The Rover (2014)

Sticking with the collapse theme, we have The Rover, starring Guy Pearce and Robert Pattinson. Set in the lawless outback ten years after the collapse (no, this isn't quite mad max) we follow a man's bloodthirsty mission to get back his stolen car. As with most films about post-collapse society, it is dark and brooding and almost tantalising in its portrayal of letting men be men.

Now there's a theme for you gentlemen, perhaps even a subliminal note being passed behind a back so the teacher doesn't see. The constraints of the modern world are holding you back from the natural inclinations you feel to take what you want, and only the collapse can allow you to express that freedom. Cynical? Hopeless? Whatever the message, it's shaking the ankle chains.

There's no fucking remorse to be seen here. As we're dragged along on Eric's crusade to reclaim his car, we're drawn into strange vignettes that wouldn't seem amiss in a Stanley Kubrick fever dream. This far into the outback, there is only the wayward folk still clinging to currency exchange for goods and services, the latter of which is enough to make your skin crawl.

It's hard to figure out just what kind of collapse took place, as military vehicles still patrol the roads and mention of internment camps in Sydney figures towards an authority structure still in place. Whatever the case may be, things aren't going well. Everyone looks tired and emaciated and the lengths without conversation help to punctuate that humans don't have a whole lot left to say to each other.

What was true for Eric's life even before the collapse, in a poignant moment of confession to another doomed soul, is the final note of confidence to its viewers.

Take what's yours, and if someone else takes it from you, make it clear to them why they shouldn't have.

Don't steal a man's car.

Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes

Approved

The Survivalist (2015)

The Survivalist opens with a simple enough premise. The oil production around the globe that allowed for population growth to soar has faltered, and now the world has collapsed. This isn't, however, a film about the hows and the whys, but instead focuses on one man surviving against the odds in a world of scarcity.

What would you do if your secret farm was found by two women, one of who offered you their daughter in exchange for some food? Would you have the willpower to give that a hard no and turn them away back into the wild? Or would you take their offer and get a piece of ass for the price of two bowls of broth?

Okay, the questions are somewhat reductive to the plot, but the consequences of the choices made on those answers are how the film plays out. Me? I've got some broth going. I won't spoil those repercussions here, but it does speak to a larger question. How much trouble is some vag worth? In post-collapse wilderness terms, that trouble is double.

If you're one for quiet and contemplative films, you'll find something for yourself here. There are no Hollywood heroics, just the grim reality of nature. It's a small-budget affair, telling an isolated story in a broken world featuring realistic characters. The man holds his domain together, and the women plot and test the man. Dialogue is sparse, nudity isn't.

The film builds toward a contentious end, probably to divide opinion on if this film lands Red Entertainment's approval, but the fates of the characters ultimately justify the approval. You won't feel robbed of your time with this one if you're looking for a survival film.

Runtime: 1 hour 44 minutes

Approved

Character Study: Henry Drax (The North Water)

The character of Henry Drax captured my imagination from the get go. Without being overt we see Henry Drax as not only a man in complete understanding of himself, but the environment in which he embraced his being.

A brief summary of Drax could be:

• Cold

• Ruthless

• Unforgiving

• Dangerous

• Dominant

Make no mistake, Henry Drax is a rapist, a murderer, a thief and a drunk. He is a cataclysm of the human concept of self, so hell bent on destruction that he channels this need into everything he does. Henry Drax has embraced these characteristics, as we are shown as he bludgeons and skins seals on the northern ice shelves. Drax is a harpooner on a doomed ship being scuttled in an insurance scam, we see him at work as he stands atop a harpooned whale, waiting for it to breach the surface so he can slam a spear down its blow hole. He talks to the whale softly as its lungs collapse and blood is sprayed 50 feet into the air, bathing him and his surroundings in a crimson red.

Now most would write Henry Drax off as an abhorrent monster, especially when he rogers the cabin boy and leaves his corpse in a barrel - but in discarding Henry Drax in such a manner the man himself is only emboldened.

Self actualised monster

He is the stuff of nightmares brought to bear on the world. He is a godless man who has risen to the top of his very own hierarchy. He lives and works amongst equally despotic men. And so this got me to thinking, self actualisation needn't be through a specific ideal. Instead, men need only look to their environment and familiarise themselves with the repetitions they see. For Drax, this is thievery, rape, murder, violence, alcohol and opportunism. His world is full to the brim with the worst of humanity, his economic horizon only goes so far, and he knows it. So he embraces the depravity and excels at it. He is the king of his world, people are afraid of him and what he will do, so in his world he is king.

What would being king of your environment look like? Do you see a repetition of people and habits that inform your world view, inescapably so? Do you embrace them or do you reject them?

I'm very narrowly applauding the concept of Henry Drax, in that he doesn't benefit from trying to elevate himself from his dark world. If he did, he would be on the lowest rung of the next hierarchy and would work slavishly for naught. Instead he reaps the benefits of being at the top of his hierarchy, mocking those who think they are above him.

He is the embodiment of a very dark ideal, an uncivilised king in an uncivilised world. There is undeniable power in that.