Remember the scene from Fargo where the kidnappers come to Jean Lundergaard's house?
And Jean is sitting on the sofa watching TV and knitting.
For about fifteen seconds, you see Steve Buscemi’s character, wearing a balaclava and welding a crowbar, and he starts peering into the windows.
What’s genius about this scene is Jean’s reaction. She sees Buscemi’s masked character, crowbar and all. But she doesn’t outwardly panic. She doesn’t start screaming or hurrying to call the police.
Instead, she just freezes, probably in shock, and stares out at the masked man with the crowbar outside her window, her thoughts most likely, “This seems strange. This seems out of the ordinary.”
Only when Buscemi’s character actually smashes the window with the crowbar does she immediately begin to scream and panic.
It’s one of countless examples of the filmmaking genius of the Coen Brothers because while many lesser movies go straight to panic mode, often our human reaction to imminent danger is not actually immediate panic but rather simply shock—“Is this real? What does this all mean?”
And so, when I see the Trump administration erecting large barriers around the White House, and now they seem to be gutting the Defense Department and installing lackies at a very odd time, Jean Lundergaard’s initial reaction seems to be our reaction as well.
“Is this real? Is this out of the ordinary? This just doesn’t seem right for some reason.”
= new reply since forum marked as read
but there is a shred of truth in that. No sane person would ever actually believe this ....................... unless they had witnessed what Trump has done over the past 4 years.
A woman alone and helpless when the unthinkable happens.
We're anything but alone and part of something very powerful. We only feel vulnerable individually because of all we don't know about our power. We fear the monster will escape from under the bed.
Not that they aren't dangerous, but our legal system is a powerful protection, and our people committed to doing their duty in government and the military are powerful protections. And of course our president-elect and our party are busy handling this unusual transition, after studying and planning carefully to deal with Trump's/Repubs' rages and desperation maneuvers post election.
Oh, and good grief, this is of course all in the setting of the greatest power of all:
1. Our electoral system did not fail. The people were able to choose. Joe Biden is President-Elect.
2. The people clearly chose Biden by nearly 5 million votes over Trump and gave him a strong majority in the electoral college. There is no question about that.
3. At noon on January 20, Trump's term ends. Biden's begins.
