So we just finished Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control, and I have some thoughts about it that I just want to get down.
First off, I’m not sure that I personally enjoyed it as much as Vernon, Florida. Not to say that it wasn’t excellent (because it was), it’s just more of a personal preference between styles thing. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, I really did.
What really struck me about the movie was the childlike fascination that all the characters had with their chosen professions. You could almost see their eyes shining with excitement as they tried to get the words out which appropriately communicated their intense passion. The gardener stood out to me especially in this aspect…he was obviously getting up there in years, the woman for whom he cultivated the garden was gone, but yet he seemed to be driven by something innate, just like the other three.
Close to the end of the movie, the gardener was talking and we’re watching a scene from a Clyde Beatty movie; he and two women are escaping a burning city. The coalescing of the gardener sharing his love for the shrub animals and Beatty climbing above the flaming city struck me as being symbolic of the triumph of the human spirit. Just as Beatty is climbing above a ruined civilization, the human spirit driven by its passions, is always striving above.
I guess that sounds kind of cheesy, but that’s what I’ll take away as the “icon” of the film. It sort of goes along with Vernon, Florida. Even in seemingly dire times (and I’d argue that times are significantly more dire in 2007 than were in 1997) individuals and their passions are, in a way, still the driving force of society. No matter how much the world blows (terrorism, war, corruption, etc) there will still be people like the gardener, animal trainer, robot dude, and mole dude pushing society upwards. Like I alluded to earlier, the triumph of the individual human spirit.
I hope that made sense, like I said I just wanted to get some thoughts down.