away. Once De-Fens realizes that these people are not part of the exclusive upper class, his anger subsides. The people at the golf course have called the police, and De-Fens moves the family under cover. He finds out that a plastic surgeon owns the property. De-Fens jokes and says he is in the wrong field, and wonders if there are “correspondence courses” for that medical specialty. But, while he is trying to be funny, he holds onto the child’s hand, as if substituting her for his daughter. De-Fens confesses that he was fired, and is “obsolete,” (which hints that part of the reason, which happens to many people, may be he was replaced by automation) and can’t even support his daughter. He echoes the situation of the African American man who was arrested, and most likely many others, saying he’s “not economically viable.” De-Fens is astounded again for being viewed as a bad person when the man asks to be a hostage, but to leave his family alone. De-Fens says that he has no desire to harm the man’s family. He then reminisces about how ideal things were with his family and mentally escapes into a daydream fantasy about how everything will be the way it was.

At the police station, Prendergast and Sandy check out Beth’s single name, Trevino, linked with Foster, De-Fens’s name. Prendergast learns about the murder of the surplus store owner. Sandy reveals that she visited the store earlier. Then they get word about the man dressed in military clothes who terrorized the men at the golf course and the family at the doctor’s home. Prendergast looks at De-Fens’s progress on the map and deduces that the ex-wife lives in Venice even before Sandy provides the address.

Beth called the police after De-Fens’s threatening phone call, but the policewoman who arrives at her house shows no compassion, acting like it’s just a prank. Only Prendergast and Sandy seem to really care about following through on the case. De-Fens calls Beth from Santa Monica Pier, which is right next to Venice, and talks about how the ice cream shop they frequented no longer is there. She immediately hangs up as she realizes he is very close and takes her daughter out of the house. He quickly understands that she may try to escape, but when he arrives at her home, they are gone. De-Fens looks at home videos of his family when he lived there. He now has the daughter’s water pistol replacing the real gun he held before, showing how torn this man is between his affection for his family and his pathological violent impulses to have things his way. But the home movies dispel his idealized version of the past. They reveal how domineering he was, yelling at his family, and scaring his daughter who cried as he tried to force her onto a toy horse he bought.

The Venice cops tell Sandy in a phone call that they can’t justify a visit three times in one day to satisfy the complaints of a “hysterical” woman. This is a flaw in the plot because it is difficult to believe that they would not investigate when other cops call them verifying the danger Beth is in. So, we have the main characters move to a confrontation on the Santa Monica Pier (which shows up in several Hollywood films). Before that happens, Prendergast takes on some of De-Fens’s aggression, finally setting his wife straight. She calls him and is jealous that Sandy answered the phone and yells at him to come home. He tells her to “shut up” and have dinner waiting for him when he gets to his house, as Sandy stifles laughter on the side. And, when Sandy’s partner makes a negative remark about Prendergast’s wife, the retiring cop responds to the insult to Amanda by punching the guy. (This event occurs at an office goodbye party for Prendergast, where, as IMDb points out, there is a retirement cake decorated with the London Bridge, another reminder of the film’s title).

By watching one of the videos De-Fens realizes that Beth may again want to bring their child on her birthday to the pier, and maybe Beth would not think that he would go back there after going to her house. Prendergast and Sandy arrive at Beth’s house. Sandy goes in and De-Fens shoots her and escapes. Prendergast gets the neighbors to call 911 and he goes after De-Fens. Beth and her daughter are at the pier and the girl is thrilled to see her father running toward them. He hugs and kisses Beth who says she wants him to leave them alone. He reminds her that they made vows that said “‘till death do us part,” which is frightening considering the circumstances, and he then pulls out a handgun. 

She says he is sick, and De-Fens says that walking through the city is what’s really sick. Prendergast shows up and acts folksy, not confrontational, eating a snack, and saying he used to fish off the pier, but the fish are now poisonous, and the water can infect a swimmer. He says he is retiring to a place that some would call paradise, and others would say there is nothing but a muddy lake there. Prendergast says everyone has their own idea of paradise, which connects to De-Fens’s concept of perfection for himself and America. While Prendergast talks he flashes his revolver at Beth to show he’s a cop. Prendergast says that paradise for him was having babies. He said his wife had a child for him which tells us why he is now willing to sacrifice for her. He says that his daughter was two years old, went to sleep, and didn’t wake up, which connects with De-Fens’s feelings of loss. Prendergast hands popcorn to Adele who shares it with her father, as he puts his gun down. De-Fens is distracted as he hears police sirens, and Prendergast intervenes, getting Beth and the girl to run away. Prendergast says he knows that De-Fens was going there to kill his family and then himself. De-Fens is surprised to realize he is now “the bad guy.” He says he helped build missiles to protect America, and should be rewarded, not punished. De-Fens says they lied to him about who gets rewarded. Prendergast says they lie to everybody, so that doesn’t make De-Fens special, only his little girl does. Prendergast wants him to give up. De-Fens says he has a gun and they should have a showdown, as if they are in a Hollywood Western. He says if he gets killed at least his daughter will get the life insurance, and he doesn’t want to see his girl grow up while he’s in prison. He counts to three and draws, but he only has his daughter’s water pistol, so he knows he’s going to die. Prendergast doesn’t know the gun is a fake, fires, and after being shot, De-Fens falls into the Pacific Ocean, an affront to its peaceful name.

Captain Yardley, now in front of the press and trying to grab positive publicity, hypocritically now praises Prendergast. Prendergast passes by the cameras and as the captain thanks him, Prendergast now finds the right time to curse and tells him “Fuck you very much.” He sees Sandy off to the hospital and tells Beth to let her daughter enjoy her birthday party without mentioning her father to keep her in an innocent state for another day. In answer to Adele’s question about his name, he says it’s “Mud,” which he says it will be when his wife finds out he decided to still be a cop. The movie seems to be saying that there is a need for him and other decent individuals to try to keep the country from “falling down.”

The next film is Get Out.

Cool Hand Luke

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The first scene of this 1967 film has Luke (Paul Newman) taking the tops off parking meters with a wrench. The devices flash the word “Violation.”  Luke is obviously drunk, and is consuming more alcohol. We have images of a person who is an outsider that does not comply with established rules. Luke is literally and figuratively the monkey wrench which disrupts the social machinery from running along smoothly. Even though the story takes place probably in the 1950’s after the Korean War, Luke reflects the 1960’s anti-hero who rebels against a corrupt society.

The police arrive and arrest Luke. The irony is the man who wants total freedom is put in the most restrictive place, prison, because of his behavior. The next scene shows men working on a convicts’ work gang, which includes the hulking Dragline (George Kennedy, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this role). Drag must say he is taking off his shirt because of the heat. Free will is almost totally obliterated here as the prisoners have to announce everything they are going to do in order to get permission from the guards, even for the simplest of actions. For example, Rabbit (Marc Cavell) and Gambler (Wayne Rogers) (all of the men have nicknames) request that they wish to wipe away sweat and drink some water.

Luke arrives with other convicts. The dogs in the camp are noisy because, as one guard says, they smell “new meat,” an intimidating phrase that depicts the inmates as possibly nothing more than animals to be hunted down if they try to escape. The Captain (Strother Martin) is in command of the institution. Each of the guards is called “Boss,” which shows the dominance they have over these convicts. One of the prisoners tries to make an excuse for his crime, which is followed immediately by one of the guards hitting him with a stick. Freedom of expression is met with violent retribution. When the Captain reads Luke’s crime of destroying municipal property while under the influence, the Captain concedes they never had that kind of infraction before. Luke is even a unique individual when it comes to his breaking of the law. Luke’s sentence is two years for his victimless prank which points to the unfairness of the judicial system in the story. The Captain notes that Luke won a Silver Star, Bronze Star, and a couple of Purple Hearts in military service. Luke excelled in the combat part of an organization that has a rigid code of conduct off of the battlefield. However, he was not interested in rising in the ranks and becoming an unbending link in that fortified chain of command. The Captain says the new men must learn “the rules,” which is the opposite of what these men are used to doing. If they don’t, the Captain, almost in a deceptively congenial manner, says their time will be extended and they will be put in leg chains if they try to escape. The Captain says, “It’s all up to you,” basically pretending that they have free will, but really giving them the choice between two submissive options. He says he “can be a good guy or I can be one real mean son of a bitch.” Luke sneers, showing that he probably has seen this kind of authority figure often in his life, bringing to mind the line from one of The Who’s song, “Here’s the new boss, same as the old boss.”

Boss Carr (Clifton James) announces in rapid monotone a slew of rules including not being in the “prone” position when smoking a cigarette, not losing one’s “spoon,” or putting the wrong sheet on one’s bunk, or else the man will spend a night in the “box.” Even Dragline says within the community of convicts, there are rules. Luke laughs, and calls him “Boss,” equating him with the guards. One man says a convict doesn’t have a name until Drag gives that person one. Drag says maybe they should call Luke “No Ears,” since he doesn’t listen. Luke comments that there’s not much worth listening to except for a lot of men laying down rules and regulations, basically limiting people’s freedom. People lose everything, including their prior identity when in prison, and are reborn with new names to define them. But the guards are in prison, too, in a way, as they are confined to keep the convicts locked up. People take on names that represent their characteristics or roles in this outcast world.

Carr leaves the bright light on next to Luke’s bed, trying to make it hard to sleep because the guard zeroes in on him as being difficult since Luke smiled as Carr stated the rules. The guards bully the prisoners, and then the stronger group of cons bully the newcomers. They act like they can sell their work details to the new cons, but they don’t really have the authority to switch jobs, so they exploit the new prisoners. Here, power runs downhill. Drag even bets a cold drink that Luke won’t make it through the first day of work. When Drag goads Luke about the silliness of his crime, Luke says there wasn’t much to do in a small town, but then reveals that he was “settling an old score.” We never learn what he is upset about, but given his character, Luke probably wanted to retaliate against something that threatened his free will.

There is one guard, Boss Godfrey (Morgan Woodward), who Drag later labels as The Man with No Eyes, who wears mirror sunglasses so that his eyes can’t be seen, which makes him appear like an ominous abstraction of evil. Godfrey takes out a bullet, loads his rifle, and shoots a defenseless bird. One con asks if the guy ever talks, and Luke, commenting on the gunshot, darkly jokes, “I think he just said something” stressing the man’s deadly power over them all. At the end of the workday, Luke, exhausted and aching, is the last one trying to get in the truck. The guard kicks him in the butt to get him to board the vehicle, piling on the torment. Luke gets in a victory by showing he made it to the end of the day, and tells Drag that he owes the other man that cold drink. It’s the first of several actions by Luke that reveals his amazing endurance to withstand suffering.

Alibi (Ralph Waite) passes out in the hot field and has to be put in the truck. He is further punished when he is told his work was unsatisfactory. They put him in the “box,” which is about the size of a small closet with only a pot to deposit the man’s body waste. It was the first day at the prison camp for the man, and he is the one who thought he could buy a better job. Drag doesn’t take responsibility for playing a prank on the new guy, and says Alibi talked back to a free man (the guard) about switching details. Drag says “They got their rules and we ain’t got nothing to do with that.” Luke is sarcastic with Drag about this comment when he says how the guards need the prisoners’ help to maintain their rules, as if the correction officers aren’t the ones with the upper hand.

While the men are working, there is a sexy blonde (Joy Harmon) wearing nothing under a clingy revealing dress as she washes a car. She uses the phallic shaped nozzle of the hose suggestively, and her squeezing the soap out of her sponge symbolizes the male orgasm. Drag calls her Lucille, and another says she doesn't know what she’s doing. But, Luke doesn’t give in to the denial of reality, and says that she knows exactly what she's doing, and that she is enjoying it, commenting on the sadistic teasing of the young woman. Later in the bunks at night, Drag keeps ruminating on how sexy the girl is, and Luke again wants to stifle the fantasy world by telling him to quit, basically saying Drag was making the torture of the denial of sex worse. Drag is upset with Luke complaining about his talk, and threatens that Luke better rest up, since he will need it for the next day.

The two men have a boxing match and the much larger Drag thoroughly beats Luke who refuses to stay down, showing his abject resistance to being dominated by anyone. Those watching begin to feel sympathy for Luke at the one-sided fight, and seeing such a lopsided battle humiliates them as some walk away. Even Drag picks Luke up and carries him, telling him to stay down as he begins to be won over by Luke’s ability to withstand all that Drag can throw at him. Luke emerges as a Christ figure who sacrifices his safety as he did as a soldier. Drag says Luke is beaten, but Luke says Drag will have to kill him before he gives up. Drag walks away as Luke is still standing and takes swings at the retreating Drag.

That evening they are having a poker game, with Gambler dealing the cards. Luke keeps raising the bet, and scares the others off by bluffing. Drag smiles out of respect and says Luke beat the con with “nothing,” just the way he kept coming at Drag in the bout with nothing. Luke says, “Well, sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.” So Drag labels him Cool Hand Luke, which shows how much style Luke has even when he doesn’t have anything to call his own. Luke’s words imply that there may be a way of fighting back when it looks like a person is defeated.

Arletta (Jo Van Fleet), Luke’s mother, visits her son. She is on her back, smokes and coughs, and generally appears ill. He wonders how she found him, which shows that they have been estranged. She says she wishes people were like dogs, where a mother eventually forgets about her pups, and has no expectations about her offspring. She is suggesting that she wishes she could deny her humanity, thus demonstrating she was not cut out to be a mother. She thought he “was strong enough to carry us.” Luke says that a man has to go his own way, which again stresses his desire to be emancipated from any traditional responsibility. She says that Luke’s father didn’t stick around but made her laugh. Luke says he wishes he got to know him. He probably has a great deal in common with his father, not wanting to be tied down. He adds he never had enough “elbow room” in his life, an image that shows that he feels that the world confines him. His mother agrees with him, saying that whenever he worked at thinking about getting married or being respectable, he was boring to be around. She feels that she will leave her house to his brother John because she didn’t show as much affection for him. It appears mom was won over by bad boys. Luke is okay with her decision, saying his brother earned it, implying John sacrificed his liberty to help his mother. Arletta cries as her son walks away, and Luke appears as if he knows this is the last time he will see his mother. He lectures his nephew John-Boy (John Pearce), who came with Arletta, telling the boy that making mistakes means he will have to answer to “The Man,” thus warning him of the penalties for defying society’s rules. So even though Luke couldn’t lead a law-abiding life, he doesn’t advocate his choices for others to follow. Tramp (Harry Dean Stanton) sings a gospel song in the background here, as he does in other scenes, whose religious nature contrasts with the unholy lives these men and their captors lead.

The sunglasses man, Godfrey, walks around carrying a cane, which he does not need and shows how the men are the ones doing backbreaking labor without any aids as they work tarring a road. They have to shovel dirt, and Luke, with Drag’s blessing, gets the convicts to work harder and faster as a kind of defiance to show the bosses they can’t break their spirit. The crew finishes the job with two hours of daylight left. When one of them asks what do they do now, Luke smiles and says “nothing.” Drag laughs, saying Luke wins again, just as he did with the card game, and how he didn’t give up in the boxing bout, because he is a “wild, beautiful thing. You crazy handful of nothing!” Luke shows that even when things seem hopeless one can persevere and prevail, and turn nothing into something.

Part of the agony that the incarceration system inflicts on these men is that they must close all the windows in their barracks when the rain pours, or their building will flood. The men strip down to their briefs and sweat profusely. To pass the time they devise gambling contests beyond just playing cards. Drag complains about losing a bet on a fellow prisoner, Dynamite (Buck Kartalian), who is the champ in eating contests. Luke steps up and says he can eat fifty hard-boiled eggs in an hour, without vomiting. Drag says that he’ll back Luke, but confidentially says that he should have picked a lower number. Luke states the reason for these outlandish acts when he says it will be, “something to do,” since even when they are not working, the passage of time in prison can be cruel.

Drag gets laxatives to clean out Luke’s digestive system to make room for the eggs and peels the shells off them despite the protests of those betting against Luke. These men who break the laws still crave rules, showing the social desire for contracts. Drag says when it comes to the law, “nothing is understood.” Drag’s actions point to how there are holes in any rule system that can be exploited. Luke’s belly looks like it is going to burst, but he persists, trying to defy even nature’s restrictions. Someone is in denial and says, “nobody can eat fifty eggs,” like it’s a universal fact. Luke smiles even though he is flat on his back because his anti-authoritarian personality has triumphed by defying what was thought to be an absolute dietary edict. In a way, Luke’s Christ-like persona is performing miracles as if he is defying the laws of nature. IMDb notes that after the egg eating challenge, Luke is on his back in a crucifixion position, and points out that Luke’s prisoner number. 37, refers to, appropriately, Luke 1.37 in the bible, which reads, “For with God, nothing is impossible.”

Out doing the road clearing work, a rattlesnake slithers between the men. Luke, again defying the usual way of behaving, is the one who shows no fear by picking up the snake so the sunglasses man can shoot it. He does so with ease. Luke says with a smile that the man should not forget his walking stick and hands it to the guard. He calmly compliments Godfrey on his shooting. Afterwards, Drag tells Luke he shouldn’t engage The Man with No Eyes, making the sunglasses fellow sound like some sort of demon.

It starts to storm, and everyone is told to get back in the trucks. Luke doesn’t rush, and Drag asks if he isn’t afraid of dying. Luke defies even the idea of God by yelling up at the sky saying the deity can take his life anytime he wants. “Come on,” he says, “You’re welcome to it old timer.” Luke says he’s just “standin’ in the rain, talkin’ to myself.” He doesn’t even have the religious faith which bolsters some. For someone like Luke, religions are just more ways to control a person. Luke and the prisoners are at the bottom of society’s barrel, and for Luke, valuing one’s life isn’t worth the effort. Bob Dylan’s line comes to mind which says, “When you got nothin,’ you’ve got nothin’ to lose.” If we view his action as coming from a type of Christ figure, he could be seen as questioning God the Father for subjecting his son, or for that matter all of His children, to the adversities of this world.

Drag runs all the monetary goings on in the camp, and lends out cash and collects loan paybacks. Luke is part of Drag’s inner circle now. One of the men wanting a loan flatters Luke by saying he knew Luke could eat the eggs. Luke admits that he didn’t know he could, which shows he is not all that secure in his actions. He flips a coin which allows the man to get the loan, demonstrating the precariousness of each person’s fate. Drag, describing Luke’s contradictory nature, says Luke, “Smiles like a baby, but bites like a gator.”

Luke receives a message and walks away looking dejected. Drag hands the letter to another inmate, which shows that Drag’s deprived life hasn’t even given him the opportunity to learn how to read. The note says that Luke’s mother passed away. All of the men have gained a great deal of reverence toward Luke and they give him space so he can grieve in private. Luke strums a banjo and sings the mocking song about having a “plastic Jesus,” and an icon of the Virgin Mary. Even in his sadness and loss, Luke does not revert to the comfort that requires him to relinquish his independence in order to subscribe to rigid belief systems. In the thematic sense, Luke may be questioning whether he is a worthy example of rebellious justice, and he may be referring to himself as the “plastic Jesus.”

Instead of being compassionate about losing his mother, the Captain says that her death will just make Luke want to escape to visit her before her burial. So, as a cruel preventative measure, they put Luke in the “box” to keep him off of the road. The guard who prepares Luke for his isolation says he feels bad about what he is doing, but it’s his job. Luke, scoffing at the man, says, “Calling it your job don’t make it right, Boss.” Luke won’t grant the man the comfort of using the employment excuse as a crutch to support the guard’s capitulation to the unjust rules he carries out. In this sense, Luke is not a “turn the other cheek” Christian.

They finally let Luke out once his mother is buried which supposedly means he has no incentive to now run off to see her one last time. But, Luke doesn’t play by established rules. In his white “box” robe, Luke looks like an angel walking among the prisoners. He is released to celebrate the Fourth of July, an ironic holiday to enjoy for the incarcerated since it symbolizes freedom. While they make a lot of noise in the barracks, Luke cuts a hole through the building’s floor. When the guard enters to end the revelry, Luke tries to escape under the barracks. But, he is seen trying to climb the fence, and the guards beat him. He is up on a post, and the scene suggests another crucifixion image (after all, Christ was a “criminal,” too). Luke does get over the fence while dogs try to track him. Luke is crafty, as he tries to throw them off by jumping back and forth over a fence to confuse the animals, and by not leaving tracks or scent by crossing a creek holding onto an elevated wire. He swims in a river as part of his attempt to flee. The patrol returns to the prison camp with one of the dogs having run himself to death. Luke appears to have succeeded in his escape attempt.

But, Luke is captured and brought back. And as the Captain promised, Luke is placed in leg chains. The Captain says the sound of those restraints will always remind Luke of how his freedom has been further deprived. The Captain says it’s for Luke’s own good, to which Luke sarcastically says he wishes the Captain would stop being so good to him. Enraged by Luke’s lack of submissiveness, the Captain’s sadistic nature, usually covered by phony polite speech, surfaces, and he beats Luke to the ground. The Captain then reverts to his fake civilized rhetoric, delivering the movie’s famous understated line; “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” Only The Captain’s communication goes one way, with him dictating the rules and the prisoners listening and accepting.

In the food line while in the work field, one of the men serving the lunch says that Luke smells so badly, he could track him if he tried to run again. Luke, not broken by his ordeals, gives a snappy canine reference by saying that it should be easy for the man, since he is a “genuine son of a bitch.” After others ask how far he was able to get before being caught, he says about a mile and a half. He stole a car, but a policeman drove next to him at a traffic light and saw Luke in prison garb. Drag says that he should lay low, the “heat” will be off of him, and Luke can try to run off again. It’s as if the others are trying to vicariously keep their dreams of escaping through Luke. Luke just wraps a string around his hand, as if he is feeling the prison’s restraints tightening around him.

While on the work detail, Luke asks to urinate. But, he must keep shaking the bush he is behind to show he hasn’t run off. The Man with No Eyes takes a rifle and shoots around the bush, as if to curtail Luke’s movements. Not exactly a relaxing way to relieve oneself. Crafty Luke has tied string to a bush branch and continued to shake it as he put some distance between himself and the others. Luke has again turned a negative, the confirmation of his imprisoned presence, into a positive by creating a diversion. When the guards realize what has happened, they call for the dogs again to search for the runaway.

The leg restraints restrict Luke’s movements as he reaches a rural town. He encounters a couple of young boys who get him an axe and he breaks the chains, a literal and figurative action to illustrate his freedom. They also provide him with spicy food ingredients that Luke uses to throw off the scent of the dogs, who sneeze as the boys laugh in private. Luke’s intelligence is on display in his escapes. Later, Drag receives a magazine, which is odd since he can’t read. In it is inserted a photograph of Luke in a suit between two beautiful women, and Drag references Luke’s nickname by saying he is playing it “cool.” The others revel vicariously in Luke’s good fortune. Later, the value of hope lingers on in the picture as Drag charges a cold drink for one of the men to look at the photo to boost his morale. (IMDb provides an astute observation of foreshadowing. Opposite to where Luke’s photo is placed is a picture of a hunter firing a rifle which appears to be aimed at Luke’s chest).

But, the authorities catch up with Luke again and bring him back beaten badly to the barracks. The Captain says Luke will be wearing two sets of chains now. It’s as if the laws of physics fight Luke’s running away from being imprisoned: every action triggers an equal and opposite reaction. The other convicts offer words of comfort and encouragement to Luke who has blood on his face. He tells them that the photo with the women was a fake he had someone make. They don’t want to believe him, but he yells at them and says that if they want to escape, do it themselves, and “Stop feeding off of me.” This scene may call to mind Christ’s Agony in the Garden, where he seemed to sweat blood, and questions whether he is the vessel to save others. The word “feeding” might refer to The Last Supper, where followers will find redemption through the death of Jesus’s body. That last allusion is reinforced a little later as different men use their spoons to take rice off of Luke’s plate of food.

Out on the road, Luke can hardly work, and one of the guards whacks him with a rifle, the way Roman guards punished Christ as he carried his cross. They put Luke in the box for his lack of labor. There is now dissension in the ranks of convicts, as some say Luke will not make it. Drag, however, says the box can’t break Luke. But, another says at least he doesn’t wear chains for defying the system, suggesting it’s better not to admire Luke. Later Drag says to Luke that he made it through the week and he’ll now have some time to rest. But the bosses are there to destroy Luke’s independent spirit as an example to discourage the others from breaking the rules. They make him dig a deep ditch just to have him fill it up again to drain his strength. When they say to dig it back it up, he attacks the guard, but is hit with a blackjack. He starts digging again into the night but they order him to fill up the hole again. They hit him as he falls into the ditch, as if sending him to his grave. Luke prays to God, whom he previously disavowed, to not have them hit him anymore. He says he’ll do anything they say. The guard asks if he got his mind “right,” which means no more resistance, and Luke surrenders, stating he has. The other prisoners see him promise to never try to escape or talk back to the guards. The corrections officers vow if he doesn’t abide by his promises, they will kill Luke. There is then a cut to The Man with No Eyes. He is in the dark, so even though his sunglasses are not worn, his eyes are still not visible. He is like the Grim Reaper, a constant threat of death. As Luke heads back to the barracks for rest, one convict takes the photo of Luke stashed in the magazine and rips it up, his faith shaken by his hero’s defeat. The others turn away from him as Luke lurches toward his cot. He yells at them, saying “Where are you? Where are you now?” His anger shows how many abandon their heroes when they show that they are flawed like their followers.

The guards now test Luke’s pledge by making him do chores on the road. He is told to give water to the convicts. He must fetch the rifle for The Man with No Eyes who then shoots a turtle. The man loves to kill defenseless creatures. Luke must then retrieve the dead turtle. He cheerfully compliments the shooter, sounding like a slave, trying to please his master in order to survive. He is told to cut up the turtle for lunch. But instead of following that order, he drives off in one of the trucks, and stole the keys out of the other vehicles so the guards can’t follow him. Drag jumps into the truck with Luke, inspired by him, and the other prisoners smile as they have their faith restored.

On the side of the road, Drag covers up the truck with branches and laughs about how Luke fooled the guards and was planning his escape. Luke is honest and humble, saying the guards broke him, and he never plans anything. At night, Drag says he can get them some food and women and then they will free another prisoner. Drag is like a pumped-up disciple, riding the high of being emancipated. Luke says he has to be on his own, probably knowing that he will just draw fire. Drag says he only had a couple of years left to serve and he would have been released, but he got caught up in Luke’s escape. He agrees reluctantly to the splitting up, saying it’s probably safer for the two of them to separate.

Luke goes into a church and pleads to God, which is contradictory for Luke, since God is the ultimate authority figure. He says he knows he killed people in the war and broke the law, but says God “ain’t dealt me no cards in a long time,” which refers back to his struggling to succeed with a losing hand. The “rules and regulations and bosses” wielding those laws have made it impossible for him to win, he says. He stresses the contradiction of his existence by saying that God made him an outsider, someone who can’t deal with restrictions, so he asks, “Now just where am I supposed to fit in?” He asks what does God have in store for him, what does he do now? He concludes that there is no outside help coming and he has to “find my own way,” and continue as a loner living outside the frame of society’s restraints. The additional material on the version of the film I viewed noted that Luke’s situation mirrors the fate of the mythic Sisyphus, who was doomed to push a rock uphill for eternity, constantly using his will to overcome the impediment, but never succeeding. However, the existentialist Albert Camus found that one can find dignity in the struggle.

Police cars with the Captain and his men show up outside. Drag comes in and says there are dogs and cops with plenty of firearms and they caught up with him. He said he made a deal that if Luke gives up without a struggle, they won’t beat him, and they can bunk next to each other again. Luke knows this is a lie and laughs, saying God is a “hard case” like him, and is willing to sacrifice him, (as he did his son, Jesus). At an open window Luke repeats sarcastically the Captain’s words about having a “failure to communicate.” A split-second later The Man with No Eyes speaks by shooting again, hitting Luke on the side of the neck. Drag carries Luke out, but attacks the shooter with a vengeance, trying to strangle him. The Captain won’t let the local police take Luke to the closest hospital, but instead wants to go to the prison medical center. One of the cops says it’s too far and Luke won’t make it, which, of course, is the plan. As they pull out, Luke is smiling, and the sunglasses of The Man with No Eyes are smashed underneath car tires, showing that this lethal person has been somewhat diminished by Luke’s defiance.

Later, back at the prison, Drag, who now also wears leg chains as a kind of inheritor of Luke’s legacy, tells Luke’s final story, saying that he had that smile on his face as he rode away, showing that the authorities could never diminish this unique individual’s spirit. The movie implies that finding a person guilty for violating the law does not include the use of cruel and unusual punishment meant to break one’s desire for individuality, freedom and justice.

The next film is Falling Down.