So, I finally got around to watching “Mandy”. I left the film thinking it was beautiful and fresh and something pretty new (at least in style). However, like the descent into hell that Nicolas Cage endeavours, the closer you look the more messy it seemed to get. .
First impression, this film is metal. as. fuuuuuuuuck.
I’ve seen Heavy Metal. I’ve seen Beastmaster. I’ve seen Conan. I’ve seen Valhalla Rising. I’ve seen Faces of Death.
But, I don’t think any of those hold a black candle to the fucking way this movie rocks. Forging chrome axes. Hellscapes draped of craggy mountains, backed by twin mooned planets straight off a Yes album cover. Red light that would make Argento blush. You just want to crush beers and finger wicked riffs. You want to fucking slay beasts and busty women alike. I was very impressed how it seemed to just wade in these dark waters so effortlessly.
I’ve never totally bought in to the recent Nick Cage fanboy lovefest. However, I thought he played his cards right here. Apparently, he was originally offered the part of the cult leader, but insisted on playing the lead. I could see why the director wanted him for the raving ego-maniacal Manson-Koresh-Jones-Trump type. However, I’m glad Cage had the foresight to see that the real meat was within the good-guy-turned-heat-seeking-missile of a lead character.
Through much of the first half, he is quiet and lumbering. When he’s lying in bed or on the couch with Mandy, he acts more as a security blanket than loving husband, an arm draped heavily over her in a way that is both protective and idle. However, he still has an energy that plays out quietly in scenes, like when they are both watching a movie, his eyes locked on the screen as he blindly, mechanically spoons himself TV dinner. The whole time he is quiet, but there is a muffled storm just underneath.
Then, the shit hits the fan and the cracks form and the stormed insanity is allowed to spill forth. He first wails at his wife’s death, then screams by himself in a confused rage, then stutters about Jesus Freaks, then spits catchphrases while kicking ass on mutant bikers, finally proclaiming himself a god as he crushes the head of a false idol. His bathroom freakout is the kind of bottled improv performance that gave Cage his current reputation. I won’t be buying a pillow with his face on it anytime soon, but I enjoyed what he brought to this already beautiful film.
Ok, but brass tax, for all the pretty sounds and pictures, is this thing actually worth anything deeper than its style? The one caveat that critics seem to lay on the film is that it’s light on story. Looking at the story itself, who the fuck cares? It’s a metal as shit revenge film that is about a dude who gets his wife burnt-the-fuck-up by some Jesus freaks and mutant bikers, so he takes them out one-by-one. Simple. And if the film stayed in this arena, it would still be able to justify its existence alongside conservative-minded grind-house messages about how a man needs to stand his ground for what he loves and rightfully owns (ala “Death Wish”), the world is an ugly place full of ugliness (a la “The Hills Have Eyes”), and the universe works within an-eye-for-an-eye dog-eat-dog structure (a la “I Spit on Your Grave” or “Ms .45”). However, I think Mandy is also trying to tell a more timely story (even though it seems to be set in the Reagan 80s). And like everything else in this current state of god-forsaken asshole of poltics, media and content, this story seemed to be about....*sigh*...Trump. I don’t know if it is the takeaway of others, but that was, unfortunately, mine. Here’s why:
Cage’s character (aptly named in the script as “Red Miller”, apparently) seems to represent America’s truly Independent voter. A dying race. An apparent fading mindset. Red’s a guy who makes an honest living (logger) and strives for a simple life with simple pleasures. He shuts off the radio when the president comes on. He enjoys bad movies, TV dinners, and has a wonderfully simple true love for his wife. He likes her artsy drawings, but doesn’t understand them. And you know what? It doesn’t matter. He lives out in the woods closer to the wilderness, but also closer to work (accessible only by helicopter). Simple and practical.
But, for all this wonderfully basic living, there is also a naivete to it. When he visits a “friend” after his wife’s death, he holds his head in his hands and tries to understand a world that seems so utterly outside of his entire understanding of existence. How can it possibly be this way? Earlier in the film, the couple sleep in a wide bed with their heads positioned against a massive window that looks onto the wild forest that surrounds their modest home. All that keeps them from the wild chaos of the world is a thin piece of single-paned glass. While working, Mandy keeps her head buried in fantasy books, only to be schlepped out when absolutely necessary. Red seems to want to exist only within the span of the workday and the couch with his wife at night. The night is dark with pocks of forest green from the surrounding trees, until it is utterly shattered by the harsh red and black silhouettes of awaiting evil. The film almost seems to be saying “They’re asking for it”.
So, “Jesus freaks” and mutant bikers come in and beat up the couple, burn up the wife and wrap the husband in barbed wire. They leave Red for dead, daring him to escape and come after them. Again with the metaphor of the Independent voter, we have a dick-obsessed egomaniac who attempts to write his own narrative and has weird hair who seemingly trolls the Everyman in a way that coaxes him out of his simple existence and out into the barren battlefield of a culture war that means fuck-all. The Cult Leader surrounds himself with sycophants, theme songs and does deals with demons. It’s Trump. It’s America. Right? Am I projecting here?
So Cult Leader Trump comes in and completly fucks up Red’s life and says “Now what? What are you going to do?” In the end, Red is triumphant, but at what cost. He is no longer human. Put through the meat grinder, he is a grinning, blood-soaked maniac that has destroyed evil, but only to create a vacuum in its place to be filled by yet another, darker form. In our current world (maybe it’s always been this way) there is no room for fence-sitting. Fuck you and your “Let’s see how this plays out” open-minded bullshit. The world, the universe, has no place for gray-areas. Take sides and destroy the other. Believe everything and everyone on your side. Buy in to the narrative and completely embody your beliefs. You are your beliefs, and your beliefs are not yours. You do not evolve unless the almighty “It” wants you too.
And this is the male gaze the film provides. This is how the universe affects Red. How does it impact women? It burns the ones who dare to laugh. It cuts off the head of the one who use their body to survive.It forgets about the ones who turn the other cheek and keep their mouth shut. Each of these characters are represented. In fact, they are the ONLY women character’s who are represented. So what does that say. What is the film telling us? Mandy has a personal impact on Red in a way that weaves itself through his realty. The world morphs and changes in her absence. She becomes the fuel in his tank. But does she have any significant impact beyond the one she loves?
The movie seems to have a message of how love conquers all, but only within the pitifully small human experience. It’s amazing how the film portrays Cage’s character as being so badass, yet also so helpless to his situation. Same with Mandy. They are so strong, yet so worthless, except to each other.
There are much larger things at play within the universe and the best thing to do is double down and tether yourself to whoever is closest to you. It’s not a sad or happy take on life. It just is. It seems a very Republican idea: what’s mine is mine and that’s what I know and that’s what I like and everything else is fuckall so leave my shit and my people alone.
Or am I looking to far into this? That chainsaw fight was pretty badass.
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