Violent, selfish, lazy and cowardly: an algebra.
An algebra of sorts using Mike Leigh's All or Nothing
This phrase from Harmange keeps working through these essays: Men are violent, selfish, lazy, and cowardly.
And I keep trying to answer Why?
Mike Leigh’s 2002 movie, All or Nothing features a bunch of grim characters, all beaten down by working class British living.
They’re all so so broken, so pitiful, so distressed, they’re bursting at the seams.
Let’s look at the men for a moment, using our four traits. In fact, all the men can be seen each as primarily exhibiting two of them.
Violent + Selfish - this dude
This dude (Jason, I think?) is here accosting the mother of the girl he knocked up. Already threatened to leave if “she has it” and already denigrated her shagging, now he’s threatening the mom. You get it. Of course we all wish there weren’t guys like this around but the generations have produced millions or billions of them. The lucky ones will eventually do the work of the powerful, well, and happily.
2. Violent + Lazy
This guy’s about to get into a car accident
Of course, he already ran into a parking pole earlier in the movie himself, and lied about it to his boss, blaming it on a “fucking woman in a Volvo.” Lazy brute #4,722
3. Selfish + Lazy. The son Rory, in the movie is so angry and unhappy.
Lays around on the couch trying to keep anyone from talking to him, everyone is “doing his fucking head in.”
It’s hard to know when his family gave up speaking to him, but they have
Trying to keep this family together nonetheless is the main plot of the film. Rory’s heart attack later in the movie brings all four members — vulnerable, and communicating a tiny bit more clearly in the end, to his bedside.
4. Lazy + Cowardly. The star of the movie is Timothy Spall as Phil, full of sorrowful, furtive glances at his wife. This is the single moment, before breaking down in crisis in the end, that he tries to reach her.
Phil, in his self-admission is lazy and has no skills, and again, this is the only time he tries to reach her.
He asks his kids for change to pay his taxi’s radio rental.
And never feels he does right, by himself or by his family.
He’s utterly broken, and finally breaks through the shame in the end.
Mention should be made of two minor male characters.
This guy, certainly in his 50s or 60s, arguably might be potentially violent, but is also cowardly, and in his twisted, cowardly way begins to suggest a date between him and the young daughter.
I say potentially violent. His passive demeanor is given lie to when his sole response to his own story about his long-ago four month marriage is the following.
(Actually, there are two more lines following, “marriage is a curse” and “you get used to it eventually” then sort of asks her to come over to watch a movie.
But it’s this guy (Wikipedia tells me “Craig”) who is the most naked man in the movie. Also broken of course.
He’s sort of a teen wraith, hardly saying anything in the movie, and serving only to shuffle around, haunting Samantha in her scenes.
Eventually, he goes full-on:
His use of language here is telling:
I think in the end I would amend Harmange’s sentence to say, “Men are violent, selfish, lazy, cowardly and they can’t speak right.” In other words, they speak through their violent, selfish, lazy, cowardly actions. But that is a whole other topic.
Let’s wrap this one up, about this marvelous movie (with amazing actresses and female characters, btw) which shows so so much what a punishing patriarchal hierarchy does to people who have zero status in the hierarchy, and what it does through the generations.
Men are broken, and yes, cowardly. How do you fix it?
How much effort is called for, when just maintaining some self-esteem is near-impossible. Having clarity about your own needs and feelings is completely impossible when you digging for change around your son sleeping on the couch. When you’re always on the run. (From our own shame, and maybe towards a chance at advancement in the system, which might mean a break from its hostility.)
The women here are holding it together more than the men. The men hold together, best they can, their place in the system. The women hold together, best they can, the feelings and communication that must exist to keep the fire of the family alive. But it’s just embers most the time.
Everyone is talking over or around each other responding to their own impulses, trying to get their own needs met, trying to have their hearts seen.
This character Craig, exists outside the system, and thus can share his feelings, carve it on his skin.
Everyone else has to have a crisis.
What is Mike Leigh's deal with the letter "S"? Remember Sophie's big S in "Naked"?