Ronald Reagan

[DavidZahir]

I've now and then heard comments about LMI saying it changed the time frame of LTROI. Of course it did nothing of the kind. Both films take place in the last decade of the Cold War, none of the characters know that it is about to end, and each have a profoundly different focus regarding the outside world.

The novel of course deals with what I understand is a major scandal/issue to this day--the running aground of Soviet submarines in Swedish national waters. I don't believe this is ever mentioned in the film.

LMI on the other hand explicitly brings up the world outside this little New Mexico town, initially with a rather famous televised speech by then-President Ronald Reagan. Such was the time Matt Reeves was Owen's age. I myself was at college then.

But showing Reagan seems like more than a simple framing device that places the events into history. It comes down to how Owen learns to be a human being, how to react to the world around him, deal with the problems of his own life. Like many conservatives who use his name as some kind of icon, Reagan advocated a relatively straightforward morality--albeit one that on its surface at least appears full of contradictions. That a man so opposed to abortion should also be so adamantly in favor of the death penalty does make the term "Pro-Life" sound odd. More profoundly, Reagan held up an image of America and Americans as a chosen land with a chosen people. "America" he says in the movie "is good." The greatness of America is in our churches. One of the great iconic phrases with which we remember Reagan today (and in fact was uttered in the very speech used in LMI) was "evil empire," referring to the Soviet Bloc. Taken as a package, all this adds up to what amounts to a terrible confusion and burden to children having this stuff poured into their ears.

Owen has a mother who largely ignores him, focusing instead on her wine and her religion and her rage aimed at Owen's Dad. Is she good? Does that make her husband bad? Or is it the other way 'round? Owen steals, spoils his dinner, peaks in on his neighbors and harbors a seething rage. Is he good? If not, is he bad and does that make the bullies somehow good? I remember going through similar questioning when Owen's age, deep in the Bible Belt of Pensacola Florida ten years earlier. The messages told me I can look back upon and find really disturbing--including being told point blank that God hates black people (no, I'm not kidding). But as a child, how wise could I be? Likewise Owen has to struggle through all this, and for him very little support exists to help him find his way.

Elsewhere I've said the question "Do you think there's such a thing as Evil?" seems unimaginable in the Swedish film. Owen asks it not simply because his mother is religious but because he himself in an American child, weened on the idea of light and dark, good and evil. Simple categories. Too simple, frankly, to resemble the truth very much. Mind you, how religious is his mom, really? We never see her attend church, or reading a Bible. When her boy gets in trouble, as far as we can tell she never seeks out the help of a minister. Another conflicting message, because really all his mom does is give lip service to faith. Maybe that helps explain why she feels so empty.

Viewed in that light, Owen gains what she does not--Faith. Faith in the power of darkness, to love and protect him, to teach him pride and power, to look right at him and see him. What Reagan represented to many who lived through his presidency--and with his legacy ever since--was cheap virtue. We're good because we go to church. We're good because we're not them. Good because we say so. (Fair is fair--the Left have their own issues, and can certainly be explored were Owen's parents hippies a generation or so earlier for example.) But when the adults of Owen's life didn't pay the price in time and effort to help this child, someone else bought his love and loyalty. Paid for it in kind.

[cmfireflies]

Owen gains what she does not--Faith. Faith in the power of darkness, to love and protect him, to teach him pride and power,

That's a great observation. The benign side of darkness has commonly meant freedom in stories, and I think that's the best thing that Abby offers: An escape for Owen, the freedom of amorality.
I also remember in the movie Nightwatch (or was it the sequel Daywatch?) where a character talks about the allure of darkness as:
Imperfections are hidden in darkness. And people always have their imperfections. So that fits with Owen and his mask.

As for Reagen and evil, I always thought that Reagan played the part of the good angel on Owen's shoulder, so to speak. That would explain why he's always in the background and disappears entirely after the death of the cop.