SWISS ARMY MAN


US, 2016, 97 minutes, Colour,
Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
Directed by Daniels/ Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert.


Probably, a Swiss Army Man, with his Swiss Army Knife, might be ready for any difficult situation he finds himself in. But, probably not nearly as difficult as the situation Hank (Paul Dano) finds himself in, stranded on a remote island in the Pacific, despairing, the noose around his neck, his feet slipping and dangling… as he notices a body floating ashore.

Are we supposed to think about Robinson Crusoe, and wonder whether the stranded body will be a Man Friday? Are we supposed to supposed to remember Tom Hanks and his ball, Wilson, in Castaway? Given that the two writers and directors of this film have made some comedies with the touch of the absurd, it seems quite likely.

The dead man is Manny, giving Daniel Radcliffe extraordinary opportunity to play dead and, at various times, a living dead, though not a zombie. Hank is overjoyed at the possibility of a companion, even enjoying a jet-propelled excursion over the sea and back to the beach.

It is probably important to focus on the background of the jet-propelling. All the reviewers and, one presumes, all the viewers, will have something to say about Intestinal gases.They recur, and recur, and often noisily and prolonged, stomach rumblings and farting. In fact, they are a symbol or a sign of life. So, Manny seems to have some life in him even though he is expelling it.

Hank, in his excitement, carries Manny around the island, up the cliffs into a cave, propping him up, excited when Manny open is his eyes and begins to speak. As, Claude Rains says at the end of Casablanca, “this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship”! And, it is.

From these paragraphs, readers will note that there is a touch of realism and more than a touch of the surreal – with the screenplay moving into fantasy. And so the question of who is really dead and who is really alive? Depending on your psychological predilections, interpreting these events from a Jungian point of view or a Freudian point of view, it could be said that the interplay between the two characters is Hank having dialogue with Manny as his inner self.

Hank is on a quest, even though he admits that as he began to hang himself his life did not appear before his eyes. Rather, what he has needed is this interplay between Manny and himself, Manny having no memories of his own, Hank being persuaded to talk about himself, his parents, his growing up, his shyness, the image of Sarah on his mobile phone and his taking it surreptitiously in a bus. A sex magazine provides the occasion for discussions about sexuality, about male response, erections and masturbation.

In the interplay between the two, Hank enters into some kind of role-play where he tries to identify with Sarah and Manny responds, indicating some issues of sexual identity as well as of friendship.

For most of the film, it is a blend of comedy and drama, a two-hander. A number of other people do come into the film at the end, especially Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Sarah. But, by this stage, our imaginations have been exercised, making us wonder about locations and the island and a forest, the attack of a savage bear, Manny and his being considered dead, Hank’s father coming on the scene – as well as medics, police, and a television interviewer and camera crew.

On the one hand, a lot of the dialogue reminds us of our mundane human life. On the other hand, from death to life, this interior dialogue, touches on the existential themes of being human.

Needless to say, some audiences have walked out – while many others are putting it on their list of cult films.

1. A film breaking through expectations? The variety of responses? For many a cult film?

2. Writer-directors, their imagination, their portrayal of the fantasies, absurd, introspective, the touch of juvenilia, the existential, mundane? An exploration of the self?

3. The island, remote, the terrain, the beach, the sea, the cliffs and caves, the forests, the animals, the bear? The transition at the end of the film into the California suburbs?

4. The blend of the real and the surreal? The narrative as real, transition to magical realism? Transitions to fantasy, to the absurd, to Hank’s imagination? The personal journey? From strangeness to understanding?

5. The film’s reputation for the gas and wind episodes, humour, gasses as signs of life, public and private, Hank’s breaking wind publicly at the end as a sign of transition? Self-acceptance?

6. The film as earthy, the gas, food, issues of masturbation, erections – a humorous treatment, with serious implications? Hank’s explanations, Manny’s experience?

7. Paul Dano as Hank, his age, the back story, glimpsing him in the bus, his reserve, taking the photo of Sarah? Discovering the items, the amount of debris, his scrounging? No explanation of how it got there? The discussions about life coming before one’s eyes in death? The attempts to hang himself? Seeing Manny, Hank dropping, taking his belt and trying again – but getting up? Manny as a sign a life?

8. Manny dead, age, appearance, the gas experiences, Hank’s reaction, attempts to revive Manny? Going out to sea, the exhilaration of the ride? Coming back in, carrying him, falling, propping him up, trying conversations? The mountains and into the cave?

9. Psychological interpretation – and dialogue between Hank and his inner self? Manny as his alter ego? Jungian and Freudian interpretations? Who was alive, who was dead? And coming to life?

10. The interactions, the beginnings of friendship? Manny, his eyes, consciousness, stilted way of talking, the water coming from his mouth, and Hank drinking it? No memories? The issue of the phone, the image, the batteries – ultimate revelation that it belonged to Hank? Magazine, sex, fantasies, Manny aroused, not knowing what it meant? Hank, talk about masturbation, his father, his mother and her urging him to catch up – and her death? Hank and his deep longings?

11. Manny’s wanting to recover memories? Hank’s memories? His parents? The importance of the song, singing? The two and their playing together?

12. The role play, Hank and address, the flirting, sitting in the bus? Later kissing? Themes of love, friendship?

13. Hank wanting to be rescued, the accidents, the animals, eating the berries and being sick, the huge bear, the confrontation? The bite on the leg?

14. Manny, his capacity for spitting out and projecting, the arrow going to the height?

15. The effect on Hank, co-dependence? The forest, the car, the suburbs? In the backyard? The daughter, Sarah, the ;puzzle? The phone and her photo?

16. Manny dead, Paul’s father coming to identify the body? Unable to?

17. Hank, police, medicos, the TV host and the cameras? His explanation? Mannys’s body, going down the hill? The beach, breaking wind, the body out to sea?

18. Hank, alive or dead at the end?