Look Both Ways

1. Look Both Ways Exam Revision

2. The title • “Look Both Ways” • Two ways of looking at life (life and death). One is bleak and hopeless and the other is full of opportunity and love. • We need to look at both (can’t ignore one or the other) for a full perspective • Beware of the dangers which may confront you.

3. Context • Set against a background of human suffering • Focuses on the struggle to cope with relationships, tragedy, death, loneliness, work, children and survival • Set in suburban Adelaide – workplaces, homes, local hospital, cricket oval, nearby shops, railway line – all these places connect the community.

4. Structure and Style • The film endeavours to imitate real life, therefore characters and settings are realistic • Filming is focused on conversations and human interactions

5. Structure and Style • All characters are linked by the train accident • The focus is less on the accident itself, but rather the ways that people cope in the aftermath of the accident • References to the Arnow train derailment are dispersed throughout the film and they form the backdrop to the lives of the characters.

6. The focus on Meryl and Nick • Much of the plot follows the lives and inner thoughts of Meryl and Nick. • The animations illustrate Meryl’s preoccupation with death (such as the sharks which encircle her and the train which runs her over). • Similarly, we experience Nick’s subjective mind through photographic stills and we watch as his life “flashes before his eyes”.

7. Editing • The film uses many ‘quick edits’ where the viewer is presented with a large number of associations to take in • Gives a sense of emotional confusion

8. Imagery • Warning signs – (eg. ‘Warning – Danger Carcinogen Designated Area, Authorised Personnel Only’, ‘Cancer Hazard’, ‘Danger High Voltage’, ‘Radioactive’ etc): suggests we need to be wary in modern society to avoid its many dangers. • Pigeons – (at times there is a group flying together, groups parting ways, or a solitary pigeon). A reminder that we require a sense of community to live together effectively

9. Imagery • Sharks and Killer Whales – to represent the predators that lurk below the surface over which we have little control/ but also the unrealistic fears we have • The heat and the rain – to represent the characters sweltering due to their emotional turmoil and the rain providing a release.

10. Characters - Meryl • Unmarried artist • Suffocating from the detritus of her life • Honest, introspective, empathetic • Worries about the potential for disaster to strike

11. Meryl • The juxtaposition of Meryl with Nick is designed to highlight their similar preoccupation with death • Nick asks Meryl: “Do you see it happening when you look at me? Do you see death?” – neither can see death in each other. Love can cast away the preoccupation with death. • We can, however, identify with her. While she is a complex character, she is familiar to us - living the social and domestic dramas typical of suburbia.

12. Meryl • Comes to a realisation that everyone experiences grief, yet there is hope through love. • “My dad died two weeks ago. Why isn’t my picture on the front of the paper? Why isn’t everybody who loses somebody on the front bloody page?” • “Everyone has to witness something ghastly one day.”

13. Nick • A successful photographer who lives alone • Finds communication difficult • Feels isolated, confused with his new diagnosis of cancer. Trying to contend with his own mortality, rather than seeing death as something “other” • Sees his life and his work in bleak terms: “Poverty, war, natural disasters and then back to the mini bar.”

14. Nick • His diagnosis prompts him to see life in fairly grim terms: • The images in his mind show his preoccupations: “Meat. Snip. Hearse. Roadside tribute. Cancer boy who smiles.”…. “Montage of aneurism” etc • He also becomes curious about the concept of an afterlife. He recalls his father saying: ‘I’m liking the idea of the afterlife. I’m a Buddhist this week’ and he asks Andy: ‘Do you believe in God?’

15. Andy • Divorced father who is angry and frustrated with his life. • Exhibits a child-like egotism • Andy at Macbeth performance: ‘Life is but a walking shadow.’ - signifies his dissatisfaction with life. • Andy comes to look beyond his own troubles by the end of the film – he sees Julia’s memorial and her grief and he sees Nick’s predicament (‘What have you got cancer for?’)

16. Anna • Single and pregnant • Continually reminded that she does not have children of her own in her work in the Emergency Department. • We often see Anna alone/ isolated.

17. Phil • The family man who is too busy at work to spend time with his family • Shocked by Nick’s diagnosis, but cannot expresses his feelings honestly and without bravado: • ‘Christ, you only went for a travel medical’‘Sorry’‘Where you going? Which hospital? Get everyone to chip in, hide some scotch in flowers or something.’ • He is unable to look directly at Nick (indicating his discomfort in dealing with serious matters).

18. Train driver • His story is communicated without words • There is a sense of reconciliation/ acceptance when he hands Julia the card at the end. • The card indicates that we don’t know what will happen in the future, but we only have “a light to guide the next footstep”. It is a message for how to manage the trauma which may confront us.

19. Themes - Death • The film focuses on how we can confront death on a personal level (through the grieving of the main characters), but also how we deal with suffering in the world ‘out there’ (eg. The Arnow Hill train wreck) • Death is not presented as heroic or dramatic, rather as something more mundane.

20. Death • Nick and Meryl are coming to terms with their mortality. • Andy is presented as far more petulant – has not come to terms with the inevitability of death. He seems to have nothing to live for, yet no belief in something beyond this life. • Nick’s mother is far more philosophical, despite her own loss: “It doesn’t matter how he died. Your father’s death was not the sum of his life. It doesn’t matter how life ends, it matters how it was… Everyone has to find a way to face their own death… and love.”

21. Accepting Fate • Meryl approaches her father’s death philosophically… “Oh no, it’s just the natural order of things, isn’t it? Maybe it was meant to be. He might have been a rapist axe-murderer about to commit his first crime…” • There is a sense of the injustice of life (the indigenous children saying “Maybe it was meant to be”), but even when injustice is perpetrated by others it has to be endured and accepted.

22. Accepting Fate • The Arnow Hill train wreck which is the backdrop to the film suggests that there is a randomness to death that needs to be accepted • Anna says to Andy “You think everyone’s got an agenda… Sometimes things just happen.” • Linda reads Meryl’s star sign “Cancer: Contrary to usual belief, you do hold fate in your own hands” – this seems to contradict everything we know. The newspaper itself illustrates so much random doom and gloom.

23. Impact of the media • There are many images of the media and the way that it presents an image of society for our consumption • The world is a bleak place in the newspaper: “I don’t need your stupid photos to keep reminding me of all the shit in the world” • Many of Nick’s experiences include stills from the media (eg. Website images of testicular cancer)

24. Impact of the media • We have become desensitised to the images presented in the media. Eg. Anna and her friends make light of the suffering the accident has caused. • There are many images of the news playing to an empty room – it is part of the backdrop to our lives but seems to lack an emotional impact. • Even when Meryl and Nick make love, it is interrupted with images of AIDS and unwanted pregnancies.