A deep-dive into Ari Aster's 'Beau Is Afraid', starring Joaquin Phoenix and Patti LuPone. Music: "Disintegrating" by Myuu • 🙁 Sad & Somber (Free M... "Myuu - Disintegrating" is under a Creative Commons (CC BY 3.0) license. / myuuji
This is such a good break down and made me notice that Beau’s mom is 100% a narcissist. She is incapable of feeling empathy for him, she sees herself as this perfect mother and amazing business woman, she uses people for her own gain, she fails to see how her own toxicity is pushing Beau away, furthermore she doesn’t even think she’s done anything wrong and feels it’s everyone else who’s out to get her, and at the root of it all she’s a deeply insecure and unloved person. When you view Beau’s relationship with his mom through the lense of living with a narcissist it makes so much more sense. Even the trial at the end of the film is just a literal representation of trying to defend yourself against someone who sees everything you do as a personal attack to them
In my opinion, I think one of the saddest things about these situations is the presence of blame. Often, an abused and hurt child will thrust the pain of their up-bringing onto the narcissistic parent, demonizing them with complete blame. This further perpetuates the cycle of shame and pain the parent feels in the first place from their own often horrible situation. People are, fortunately, not narcissistic out of the womb, and become this way as unconscious learned behavior as a defense to their environment. To fully blame the narcissist, while ignoring their pain, would be akin to blaming someone like Beau for the way he is, ignoring why he is the way he is. Responsibility is often substituted with blame, and blame in situations like these helps no one
I think it can be said that narcissism is basically a coping mechanism to the childhood trauma. It trying to compensate through external things one's deep rooted beliefs of being unloved and impossibility of being loved. A coping mechanism that is widely accepted in our wretched modern society for reasons... Ari Ester films so far are essentially about the cycle of trauma that goes in families.
Honestly I have a friend who seems to have the same complex but not as severe, his mom fucked his head up and literally had to move away from her eventually and now lives in Florida bettering himself while his mom still lives in New Jersey. While he was here he slowly became reclusive, uninterested in social settings and work and also has a lot of trouble with more serious relationships with other women. I lived with the guy I know. Hope he’s doing better
@@hippiecheezburger5457Wow, this sounds just like my ex. Except he’s still in NJ. And is super into working but only as a means to avoid relationships. Seeing the trauma these central figures place on us is such a heavy burden, even with compassion it can feel exhausting. Anyway, crazy fucking movie, eh?
The tragedy of Toni's situation is that her parents would never have loved her a fraction as much as they love their dead son, because their dead son is a permanently perfect child. He died a hero (at least according to society's notion that all soldiers who are killed in action are heroes) and now being dead, he can never disappoint his parents, he can never betray them. Consequently, Beau empathizes with Toni more so than anybody else whose path he crosses because he knows what it's like to never live up to parents' impossible standards.
I feel the same about my mother, though who abusive had moments of great kindness, She died when I was thirteen and has been on a pedestal in my head for 35 years.
I related to that a lot. My brother almost died from a car accident as a toddler and had severe adhd and could do no wrong. Almost everything I did was wrong until I was near 30 and my mom had a change. She apologized to me for the first time I can ever remember after I told her how I felt.
Something about that scene where he crosses the street for water and that homeless guy immediately follows him frantically asking for help… got my anxiety in high gear. That feeling of how you’re in desperate need of a fix yourself and you feel and hurt for others asking for help. Pure chaos in the head.
That scene is too good. It hits hard living in Cape Town, an incredible place to live in a lot of ways (for those of us who are fortunate! but we have terrible problems with inequality and homelessness. You can’t go into most shops without being ‘accosted’ by a desperate person. And it slowly chips away at your empathy, too. It’s just awful. And really messes with your head! This scene and a lot of the scenes outside Beau’s apartment really hit hard.
I’ll expose a dumb bias I had in avoiding this video due to low view count but this is by far the best video on this movie on RU-vid. Great work! Another point that I think might be overlooked in the few analysis I’ve seen is that Beau is an only child. As one myself, I can definitely relate to Beaus anxiety over disappointing your parent, with no one to share that emotion with. It’s also interesting to think that Toni is also an only child after the death of her brother.
Imagine being an only child with 3 siblings. That stuff really sucks because you came along 12 years later. Those three warped by mothers narcissism often win 'mommy' by ganging up on while simultaneously saying your life was easiest because you were 'doted on' as an 'only child.' Really messed up. Really harmful. Really toxic.
This is undoubtedly the most accurate representation of the movie I've seen. People always skip over the part where he is called selfish by the play narrator and confesses cowardice. He then wakes up to horns and lives out a fairytale. He is guilty, of not standing up for himself, of cowardice. Only through reflecting on this was he able to grow beyond it. Compared to the end scene where his self-respect is thrown off a ledge and when the horns blare he begs for help from his mom, falling back into the same trap. Which reminds me - if you rewatch the part where he first enters the play company and listen to the actors previewing they are foreshadowing the ending. Seem to be speaking about the cave 'if it were a trap? Or is it an opportunity?...' the scene even ends with stage lights mimicking the projectors in the arena and Beau having water dumped on his head (drowning). I also wonder what the boat engine represents at the end. Clearly he has had some motivation pushing him forward through the constant cycles of abuse from his mother. What broke down here? His sanity?
Thank you! Yeah, that part you mentioned in the preview of the play is definitely another example of the fatalism running through the film. And the dialogue by Penelope there to Beau: "let's not spoil it." As well as the actor talking about the revelation that those horns sounding are funeral horns. Which of course, Beau does realize when the trumpets sound in the arena, hence his panic when he hears them. The boat engine stalling could be a number of different things. I think the concept of cycles, like you mentioned, is important here. It could act as a culmination of his guilt and perhaps how he felt like because of that perpetual cycle he has to go through with his mother his entire life, he is metaphorically (and now literally) stuck in place. I don't view the engine/boat as a breakdown of his sanity, but of course that would be a perfectly valid take!
I really don’t want to have children, no matter how much I try I see so much of my parents in myself. I don’t want my children to go through anything that I did and I feel like it’s unavoidable. I can avoid it all together if I don’t have kids. This is a great analysis by the way, so much better than all the other ones who make it about themselves. I feel like you see this movie for what it is and not what you want it to be.
I got u! Same for me and my partner…😢Most people around us give birth to babies for themselves, their family, their god or whatever, but never for the baby
Justifiable fears. The only sure way to break the cycle of abuse is to not have kids. It's not impossible to stop replicating your parents towards your own kids, of course, but one must be a fool to underestimate the difficulty of such task. I've read many stories of people who had unwent narcissistic parents abuse. They decided to have children with a conviction to not repeat what have been done to them. And they believe they are great parents of themselves. I'm always skeptical of such stories. There is just so much unconscious going on in a person's head. Even in this movie we see how the mother character thinks (or more likely desperately wants to think) that she's a great mother.
Some of us can only see this in hind site and cringe because you DO NOT want to regret your babies. I applaud your ability to process this terrible truth ahead of things. Always know a curse can be broken. I must have faith in that.
Avoidance justification? I hope you're not asking permission to remain in an unhappy inert life. I also hope these commenter's aren't enabling such a sad lifestyle. Not doing something never deserves praise. Doing nothing is the easiest thing in the world to do and is literally the bare minimum. Everyone has those same fears and the vast majority of us overcome them. You'll never be perfect, no one ever is. Stop trying to be and focus on being the best you. At least you can spot your weaknesses and you lived through your childhood, didn't you? Every parent wants to do better than their own parent. Instead of judging yourself (and subsequently others) for failing to live up to perfection - learn to be more forgiving. Not just to others, but yourself as well.
First of all, this was a fantastic overview and unpacking of the film. Second of all, I saw Beau is Afraid with closed captions on at a nearby theater and in the opening scene of Beau's birth Mona says "you made me have him!". I think that his father is alive and perhaps pressured or coerced Mona into motherhood, resulting in all the resentment both of Beau and his father that we see from Mona during the film, as well as her desperation to contain/repress Beau's sexuality/masculinity.
@@mckernan603 i think the man in the attic is beau's 'inner child' who had self-esteem and was normal, but mona's abuse forced him into the attic (in beau's mind), leaving the broken 'personality' moving in the world. the giant penis is the boogeyman that mona's conception/father-killing story created in the 'attic' of beau's mind, and trapped it in the attic with his 'inner child'. a parent telling a child about their intimate emotional or sexual details and problems is known as 'emotional incest' and is another factor in beau's fear of sexuality, on top of his literal fear of dying, should he feel any sexual gratification. beau is terrified of his penis because his mother told him that it would murder him some day, if he ever made an intimate connection with another woman, because she resented his very existence and needed to feed her resentment with his guilt and shame, which was the driving force of mona's parental disposition. she purposefully robbed him of the ability to have normal human relationships because of her resentment and rage toward beau, simply for existing.
@@mckernan603 imo everything that happens in the attic is the boiling point of everything the movie has been saying up until that point about beau's emasculation via mona's resentment of beau's father; I also think it's Ari Aster's attempt to reinforce the absurdity of the film to keep it in the dark comedy realm - his father is literally a giant dick.
Its also possible that he didn't coerce her at all and she's only saying it because she's in pain and wants to hurt somebody else, disconnect from everyone she could've loved. Pretend she had no control over any of it
I'm so glad there's people like you who dig deep into this movie that is heavily misunderstood. I could talk about this movie for hours on end I think it's incredibly well made! Such a good analysis!! Amazing work!! :)
My mum said her womb is the most expensive house I've ever lived in. She asked me when I will start paying for the rent. I said I had been paying for it since the very first day. She asked me whether I paid by cash or card. I said by card. She said she didn't have the impression. She asked me if I paid on credit. I said yes. She asked me when I plan to pay for it. I said after graduation. She said she supposed that I should pay for my lifetime. She asked me if I wanna be her son or change another mum in the next life. I didn't answer. I supposed she thought one life wasn't enough for paying her womb rent. I was not kidding, I truly believe that I've been paying for the rent for my whole F$$$ing life, by my whole F^^^ing body and heart.
I was completely aware that this movie is gonna be a journey and that I won't understand a single thing, but I still watched it so then I can see how capable people are to interpret movie by noticing small details, it always blow my mind. There's just so much chaos in that movie and this analysis just put everything together.
I cant help but think of this film politically. Government/elites are finding ways to control. It uses food, water, currency/banking system, technology, media, sex, pharma, court system and many other things to instill fear. Fear, the surface level theme in the film. Beau represents individuals who dont realize how we are manipulated by these things. The small themes throughout are the film are brilliant as well. Too many to list.
I'd suggest you read "The Body Never Lies" by Alice Miller if you have the chance. It's mainly about the unconditional respect we have towards our parents, even when they hurt or neglect us; but she also draws the comparison with how we give the same respect to authorities and governments, even though they traumatise us. It's a great read.
I went through this breakdown wondering how I hadn't found this channel earlier, and was totally shocked that it was only your fifth video. This is a brilliant analysis, from writing to editing. Needless to say you've got another subscriber, and I genuinely hope you see the kind of growth in viewership work like this deserves.
I’m at the part where you discuss Beau’s father and how Jeeves destroys and harms the representations of him, and I was just curious if you noticed that Beau’s father is named Harry and when Mina reveals herself to be alive she says to her clean up crew “Feed Harry”, acknowledging that the dad is still alive
Sorry I'm late but here's a tiny thing I interpreted differently: Elaine n Beau never fell in love *together*. Elaine, from the start, pushed him, to either kiss him or forced him to stay on bed while she was on top of him, raping him while he kept telling her to stop. I'm still watching the vid btw.
I havent seen this movie, nor did I know what it was about. Ive seen Ari Asters other stuff, but just didnt get around to seeing this because it wasnt in theaters near me. Having alot of unresolved childhood trauma pertaining to a horrid toxic relationship with my mother, this summary has devastated me. Im not a schizo or whatever the fuck beau is supposed to be, but the plot of this movies digs so goddamn deep into my psyche. Thank you for making this masterpiece of a movie summary/explanation.
This is the best beau essay I’ve seen. Too many get bogged down by the emasculation of him, and rather than recognizing that as a tool Mona uses for control, they project masculinity as the main aspect of life he was left out of. The life he longed for was in ways the hypermasculine American dream, but the love he felt with his sons is the true crux of what he missed out on because of her. He wanted love and family! Also, it’s really important that you didn’t just dismiss the attic clone as a real twin, which I’ve heard a lot of. My only remaining question for you, is how do you feel about Mona being a surrogate for capitalism itself? Most interactions with her feel simultaneously incredibly personal, and incredibly distant. Media and ads and stuff? We’re all afraid and stuff? Idk thanks so much for this video though!
That’s an interesting idea! The idea that Mona being a surrogate for capitalism is definitely a possibility as well. The intense control that she exerts over Beau, as well as literally having a hand in everything that he owns or uses, to a cripplingly degree. What’s great about this film is that there’s so much room for metaphor in literally everything, and so many layers of interpretation, but there are no definitive answers. In that way, Beau’s journey, becomes a sort of rorschach test for the viewer.
the first hour of the film is my fav, the absolute chaos, the overwhelming amount of tiny details to look for in every frame- the fucking insanity of the ppl on the street - i want to live there, id also be so full of anxiety but i still wanna
Excellent video analysis! The lens of viewing almost everything that happens in the film literally was always so interesting, because it was all a product of Beau's mother's fragile sense of reality. How insane the events of the film are are *her* machinations. The monster in the attic could've been an animatronic just to deeply disturb Beau! Ari Aster loves telling movies (so far) where someone or something is pulling *all* the strings. So in this film, the person pulling the strings is some unstable, narcissistic billionaire mother pulling a huuuuuge Truman Show on her son. And like the Truman Show, the protagonists are kept contained through fear and orchestrated trauma, before rebelling against their fears, sailing off on a boat, and going where their controller cannot follow. Edit: To further the parallels with The Truman Show, in the play, Beau has this daydream of his potential life that could be an intentional parallel with Truman fantasizing his trip to Fiji. Truman also has quirky and adventurous fantasies (like when he pretends to be an astronaut) that he uses to escape his mundane life. So both of them use escapist daydreaming as an escape from their controllers.
@@westernmonk6036 The cult itself controlled everything, I believe! And possibly with the help of their God/Oracle that told them about the future-there was that tapestry near the start of the film that foreshadowed everything about to transpire.
Incredible work you’ve done here! It simply still boggles my mind how many closed-off people have discredited this film as meaningless drivel. Many of the analyses here I feel can be felt subliminally throughout the film and that’s this movie’s true power. We experience the guilt/shame/ambivalence/everything THROUGH Beau as the viewer. If you are open and receptive to this movie, I believe many of these insights you have eloquently and beautifully illuminated here, would reveal themselves to the viewer. Sadly many people do not wish to have their thoughts or ideas challenged, nor their faculties of mind stretched to play the detective, and derive meaning that isn’t just served to them on a silver platter. Although, personally I find the significance/message of this film gut-wrenchingly obvious, and wonder why it eludes so many people. Maybe our toxic societal notions of family, and the appearance of unconditional love for our parents is what keeps people from admitting that our relationships with them can be muddy, toxic, negative, or traumatizing. Anyway, just some thoughts after watching this powerhouse analysis! Thanks again. Cheers!
this was such an amazing analysis of a beautiful film, i’m really happy to have randomly come across your channel and hope to see more video essays from you in the future
The man at the end of the play claims to have been a nurse for Beau’s father. Beau imprints on that man being his father irregardless of their actual relation. The dissonance can either reinforce a delusional angle of interpretation on Beau’s journey to some degree, or that the man was Beau’s father and attempted to hide his real identity in fear of Mona’s seeming omnipotent wrath
This is a bizarre movie, and Patty Lupone did WAY too good at portraying an overbearing mother. Far too much like my mother. I never want to watch this brilliant film ever again.
mind-blown by how little subs and attention your channel has, this interpretation was beautifully put together and it was really well edited, I loved it, thank you for making this wonderful video
My favorite read on this movie is the literal one, where everything you see is actually what happened. Yes, I know, it's the laziest read. For some reason this is the one movie where only looking at the top layer gives me the most enjoyment. Okay, so one more thing. The penis-shaped monster daddy, to me, makes me think of how a negligent mother would talk about her son's father to the son. She would say, "Your father's a dick," you know, to denigrate the father. So I see the penis-monster, I understand that she has said this to her son (even though it wasn't explicitly in the movie) and then I see that she was being literal in saying it. Like, know how in the OMEN the priest says that Damian's mom was a Jackel and everyone just thought that he was calling her a liar and a "loose woman." But then it turns out that the priest was being literal and his Damian's mom is for real a Jackel!? It's the same kinda thing. Maybe this movie makes me think more than I would like to admit...
This is such an awesome dissection of this movie! Beau Is Afraid definitely takes you for a ride on a first viewing, and I had a lot of fun watching it since my friends and I are drawn to strange and weird media often. You provided a plot and thematic interpretation that was easy to follow, set a great mood, and cleared up a lot of loose ends I had when looking into the film. I’ve become a big fan of Aster’s work lately (sharing a name helps lol) and getting an in depth look like this into the layers of his works is incredible, keep up the great work! 🤟 Also, all hail the Ladybug Man
This is one of the best videos on this movie. I loved every minute of the film and really enjoyed digging into it. But you pointed out a LOT of little details that I missed. You've gained a sub this day!
it is about 7 months I left her and living alone, and just feel what is life in peace. yes you are right it's never too late even if only 1 day been left for living.
As someone who hasnt seen the movie but is watching this breakdown i got sooo into it! You absolutely sold me this movie. The Synopsis & breakdown was so beautifully done, I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything and was following along very well while multitasking (sorry 😅) thanks for helping explaining it. I can safely add it to a list of movies I can appreciate and connect with the story, even those out of my element/unfamiliar genres, and listen to the true meaning of a message.
Does anyone have any idea about the scene in the first act wherein Beau was trying sleep, but that neighbor kept sliding notes underneath his door to 'keep it down'? I'm not sure what to feel about that or how it might relate to Mona's manipulations?
I think that and the loud music was a part of the plan to make him wake up late. She would screw him over but expect him to do everything he can to get to her
There are several layered interpretations for this masterful, trippy movie. To me, the movie symbolizes the many stages of grief one goes through, when mourning a the death of a toxic person (specifically, a son mourning a controlling mother's death). Feelings are conflicted.It's complicated. Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.
This is definitely the best explanation and i identify with it the others don’t seem as a analytical or intellectual but by that I mean In the way I saw it, not as in their theories are dumb I’m just saying we saw it the same way and this is amazing thank you for sharing ❤
Everyone needs to realize that you owe your parents NOTHING and you are free to have a life away from them if they are harmful to you. As soon as you can, please go live your life
Another thing about the water motif in the movie is that when he was frantically trying to take his pills which required water, his buildings water supply suddenly stops working. Idk if this has anything to do with Beau's relationship with water but I feel like it means something or plays into that.
Water is often an archetype for primordial chaos (for example, in flood myths), but it's also the source of life. So... running / hiding from chaos cuts us off from life itself. Just a hypothesis. No idea if it works here.
This was one of the best movies i've seen this year. But it was also a 3 hours emotional flashback to me and i never want to see it again haha i don't think it's a matter of 'everything is in his head' personaly it's really putting on screen the feelings of an adult traumatized by his childhood, feeling attacked/endangered by everything and his reality is shaped by his abuser. The arena scene really got to me, as i completely related to the whole metaphor. He has no defense, only his mother's interpretation of the events is the right one. He ends up gaslighted to death, drowning in his own shame. I honestly had tears of exhaustion in my eyes while watching the frantic jumps of the boat. The distant screams of the mother putting on a show and playing the victim were just terrifying to me. I can't believe it was marketed as a comedy. The theater wasn't packed but there was still a lot of people. I didn't hear one laugh. But this is why i go to the cinema. I love movies like that. But yeah, once is enough
@@ryanthetimetraveler do it! you have a new sub. This has to be some of the best analysis since this shining one I seen recently. Ive been waiting for someone else to dig that deep into movies lately and this one not only helped me understand some parts in the movie but you dug so deep and brought stuff no one talked about yet in any explanation video I’ve seen that was so important to the story for how beaus mother was watching his every move including the employees. Keep up the amazing work.
Excellent breakdown. I tried watching one other in-depth analysis before this one but the dude was so arrogant I turned it off after about 5 minutes. I look forward to watching more of your videos. Best of luck in 2024 and beyond!
I have a narcissistic mother so this movie was so fun for me. I'm so glad to myself that I am not docile anymore and do defend myself always. With people like mona and my mother, you gotta just leave them to live in their own delusion and move on to live your own life. It is hard tho fr, people like that stalk and harrass you and you always gotta get the police involved, dont even read the shit they send you. Let them implode on their lonesome. :)
What a great analysis of this movie! I'm amazed by the details and insight you got. I was excited about the Movie because I love Ari Aster, but have been completely thrown off, when I watched it in the theater. I knew there was more to it than I catched on first sight, but I didn't watch it again because it felt like a three hour surreal nightmare on drugs wich I didn't understand. I think I will watch it again now. Thank you for your great work!
Hey...this is nicely put together and when you do analyze the film I find myself digesting your thoughts and enjoying what you have to say. However, so much of this video is spent summarizing the events of the film. I think you could do far less and still get your points across. Just my opinion, again..nice job.
The content of this breakdown begins at around 6:14 after the entirely unnecessary walk-through of the film. Comes to a predictable conclusion. Cooler analysis done at The Barking Years. Check it out.
With a religious lens, Beau is everyone and Mona is like God. Mona loves Beau but her love is deterministic, jealously possessive, all seeing and punishing. At the end everyone (Beau) would be judged and there would be no salvation. Everyday everyone lives in fear. Everyone (Beau) is afraid. No one is innocence according to Mona’s justice. Ari Aster said the movie is like a Jewish ‘Lord of the Rings’. So Beau is Frodo and Mona Is Sauron but it felt more like a commentary about what it is like to be a human being. Human being is afraid.
PLOT TWIST: Beau died after minutes of laying in the bathtub. It was suic*dal. The following scenes are merely his imagination of all his suffering as being treated as a guinea pig for his mother's pharmaceutical experiments, and he did not even know his mother was using him for medicine experiments. Those pills he was taking are what caused him to get even more paranoid and anxious, tho he had already been paranoid since then because of his mother's abuse towards him. The therapist? That one was working for his insane mother. He keeps giving Beau pills that are merely for experimental purposes. After the therapist knew that the previous pills he gave worked to cause paranoia, he then gave Beau another kind of pill which has 'erectus' in its naming - which makes Beau see a giant erecting penis later on. You could see the term 'erectus' in the scene when Beau and her mother pass by some posters on the wall before they have an argument. Yeah, his mother is the sole VILLAIN! Wonder why the following scenes had gotten weirder and kind of hypothetical after the bathtub scene? Well, that's how a dying brain - losing oxygen tends to work. Everything then goes hypothetical or hyperbolic. Remember when Beau sees the nurse's daughter drinking the blue paint? The blue paint symbolizes water and he sees himself as the girl dying from it as he was drowning in the bathtub. He thinks of another person drinking it instead of him since he is somehow afraid of letting himself get drowned at that moment. Beau does not have kids and he thought of having kids while he was dying thinking of how his life would turn out if he had. Remember the flood which caused him and his family to separate? The presence of the flood basically means that he was literally drowning in the bathtub at that time. And remember the flashbacks where a little boy was being scolded by her Mom and that's from the point-of-view of someone who was in the water, that's basically Beau himself in the bathtub remembering the past. In the ending, the BOAT resembles the BATHTUB itself, and him being glued to the boat literally means that he was in his last breath in the bathtub. He couldn't escape from the bathtub since his body couldn't grasp for air anymore thus, him glued on the boat. At that time of his life, her mother came and saw his son dying in the bathtub. Her mother cries witnessing his son dying because of her failed experiment and other people don't care just like what is happening in the stadium. And when the boat capsizes, that's when he dies in the bathtub. His role as one of the guinea pigs for his mother's pharmaceutical experiments finally ended. Theoretically, the place where Beau lives is merely a rehab facility and those insane people out there are used for experiments just like Beau was. Now it's clear why they are all crazy! And you should have realized how the element 'water' was used so many times in the movie, which symbolizes he was in the water ALL THE TIME - dying there. The stated 'Beau's adventures' in the trailer literally symbolizes the flow of his dying mind. The 'dozens become hundreds, hundreds become thousands' states how insane a dying mind could think, thus the following scenes have gotten hyperbolic or exaggerated. Those pills he was taking are what makes Beau paranoid, hence the title Beau Is Afraid. And in the next experiment which is a failure, that caused Beau's death. No doubt, this film is just straight-up spectacular!
Wow you nailed it. Also, just to add possible his drowning may have been due to him taking the medication and getting in the tub. Nathan lane daughter I noticed was taking medicine like they were tic tac as her and Beau was looking at each other. And the end the boat sank and beau was not able to move because of the medicine which caused him to drown. Great insight it makes more sense now.
An incredible analysis. You gave words to ideas birth from this movie’s insanity and Beau’s insanity as well. I think I connected to a man living in fear from the same fear all men can have that inaction will lead to our deaths. Beau makes very few choices in the movie, and many of them not from a place of macho-ism, or self-determination, but trying to preserve the emotional core that he knows is within him. An emotional core that has been literally and figuratively been attacked by Mona and her need to possess him. His only parental figure in his life. From a lifetime of this attack, Beau is unable to discern fact from fiction. From his inability to trust himself or communicate his feelings to anyone else in his world. The fear left in him has made him unable to live. There’s a lot of death in the film, causal, inconsequential, and often played for laughs in the movie. I wonder in the mist of the commentary that is being made by the theme of water in the movie, if death is not somehow the ultimate freedom Beau has been looking for? Even his two acts of bravery, where he stands up for himself, was one to kill his mother, and the other to accept his own demise. I would love to revisit this movie and look at it from the lens that in death, somehow we are all freed from this terror, at least in Beau’s mind. The world is authentically cruel in the movie. Of course the crudity and violence, not to mention the intake of medicine, is a reflection of a modern Western/American life, but how does all this death makes Beau feel? I think maybe one of the morals the movie has to offer is, “when all your life is clouded in fear and dismay, you can never truly live, but live in the shadow of your life.” I hope this film inspires people to take a look at their own motivations in life, before like Beau, we trick even ourself to think there is no way out of terror without violence.
She literally says to the maid “feed Harry. And get rid of her” meaning get rid of Elaine’s body. I’m guessing Harry was Beaus twin in the attic with the dog bowl who looks emancipated?
