Saturday, November 6, 2010
What is Freedom?
It seems at the end of the film when Manny chooses to free the main engine from Buck and Sara's car and sacrifice his own life to take down Ranken, there seems to be a strange motive about this decision. Why didn't Manny escape to the other car and leave Ranken for dead? I believe that he did this in the name of freedom, in the sense of gaining his freedom for the first time in decades, and depriving Ranken of his freedom. To understand why Manny did this, we need to understand what freedom really is. According to dictionary.com freedom is "the state of being free or at liberty rather than being under confinement or under physical restraint" which I believe is valid, but if so freedom would be rarely achieved because society is a restraint on its own, and the goal of society is to confine people. Personally I believe that freedom is when someone can do anything they want, and make their own choices with no unwanted consequences imposed by society. Freedom is when there are no boundaries to what one can do. In a way Manny achieved this because on that runaway train, the characters had no control in terms of direction, but were free because they couldn't be stopped. When he chose to take down Ranken with him and stand upon that train like Christ the Redeemer, he had no duties to anyone except himself, because he was in control, and wanted to die. I also found it interesting that Ranken was Manny's prisoner on that train. When Ranken plead for his own life, we saw his true colors. Ranken was a coward and a bully when he had power, but without that power he was a weak man.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with almost everything except that Ranken is a coward. At first he begs, but then he tells Manny, "I know how to die too." And it is Ranken who reminds Manny about "that punk and the girl," to which Manny responds, "No, this is just you and me." So, no, I would not say that Ranken is a coward. He's the antithesis of Manny only in so far as he believes in the law, believes in an ordered universe and his place in it.
ReplyDeleteBut all of those comments were in the name of self preservation, trying to prolong the inevitable which will be Manny killing Ranken. Maybe calling him a coward was the wrong choice of words, Ranken fears death like any mortal man would, but Manny doesn't, or at least hides his fear. Ranken doesn't know how to die, because his life isn't even in his own hands and his fate is beyond his control. He never accepted death, and therefore does not know how to die.
ReplyDelete