Repo Man- A structural, semiotic
analysis
© 1986-2004 Mark McGothigan markmc3us@yahoo.com
PART I
Introduction
"And I'm looking for a joke with a microscope" [1]
[theme song of REPO MAN]
Alex Cox's deceptively complex movie about
the Los Angeles underworld combines elements of the western, science
fiction,detective, road film, teenage movie, and other genres in an effort to
define the myth of American culture. The plot revolves around the search for a
Chevy Malibu with a trunk full of dead aliens and Otto, the young punk who
finally finds it. Different factions,
including the government, Leyla and the United Fruitcake Outlet [U.F.O.], and the repo men, chase the
Critics have misunderstood this film. Whether they liked it or hated it, they could not understand the significance of the ending or the structure of the plot. They seemed to think REPO MAN was a movie about punks. REPO MAN has punks in it but they are no more important than any other characters. For clues to the punk ethos, REPO MAN is the wrong place to look. The best they said bout it is that it would be a surefire cult hit. [2]REPO MAN was said to be "senseless", "disorganized", and a "scuzzy sci-fi nowhere." [3] The director/writer, Alex Cox was said not to have, "an ounce of control and precious few ideas." [4] One critic compared it to a hot-rod full of fast starts and crazy cornering, but still a junker. [5] Under the hood, he claims, it was a mess.
Part of the problem stems from the way
secret code. The key to this code
is the relationships which can be found throughout the movie. Many questions, particularly those dealing
with Otto's behavior, the role of the
REPO MAN is ideally suited to a structural analysis because of its emphasis on form at every level. Structuralism claims that the nature of every element in any given situation has no significance by itself, and in fact is determined by its relationship to all the other elements involved in that situation. In short, the full significance of any entity or experience cannot be perceived unless and until it is integrated into the structure of which it forms a part. [6]
REPO MAN depends on the interdependent
relationship between structuralism and semiotics to make many of its points.
The world of REPO MAN is not about facts, but signs about facts, which we
ceaselessly encode and decode from system to system. [7] Because of the subtle wordplay and
copious amount of irony and parody, REPO MAN's extraordinarily complex
signification limits the amount of semiotic analysis that is possible. For example, the names of characters signify
important relationships to each other.
The repo men are named after beers.
Otto is a pun on the word auto.
Lite and Leyla have much more in common than names that begin with
L. The secret Agents are named A,B,C,D,
and E. These letters as names suggest a
relational structure that is more important than the characters
themselves. Unfortunately, a complete semiotic
analysis would require a computer program, not a paper. Only the most
interesting symbols can be discussed. Since the
As a tool, structuralism can be used to explain the bewildering variety
of the relationships in REPO MAN in organized steps. The first step will examine the role of the
PART II
The
“I was riding on a concrete
slab.
Down a river of a useless land.
It was such a wonderful day.
I heard a witch doctor say:
'I'll turn you into a toad
stool” [9]
[theme song of REPO MAN]
The story of the
Remarkably, the tracking sequence introduces all the themes in the movie
abstractly, and sets the stage for the subsequent action without showing a
figure or saying a word.
The composition of the opening subtly suggests a structuralist approach to the movie. The scene is entirely indexical, suggesting a blueprint or a map. The viewer is forewarned to perceive this movie as a map to negotiate the town signs and interchanges, and as a blueprint to construct a complex reality. The mechanical model is reinforced by the green radar screen lines on the black background. The viewer needs the perception of radar to see through the smoggy atmosphere of the plot.
A viewer familiar with the
southwest will note that the
The story seems to careen as aimlessly as the
Miller and Otto share common insights about their environment. They are both aware that life is a multi layered, synchronic phenomena, not the narrow, diachronic world of Oly, Bud and the rest. Inherent in this insight is an awareness of the relational nature of the environment and its emphasis on form. The individual content doesn't matter. Like the beers and generic food, all the brands are the same. The form takes precedence over content. Thus, they are really aware of their own version of structuralism that has striking parallels to the standard theories. However, Otto is skeptical of Miller's view
primarily because of his weird examples. Otto says, "I don't read no books." He asks Miller if he did a lot of acid "back in the hippie days". Only in the finale does Otto make the associative connection between Miller and himself. Unlike Miller, Otto's structuralist impulse is embodied in actions, not words.
In his monologue, Miller parodies all the
fundamental principles of structuralism.
He explains his philosophy to Otto while burning trash at the repo
lot. This monologue sets up the
philosophical foundation for the entire film.
It is also an integral part of the film. It sets up the kindred spirit
the two seemingly different characters share, so that in the finale, they can
share the
Miller's monologue appears warped in one sense because he uses structuralism to explain structuralism without knowing it. Miller unwittingly uses the structuralist homology of Claude Levi-Strauss's non-literate bricoleur to paraphrase fundamental structural theories so that he can understand them. Miller is not a semiotician, but he does get the point across, though a little obtusely, for those who are willing to listen. Like the witch doctor in the title song, he constructs totemic examples whereby nature and culture are caused to mirror each other. [10] Hawkes calls feelings like Miller's intuition "the structuralist impulse". Hawkes says: The structuralist impulse
can be seen to probe like an X-ray beyond apparently independently existing concrete objects, beyond an 'item centered world' [or 'phonetic' one] into a 'relational' [or 'phonemic'] one. [11]
Miller's speech can be broken down into lexical units. By examining each unit separately, we can reconstruct a tangled chain of structuralist theory. Here his monologue is reproduced in its entirety. While stuffing a giant velvet sombrero into the
flames, Miller says:
They don't realize that there's like a lattice
of
coincidence that lays on top of
everything.
I'll give you an example. Show you what I mean. Suppose
you were thinking about a plate
of shrimp. Suddenly,
someone will say 'plate' or
'shrimp' or 'plate of shrimp'.
No explanation. No point in looking for one either. It's
all part of the cosmic
unconsciousness.
I'll give you another instance. You know how everyone
is into weirdness these
days? Books in all the supermarkets
about the
television? Well, the way I see
it, it's exactly the same.
There ain't no difference
between a flying saucer and a time
machine. People get hung up on
specifics and miss out on
seeing the whole thing.
Take
thousands of people go missing
every year. Nobody knows
where they go. They just, like,
disappear. But if you think
about it for a minute you
realize something. There had to
be a time when there was no
people. Right? Well, where did
all these people come
from? I'll tell you where. The
future. Where did all these
people disappear to--Hmmm?"
"The Past?" Otto replies.
"That's right! And how did they get there? Flying
saucers. Which are really--Yeah you got it--TIME
MACHINES!!
I think a lot about this kind of
stuff. I do my best
thinking on the bus. That's how come I don't drive. I
don't want to learn how to
drive. The more you drive, the
less intelligent you are.
This monologue sets up the structural foundation for the entire film. In the first unit, Miller says: "They don't realize that there's like a lattice of coincidence that lays on top of everything. In this unit, Miller unwittingly explains the general, Saussureian, concept of langue and parole. Miller understands langue as the "cosmic unconsciousness" that gives the specific parole its role in the "lattice of coincidence". The "lattice of coincidence" is the structural foundation that permeates the movie. Throughout the monologue, Miller places strong emphasis on the relational structure of his examples.
For the reader unfamiliar with Saussuere, it might help to say that Miller means Langue when he says that everything is part of the 'cosmic unconsciousness'. But his example is like saying that determinism is best defined by the phrase: You can't fight city hall. The elements are there, but paraphrasing can not constitute a comprehensive definition. Miller means that all things are relational by rejecting an item centered reality, but the only way he can communicate his ideas is to encode analogous examples culled from the Weekly World News.
In the second unit, he uses an example to illustrate his shift from an item centered reality. He says, "I'll give you an example... Suppose you were thinking about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly, someone will say 'plate' or 'shrimp' or 'plate of shrimp'. No explanation. No point in looking for one either. Ironically, of course, there is a point and an explanation which Miller subsequently explains. He relates it to the cosmic unconsciousness or structural relationships. The structural relationships can be further refined by a semiotic analysis.
Barthes says: Semiology is a
science of forms since it studies significations apart from their
content." [12] The sign on the wall is funny for precisly
this reason. The plate of shrimp is
studied as a signification apart from its content. It is no longer item centered. The film gives the plate of shrimp relational
meaning in an extremely subtle way. An actual wooden sign that advertises
"PLATE OF SHRIMP" hangs on the wall of a hamburger stand where the
Rodriguez brothers buy Cokes while their car, the
Miller then equates time machines with flying saucers. In the third unit he says: Well, the way I see it, it's exactly the same. There ain't no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine. People get hung up on specifics and miss out on seeing the whole thing. Miller seems to be speaking in metaphorical terms but these terms also have a structural analog in the myth theory of Claude Levi-Strauss. Levi-Strauss sees myth as a form of language that connects man throughout the ages.
Perhaps, Miller is refering to trans-historical entities whose forms give information above and beyond any content. [13] Levi-Strauss calls these entities "machines for the supression of time". These "time machines" do not transport people into the future and flying saucers did not cause people to exist in the first place. But Miller's time machines work within the same structure as Levi-Strauss's examples of myth and music, serving as LINKS to the past and future because of their form.
Why Miller's speech has structural underpinnings can be explained in two ways. A complicated speech such as this needs an obscure theory to serve as a model. Without a model, the speech might be mindless chatter that would quickly lose the viewer's attention. But the speech might also be part of the joke on the viewer by subtly incorporating the entire movie's underpinnings into this speech to see if the viewer gets the joke. Considering the dialectical sophistication of the movie, a joke integrated into the structure of the movie is not so far fetched.
Another example of a joke
incorporated into the plot is the grinning grill of the
Miller, in his monologue, gives Otto a way to understand the bizarre world of the repo men. Otto then uses Miller's perspective to sort out the idiosyncracsys of the lattice of coincidence. Once Otto applies this knowledge to the relationships in his own life, he can discriminate better between what he considers "bullshit" and truth. The main narrative
imbroglio centers on Otto's trek
through the maze of relations which leads him to the
The narrative can be divided into three parts. In the first part, the characters are introduced and developed, especially Otto and Bud. Otto is befriended by Bud, Lite, and Miller who each give him their perspective on life in separate monologues.
The three monologues and the choice Otto must make between the three, illustrate the rigid structure of this movie. Otto, of course, chooses Miller's version. He then begins a new life as a repo man. He rejects his old punk gang, who in turn, reject him
for being "square". He
meets Leyla and learns about the
The second part develops the search for the
The editing is confusing in order to exacerbate the whirlwind atmosphere. It could also be seen as an "open" work or work in progress which views discontinuity as a verifiable pattern of events. [14] The narrative structure is careless in the sense that it lacks syntagmatic continuity. In REPO MAN, many things are happening at once, in a synchronic dimension. Of course, the film can only show one image at a time, therefore, the editing must show that the order in which the scenes are shown becomes less important. Thus, the syntagmatic confusion is somewhat misleading.
Though this film is a low budget production, the editing is carefully structured
throughout. Conflicts develop. Hints are dropped. Tension builds. Characters interact. The pace never
slows. Though the rapid development
becomes insanely complicated, several
logical plot developments advance coherently. Breifly, the
The
mythology, which will be discussed later.
Surrounded by the myth of power, the
The development of the
PART III
Otto And His Parts
"I was a teenage dinosaur. Stoned and obsolete.
I didn't get fucked and I didn't get
kissed.
I got so fucking pissed.
Using my head for an ash tray.
Now I'll tell you what I am.
I'm a Repo Man" [15]
[theme song of REPO MAN]
Otto takes the ride in the
In the film, Otto is the multifaceted, polysemic hub of binary oppositional characters. Because the constant parodying fills the film with contrasts between opposites, the various elements of characterization and their relationship to Otto can be illustrated by binary oppositional relationships. When Miller burns trash he contrasts, for instance, the junkyard atmosphere with lofty philosophical pronouncements. In characterization, binary opposition functions like a foil.
Otto actually parodies heroism and maturity. He isn't very heroic [except for
rescuing Marlene], nor does he undergo
any particular rite of passage, yet he succeeds by sorting out his world and
riding in the
Leyla is contrasted in several ways.
Obviously, she is Otto's sexual opposite. They have a brief, but "intense"
relationship. She also becomes his rival
for the final ride in the
The name Leyla is a play on words with two meanings. "Layla" wants to get laid. Otto's
sexual advances repulse but also attract Leyla. She would like to fool
around but she also has a mission. During Otto's advances in the U.F.O. inner sanctum, her boss says,
"Lila, we're having a cell metting in a few minutes." "Lila"
is a liar. Leyla becomes a liar hen she tells Otto, "Your job's
different than mine." Because both
are trying to repo the
Leyla has interesting binary oppositional relationships of her own. When Leyla enters an expedient alliance
with agent Rogers, she becomes Otto's
rival and enemy. Agent
Lite is also contrasted in several ways. Light and dark are one of the two most fundamental binary oppositions. Lite is black. But the real irony of Lite is that he is always in the dark. During his monologue, while rambling on about his
worldly-wise ways, he inadvertantly throws wrapped presents filled with cash onto the freeway. He is in the dark in the sense that he has blinders on. Otto's sunglasses signify Lite's blindness. Lite doesn't look beneath the surface to find out the truth.
Lite is a mental "lite" weight. Though he is streetwise, he is pretty dim.
When he tells Otto of his ploy to repo Mrs. Magruder's car with the rat trick,
he says, "It never fails." In
spite of his street smarts, he is almost always wrong. Otto ends up maced. He
runs into trouble because his view is so one dimensional. He says, "I'll kill anyone who crosses
me." Otto's use of silly sunglasses to contrast Lite's blindness [and also
parody it] shows him to be a superior character who is just as aware of
relational meaning as Miller. In more subtle ways, such as this, Otto proves
his worthiness to ride in the
Lite and Leyla are bookends to
Otto. Besides the fact that their names
both begin with L, they are two opposites he must reject. These opposites are ignorance and naivite and
the resulting extremes of sexual manipulation and violence. Leyla is the other half of Otto's male/female
binary opposition, and Lite is the other half of Otto's light/dark binary
opposition. In the final scene, Light and Leyla are next to Otto when Miller
beckons him to the
Otto plays less complex binary oppositional roles with the rest of the characters like Oly who is a simpler character. Oly tells farmer's daughter jokes. But one of his jokes hints at the entire structure of the movie. When Oly is introduced to Otto he says, "Otto! Otto Parts?" The pun on "Otto" is a hint about the relationship of autos to people and the parts that are binary oppositional parts that Otto [Auto] is part of. The joke is too stupid to be funny otherwise. Otto also plays the parts as an actor in a movie. He has the ability to play many of them and remain detatched. Oly, however, sees Otto as an employee and a
source of income. He says, "Keep making me money kid." Otto says "Fuck you," to Oly's greed.
Kevin is the village idiot. [16] Though he is portrayed as a punk he is "just a another white kid from the suburbs." As one of the "ordinary people" Bud despises, he is an archetypical nerd. Bud says, "Ordinary people. I hate 'em. You see, ordinary people spend all their time getting themselves out of tense situations. A repo man spends all his time getting into tense situations." In the film, ordinary people are always yelling and screaming over stupid things. Kevin is one of the ordinary people who is always arguing with somebody. Presumably, his arguments land him in the hospital. Kevin's "ordinaryness" makes him the one person who is lower than Otto on the totem pole to start with. Otto rejects Kevin's immaturity with his customary send-off.
Kevin contrasts Otto's maturity while the rest of his gang contrast his immaturity. Later developments show that Otto does not contrast the gang because of his immaturity, but because the gang represents extremes he rejects. Otto's cynicism does not compare to Debbie's callousness, Duke's brutal menace, or Archie's psychotic posturing. All three are a parody of the iconoclastic Clockwork Orange droogs who terrorize society.
Otto's old buddies suggest the futility of A CLOCKWORK ORANGE as a role model. They act more like the Three Stooges than the Baader-Meinhof gang.
Archie tells Parnell, "I kill people like you everyday!" This does not phase Parnell, who is half dead already. J. Frank Parnell is primarily a ghost figure. He is a peripheral character, though he haunts the entire movie. His weak mental condition is probably due to an unhealthy mix of radiation poisoning, moral guilt, and a lobotomy. After his monologue, his only important scene, he dies and his body is consumed by a flamethrower. Parnell is the last character Otto meets. His last words are, "The two hemispheres are fundamentally at odds." This vague reference could hint at the brain, the cosmic unconciousness, the globe, or the binary oppositional relationships throughout the movie. His sunglasses have one lens missing. This odd effect also seems to hint at the binary oppositions of light and dark which also haunt the movie. Perhaps, that is the best way to perceive things in a crazy world.
The primary and most complex binary opposition is Bud. Bud's old, working class ethic of success in business echoes Willy Loman's in DEATH OF A SALESMAN. His story could be seen as a parody of Death of a Salesman, probably titled Death of a Repo Man. Both have their roots in the American dream. The salesman sells you the American dream and the repo man takes it away from you when you can't pay your bills. This is why Bud reveres credit as a "sacred trust." Though he makes his living on the dark side of the American dream, where the American dream is concerned, Bud is an old fashioned idealist. Despite his apparent cynicism. He firmly upholds the "Repo code." Bud's theme music is old 1950's swing. Bud has the same dream of Willy to make twenty thousand dollars and retire rich. He says, "Eleven years of repoing and all I have is shit." Willy crashes his car for twenty thousand dollars of life insurance money with the same grim determination Bud gets himself killed for a twenty thousand dollar reward even though Bud says, "Only an asshole gets killed for a car." Both deaths are connected with a car, the symbol of the American dream.
Part of Bud's blindness is that he cannot distinguish between
oppositions. He says, "Night, day,
don't mean shit. During the early
sequence when Bud shows Otto the ropes, they drive around and talk in the
car. In the background, day and night
change with each different shot. For
Bud time is compressed and meaningless.
In his speed frenzy, he is so obsessed he can not realize the passage of
time. Otto realizes the darker side of
Bud when Bud pulls a gun on him while sitting in the
Otto contrasts stability and awareness while Bud seems to be losing his
mind. Much like Willy Loman, Bud also
babbles a lot in public. But he doesn't
rave about his boys playing football, he raves about "those Rodriguez
boys". Bud is pessimistic because
he sees his ideals slowly eroding away in himself and his society. During an argument about credit, Bud screams,
"You think they pay their bills in
Otto can bring out the good side of Bud as well. Bud shows Otto the ropes. He is Otto's mentor and friend. He approaches a benvolent father when he says, "What's the matter, not happy in your job? I don't feel like we're communicating anymore." Bud's sarcasm cannot mask his disappointment in himself and his care for Otto. They both love life in the fast lane with car chases and both kinds of speed. Bud tells Otto important facts just like Miller. He has some idea of complex relationships, but he never sees the big picture. He is narrowminded and dogmatic like the rest of the repomen. Finally, Otto must reject his obsession.
Each character can be treated as a cultural unit because they are not realistic characters. They are archetypes that represent the values inherent in their binary oppositions. Bud is the American dream, Miller the philosopher, Leyla represents sexual manipulation, Lite violence, Oly greed, and so the structure resembles a medieval morality play. Except for
Miller, the characters are allegorical to values inherent in American culture which Otto must reject, while Otto is a sort of Everyman who must attain salvation by rejecting these flaws before he can ascend in a Chevrolet. All of the characters fit into the narrative by way of genre which makes them easily identifiable as archetypes of the fundamental binary oppositions of the American dream.
"A page out of a comic book.
A chicken hangin' on a hook.
A reverie, a babbling brook.
A sermonette, a TV cook.
Shaking the hand that your baking.
A suicidal certain look." [17]
[theme song of REPO MAN]
REPO MAN is clearly a genre oriented movie. Each scene can be categorized into one or more of the following genres: The western, the science-fiction genre, the detective genre, the teenage movie, the road film, and the television genre. Each one of these genres illustrates one of the cultural themes that T. K. Tseung describes as part of American cultural mythology:
Every culture embodies a cluster of ideals. Contemporary American culture, for example, embodies such diverse ideals as the total freedom of individuals, their equality, the removal of all repressions and restraints, the instant gratification of needs and wants, and the glorification of youth and power. These culture-bound ideals may be called cultural themes in analogy to musical or literary themes. [18]
Each genre in REPO MAN illustrates a particular cultural theme that defines contemporary American culture through parody. Each particular cultural element that comprises the larger cultural theme is also parodied. The parodies of the cultural elements are often the jokes in the movie. In the Western genre, the repo men wear bogus "sheriffs" hats when they beat up citizens with baseball bats. In the sci-fi genre, the aliens look like sausage. In the detective genre, evil agents wear mirror aviator sunglasses. In the teenage film, Otto's parents don't understand him because they are too stoned. In the road film, a black ska band, the Untouchables, cruise the streets on tiny motor scooters to the anthem, "Born to be Wild". Television is parodied by the TV preacher who says, "I do want your money, because God wants your money!" Not only is each genre parodied, but each cultural theme is also parodied along with the genre.
The western genre has the most fully developed connection with American cultural mythology. Encompassing the cultural elements of the Repo code, the initial scene of the cop looking in the trunk, the violent gunplay, the machismo of many characters, particularly Plettchner, the car as a companion [the horse], the bleak western landscape which is transposed into the bleak urban landscape, and of course, John Wayne, this genre is also the most extensivly parodied in the film.
The repo code [don't carry a gun,
don't damage a car] is a parody of the venerable western code of honor and
justice idealized in Zane Grey's CODE OF THE WEST. [19]
The convenience store shootout is a parody of the western saloon
shootout primarily because of the reversal of the hero. In the western shootout, the hero is the best
shot. Otto doesn't even have a gun. The tradition of swaggering into the saloon
for a shot of Red-eye after hitching up the horses has been replaced by parking
in front of the Circle K and buying a six pack.
[20] The six gun has been
replaced by the six pack as an icon of virility. Lite says, "Blanks get
the job done too." The cop's sudden
demise at the start of the film suggests the breakdown of order so important to
the west. In contrast to the west, no
posse is formed, nobody cares. Agent
Some of the western generic elements seem to overlap with the detective generic elements because of iconographical substitution. The cop at the beginning seems modern, but he and his motorcycle have more in common with the cowboy and his horse in the old west than with the modern detective. The shootout scene in the convenience store seems a modern occurrence but it too has more connections with the old west. The manichean division between good guys and bad guys is essential to both. Lite parodies this dichotomy in both genres when he says, "they're not scumbags, they're car theives just like us." Television shows such as THE WILD WILD WEST and MCLOUD help blur the distinction between the two genres.
Plettchner, the "rent a cop" is a sad parody of an "Urban" cowboy. Miller destroys his idol, John Wayne by calling him "a fag". Everybody says "shut up" to Plettchner. He rents his honor to a cheap repo yard where he can do his knitting. He is never respected as the man he thinks he is. His only retort is, "Don't you say 'shut up' to me. You haven't earned the rights yet. I fought in two world wars.... I was killing people while you were still swimming around in your father's balls!"
The old west portrayed a dream of total freedom for the individual. This was symbolized by the brave, lonely cowboy riding his faithful companion through magnificent, but desolate scenery. In REPO MAN, the dream has become a nightmare. Plettchner is an idiot. People keep bumping into one another. Troublesome, noisy cars surround the characters. The scenery is still desolate, but the man made desolation of skid row prevails. The freedom of the individual is parodied by this portrayal of the western genre. Often, the freedom of the individual becomes so restricted that it results in the antithesis of death. Bud is an example of this when he is shot by the Agent's helicopter. His last words are, "I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees!"
The sci-fi genre seems far removed from the western genre, but in REPO MAN, it seems to fit in very well. Just as the western genre transports us into the past, the sci-fi genre transports us into the future. Miller's time machine is at work throughout this movie. The sci-fi genre is the most directly parodied, encompassing J. Frank Parnell and Diaretix [The Science of Matter over Mind], the hail of ice cubes, the aliens in the trunk, and Agent Rogers and her metal hand.
Diaretix is a parody of the
strange LA originated religious cult of Dianetics. J. Frank Parnell is a direct parody of L. Ron
Hubbard. Again, another wordplay with
names arises. L. Ron Hubbard is also an
American science fiction writer and inventor of the
The hail of ice cubes belongs in
this genre as a salute to the cheap special effects of '50s Sci-Fi saturday
afternoon specials such as THEM which also began in
Agent
The science fiction genre in REPO MAN parodies the cultural theme of the instant gratification of easy, simple solutions to complex problems in American society. These solutions have only one drawback-- they don't work. Science fiction, like any simple solution when taken too far, leads to illusion and madness.
The detective genre is
distinguished by a different motive for catching the
In the detective genre, the aliens
in the trunk might be a pun on illegal Mexican aliens who try to cross the
border in the trunks of cars in order to escape oppression and poverty. [24]
The double meaning of the aliens illustrates the movie's multiple layers of
meaning and sophistication. Thus, Agent
Rogers and her men are super Immigration Agents. They want control of the
aliens to prevent contamination of the
The Agents A,B,C,D,and E
illustrate the dehumanisation of even the oppressors. Their uniformity suggests automations, but
their humanity continually resurges.
They are more concerned with their appearance than their jobs. They
should have integrity and strength, but they appear weak and self centered. If
not for the prodding of Agent Rogers, the Agents A,B,C,D,and E might relax and
study Diaretix, as they do in the finale. She says, "Get in there if you
want to get paid!" Agent
The teenage genre begins the narrative and gets lost somewhere in the middle. Encompassing Otto as a punk and rebel, the initial party scene at Kevin's house, Otto's relation to his parents, parts of his relationship with Leyla, and the relation to his world as a youth, the cultural elements in this genre parody the wide eyed kid through Otto's cynical pessimism and insolence. Otto starts as a punk and grows up. But when he grows up and rejects the assorted characters, he realizes that adults are even less equipped to handle life than he is. He is the new generation of structurally aware characters who rely more on perception than bravado. Unlike Kevin, he is not "feeling Seven-up."
As a youth Otto is an anti hero. He is a punk and a rebel. As a rebel he is also alienated, hence his name Otto [Auto] which also indicates his alienation. Otto is also defensive. He thinks the world has gone mad like the song, "Institutionalized" in which the singer wonders, "How can you say I'm crazy when I went to your schools, your churches, your institutional learning facilites!?" [27] Archie parodies the urge to conform to these institutions when he asks Debbie to have his baby. They are too far gone to return to the middle class life they rejected.
Archie is even further out on the periphery than Otto. Otto is not a youthlike character in many ways. He doesn't want to find himself. He just wants to get by and make a living. He gets fired, but he also gets revenge. He gets rejected by his girlfriend, but he wins the respect of the exotic Marlene. His parents don't understand him. But instead of turning into a juvenile delinquent, he gets a job. He rejects the wild life in order to survive. He relies heavily on the plurifilmic "Rebel without a Cause" model. The lyrics from the title song refer to the "Rebel Without a Cause" symbol of 'The chicken hanging on a hook' when James Dean's old gang hung a chicken on James Dean's door as an insult and rejecting him for, as Archie says, "not hanging around, doing crimes with us anymore. Otto parodies the James Dean rejection by being one of the few characters in the film with perception. He is only a chicken to unenlightened characters. Otto is a parody of the American ideal of the glory of youth because he sees no glory in being young. He sees his old friends as irresponsible and immature.
The road film is the earthly version of the
science fiction genre, the themes of travel and distance as a panecea are
similar, though the magnitude is not.
Instead of towering spaceships, we have second hand cars. Cars are fundementally earthbound vehicles in
this movie, not etherial flying saucers until the end. The cars are all cheap used car lot castoffs.
The travel/road film genre is more subtle but underscores much of the action of
the film, which takes place in cars. The
characters are
In
The television genre is an unconventional but
important element in the composition of the film. The first song Otto sings is TV Party.
"Don't talk about anything else. We don't want to know! We're dedicated to
all our favorite shows!!" [29] As
in "TV Party", beer and TV naturally go together. Black Flag says, "We've got nothing
better to do, than watch TV and have a couple brews." Beer and TV anaesthetise the
consumer. Enough exposure to them takes
away anyones ability to think for themselves.
Otto's parents became couch potatoes because of too much pot and
television. They were content to send
bibles to
Beer not only is an anesthetic itself, it is also a symbol of the mass media consumption that TV encourages. Oly, Bud, Lite, and Miller all have the names of beers. They assumed these names to demonstrate the relationship of individual to a mass produced society. They are so lobotomized that they completely identify with the structure of the consumer world. The repo men structure their relationship to establish homologies and analogies between the ordering of themselves and their anaesthetised society. Levi-Strauss says: Concrete logic of this kind will, in its totemic mode, see no difficulty in postulating a logical equivalence between a society of natural species and a world of social groups. " [30] Beer is a sort of natural species for the repo men because it defines their values, mass production and anesthesia. A man may think of himself as a beer [or bear in Levi-Strauss's case] because the analogy this invokes "is not between social groups or natural species [or a brand], but between the differences which manifest themselves on the level of groups on the one hand and on that of species on the other.... In other words, the man does not believe he is a bear, but the bear defines his standing and role in the community, analogously defined, as part of a pattern of 'oppositions'..." [31] The repo men say, in effect, "I am a beer" to define their role in television, mass production, beer and as products of American cultural mythology.
Television is a common symbol of alienation.
TV shows us an image of people and life that is artificial and detatched. Many
displaced voices from various electronic sources form an almost constant
sub-soundtrack that runs throughout the movie. By removing people from their
humanity these voices underscore the TV like alienation in
Television gives us an illusion of
equality. We feel equal when we all
watch the same thing. It also gives us
an illusion of individual worth by telling us all about the good life we lead,
while it tells us that we are all equal.
How equal can we be in
In REPO MAN, we are all equal when our critical judgement is destroyed by television and beer and we arrive at the lowest common denominator. Equality then loses its value and becomes worthless because our individuality is also destroyed. The generic items parody the equality that the Repo men think they represent. The cans of beer are all equal, but equally faceless and the Repo men are only fooling themselves when they call each other different brands of beer. Inside is the same American beer that is internationally recognized to be the worst. [31] Generic products are closely related to film genres as offshoots of the word Genus, or type. In REPO MAN, film genres are also reversed through parody to illustrate their connection to American cultural mythology.
Tseung says, "thematic understanding of art and life has its roots in the matrix of cultural themes." [32] REPO MAN uses each one of these cultural themes in each of the six genres to parody the myth of American culture. What do they have in common? In the western genre, the total freedom of individuals is often fatal. In the sci-fi genre, instant gratification becomes madness. In the detective genre, power corrupts and becomes oppression. In the teenage movie genre, glorious youth becomes irresponsible. In the road film genre, the removal of repression and restraints leads takes you on a road to nowhere. In the wonderful world of television, the equality that makes it so appealing is a trap renders the individual worthless.
Death, madness, oppression, irresponsibility,
aimlessness and worthlessness are all elements of alienation. Alienation can be seen as a meta-theme in
And Phibbus' car
Shall shine from far,
And make and mar
The foolish Fates.
[Midsummer Night's Dream ActI, sc2]
REPO MAN is set in an insane world where
the only cures are the anesthetizing lobotomy of beer and TV, or Otto's
rejection of all values in a search for new meaning in life. The primary binary
opposition in this movie is this conflict between the numbness of most of the
characters and the defamiliarization of Otto in his search for values. The
pervasive numbness is caused by the anesthetizing effect of modern American
culture, particularly TV and beer. Black Flag are aware of this in TV party.
"I wouldn't be without my TV for a day, or even a minute! No need to use
my brain anymore, there's nothing left in it!"
REPO MAN attempts to reverse that
process, to defamiliarize American culture, which we, through years of habit,
take for granted. The film heaps parodies on top of parodies that stratify into
a coherent whole. By leaving no stone unturned, no cow sacred, the entire
structure of the film becomes a self reflexive parody. The parodies force us to
rethink a new reality. The complete reversal of every element of our culture in
Repo Man tears us from our moorings and forces us to generate a heightened
awareness. This intense awareness that Miller and Otto have forces them to
restructure their ordinary perception of item centered 'reality' and see the
relational world.
When Miller says the last line of the
film, "A Repo Man is always intense." he means a Repo Man is always
intensely aware of the world, instead of numb recognition of it. The only way
to become aware of the world around us is through alienation. This type of
alienation does not dehumanize us, it makes us more human. This form of
alienation stems from the Brechtian notion of alienation, which is closer to
the original Russian Formalist notion of "Ostranenie" or "making
strange" [33] as opposed to the movie's use of alienation as a synonym for
dehumanization. It is actually defamiliarization. The concepts are so new that
a real word has not yet entered the general vocabulary. For, example, punks who
try to 'make strange' through their hair, clothes, music, and nihlist
philosophy are the logical fulfillment of this early 20th century notion. [And
they thought they were being original] Otto, as a punk, symbolizes this type of
defamiliarization. In a way, punks make themselves into art. According to
Shklovsky, the essential function of poetic art is to counteract the process of
habituation encouraged by routine everyday modes of perception. [34] Punks wear
weird clothes and haircuts to shock people into rethinking the way they look at
themselves.
But the anaesthetic quality of everyday
life has enormous staying power. It abhors a vacuum and constantly seeks to
"institutionalize" every new thing that comes along through the
everyday process of habituation. The song "Institutionalized", [35]
describes the plight of a young man who thinks he is original, but his parents
want him to conform to these institutions by putting him in an
"institution." For Otto, the only way out is the break the rules of
the institutions that formed him by counteracting the everyday process of
habituation. This is why Otto rejects almost everything. He sees society as
completely institutionalized with no place for him, so he rearranges his values
to a more adaptable system. Just as Otto rejects these values, the movie itself
rejects traditional conventions, such as continuity and genre.
Miller and Otto counteract the process of
habituation by thinking in terms of vertical relationships rather than
horizontal ones. Miller gives his speech in associative, metaphoric, and
synchronic relational dimensions rather than Bud and most of the other
characters' metanomic, syntagmatic, and diachronic, item centered dimensions.
The other characters cannot percieve of the more complex synchronic dimension
Miller and Otto rely on to fly the
The associative dimension is readily
apparent in the songs. The song have little direct meaning in the movie, and
are often easily overlooked, but they form an integral part of the structure of
the movie through association. The lyrics of the REPO MAN song do make sense if
not taken too literally. Combined as a whole, they form a metaphoric image of
the movie's statement on cultural mythology. One critic said, "For the
real thing see SUBURBIA." [35] SUBURBIA is often compared to REPO MAN as a
companion film. Both share the same theme of alienation. In SUBURBIA, The
characters brand the initials "T/R" onto their arms. "T/R"
means totally rejected. No attempt at subtlety here. The rejection of the
"white kids from the suburbs" in SUBURBIA has the same essential
elements of the alienation of Otto in
In REPO MAN, alienation can be easily
overlooked as a joke. Only an intensely aware viewer can untangle the hidden
structure of the film. The ambiguities inherent in REPO MAN show us the effects
of alienation rather then tell us all about it. In REPO MAN many messages about
alienation on different levels are ambiguously organized, but the ambiguities
follow a precise structure. That makes REPO MAN fun to watch. We are not being
told a story, we are playing an intriguing game. The idea is to watch for
breaks in the rules of conventional movies. We try to determine the structure
of the film and in turn, enhance our perception. When we do this, we realize
how alienated we can become. REPO MAN reminds us that watching movies is a
sophisticated game that mimics the way we look at reality. If we can
incorporate the relationship between movies and life into our "new
reality", we win.
Other notes:
It's about balancing the need to
put a roof over your head and food in
your gut with the need to remain an individual.This is the kind of movie that baffles
friend sings the theme from a 7-Up
commercial (“
The Chevy Malibu (Chevy is an American
car and
American Dream is a quest that will only lead to eventual destruction.
There's a scene where a punk guy and a punk girl are sitting in their car, and the guy begins to tell the girl about how he's ready to settle down, have a child, live in a house, etc. However, the guy doesn't mention these things because he wants them; he's doing it because it's what “everybody does." It's part of the American Dream. Later, when the same guy takes a bullet and is dying, he blames society for what he has become. The standards of the American Dream were set too high, so this guy was forced into a life of crime. o does Cox. Taking its cue from songs on the (excellent) oundtrack like Black Flag’s “TV Party” and Suicidal endencies’ “Institutionalized,” Repo Man suggests that our
weird dumb world is a product of too much homogenization; a running joke has everybody eating and drinking out of cans and tins dully labeled “drink” or “beer” or “food.” Walking it like he talks it, the fun of Repo Man is in how it deliberately flouts film conventions, concocting a world hat’s strange and irreverent but still looks and feels a lot like our own. Its snarky attitude made it cult classic in 1984, but it endures because few movies since have made blaming society look like so much fun. But Repo Man isn't about cars -- it's about freedom versus the brainwashing of consumerism and religion... which is just another kind of consumerism. Repo Man is full of consumer items so generic that their labels read simply "FOOD" and "DRINK," the effect of which is that you become even more aware of how bombarded we are by brand names.