Yeah, my read on XMFC is full of intense focus on the metatheatrics the movie engages in, especially in the way they work with Post-War Jewish symbolism. Erik exposing his tattoo before killing the Argentine Nazis... Erik dressed like a kibbutznik or stereotypical New Jew... Erik invoking the powerful "Never Again," which resonates with me as Meir Kahane's JDL motto, but also resonates with me as the chorus of Remedy's late-90s Jewish rap anthem. They did a lot of subtle work in coding Erik as a Survivor, and letting him kill the Nazi in the way they did after that build up spoke very clearly to me.
I'm aware that at the same time the non-meta reading of the narrative is problematic in that the story seems to cast Erik as the one on the path to villainy and Charles on the path to heroism, when the reality is closer to the opposite. I think the movie tries shockingly hard to subvert that narrative, but it's unavoidably still there.
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Date: 2012-05-31 06:18 pm (UTC)I'm aware that at the same time the non-meta reading of the narrative is problematic in that the story seems to cast Erik as the one on the path to villainy and Charles on the path to heroism, when the reality is closer to the opposite. I think the movie tries shockingly hard to subvert that narrative, but it's unavoidably still there.