[Brian Callahan]

Thank you Stephen, I appreciate your thoughtful response. Yes, I agree looking at the film through the psychological and mystical lens opens it up in a really neat way. When I watched it for the first time I wasn’t consciously thinking about that aspect, but still enjoying it, and not entirely for reasons I was conscious of at the time. Norland’s analysis gives us a rich way to examine it, and I’m looking forward to rewatching it and other films that strike a similar chord.

[Brian Callahan]

I think you can also see the comet also as the virus. Look at how we have viewed the data and scientists throughout this mess- often dismissive, reactive, and subservient to capitalistic forces. When acting is politically expedient, we will do so, but only on a temporary basis. How President Orlean handles the situation evokes both presidents Trump and Biden to certain degrees. One can certainly imagine Trump laughing it off and then moving in time to save face for election season. And I recall a keen sense of hope when Biden was elected that our own form of launching rockets into the sky and destroying the comet was going to work. But here we are 2 years later and it’s not hard to see BASH in the pharmaceutical companies creating rounds of vaccines, and disaster capitalism as a boon for the ever-important economy…Yes then it is about climate change, because how we’ve handled that is reflected in how we’ve handled other crises. But have we handled these things so poorly because we have severed myth and art from playing key roles in our collective consciousness? Is there hope at all that we can recover these elements and rebuild anew from the destruction wrought by “the comet” of our lifetime?

 

 

[Author]

Posts