Watch the film before reading this. And you should definitely watch this film.
Soooo. . . Wow. Intense. It’s certainly not a film for all tastes, but it should be. If for no better reason than the discussions that you will have with other people about the film’s plot and deeper meanings.
I pride myself on being able to dissect an allegory, and to be able to spot the subtleties in a subtext. Antichrist has me at a loss. I have my theories, for sure, but if you can figure this one out off the bat, you’re a better man than I.
One problem I may be having is my lack of knowledge about Catholicism, which I’m certain had an influence on the structure, and is von Trier’s religion of choice. More “of choice” than many other Catholics, in fact, since he was raised by atheists and converted late in life.
So, intentionally doing no further research, this is my best guess.
The Man represents logic, rationality and civilization. The Woman represents emotion, imagination and humanity. Faced with a tragedy, Woman goes a little mad; Her feelings overtake her, and her world goes black. Man, feeling nothing, tries to understand why.
They are in Eden, a place where humanity lives in harmony with nature. But is nature a Godly place, or a place of great evil? If horror films have taught me anything, it’s that the latter is true. The Woman says “Nature is Satan’s church”. Granted, she seems pretty irrational at this point, but being the emotional component of the film, she is certainly more in touch with her spiritual side than the Man. Maybe what she’s saying is true.
So, since mankind must eventually leave the woods, the battle for the future of civilization begins. The Woman reads Gynocide, a book written by men, that describes the ways in which womankind is evil. Woman, being of an innocent nature, takes this as truth, and begins to adopt and embrace an evil persona. Men are rational, and must know what they’re talking about, right? She decides she wants to stay in the woods, in harmony with Satan, forever.
Man, realizing that he must escape this place and build a rational world, kills his wife. He wanders out of the woods, finally free of their evil influence. A group of women are climbing the hill, past him. Their faces are blurred out, distorted. As he forges on to a logic based, patriarchal society, he can no longer truly see them. He is soulless; Dead inside. The sexes retreat to their separate worlds, never again to live on common ground.
That’s just a first impression. Upon reflection, second viewing, or further research, I’m sure I could come up with a different one.
What are everyone else’s thoughts on this? Any other theories?
2 comments
well, first i have to say that i disagree with your statement: "And you should definitely watch this film." — i guess i enjoyed the thought-provoking nature of this movie, but i never want to see this movie again…HOWEVER – if you are going to tell anyone to watch this film, you need to WARN PEOPLE that there is some serious ball/wang/vagina injuries that take place. that shit was effed.
***SPOILER ALERTS***
SO – that being said…MY THEORY is much more literal. I agree with your interpretation as well and i agree that this film has the ability to evoke several different theories/discussion is a testament to…it (not to its greatness, just to IT.) So here it is: is that the ho was crazy from the get go. she went to this cabin in the woods to research her thesis – gynocide and the notion of good & evil as it relates to these evil deeds that men committed against women. that stuff made her crazy, so crazy that she concocted this plan to test her theory that man is inherently evil. the plan is: kill her child, see what her husband does as a result.
she began this plan when she took her son to the cabin. she forced his shoes on the wrong feet to disable the son. she WATCHED him fall out the window – likely distracting her husband with the LOVELY FEMALE FORM (boning). i have two semi-conflicting interpretations at this poitn: either the motherly/human aspect of her was still a part of her early in the movie, and that her grief was real and that her husband forced her to revist this evil nature that grew within her and caused her to do these things when he took her to the cabin. or bitch was lying about her grief the whole time, maybe she was still fighting the complete evil take over, but in the end CHAOS REIGNED so to speak and all that terrible, terrible shit that i'm not going to revisit here…went down.
in the end, i think that the dude killed the wife and felt pretty good/justified (um..i would too.) so he's all like – SWEET, PEACE OUT WOODS. and then all the wronged women of all time come out of the forest and totally jack his shit. i don't think they walked past him at all – they TOTALLY JACKED HIS SHIT.
and so on and so forth. i'd talk to you about this more sometime if you want, but only you. i really prefer to forget some of the things that happened in this movie. BARF. im going to stop typing now.
Amberto's review/response is really hilarious! I think they "jacked his shit," too. Agreed, a very disturbing film yhat lends itself to many different perspectives. Mission accomplished, Lars…
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