Shack seems to be consumed with anger & hate. A#1 doesn't like Shack but he doesn't seem to hate him. Has anyone read the novel? Is there history between Shack and A#1? I know Shack says at one point the he hasn't met A#1 yet. I just can't believe he could be so full of hate for someone he doesn't know.
share[deleted]
There is no novel by the name Emperor of the North Pole but Jack London penned The Road - tales based on his own youthful exploits. The screenwriter used the book as a foundation but The Road isn't credited by the film producers.
As to why Shack is the way he is? The film gives no explanation.
Shack's basically a walking metaphor, I don't think he was intended to have much depth to him, other than raging contempt. I love the scene where he appears out of the dark like a grinning tiger behind the hobos. Can't recall the context, but it stuck in my memory.
shareThe guy doesn't like 'Bos.
shareRemember that a popular interpretation of the film is that it's a metaphor for the "old guard establishment" versus the anti-establishment sentiments of the later 60s and early 70s, including disagreements about the Vietnam War. Under that interpretation, Shack is something of a caricature of the stubborn old guard establishment.
http://www.rateyourmusic.com/~JrnlofEddieDeezenStudies
The shack hates boes, that's all. He doesn't even let that first bo who gets chopped in half finish his sandwich. Looked to me like balogna and mustard on a sub roll, um-ummm.
shareHe is an a-hole. He has no symphathy for the hobo's riding the rails, but with one decision by his bosses and his horrible attitude he could be one himself. It is important to remember that the difference between having a job and not is not so much sometimes. I kept hoping that chain he was swinging between the cars would get caught and suck him under the wheels and chop him in half!
shareShack is so angry because he was an Extra Board Conductor and wasn't planning on working that day. But the guy ahead of him laid off at the last minute and Shack got called to work right as he was living the house to take his kids to the zoo. So instead of going to the zoo, he ended up having to work a train. That will make anybody angry.
"Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy!"
He is angry because he hates slackers.
It's that man again!!