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The Incredibles
Jun. 5th, 2005 11:58 amI was re-watching this movie again last night, and something odd struck me. This is actually a fairly subversive little film. It hit the point, repeatedly, that some people are simply better than others, special, even superior in some ways. For the last couple decades, school, entertainment, and government have been constantly trying to pound the opposite message into our heads. Everyone is special, everyone is the same, no one is better than anyone else. In movies and television, the uber-smart, uber-capable sorts are always the villians -- particularly scientists. Or, if they're not, they're colluding with the villians (knowingly or unknowingly), or simply uninterested in getting involved in the conflict. The heroes are always the everyman, the kids, and so on, who defeat the ubermenschen because of their "heart" rather than any sort of innate or learned ability.
Obviously, superhero stories are a bit of an exception; but even there, the villians are usually even stronger and/or stronger than the hero. The hero needs help to defeat him; or defeats him because of his "heart". It's always a case of the weaker overcoming the stronger.
This time around, that's not the case. It's more of a "Harrison Bergeron" scenario, where the "Supers" are prohibited from using their superpowers, because they are too far superior to the rest of the populace. The Populists, thanks to the Victims (those who resent being saved or helped by the elite Supers), have won. One scene in particular sums up the entire thing, where Dash, the kid with super-speed is complaining about not being allowed to compete in sports because of his natural advantage; and his mother, herself a super, explaining to him why he can't. She tells him it's because it wouldn't be fair to the other children. He's special, gifted, so therefore he can't be allowed to do anything that might make him appear to be better in any way than his peers. She ends by spewing the message that has become the foundation of our educational system: "Everybody's special"; to which he replies "That's just another way of saying that no one is." Lowest Common denominator.
And the villian isn't a super-being, he's an everyman with delusions of grandeur, and himself the epitome of the Populists. Maybe not entirely an everyman, since he does have genius intelligence; but his goal is not that of a Lex Luthor, power and control, the creation of a new elite with himself as ruler. His ultimate goal is that of the Populist, to make no one special, to create a world of stultifying sameness in which no one sticks out or shines above the rest.
And in the end, it's the "special", the "elite" that end up winning. A definite change from the usual Hollywood crap. It's surprising that this came out of Disney, since they're one of the worst for that sort of populist crap.
Obviously, superhero stories are a bit of an exception; but even there, the villians are usually even stronger and/or stronger than the hero. The hero needs help to defeat him; or defeats him because of his "heart". It's always a case of the weaker overcoming the stronger.
This time around, that's not the case. It's more of a "Harrison Bergeron" scenario, where the "Supers" are prohibited from using their superpowers, because they are too far superior to the rest of the populace. The Populists, thanks to the Victims (those who resent being saved or helped by the elite Supers), have won. One scene in particular sums up the entire thing, where Dash, the kid with super-speed is complaining about not being allowed to compete in sports because of his natural advantage; and his mother, herself a super, explaining to him why he can't. She tells him it's because it wouldn't be fair to the other children. He's special, gifted, so therefore he can't be allowed to do anything that might make him appear to be better in any way than his peers. She ends by spewing the message that has become the foundation of our educational system: "Everybody's special"; to which he replies "That's just another way of saying that no one is." Lowest Common denominator.
And the villian isn't a super-being, he's an everyman with delusions of grandeur, and himself the epitome of the Populists. Maybe not entirely an everyman, since he does have genius intelligence; but his goal is not that of a Lex Luthor, power and control, the creation of a new elite with himself as ruler. His ultimate goal is that of the Populist, to make no one special, to create a world of stultifying sameness in which no one sticks out or shines above the rest.
And in the end, it's the "special", the "elite" that end up winning. A definite change from the usual Hollywood crap. It's surprising that this came out of Disney, since they're one of the worst for that sort of populist crap.
