Men: Rhyme Over Reason
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- I just like the way it rhymes.
Support my work: / nathansartproject
paypal.me/Acol...
Twitter, I guess: @LIGHTNINGWOW
Poetry Narrator: Phoebe Kuhlman
Phoebe's Instagram: @Phoebe_is_Kuhl
SOURCES
Alex Garland; Men
Alex Garland; Annihilation
Alfred Hitchcock; Psycho
Ari Aster; Hereditary
Frank Henenlotter; Basket Case
John Keats; Ode On A Grecian Urn
Li Po; On The City Street
Matthew Zapruder; Why Poetry
Mary Oliver: A Poetry Handbook
Robert Frost; The Rose Family
Yusef Komunyakaa; Ode To The Maggot 
Кино
That mail slot is the most blatant vagina/canal metaphor I've ever seen. Like he had to wait for her to shut the door so he could violate it, because it wasn't about just catching her, it was about breaking her boundary after she put it up.
also it's so validating when a creator you like "gets" your art form. Cheers man.
Similarly, I was surprised that Nathan didn't seem to make the metaphorical connection with the scene where the monster blows dandelion seeds in Harper's face. I thought it was obvious - "forcing his seed into her." I don't think further elaboration is needed.
@@DirkMcThermot I sorta took that a way deeper way, so maybe I'm the weirdo. There was the scene with the dandelion seed suspended in the air as Harper ran away. I took it to mean she is now the seed, she's the one trapped now. It was a sort of thematic transfer.
Don't forget the tunnel!
That's what I saw. He was deliberately violating her boundaries. It was a message to her that no matter how solid her boundaries are he will defy them.
Still feel as though my first reading of this film holds: it was like someone made a horror movie metaphor for when i tried to report sexual harassment to a university
yeah same for me when I tried to report it at my workplace. The gaslighting, the pressure to say the exact right thing at the exact right time while in very stressful conversations with my harasser and HR, knowing how high the stakes are, the anger and mistrust, how his allies (men I knew and liked, who were kind to me every day beforehand) closed ranks around him, let alone the microaggression misogyny of the words that are *actually* said.
Stuff like that made it feel like reality was shifting around me so that I kind of knew what was going on, but wasn't really sure how I got there or how I could retrace my steps and get back. Very hard to explain while I was in it. I felt a lot of that when I watched Men, I thought it was a brilliant film.
@Enoch Bullslayer I love how you're unironically proving their point, and the point of the movie, in this deeply un-self-aware comment.
Same!
@Enoch Bullslayer choke
@Enoch Bullslayer People who throw their weight around at work by sexually intimidating their coworkers are weak.
I definitely agree when you say you found yourself more interested in the aesthetics - I don't think Alex Garland's projects are boring, etc. story-wise, but it seems like he prioritizes style over substance
I love this. Every part. And I love "Men". I was entranced by every moment of this film and I get really frustrated by the sorry critiques that have been tirelessly thrown in its direction due to its symbolism and message or even simply because of its title. For me, it's like an ethereal poem or an alluring painting that all morphs into a truly spectacular piece of Cronenberg-esque body horror. The most unique part being that as each birth becomes more disturbing and disgusting than the last, Harper becomes less shocked by it and more bored by the whole process. The whole ending sequence is equally as disgusting as it is almost hilarious. And as shocking, repulsive and sickening as it is frustratingly redundant and bordering on boring. Personally, I can't remove the politics out of the discussion because the themes of "Men" are so interwoven into the aesthetics of it all. The outright distain for this film only elevates it in my eyes. If it has the power to cause such discomfort for so many, it's fulfilled its purpose. For those who complain that it's too obvious and a piece of art devoid of subtly as well as for those who grumble about how distasteful and unpalatable it is, all I can say is "yes, it's all of those things and that's the point." I'd even dare say that it's my favorite Alex Garland film and that's saying a lot because I'd have to say they are all pretty amazing.
Look up the taxonomy of the plant family Rosaceae.
Fantastique
The entire first half of this video was wonderfully unsettling. The tension was off the roof and this video managed to make me put attention to every detail of every word while simultaneously making me continuously pause it in some sort of surprise adversed preparation. The tematic composition and pacing really come together great. Thank you for the video-and for introducing me to three great poems (though, I'll admit, the second one is my favorite)!
oh i really enjoyed this! for some reason the additional attention of having to read made the whole thing more immersive and tense in a way?
also as an artistic choice it really works - considering the subject matter!
As a woman who experiences paranoia from trauma, i really appreciated the first part of the vid
The imagery of the blowing dandelion and hand entering the mails slot immediately made me think of ejaculation and penetration, respectively. Dandelions proliferate by wind scattering their seeds, so the man blowing them AT her felt so targeted and violating, especially once she retreated and closed the door, setting a clear boundary. But then he violated that boundary anyway! It almost seemed deliberate on his part that he waited for the door to close before ignoring the physical barrier completely. When you read the mail slot as a vagina, especially with the whole room lit in diffused pink and red, the whole scene feels like rape. Nightmarish, really...
Especially because she's been finding third options in double-bind scenarios the whole movie before this. It's like that third path she was carefully hunting for the rest of the movie, RELYING on, has been sealed off.
I love how you always approach making these videos in different ways that perfectly compliment the film you're talking about. This was excellent, truly.
Men kind of feels like jazz starting off with a well composed piece that's been practiced and well-honed to an excellently polished piece, and then it ends up going very freeform and improvised by the end. Very pure expression that's kind of hard to parse. But you can very much just appreciate it as a whole and not worry about understanding the individual parts.
I am seeing a lot of comments about the lack of voiceover for this video, so I just wanted to say that I personally loved this format. It made the analysis feel so concise and deliberate, like everything that needed to be said was said and time was given for the proper breathing room to absorb it all. I don’t expect it to be anything more than a unique approach for this particular video, but I really liked it especially with the poetry readings :)
The only reason it makes me sad is i treat RUclips videos like podcasts. I listen, i don't watch often.
I very much enjoyed the change up in format. It fit with the movie, and the pacing was spot on.
I mean sure I'm not gonna watch it though and really would have liked to know their thoughts was on it I just don't have time to sit and read rn
Exactly! It mirrors what he's saying about how the walking sequence of the movie prepares the audience for the poetics of the "resolution."
The WAY that the video's creator analyzed that walking sequence prepared me for the work of attending to the meaning and feeling(!) of his "conclusion." The video essay would need me to read deeply (both the movie's imagery and the selected poems), and so it drew me into a place of receptiveness (to the images of the film, and the text of the essayist) by requiring my visual and linguistic attention.
In the same way that the video mirrors the film, this video's frustrated commenters have found themselves mirroring the objections of the film's frustrated critics.
So much of the displeasure at the video's lack of voiceover just goes to show how many of the "viewers" came to this experience expecting it to fully reward them for their half-engagement (audio only in an audio-visual work). It's the same mindset as those who sat down to watch an art-house film expecting to receive total narrative closure while only passively (dis-)engaged.
This aversion to engaging fully with the present moment is literally the antithesis of this video essay and its true subject: poetry.
10000% agree, totally appropriate and perfect for this particular video/movie
I've seen a lot of people complain that "Men" really doesn't have anything new to say about sexism, but I really like it for portraying it such a unique and visceral way.
I know right! It really portrays how sexist society and women are towards men. It really shows how deeply they generalize men and treat them like shit cause of the actions of a few!
This man is one of the most talented essayists on this platform, it’s crazy how underrated this channel is. Hoping your channel blows up man
I never got poetry, and just didn’t like it. But you explaining it as a way to destroy our brain’s abstract labeling into experience, feeling, and meaning makes complete sense to me. Maybe I need to give poetry another try.
its interesting you lol after 'i like how pissed she is about this' re going into the door in the woods. it may be an unusual choice to show it on film but in reality, women are pissed in situations like this. you have to assume you're at risk, that others will judge your choices to be wrong should the situation go south, that schroedingers man both means you harm and is blissfully unaware you could even be thinking that, and know that men deal with none of this just.. walking. living. harper is pissed, why wouldn't she be?
The lack of voiceover for much of the essay is my FAVORITE part.
It mirrors what the video's creator says about how the walking sequence of the movie prepares the audience for the poetics of the "resolution."
The WAY that the video's creator analyzed that walking sequence prepared me for the work of attending to the meaning and feeling(!) of his "conclusion." The video essay's structure coaxed me into providing the kind of active attention that the essay's content requires in order to be fully experienced.
Reading the video's analysis animated on top of the film's visuals was an early cue to (and reward for) reading deeply (both into the movie's imagery and the selected poems). It drew me into a place of receptiveness to the images of the film and the text of the essayist by requiring my visual and linguistic attention.
In the same way that the video mirrors the film, this video's frustrated commenters have found themselves mirroring the objections of the film's frustrated critics.
So much of the displeasure at the video's lack of voiceover just goes to show how many of the "viewers" came to this experience expecting it to fully reward them for their half-engagement (audio only in an audio-visual work). It's the same mindset as those who sat down to watch an art-house film expecting to receive total narrative closure while only passively (dis-)engaged.
This aversion to engaging fully with the present moment is literally the antithesis of this video essay and its true subject: poetry.
Was this a sloppily crafted video essay... or a really good poem?
EDITS: corrected some phrasing
Even just the walk scene is so relatable as a woman. I can't tell you how many times I've been enjoying a peaceful walk alone somewhere, either in my neighborhood or a park or somewhere more remote, and suddenly I see a man, and everything changes. It's jarring, to realize A., you're not alone, and B., you may be in danger. The walk is no longer peaceful or enjoyable. You're instantly on guard, even if the man looks or seems "normal" or "respectable". You just want to get to safety.
Girls are hyper vigilent ageinst guys then.
@@soccerandtrack10OBVIOUSLY we are hyper vigilant “against” men, we HAVE to be, so we don’t get raped or killed. It’s a survival skill. Before you try to act like women are unreasonable, paranoid, or crazy, remember that our hyper vigilance is backed up by statistics and real lived experience.
I love how so many women think this experience is exclusive only to them.
@@soccerandtrack10i wonder why
@@ZombiiChixthis experience is made substantially different and more fearful when being a woman and acting like it wouldn’t is fucking stupid
My sister, her husband and I watched this in October in the middle of the night. We all understood the meaning, but could barely speak about it.
The film dug out all my primal fears about strange men. All the times when I had travelled alone as a teen and was targeted by some pervert in a train. All the times I saw a group of men on the street and started walking faster.
Many don't even try to understand this film and dismiss it as "man-hating propaganda". They have no idea what it's like to live with a constant worry.
Totally get your feeling. Basically 50% of humankind live in fear of the other 50%, and this is a timeless phenomena. It is not "political," it is existential, and the film captures this very well. I love it.
Every man lives in constant fear of being humiliated, beated down walking in the night, in broad day light even. Not only woman but man feel this shit too, in a kinda different way - yes. But world is equally hostile to anyone by the nature
@@yurgensoomerik2868 But they often don't need to fear sexual assault.
@@Logitah okay, but what about being disabled after? Isnt it equally bad? Life ruined in both cases
@@yurgensoomerik2868 *sigh* Man, this is not some sort of pissing contest. I am talking about a female-specific problem, not trying to invalidate men's problems.
I find the text approach to this video supremely engaging and very appropriate for discussing the film’s poetry and you succeeded in getting me to observe the film and the video itself more intently and you lulled me into the very state that you discuss in the final part of the video. My new favorite video of yours, absolutely well done!
im guilty of multitasking and only listening to videos, not watching them. im really glad you made the first half only visual and made me pay attention
I literally started reading comments when he started talking and I keep having to catch myself and back up lol.
My interpretation of the film was along the lines of "Patriarchy as Cosmic Horror" inescapable and undeniable danger. Things morphing together and coming from each other at the same time, the endless cycle of abuse and inherited trauma. There's no escape and realizing that safety is only something that only exists in her ignorance until she takes in her surroundings. No new start will make the social and structural dangers go away. Tainting every facet of both her world and how we see that world through cinematography. I thought it was amazing as an art piece, I love your comparison to a poem.
A special note about the hallway scene, it could be another nod to the repeating cycle of trauma and abuse, it's not the first time she or another traumatized person has run through that hall from a grasping hand.
"Patriarchy as Cosmic Horror" is such a great phrase :D
I love patriarchy
Patriarchy is the only think you got.
@@alexmason8557 lmao beta
@@orcd0rk you wanna live in a matriarchal pussified society? Take a wild guess who's the beta.
That translation of the 李白 poem is particularly fitting for this video, I think! Firstly because the translator was a self-admittedly 'vibes only' translator, focusing more on conveying the feeling each of 李白‘s poems gave the reader rather than trying to preserve the a lot of the particulars. Secondly because the common reading of the original Chinese poem doesn't have a woman in it. Adding a woman to the poem and then asking her a potentially intrusive question (where do you live?) aligns with the themes explored in the movie.
love your thoughts on this but i also loveeee the format of your other vids, your narration can be really cinematic and really adds to the experience. i hope u go back to that but if not i’ll still watch !
This is one of the best video essays I've watched. I love how you explored this movie. The beginning sequence and then the reframing at the end was great. Editing was on point.
Maybe I'm just insane but I noticed that Harper's dress resembles a REGENCY era gown... Specially in the frame of her playing the piano viewed from the cottage window; placed in a world of patriarchy, but specifically a world of manipulation and self doubt to feel vulnerable like late 1700's or early 1800's, a woman's value is determined by men's choices... Harper's submerged on guilt because of someone else's choice, yet not anyone but her husband... She feels guilt but also she's been punished... Just like a centuries' ago narrative. A man chooses and the woman assimilates.
For a video where I spent the majority of it reading, this was so unsettling. I don't know how you did it, but you did! Bravo! I really like when you experiment with different ways to make your videos. But all your videos have something very important in common, they all come together so beautifully by the end that they leave me feeling breathless. Thank you, I am amazed by you like always.
This was a really interesting analysis... I really love the tie in with poetry. Actually, maybe even more than anything to do with the film itself; I found myself reaching to revisit a copy of Rimbaud's Illuminations and found myself sitting with a new sort of appreciation for the observations and imagery in his poetry perhaps in a sort of similar way. Some, maybe even almost more fitting than your examples (which is not meant as a criticism; I'm just a Rimbaud fanboy of sorts and thank you for inciting the inclination to re-read some of his works with a similar framework, if that makes sense...)
On another note, I thought that captioning the first half was a brilliant move leading into where you actually start talking; on an artistic level but also on a practical one, where it forces one to actually pay attention to the imagery.
This movie reminded me of Lucky (2020). They both use an bizarre premise to explore the how being a woman can feel like being under constant threat. Both have a sort of dreamlike absurdity to them, but there's some thing very different about their tone that I had a bit of trouble putting my finger on. I think the poetry analogy nails it. Lucky is the premise as a SF short story; Men is the premise as a poem.
Have you ever considered writing a short story or screenplay yourself? Your analyses are always so enthralling, I would love to experience something that you'd expose and guide me through, just like your videos - or you know, throw me to the wolves and make me figure it out, I'd be there for it either way. Even that brief pencil example blew my hair right the fuck back about conceptualizaiton of poetry and how it tries to unravel my concrete brain. So grateful to have found you as I wouldn't have the patience to understand these concepts anywhere else, especially because you explain them so effortlessly and tactfully.
He's a playwright too. Nate Dogg does it all
I love how Harper’s job is so nondescript. “Reviewing document and giving feedback”. So relatable lol
Since I saw "Men" I've been wondering why I liked that movie so much. Now I know. You put into words what I only felt intuitively. Thank you.
I watched this movie a few months ago & came away from it feeling it was a heavy handed sloppy mess, but your carefully & thoughtfully crafted analysis has made me realise I didn't give it a fair shake. Gonna give it a rewatch soon through the lense of the points you raised in this video. Thanks for the shift in perspective.
I think you were right the first time. It is a heavy-handed mess.
I didnt like skinamarink until i saw a video essay about it. I didnt understand it with my lens, but through a different persepctive its more enjoyable. Understandable. It became a better watch afterwards. In the same vein here, his lens was helpful in enjoying this movie.
@@kendromThen you need to actually watch this video
You are so good at putting your thoughts to video. The rhythm, the editing, the way your arguments build on themselves.
I'm glad I waited to watch this until I had the time to pay full attention to it.
This is your best work yet, the editing is immaculate and extremely poetic!
I kind of thought it as somewhat similar to Neon Genesis Evangelion on how the overall poetry and symbolism outweigh the litteral theme.
I used to write poetry a lot but I haven't been able to access it for a while, since the pandemic started at least. But this made my brain alive with it in a way it hadn't been for a while, which was refreshing.
It's funny, I didn't pick up the surreal symbology of the movies later parts as poetic, but the movie made me look up poetry anyway. After the vicar's fucking horrible lecture to Harper with all the references--I couldn't make out all his words, but I got that the first one was something about Agamemnon and then she asks him what he is and he says "a swan"--which immediately made me think of Leda and the Swan, both the myth and the Yeats poem.
Also interesting that the poem suggests that the Swan's rape of Leda is what leads to Agamemnon's death. Destructive birth birthing future destruction.
I just keep thinking about that line right before things go off the fucking walls, where Geoffrey tells Harper that he's going to check for her intruder outside (despite Harper repeating telling him not to) and Geoffrey says something like "A failed soldier" "What?" (Harper) "My father said I was like a failed soldier. I was only seven. I guess I'll show him." The descendant line of toxic masculinity, from father to son (which always makes me think of This Be The Verse by Phillip Larkin). But what the video kind of helps clarify for me as well is--the movie's not just showing us that cycle, it's showing us Harper watching that cycle, and still not being impressed. All that inner pain and turmoil of toxic masculinity doesn't mean you don't get fucking stabbed if you cross the one boundary remaining.It's sad and gross and disturbing, but it's a reason, not a goddamn excuse.
The end of this movie is so strange and I still don’t know how I feel about it. I got a lot of the same feelings and reads on it as you did, but there’s also a part of me that wonders how much of it was driven by “look at how upsetting and unsettling this body horror is.” Which is kind of in conflict with the rest of the movie because it’s like… hey you know what’s scary?? This thing that women do!! Whoa!! Disturbing!!
To be fair it is disturbing
I liked your poem :) Always very exciting to see a new video from you, and this was brilliant and insightful as ever. Thanks for doing what you do ^_^
Started this movie but couldn't finish it. Too intense for me as a woman. I was so tense about halfway through I knew I was headed for a panic attack or smth
Oh wow it's been awhile since I last saw one of your videos! Glad to see you back! Loved this insightful video on this scene's film lmaguage!
I loved the analysis and presentation of this video.
Holy shit
An actual interest take on this movie!
The scene right after she comes up off the path and stands in front of the two houses.She pauses thinks about going in between them but decides to instead go on the outside hit so hard. She’s out of immediate danger but not quite safe yet so she’s still on edge. The feeling of unease doesn’t fully dissipate till she is completely out in the open.
I loved this! Sometimes movies are beautiful poems and that's wonderful to me.
I tend to shy away from text heavy videos. The reason I enjoy videos so much is that I'm a shitty reader, willing but easily frustrated by my own limitations. Every now and then there's a piece that you just drop all else for and let it take the lead for a while. This was one of those. Here the silence felt easy - viewing wise that is, paced and flowing; the unease was well conveyed in the contents too. So beautiful.
You are constantly upgrading. Every work (better term than "video" in your case, I think) evolves from the pevious. Well done!
My own interpretation but the tunnel seeming like a birth canal. Harper sings in the canal. And, because I'm really into pagan, old god, and female mythology: the earth (mud) represents a life giving thing, the vaginal canal/uterus a life giving thing, at the time in the Wheel of the Year/Spring representing life and especially women's voices (thinking almost incantations) her voice brings this creature into being. She was singing and trying to rid herself of the trauma, pain, and abuse given to her by her husband. All of that she carried within her to this place trying to rid herself of it. She probably did quite a bit of reflection of those events, even subconsciously while walking in nature that day. And when she sang, she gave life to this thing inadvertantly, because using your voice, will, and intention is POWER. So to focus on something specifically is important when doing voice work and creation. Creative people from other, older cultures speak of having to be very careful of their intentions, thoughts, things they say, or even sing while making their work, lest it bring about bad intentions. Lest it spoil the creation. And before anyone tries to call me out for blaming the victim, that is NOT at all what I am saying. Harper didn't realize the power she had within herself, except for a few random times within the movie. She needed to find her power, and sometimes it even starts with the intentions or the powerful words of NO, ENOUGH, LEAVE ME ALONE, STOP, etc, while matching the words with the action like standing up, being defiant, speaking her truth which she struggled mightily with. In society women are not taught that we ARE POWERFUL and have ALWAYS been. Then when we start to believe it ourselves, it scares men and they use a lot of different tactics, shown by all the toxic male archetypes to tamp it down and keep it in control.
The Catholic Church has done the same when it took over the more pagan older religions of many peoples throughout Europe. Before that, while not perfect, many old religions had a male deity and female deity that worked together and were both equally powerful. The Green Man is the MALE personification of nature. His partner The Mother Goddess/Mother Earth, the FEMALE personification is missing. It was easier to push the new male centered religion on the people after being conquered by taking their old symbols and placing them in the churches with the new symbols. That is why the Green Man altar remained in the church and noticeably the Sheela na gig (as a stand-in for the lost feminine energy) remained the other side of that altar because she was his partner. Notice the church only shows depictions of men and NO depiction of Mary...and if they ever did she would be a VIRGIN/fully covered, not a powerful female sexually active naked deity with her body totally exposed. Many old religion female deities represented birth/life/death/sex/war/fertility/with supernatural power (command of animals/shapeshifting/control of the elements/raising the dead/healing/etc.). What I am getting at is the Green Man in this movie had been bastardized by the new gods/religions too and his mate/consorts almost totally wiped clean of he former power/symbolism/or is totally missing. Basically patriarchy destroyed both male and female roles that once had been held and revered for millennia before the Catholic Church took over.
Honestly I felt so bad for Harper, but I also felt so bad for the Green Man, too. He was a shell of his former self. And, he lost his powerfully willing female consort/partner and therefore could only use his fertile energy to give birth by himself with horrible results. He had no partner to copulate with (and the point that all the men had disparaging things to say about sex and women's sexuality wasn't lost on me. Heck some old religious deities have the female BRINGING THE MALE back to life via sex shows how powerful female sexuality is) and share the cycle of life coming from a true womb (via his traditional partner Mother Goddess/Mother Earth). He went through so much pain, to produce a stunted, incomplete version of new life and a horrible copy of trauma...not just from Harper, but having the stigmata wounds of Christ on his body (Christ being a deity that was never FULLY allowed a female consort with the full power of her sex. And Christ being denied his own sexual sovereignty). Being a nature deity he should have been able to heal himself, but he kept producing the trauma of HIMSELF over and over again and suffering for it. So nobody wins in patriarchy. Both men and women suffer...but because the men had better representation in the social order of power, women suffer MORE.
At the end when you see Harper's friend appear and she is pregnant, it felt like such a relief. Here is this strong woman who is carrying a child she will be having with a man who loves her and accepts her powerful and vibrant nature. She's a very capable, empathetic, strong symbol of a MOTHER and feminine energy showing up to help her friend.
Thanks for hanging in there for my Ted Talk. LOL
And, am I alone feeling like Harper gets bored with men giving birth to each other?
Harper just needed a decent backpack of supplies & a good dog. Go deeper into Nature: it's not exclusively a man's world. In fact Nature is rather insistent on balance. So go find your own place in it.
Thanks, as a human being I never knew what Nature was about, bc Ive never experienced it.
Pls do a video essay on Titane
I saw that too..I interpreted it as exhaustion with men's bullcrap.
There's something deeply resonant about the mixture of violence and violation with the display of extreme vulnerability and demands for love. Brings to mind every angry guy in some woman's DMs who starts with "hey beautiful," moves on to making demands for sex and tons of attention and ends by calling her misogynistic names and threatening to unalive himself if she won't love him.
So, so many of them genuinely do not seem to understand why bombarding women with a combination of neediness and intimidation is not a winning move.
Aftersun and Men werenmt favorite film poems of las year!!! Another Garland masterpiece. Thanx!!!
Just got to the spoiler warning.
I had maybe heard of this movie in passing once, but the first 10 minutes of this video have completely convinced me to watch it. I hope to come back to this video very soon.
Well, this was hard to watch. Not because I didn't like the approach but because you put so much tension into your analysis.... and that is absolutely why I can't watch horror. Only watch people analysing it. I say as I am trying to glimpse the text from behind my phone without me actually watching the footage.
Tl;dr - kudos to you for getting me the closest to watching horror in 20 something years because I really want the analysis. :)
Will you do NOPE? I would love to hear an analysis from you about this one.
I appreciate the theme in this video of having the male voice be absent, but at the same time it's tough to watch without a voice at all. Maybe instead it would have been worthwhile to hire a voice actor of your choice to read your script for you? Sorry if it sounds selfish, but it's hard to concentrate on just the words and have no dialogue there at all for a whole essay.
@@teletran8 so, do you think that every other Acolyte of Shadows' video is just like every other annoying RUclipsr's? That's hardly fair. Or maybe you want him to REALLY stand out from other RUclipsrs and have his entire script relayed in Morse code while the video is played in reverse and upside down? That would certainly be unique.
I sort of agree with you but I also think having it be in text mirrors what he’s saying about poetry. I think a hired voice actor would’ve been interesting too but considering the poems later in the video ARE voiced it feels very deliberate to have it be silent, not just because it’s a male voice but because it’s an *outside* voice. Having it be quiet contributes to the engagement with the imagery and soundscape of the film itself, you’re forced to pay attention to the visuals because you’re reading, you can’t tab out and get the same experience.
It’s OBVIOUSLY part of the art……WHAT he’s trying to impart. Christ do you people bate reading THAT much!? Don’t you watch foreign films with subtitles!? I just cannot grasp this hatred of reading like it’s some chore that most modern people seem to possess.
Sad & lazy. Shows a definite lack of intelligence & curiosity.
@@6Haunted-Days c’mon, there’s no need to be cruel about it
Just found you today through this video and have been binging you videos. They're so good. Really insightful thoughts, and so well produced as to communicate those thoughts. Here's hoping to this channel taking off and making enough so you can do this full time, good luck!
Interesting format for a video. I like it. I think some people dislike it because they don't like the content to change. I understand, they like certain content for a reason and if that reason goes away, so does their interest. I think it's worth taking the risk to express your art in the way you want and I got a lot out of the format of this video. So thank you for this.
I've finally watched the movie and... phew, what a (very gory) trip! Thanks for the essay (and kudos on the awesome editing style you went with!).
I'll add (for the people who, like me, might spend too much time deconstructing a poem such as this one) that there's a lot to dig into regarding nature and the way it is portrayed in the movie. It appears as if Garland suggest that women are 'more natural' than men: Harper wanders in a forest, a safe space of healing and confort, a shot of a tree looks suspiciously like a pair of voluptuous... "clefted legs".
Meanwhile, the Green Man, while a representation of nature, feels at odds with it, always wandering about it non quite natural spaces (the tunnel, the abandoned house, the cemetary). While nature seems organic with Harper, he has to cut his face to insert leaves underneath his skin.
Anyhoo, I'm kind of curious about this theme of the movie so I just wanted to jut those thoughts down here.
Keep up the good (great) work! Your channel is one of my absolute favorites! :)
this is a great observation!
Glad you’re back !!!! ❤❤❤
❤ never left, it just takes me forever lol
@@AcolytesOfHorror well worth the wait 🤘🏽
I have been enjoying your videos for a while now, but this one is really special to me.
I have recently gotten into poetry myself and this was a really great explanation of your perspective on poetry and the way that you presented the video played with form in it of itself, which I think is very fittingly poetic.
What I know about Men is that it was the movie that "broke" Alex Garland, a great character writer, to where he now has made a politically illiterate movie about the civil war. What I see is that Garland has turned the Green Man, a symbol of nature and pre-christian Britain, and birth, traditionally the aspect of femininity that men fear most, and turned both into symbols of patriarchy. Which just screams of that type of dude who reinvents feminism because he's understood none of it.
Would you consider covering Indigenous-made horror films like Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Night Raiders or Blood Quantum?
Your video inspired me to watch this movie and make a video of my own. I’ve certainly got… thoughts.
Absolutely loved everything about this video. Thank you for making it.
This film was so poorly received. I was stunned. I saw lots of criticism saying this film was too obvious. Too blatant. My argument was that it matched the reality of misogyny. Obvious. Blatant. In plain view. I don’t think people want to accept this.
I saw Dune 2 today and two of the trailers were for the new Alex Garland and the new M. Night. We truly live in one of the ages of cinema of all time
I got to see Men early and thought everyone was gonna love it but :/ most people I saw talking about it were the opposite of fans lol I also thought it was a beautiful visual poem with interesting aesthetics. You could think on how the images and different aspects intersect and what they mean for a long time. I think some viewers saw Harper's passive behavior and were turned off. We got used to seeing women run away and have started to like seeing them really fight back, but to see a woman so calm in the face of something so horrifying as a man being birthed from another man's mouth feet first, maybe general audiences don't know what to do with that.
I would add, that many viewer (other than the ones who just don't like/get symbolism in movies) disliked the movie because they stopped their analysis of the movie message at the "men are all alike". hence they reacted like "I don't like this (feminist) view of the world! This movie is trash and superficial!" They just got put off from this first level of interpretation and this prevented them to give the movie any other chance.
I personally feel that the "men are all alike" is just an aesthetic choice to shows what the protagonist, being a traumatized character, percieve. It is not how the director sees "all men", it is how it feels when you have experienced abused and you just cannot avoid see those toxic pattern all around you over and over again. Seeing "all men alike" is part of what prevent Harper to heal, but sadly also what keep her vigilant to protect herself.
(Sorry, not native speaker here. I have surelly made grammar mistakes)
@@val_wildling767 I think it's also a visual nod to show how a "kind" of behavior makes you immediately snap back through all the other times that dangerous behavior or situations that happened after turned out. There are certain very subtle microexpressions and movements that will basically send me fleeing because of horrible experiences ignoring them in the past.
Awesome video, the parts with just movie audio were so cool, really immersive. Makes me want to read more poetry 🤣
I'm liking this before watching
After seeing the movie I was in the desperate search of a good analysis video and this channel never disappoints.
The video prolonged my experience with the movie and helped me so much with understanding some things I overlooked, and some other things I felt but couldn't quite express.
I really liked the movie itself, but, and that is the first time it happens to me with a film, I like the video even more. It is also very comforting to listen to a man talking about the experience of being a woman, the fear that comes with it, the internal helplessness and everything, and it being understood so well by someone who do not deal with those issues.
That was a very beautiful video about some nightmarish concepts, and I will come back to it sometimes to think of those issues, feel understood, and remembering the atmosphere of the movie. And also, to dig deeper into the cultural nuggets you left here and there for us to enjoy.
This might just be one of the best videos on this platform. Just pure art appreciation and thoughtfulness. We absolutely need more of this kind of thing! Thank you
Every one of your videos is kind of all everything i needed after watching the movie, the poetry bit at the end was amazing
Nice job with the placement of the "p" of "sharpening" :P
No...not a fan of the format. Sorry, just not my cup of tea
That poem is very interesting. I imagine the pink dust as the essence of the feminine lightly dusting around the streets (where civilization lives). The man has a gold high crop. My first thought is an erection. He is presenting his high growth ready for harvest, reaching upwards into the pink dust. He asks for where she lives (this to me, is where she is found). She says she has a thousand homes among the dropping willows. Willows often signify death (no idea if there is a sense of that here) but it's interesting that they are drooping, and she is surrounded by them.
I really did want to like this movie as a I liked Alex Garland’s prior work and the poster was curious. However after I get watch I was left feeling empty despite the potential of Garland exploring themes of guilt, suicide & female empowerment. I don’t know if this was due to Garland’s writing or the studio the “women good and men are pigs” was bashing over the head & hurt a lot of what the film wanted to address with our heroine’s experience in the village and her trauma over her husband’s suicide (or possible accidental death)
We don't always need to explain surreal emotional art with words. Those who get it get it, and I think that's the most important thing. If you get something out of experiencing the art, if it resonates with your own emotions, that's what matters. At least, that's been my experience with certain grotesque art born from trauma. I 'get it,' and trying to explain to others how or why only causes confusion.
I think what I'm trying to say is, some art is a lot less about rationality and more about emotion. And you kinda have to sit back and just experience the emotionas. It's like cocomelon for traumatized adults lol.
even within this movie, "MEN" is unable to deliver a satisfying climax.
When I saw this in theatres I cried for the first hour due to it reflecting a very deep trauma I had in a relationship when I was freshly 18. There was something so familiar about the film that was almost cloying, but I think I’m due for a rewatch as there is a frustrating nagging about its plotting. A mirror that amplified the terrors of my lived experience.
Not surprising this film was a commercial failure, notwithstanding it was from a famous director (Alex Garland). A lot of people recoiled at yet another movie with a "man, bad!" theme, even though this film explored that theme in an innovative way. If this movie had come out a few years earlier, before "man, bad!" had become an annoyingly overused and politicized trope, this movie would probably have done considerably better.
Women: talking about trauma and sexual assault that ruin their life forever
Men in the comments: empathy? we don't do that here
Nobody complains about the "bad man attacks woman" trope until we start to question whether the man HAS to be bad like that and what it means that he is.
this was a beautifully done video
i loved the lack of voiceover and the editing in this one. it made me really anxious in the best way lol
Patriarchy, for sure.
An alternative to the Robert Frost poem:
A rose, by any other name
Would never, ever smell the same.
And clever is the nose that knows
An onion that's been called a rose.
(while I have the poem memorized, unfortunately I forgot who wrote it)
(Stupid lack of an edit button on RUclips mobile)
I liked where you put the 'p' in 'sharpening'.
I'm not sure if you're familiar with the works of Soren Narnia and his podcast Knifepoint Horror, but it has a lot of stories that remind me of this film- the sense of this almost wandering, soft, yet uncanny version of the world, a world that makes you think, yes, this is terrifying, but it is also beautiful and wondrous, and good god, if this exists, then what else might I experience if I continue down this dark street? Also, he makes really funny/scary short films on youtube, and I think you'd appreciate him. I really enjoyed Annihilation for reasons outside of the faithfulness to the original adaptation, so I am definitely planning to check it out!
Yes! Soren Narnia’s Knifepoint Horror is the best. I tell everyone I know to listen to him. The stories can be comical as well as unnerving at times.
okay I was gonna complain about the lack of voiceover but this worked SO well
really interesting and thoughtful, i loved this video
Wait a minute... Don't I know this actress from somewhere??... 🤔🤔... Oh yeah, isn't she also in "Women Talking" (2022)? Oh boy 🙄.. Is that what I'm in for if I watch this one with her as well? 2 hours from women just eviscerating and bashing men constantly? No offense, but how exactly is that entertaining or appealing? Oh well.. Well, at least I liked her in The Courier (2021), I mean, she played a likeable relatable woman in that one. Remember that one? She played Cumberbatch's wife, and she was actually supportive and caring towards him. She seemed to actually like men in that one 😒 so yeah, needless to say, I have my reservations about this one..
I feel like this movie did a really good job of representing the ugliness and vile aspects that a man can be when mother nature rejects them. Mother nature, of course, being represented by the protagonist of the movie. The main character is obviously representation of nature hence, all the scenes of her being one with nature
A cool thing about the shriek is that it plays hard into that feeling of ‘Am I overreacting? Am I imagining things? Am I wrong?’ feeling that often comes when a man starts to harass or menace a woman.
Harper is from the city; the countryside isn’t a place she’s familiar enough with to be able to do a confident threat assessment. And that shriek is very finely calculated: it could be a woman - but it could just as easily be a fox. Certainly anyone she tells about it could dismiss it that way, and how is she going to contradict them? She’s just a townie. It’s like the landscape is gaslighting her.
And even more: it’s a sound that, if she asked for help, would create a situation that would be unpleasantly easy to sexualise. The scream means a vixen in mating season - a shriek of ‘yes’ when Harper’s whole life depends on saying ‘no.’ You can just imagine the jokes down the pub.
Except it’s also a boundary violation even if it is a fox - because it’s not a normal time for a fox to be screaming. Not impossible - but foxes usually scream at night, and usually in the winter. A fox screaming on a summer day feels wrong: it’s a sound for cold and darkness breaking into somewhere that should be warm and light.
i often listen to your videos while doing chores or playing computer games so i was very confused for a while on this one
lol
Incredible video. Thank you
after a year on my watchlist, i 've finally watched... this video, after finally watching the film
i loved it
your video
(and the movie)
(perfect movie)
perfect video, congrats
I can't get over how good this video is. I've been thinking about how language ascribes meaning to things, so the way you broke it down was so fascinating to watch.
This movie unsettled me to my core, because I felt so much of the experiences I’ve had in situations with men who had ulterior motives and no respect for me as a human being. The movie was such a slow, agonizing and grotesque burn. I almost stopped watching once the policeman showed up at her door.
I've been trying to think about what the significance is to each of the men being played by one man. I think I've understood it but it's not concrete. It's one man, sure, that face is supposed to mean we can trust them because we know Geoffrey gave off a good energy... almost too good in the beginning. So we like him but are still on guard and keep our true self hidden from him. But that feeling of instant comfortability stays with us and Harper so she sees the "new" faces and doesn't question them and each time initially takes them to be safe because they are the same as Geoffrey's. But in each of their own ways they portray the different aspects of a man that we as women fear. The first of the men in this film that makes us question everything is the second one we meet, the nudist. Meeting Geoffrey and the Nudist back to back set us up even more-so to have conflicting feelings over this one man who is many and when we start seeing more signs of badness within each man, even Geoffrey with his overly chivalrous attitude to the point of being mildly sexist, and we begin to lose our minds. And each time we feel some slight amount of comfort with any of the men we see at least ONE man who puts the whole feeling of safety in a garbage disposal. All of this climbs to an apex where each one shows the craziness within. Either hiding underneath their facades or it was never hidden to begin with. And the final lines of dialogue in the film show the ex-husband who is the culmination of it all. Each facade of the one who is many shows not only what we fear in men but also shows a timeline of the rapid decline of character that the ex-husband showed Harper throughout their marriage.
There's a lot of "forbidden-fruit" and "Adam & Eve" imagery in this. They literally say it in the beginning.
I'm thinking the naked green-man is Adam. All of the men in this movie were Adam.
I'm guessing the dandelion-seeds are a metaphor for insemination.
10:39 that interpretation can be handled quite differently from person to person. You realize this isn't just a 'man', right? The imagery of the church symbolism shows us what the man really is. It's not a man at all.
Respect the effort, but IN MY OPINION, mostly a poor interpretation riddled with projection. I disagree with most of it, but good video.