This movie was on the tube when I was sort of "napping, laptopping, and TV watching" in intermittent bursts over the weekend. I had not seen it in some time. It's probably been a couple or three years. But one of the fun things about "not having seen a movie for a while" is having fallen out of your "usual pattern of thinking" during the movie. At least for me, it sometimes leads to new realizations about a movie you thought you "knew."
"Alien Nation" is basically a sci-fi twist to looking at racism. Earth now has a population of space refugees from the planet Tencton, politely called "Newcomers" but mostly referred to with a new racial epithet, "Slags." (They were slaves in the mines in their past lives.) Although "ordinary Americans" more or less accepted them, it bred a new sort of racism (planetism?), given the fact they look odd, are smarter and more adaptable than humans, and have the very interesting and laughable habit of getting blind stinking drunk on sour milk. James Caan plays a detective, Sykes, who loses his partner in a gun battle, and Mandy Patinkin plays his new partner, Francisco, the first Newcomer to make the rank of detective. They work together (and gain new insights about each other) while uncovering a Newcomer "drug ring". (The problem is, by American standards, it's not a drug. It's more or less detergent--and how do you regulate a "detergent cartel" with existing drug laws?)
When I've watched that movie before, I've always thought of it in terms of the way it presents racism. But this time, I found my mind reflecting more on "Seawater's effect on the Newcomers."
Seawater, you see, is like battery acid to the Newcomers. This becomes a key feature in the movie (WARNING! Spoiler alert!) because, in order to save Sykes, Francisco must perch himself on the runner of a helicopter and reach down into the water to save Sykes.
The movie shows a lot of views of the ocean in ominous tones. The power of seawater's effect is shown to the viewer when a Newcomer stoolie "gets his due" by being tossed into the ocean by the film's "bad guy." Its effect on the Newcomers is illustrated when we see Francisco, in one scene, stand on a hill and watch a crime scene near the ocean, that he really ought to be at, from a distance. Unbeknownst to Francisco, Sykes, while working this crime scene, sticks up for Francisco when other detectives start teasing Sykes about Francisco's fears.
Well, what got me to thinking about this facet of the movie is that the ocean, which we humans often see as a place of peace, mystery, and depth, is a place of fear, hellfire, and eternal damnation to the Newcomers. Touch it, and, like the Wicked Witch of the West, they melt.
That in itself is a point to ponder.
How many things in our life, things we connect with, trust, and enjoy, are objects of fear to someone else? It's kind of like how everyone seems to put either mustard or mayonnaise on a pile of sandwiches, thinking "everyone eats them like that", and for me, who loathes both condiments, the smell of even ten parts per million makes me wrinkle up my nose and suppress a gag?
I realize that even in myself, some of the things I now do on a regular basis--sit quietly and contemplate in my prayer time, be alone with my thoughts during long evenings or my "Silent Saturday Mornings," were once fearful things to me? I thought the only kind of prayer I could ever possibly do, was spoken prayer.
For me, the ocean is a place of wonderment and awe--so much so, I re-create it in the pastures I traverse through on my various local road trips, and make my "green ocean" in my mind. But to others, the ocean is a place of fear, unfathomable dark bottoms, a bottomless pit. to the Newcomers in the movie, it is a place of death and annihilation.
Learning to respect another's fear and not force your lack of it upon them is not an easy task. For some, even gently trying to lead them to it won't work, not if in their heart of hearts what you view as comfort they simply cannot move beyond "blind fear."
Then, there is the moment in the movie where Francisco knows, that to save his partner, he must stick his hand in the ocean. What he cannot do for himself, he can do to save another. Yet this act is not totally a "happy ending"--to do this means he WILL be burned, scarred, maybe even permanently disfigured. Yet, at the end, Sykes and Francisco are both changed, in their attitudes to each other.
Hmmm. "What he cannot do for himself, he can do to save another." "He will be physically destroyed in some way." "Yet--he is transformed, while still carrying the scars."
Ooooo, this sort of suspiciously sounds like the Passion, the Crucifixion and the Resurrection...doesn't it?
I think back and recall all the times in my life I have "walked through my own valley of the shadow of death". Many times, I could not have done it "for myself." It took the needs of others, or the powers of things bigger than myself to do it. Sometimes, I have been badly burned by it. I may still carry the scars--the nail holes of my own crucifixions. Yet, in looking back, I am transformed, in a good way. I cannot deny the joys of those transformations any more than I can deny my nail holes.
Perhaps this is the backstory of this movie--to respect fears but be aware of powers beyond ourselves to move people to plunge their arms into the battery acid of their own fears, and be transformed despite the scars. In that, there is no "wrong move" in life, no "bad decision", no guilt, no regret--only the hope of resurrection.
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