Film Analysis: The Pornography Of Death

In 2004, an American-authored Czech film, Most (Czech for “Bridge”), was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Film. The movie focuses on the close relationship between a bridge operator and his young son, Lada. One day, the father decides to take his son to work. Lada attempts to lower the bridge for a rapidly oncoming train, but accidentally falls into the drawbridge gears, leaving the father to decide between saving his beloved son and allowing the train to derail or saving the train passengers and crushing his own son. The father, tormented by this situation, reluctantly pulls the gear to lower the bridge. All of the passengers except one, a female heroin-addict, remain oblivious to the bridge keeper’s agony. After some time has …show more content…
In Geoffrey Gorer’s “The Pornography of Death,” Gorer argues that because of England’s abandonment of religion, representations of death became unnatural, and natural death becomes a taboo subject in Western civilization. Gorer states that the current media representations of death allow death to become a distant fantasy. Death becomes a topic filtered by the media. In this movie, a tragic accident depicts mortality. An unnatural external force causes death to the unsuspecting child. The vulnerable little boy symbolizes mortality, which positions the audience to view death as unusual rather than an inevitable part of life. The father, who the audience can identify with, survives. Despite sacrificing his son, the bridge keeper eventually finds relief through seeing the positive effect his decision has on the former heroin addict when he sees her happily carrying a young baby. The woman and the baby represent the future, which the bridge keeper gives to them. This sense of new beginnings portrays death as an aspect of life that can be conquered since the father allows new life to come into the world by saving the woman. Since the bridge keeper makes the choice about who dies deciding whether or not to pull the lever, it also enables the audience to similarly feel like they have power over …show more content…
The movie reinforces the rational, white male as an ideal figure in Western civilization by contrasting the protagonist’s characteristics with the immoral, drug-using woman and the vulnerable, dependent child. According to Diana Blaine, Western culture indicates the societal values through the repeated use of binary traits in its stories. The characters that possess these Western-valued attributes tend to survive and take on the role of heroes. Despite being a Czech film, an American wrote and produced Most, which explains why the movie possesses American values. The bridge keeper portrays a rational, white man that can easily be identified with. The father making the logical decision reflects the American ideology of the rational and masculine individual. The father’s decision to sacrifice his son is heartbreaking but ultimately, the rational choice to make. As the bridge keeper, he shows that his duty of lowering the bridge for the train outweighs his love for his son. This value traces back to America’s Protestant origins, where hard work and loyalty are regarded highly. In contrast with the father, Lada, a vulnerable little boy, ultimately becomes a victim of death. Similarly, the former heroin-addict is a female, dependent on her drugs, which depicts her as sinful and weak to her flesh. These characters and their roles in the movie reinforce what