Not to be mistaken for the 80s flick, Repo Man - this is a revealing tale [dystopian noir in look and feel] about some gentlemen in the organ reposession profession. Like many [lesser?] movies, there’s some visual comparisons that can be made to Blade Runner and the organ repossession, though varied from client to client, seem to act as a direct reference to the placenta, as one broken person after the next line up to be lured into signing up for the company’s offer. The organs are replacements for various vital [and elective] upgrades and financed by “The Union” and when the bill cannot be repaid borrowers are subject to being visited and their replacement organs are taken back with force by the company’s repo-men. A difficult and dirty job taken by aggressive and highly trained agents offered little time to sit and contemplate a less-edgy and demanding lifestyle. Breaking away to find alternate employment is discouraged and isn’t an easy option, not unlike the corporate world that already exists today - or at least that’s the feeling I got watching this progression. A theme that runs parallel to the protagonist’s narration, as he [you] chooses to author his [your] way to pulling his [your] thoughts together in a memoir, Jude Law’s character must come to untangle a haunting riddle of how one can both exist alive as well as dead. [Is he fully accounted for from the beginning, fertilization, until his final expired breath?] The means to his escape is given to him as a birthday gift, which he “initially” rejects. His contemplation of the value of the typewriter renders him more accepting. [It is the concept of legal fictions that he had to wake up to see and is now readily apparent.]
It is at this point in the hero’s journey when see how he puts away his belief he had shared with his partner that “a job is a job,” even when it means being expected to breach natural boundaries when called upon. Selling out future generations to support his attachment to material safety suddenly is part of his past - but since his partner remains attached to his employer and this creates some problems.
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When things begin to really fall apart for our protagonist he finally sets out on a path to overcome the odds and correct a system gone completely mental with bloodthirsty psychopaths. Their main concern is to pay bills and to pass the promise to other insiders to enjoy the lusts of life they enjoy. Future generations [outsiders] be damned.
Vultures begin to circle and we see another inspiring vision unfold despite deception, doubt and loss along the way. It’s not until the vision is crystalized that the path opens and real change appears within reach. A risky gambit he knows is worth going for despite the odds. But attempts of “wiping the record clean” is anticipated with yet another system - which does require an end-user’s participation.
There’s a sea-change in our protagonist that plays itself out in his non-fictional realm. He decides to go in the direction which he finds has meaning and virtue. The moment reality sets in the change is that easy to make when you pull back the curtain to see how things are designed, and the domino effect fulfilling each opportunity for commission has on those lives. Escaping the system then isn’t easy when its tentacles have reached around most aspects of your life. Such change is demonized by those who still trust the system and its offerings, while double timing as a nuclear bomb in your personal life. Suddenly faced with the decision to participate or not, it feels like a life or death situation - it’s all or nothing. Wiping the record clean is not possible if it was never yours to begin with, ok, but if the error of the record is never addressed, as the twisted ending of Repo Men interestingly reveals, are you damned to live eternally within it's ugly grips? Did his memoir free the unnamed protagonist?
Finally, the final scene reminds me a lot of the final scene in the movie Trading Places - but I think I've given enough of this movie away.
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