A movie that benefitted from me having a long, solo car ride home afterwards. After leaving the theater I was a both confused and irritated by my confusion. The car ride gave me time to think and process.
There’s a lot in this movie, and there are reviews here that offer very cogent takes on aspects of the movie that I didn’t even notice. But over my car ride home I came to think of the movie as an exploration of the difference between wanting to be looked at and not wanting the gaze.
OJ , the monster, the animals. They don’t want that gaze. Maybe they can be ‘trained’ (or ‘come to an agreement’) to accept the gaze, but they don’t want it. And at some point that dislike will emerge.
Emerald and Ricky want to be gazed upon. Emerald wants fame. Ricky, I think, believes he’s ‘blessed’ by his experience in “Gordy’s Home” and that he’s made to receive the gaze.
Angel and Antlers are gazers. Antlers makes the gaze and Angel consumes it.
Being willing to accept the gaze is a parallel for ‘tameness’. If you are ok with people looking at you, you are tame. The horses, mostly, are tame. Gordy and the monster are not. In a way, Emerald and Ricky are tame while OJ is not.
Which I think lines up well with celebrity – the fame that Emerald and Ricky are looking for. Celebrity is being gazed at all the time, and if you are comfortable with that then you’re tame. And if you’re not then you’re one of those stubborn, angry celebrities that people want to gaze at even more. Until you lash out.
