Where the Wild Things Are Reviewed.
Let’s begin with “They could write a Psych Thesis about this movie”. That’s how profound and psychological “Where The Wild Things Are” is. I didn’t know quite what to expect from this movie other than the geek in me went completely ape-shit when I first saw the trailer.
That’s it, I was done. I knew somehow that this movie would be brilliant, how could it not be? Well it could have been, Hollywood has been manufacturing crap on a masterful level. But I wasn’t prepared for what followed. I thought I would watch a child go to la-la-land on a voyage of self-discovery. Self Discovery it was but it just wasn’t a kid’s movie despite being based on a children’s book.
This film was about self-discovery in such a complex way that no child could understand the profundity of this story. All a child would see was funny furies jumping around but the darkness that follows is to bleak to comprehend and would ruin it.
I could be wrong but this movie wasn’t about a kid going to some never-neverland but I believe this story to be about a mental break for a child not running on all cylinders. It begins with a child out of control running down the family dog leaving the viewer surprised the pooch would even survive. Max has temper issues – if left unchecked would probably result in criminal behavior further down the road – stemming from abandonment issues made apparent when he lashes out at her mother’s new boyfriend, yelling “you are not my father” and running away from home until he finds a small boat and embarks and drifts unto the island where the wild things are.
From there it gets really whacky. Max meets up with the wild things and becomes their king after lying to them about having great powers. But from the beginning we notice that not all is right the wild things. Carol is fighting with KW, Judith is always looking for the negative side of things, the bull never speaks, no ever hears to Alexander. After rumpuses, piles, howling at the sun things begin to break down. As they work on building this sublime fort to live in we begin to notice that Judith is very jealous and threatens Max.
Max tries to mend the group with a game of war but things turn ugly and Max’s ability to lead is put into question and they quickly turn on him. Alexander has Max confess to him that he’s not really a king to which he says don’t let Carol find out. From this point Max becomes fearful and the kingdom begins to crumble. Carol loses his temper at Max wanting to have a small room for him to hide in thus breaking his promise of sleeping in piles. From then Carol begins to lose control and tears Douglas’ arm off. Soon after – to leave out the rest of the story – Max decides to go back home.
But what’s truly happening is that the wild things are archetypical projections of Max’s character facets. His uncontrollable rage is found in Carol, his inability to be heard by his sister is found in Alexander, his inability to explain himself, to communicate is found in Ira, His strength found in the bull and so forth. And what happens on the island where the wild things are represent his inner turmoil in dealing with reality and the people that surround him. It depicts how his self-destructive behavior cannot end positively. Ultimately it’s about letting go of the primal anger and jealousy and coming to terms with becoming a person, finding family and love… and a hot bowl of Mom’s soup. You laugh but men know that nothing beats mom’s home cooking; it’s all about the care that goes into it.
I can’t wait to read “Where the Wild Things Are and Philosophy”. What? That’s not a book you say? Oh it will be, it will be. There’s material in this film to philosophize about for more than one tome that’s for sure. C.G. Jung would have a field day with this story. The Furies will think this movie is porn made for them, but in truth it’s an incredibly deep and touching story about what’s in all of us and often remains unexpressed.
An easy 5 furry stars out of 5 for this magical masterpiece.
This is a great synopsis of Where the Wild Things Are and I appreciated your breakdown of Max’s character facets. Truly there are more open philosophical lines in this movie and I hope it gets the credit it deserves.
I haven’t seen the film yet, and I only became aware of the book when I was in my 20s, so I can’t speak directly to the childhood experience of the book. But I will say this: To U.S. people, “Where the Wild Things Are” is like “The Catcher in the Rye” for a younger set. It has been hugely popular and well loved for 30+ years. It’s the child’s book that seems to stay with people as they grow up. People who got a copy when they were 6 years old will still cite it as one of their favorites even when they’ve grown up and become adults.
I bring this up in response to “This film was about self-discovery in such a complex way that no child could understand the profundity of this story.” (Yes, I realize you’re talking about the film, not the book.) But I think that kids can absorb things on a level that they might not understand, but it still hits them somehow. The book is hugely simpler than the movie, as it is short and only has a few lines of text on each page, but I think the core of it is similar. And I think kids respond to it so well because it is about self discovery, but not in an obvious or pandering way. It hits kids at a level that they might not realize until years later.
That said, I suspect the biggest audience for the film (or at least the target audience) are grown-ups who loved the book as a kid. It is necessarily more complex because it’s the same basic idea, but it’s intended for grown-ups. Put another way, it’s not really a kid’s movie, it’s a movie for the “child within” we grown-ups.
I think the trailer tells us a very different picture but the movie is one of the top 3 movies that I want to see right now. From the trailer, I actually thought that it was more like a ‘Neverending Story’ kinda flick. After reading a couple of reviews of it, I think it’s way beyond that kind of a film.
WAY WAY Beyond.