“Paranoia
strikes deep Into
your life it will creep It
starts when you're always afraid You
step out of line, the man come and take you away” --“For
What It’s Worth,” a Buffalo Springfield song from the 1960s
This
film is unlike anything Bruce has ever done. If you’re looking for the
standard creep show fare, get off the bus now. This bus doesn’t
go there. No (take your pick: werewolves, vampires, demons, giant
anacondas, larva, ants or the icky critters du jour on the Sci Fi Channel)
coming to Your Town. This is a different kind of horror—a horror in the mind created by a morally sick
society. It is at the same time more surrealistic (think Dada meets
Kafka) and more realistic in its social import than the creep shows
could ever dream of. Taking over where the avant garde 1980s TV science
fiction series Max Headroom
left off, it posits a cynical, amoral corporate mentality out to
control and out of control, willing to do anything to keep the populace
consuming, consuming, consuming. How that is accomplished we won’t
reveal but we can say that the only slightly tongue-in cheek tag line
of Max Headroom (“20 minutes
into the future”) is eerily appropriate. The technology of the “trick”
used in this story is now on the edge of crossing over from science
fiction to science
fact.
Paranoia 1.0 is, in fact, for all
its strange surrealism, a cautionary tale about altogether too
realistic threats that our modern culture and society face.
Those who want to control us completely may not simply be corrupt
power-lusting politicians, two-bit dictators, or rabid religious
fundamentalists. It may be your friendly neighborhood multinational
corporation bent on profit at any cost by any means by any method. And
why not? Today’s headlines are full of rampant amoral greed —Enron, the
California electric power scandal, Halliburton, Microsoft and its
inferior products that everyone has to buy anyway. Morality is passe,
or so the headlines would make it seem.
Though
unrelentingly grim, Paranoia 1.0
is a film worth watching more than once (and not just because of
Bruce). “For this kind of film,” says Bruce in his DVD behind the
scenes interview, “there is so much texture in the descriptive as well
as the narrative…” We agree. In addition to the major theme, layered in are
other themes of modern society—alienation, psychic numbness, mistrust,
pressure to conform. When Bruce’s character (The Neighbor) says to
Simon, the main protogonist…”are you a sheep?” he is not necessarily
speaking just of followers in his porno game. When the two main
characters, Simon and Trish, walk around in a dreamlike zombie state,
it can be seen as a metaphor for the numbing quality of a culture that
sucks people’s souls dry with more and more pressure to perform, to
conform, to consume. More violence, more inane “reality shows.” Don’t
think, don’t wonder why, don’t question, never question. Do what you’re
told. Think what we tell you to think. Why? Because the
authorities say so.
Trish,
one of the characters whose soul is being sucked dry (she is a nurse in
a cancer ward and faces death every day) deals with her numbness
by responding in a way that our culture both disapproves of and slyly
encourages—through the seeking of more and more extreme
sensation to combat her psychic numbness. Speaking of Trish’s response
(sex and watching the violent porno he makes), The Neighbor asserts:
“She says it makes her feel alive after being surrounded by slow death
all day.”
The
ultimate Extreme Reality Show—kinky, sado-masochistic sex. See
him tighten the screws. Yikes. But Trish is not the active participant.
True to her zombie-like character, she is the passive voyeur who
watches as unspeakable things are done to someone else. For some
viewers, this scene will be both sickening and titillating, a sure sign
that the film has hit its mark. Is it only a matter of degree
different from what we see in films and TV now? Why do we find it
fascinating? Why are we attracted to violence and lurid sex?
Questions this film may raise in the minds of the thoughtful.
At
the center of this nexus of the film is The Neighbor, the sleazy
director of virtual reality S&M porn games played by Bruce. Unlike
many of the other
passive and confused
characters, the Neighbor is energetic and fierce. His German shepherd,
“Puppy,” will enthusiastically tear you from limb to limb. Maybe
he has no soul to suck dry. Bruce fans will not be disappointed
in his performance. As the Neighbor, Bruce creates yet another unique
new character, one that is animated, disgusting, delicious, and nuanced
all at the same time. When we first meet him, his cold, mean
stare cuts us dead. Then we secretly cheer as he smashes the spying,
prying security cameras in the apartment building. Later, like a slippery
chameleon, he smiles winsomely, joking around, seductively nuzzling the
women at his club, doing other things in his games that we can’t talk
about on a public web site…. His performance throughout is riveting. If
you watch him carefully, even when the camera isn’t focused directly on
him (not hard to do, of course), he is “on” and into the character,
with every move true, every look and gesture nuanced. His is not
the main character but his is the one you will remember even if you are
not a Bruce fan.
Though the images in this film are bizarre and surrealistic, the theme
of the film is not hidden. One reviewer elsewhere has said that
the film was a bit too minimalist—it could have told us more—and that
may be true. Not every scene is clear in its purpose, at least at
first glance. But, by the end of the story, you are told what you need
to know to understand the major theme.
Is
there a message for us to ponder? We can’t second-guess the
writer and director but we’re pretty sure there is one. What you want
to do with it is your choice, but we are reminded of the old Buffalo
Springfield song from the 1960s:
“There's
something happening here What
it is ain't exactly clear. There's
a man with a gun over there Telling
me I got to beware.
I
think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound? Everybody
look what's going down."
Maybe
we should look around and see where our culture is headed. Maybe we
won’t like where it’s going. Maybe we will want to resist while there
is still time.
*
* *
For
an audio clip of Bruce behind
the scenes, click here
NEW AUDIO CLIPS:
Here's three more audio clips from the film itself:
horror in the mind created by a morally sick
society. It is at the same time more surrealistic (think Dada meets
Kafka) and more realistic in its social import than the creep shows
could ever dream of. Taking over where the avant garde 1980s TV science
fiction series Max Headroom
left off, it posits a cynical, amoral corporate mentality out to
control and out of control, willing to do anything to keep the populace
consuming, consuming, consuming. How that is accomplished we won’t
reveal but we can say that the only slightly tongue-in cheek tag line
of Max Headroom (“20 minutes
into the future”) is eerily appropriate. The technology of the “trick”
used in this story is now on the edge of crossing over from science
fiction to science
fact.
face.
Those who want to control us completely may not simply be corrupt
power-lusting politicians, two-bit dictators, or rabid religious
fundamentalists. It may be your friendly neighborhood multinational
corporation bent on profit at any cost by any means by any method. And
why not? Today’s headlines are full of rampant amoral greed —Enron, the
California electric power scandal, Halliburton, Microsoft and its
inferior products that everyone has to buy anyway. Morality is passe,
or so the headlines would make it seem.
agree. In addition to the major theme, layered in are
other themes of modern society—alienation, psychic numbness, mistrust,
pressure to conform. When Bruce’s character (The Neighbor) says to
Simon, the main protogonist…”are you a sheep?” he is not necessarily
speaking just of followers in his porno game. When the two main
characters, Simon and Trish, walk around in a dreamlike zombie state,
it can be seen as a metaphor for the numbing quality of a culture that
sucks people’s souls dry with more and more pressure to perform, to
conform, to consume. More violence, more inane “reality shows.” Don’t
think, don’t wonder why, don’t question, never question. Do what you’re
told. Think what we tell you to think. Why? Because the
authorities say so.
confused
characters, the Neighbor is energetic and fierce. His German shepherd,
“Puppy,” will enthusiastically tear you from limb to limb. Maybe
he has no soul to suck dry. Bruce fans will not be disappointed
in his performance. As the Neighbor, Bruce creates yet another unique
new character, one that is animated, disgusting, delicious, and nuanced
all at the same time. When we first meet him, his cold, mean
stare cuts us dead. Then we secretly cheer as he smashes the spying,
prying security cameras in the
apartment building. Later, like a slippery
chameleon, he smiles winsomely, joking around, seductively nuzzling the
women at his club, doing other things in his games that we can’t talk
about on a public web site…. His performance throughout is riveting. If
you watch him carefully, even when the camera isn’t focused directly on
him (not hard to do, of course), he is “on” and into the character,
with every move true, every look and gesture nuanced. His is not
the main character but his is the one you will remember even if you are
not a Bruce fan. 
