- V for Vendetta (2005)
Recently, I have frequently been driving to and fro between my home, work and the hospital where our baby (eventually) will be delivered. In that time I have been listening to the soundtrack of the Broadway production of "Beauty and the Beast". It is one of my favorite movie scores, and the additional songs and orchestration that were written for the stage improve it further. As I listen to the music, I often find myself singing along with the characters and watching the film in my minds eye. It has been some years since I have actually watched the animated Disney version, and so I think that I had started to forget some of the scenes that don't have songs in them. I was reminded today, though, of one of these scenes while listening to the score. Gaston has made his way to the tower of the great castle, an arrow nocked on his bowstring. Sighting the beast across the room, Gaston releases the arrow, and the shaft buries itself into the Beast's back. As the beast roars with pain, Gaston rushes him, and kicks the Beast through the nearby window, and onto the balcony. As the Beast pulls himself up, Gaston delivers another blow, sending the Beast sprawling downward onto a buttress at the edge of a chasm. The beast, having lost his first love and his last chance, doesn't have the will to get up and defend himself from the onslaught. Gaston pulls one of the heavy stone sconces off the edge of the buttress, and holding it like a club, advances on the beast. Just then, the beast catches sight of Belle, who has come back to warn him. Gaston brings the club swinging down, and the beast catches it with a clawed hand, stopping it. Rising up to his full height, the Beast towers over his attacker, baring his fangs and emitting a feral snarl as he meets him in combat. At that moment Gaston's expression changes to one of surprise and undeniable fear. To me, this is one of the best moments in the whole movie.
Let me explain, I have always had a special dislike for people who are arrogant, self centered, or just garden variety rude. It is the source of many of my prejudices, when I somehow perceive that members of a certain group have a stronger tendency to be inconsiderate towards others, such as Cadillac drivers who cut people off and act like they own the road, because they own a Cadillac. I also have a tendency to feel this way about people who drive very large Ford Trucks (coughcompensatingcough). Some people go beyond being inconsiderate, and treat people with cruelty, preying on those they consider inferior to themselves (which includes almost everybody). Such cruel behavior and blatant disregard for the needs and feelings of others is not confined to the streets. Almost everybody knows such a person, and many secretly wish they would be hit by a falling tree.
During high school, I gave a lot of thought to why people act the way they do, especially those who are cruel and egotistical (of which there is no shortage in high school). I was especially confused about why those people who treated me worst were the people who seemed to have the most friends. It seemed incongruous. Then, one day, someone explained to me the one key element that controls and dictates almost every social relationship that surrounds such a person.
Fear.
Fear and the power that fear can hold over people is a powerful force in every relationship from a schoolyard bully, to an abusive spouse, to a ruthless corporate executive. But many innocuous relationships, those that seem to be friendly, can also be permeated by this use of manipulation. Imagine, if you will, a high school party, all the cool kids are there, and everybody has a great time. Did you catch it? The fear? It really is that subtle. Nobody at the party realizes that they have been gently manipulated by their popular host. "All the cool kids were there". Most of the guests at the party were thinking about who was at the party, and especially grateful that they themselves were at the party. Almost nobody thinks about who is not at the party.
Those who were not invited, the unpopulars, the off beats, the nerds, the dorks, "that weird kid" and all the others like them were not there. Some of the people in this group were hurt by the exclusion. Others didn't notice, or didn't care. Others got together and had their own party, which the popular kids probably would have called "super lame". But their existence, as a group of people who are excluded from the cool peoples caste, creates a threat that constantly tears at the subconscious of every person at that cool party. All the people at the party know that they stand on a razor's edge, that by trying too hard, or not hard enough, they could fall into that excluded group. A single misstep, a careless word, a single moment could find them out of favor with the host. Its like catching leprosy, and as soon as you are tainted, everybody else shuns you, for fear of being cast off themselves.
But we started by talking about Gaston, from Beauty and the Beast. He isn't one of these people at the party, oh no. He's throwing the party. He is the manipulator. He is the person that is holding control over all these people, and causing them to willingly live in fear. He is the person whose cruelty and arrogance everybody at the party mimics, trying to get his popularity to rub off. It begs the question, "If everybody else acts the way they do because the host is acting cruel and arrogant, why is the host cruel and arrogant? Why does he go to great lengths to hold power over others? The answer is the same.
Fear.
Even the most popular, and the coolest kids are fearful that they will be found out. They know that if they let their mask slip for even a minute, they can be exposed as just another person. The host is terrified that everyone is going to realize that he is just another insecure teen that doesn't really know what he's doing or what the future will hold, struggling with homework and whether he's going to make it to the end of the week, let lone college. So he clings to the power that he has over others, like a tyrant who hopes each day that his subjects won't rise up in rebellion. The more inadequate and confused he feels, the crueler he becomes, trying to maintain his image.
So Gaston, rejected by a pretty girl and with the whole town in tow, goes to challenge the person that has shattered his image and taken away his power. Which brings us to the scene on the roof. Everything is going exactly the way that Gaston is accustomed to. He is the bully and his victim is capitulating, and soon, he will take the ultimate power over the beast, by taking his life. Suddenly, the beast stands up to Gaston, and the bully's mask is stripped away. We get a rare glimpse at the true nature of the bully, the fear that he has covered desperately for years.
This is the reason that I love this moment. I love to see a person, who pretends to be something they're not, slapped in the face with harsh reality. There is a certain poetic justice, I think, when a person like that is put in his place. Maybe its a personal prejudice because I was one of those kids that tried to be cool and failed miserably. Maybe I'm just a fan of irony. But I will always smile to myself when I see a Cadillac pulled over by a police officer.
