Keeping it Reel: The Zen of Oddball
Jul. 25th, 2007 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalonIt might seem like a strange choice I know, but for reasons I find difficult to explain, Kelly's Heroes is one of my favorite movies of all time. Of course that would be a list that included The Warriors, O'Brother Where Art Thou?, the original Dawn of the Dead and Slacker, so I realize that my tastes are a bit eclectic at times.
But between this film and Joseph Heller's wonderful Catch-22 I found myself better able to navigate my way through the mental rigors of military life during my brief stint in the NAVY (Is it me or do most 'angry young men' often choose either Captain Yossarian or Holden Caulfield to act as their role models... "Catch-22 in the Rye Syndrome" maybe?). Both, for me at least, are excellent demonstrations of the operating dynamics of the perenial love-hate relationship between absurdity and authority.
In fact I tend to classify the three main characters in Kelly's Heroes as representing the three divisions of the psyche according to Freud. So Kelly (Clint Eastwood), the former Lieutenant now Private is the Ego. Big Joe (Telly Savalas) the gruff but almost maternal Master Sargeant serves as the Super Ego, while Oddball (a tres young Donald Sutherland) the proto-hippy Tank commander acts as the Id.
The three divisions of the psyche must work together (along with a growing rag-tag band of discontent army personnel) to rob a bank in the middle of German occupied France. A bank that holds not cash but rather several tons of gold bars (symbolizing perhaps the alchemical gold Jung speaks of once psychic integration/ equilibration has been obtained... or more likely, symbolizing gold bars in nazi occupied France).
For some the movie acts as a metaphor for a certain working class wisdom that holds that the best laid plans of officers (Zero's as we used to call them in the Navy) is nothing compared to the cunning can-do attitude of your average grunt when the prospect of getting paid, getting some or getting away clean is involved. For me though it's a map both of and for my own brain as it navigates through the pitfalls of work, wars and worrys that keeps me from reaching that great metaphysical bank heist behind the Tiger Tanks that prowl around my own little piece of Chapel Perilous.
But between this film and Joseph Heller's wonderful Catch-22 I found myself better able to navigate my way through the mental rigors of military life during my brief stint in the NAVY (Is it me or do most 'angry young men' often choose either Captain Yossarian or Holden Caulfield to act as their role models... "Catch-22 in the Rye Syndrome" maybe?). Both, for me at least, are excellent demonstrations of the operating dynamics of the perenial love-hate relationship between absurdity and authority.
In fact I tend to classify the three main characters in Kelly's Heroes as representing the three divisions of the psyche according to Freud. So Kelly (Clint Eastwood), the former Lieutenant now Private is the Ego. Big Joe (Telly Savalas) the gruff but almost maternal Master Sargeant serves as the Super Ego, while Oddball (a tres young Donald Sutherland) the proto-hippy Tank commander acts as the Id.
The three divisions of the psyche must work together (along with a growing rag-tag band of discontent army personnel) to rob a bank in the middle of German occupied France. A bank that holds not cash but rather several tons of gold bars (symbolizing perhaps the alchemical gold Jung speaks of once psychic integration/ equilibration has been obtained... or more likely, symbolizing gold bars in nazi occupied France).
For some the movie acts as a metaphor for a certain working class wisdom that holds that the best laid plans of officers (Zero's as we used to call them in the Navy) is nothing compared to the cunning can-do attitude of your average grunt when the prospect of getting paid, getting some or getting away clean is involved. For me though it's a map both of and for my own brain as it navigates through the pitfalls of work, wars and worrys that keeps me from reaching that great metaphysical bank heist behind the Tiger Tanks that prowl around my own little piece of Chapel Perilous.
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no subject
on 2007-07-25 10:32 pm (UTC)and honestly, i think you have deciphered its appeal perfectly... caught between the duty and the desire, both of which could get you killed, there is imagination and sly worldly wisdom necessary to survive.
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on 2007-07-25 11:34 pm (UTC)Big Great Escape fan too I take it?
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on 2007-07-26 12:23 am (UTC)-R
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on 2007-07-26 02:24 pm (UTC)But yeah on a more personal note I remember my Mom & Dad letting me stay up late so I could catch T.G.E. The scene with Charles Bronson, trapped in the tunnel when the power goes out, fighting his claustrophobia and pulling his way along the tracks. The image actually still resonates with me, which is what any good story teller wants to do I would hope.
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on 2007-07-26 02:29 am (UTC)sole american makes it out, all the brits die, passports made of tin and jam...
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on 2007-07-26 02:32 pm (UTC)Though to be fair a Scottsmen and a Polish resistance fighter make it to Sweden.
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on 2007-07-26 05:29 pm (UTC)I always loved catching this one on TBS at my grandparent's house as a kid. Plus, my dad is a big fan of all things WW2, so we bonded over it many a times. Easily Don Rickles' best film.
~rl
no subject
on 2007-07-26 05:35 pm (UTC)You know one thing I always loved about this movie was the strange Hippy theme song they play in the beginning during the credits, it starts with military parade music and segues into full throttle age-of-aquarius folk... all while Clint sneaks out of enemy territory in full nazi regalia.
no subject
on 2007-07-26 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-07-26 05:55 pm (UTC)"What if everybody thought the way you did Yossarian?"
"Then i'd be a damn fool not too!"
It really somes up my reaction to school, work and the military.