Now this itrigued me - Michael and Irma both seem to have identical head wounds after being found on the rock....?
So whatever happened to them it was "physical" enough to leave a scar...
Yes, both after going unconscious by whatever was controlling the situation.
"Klaatu barada nikto"
It's one of the more tantalising mysteries within the movie and it's barely even referenced. Love it.
Of course, a simple explanation is when they become drowsy, they slump to the ground and graze their heads.
It may be a clue as to what happened. Perhaps they were hit by loose rocks from a recent landslide that trapped the girls and Mrs McCraw?
"Consumed fifteen doughnuts today, Diane. All jelly. I'll be injecting my insulin in four minutes."
In exactly the same way in exactly the same spot? Besides, the last time we saw them, when they got drowsy they lay down quite gracefully...
sharethe last time we saw them, when they got drowsy they lay down quite gracefully...
We can see Michael's head wound appear instantly, though, while he's lying on the ground face up. He doesn't move, but suddenly there it is. It happens just as the series of voiceovers culminates in Edith's scream.
In fact, I noticed something odd about the head wound... on my DVD copy, a black dot appears for a second on Michael's forehead (possibly appearing on the film itself - that's how it looks), almost exactly but not quite in the spot of the head wound - then it vanishes. Shortly thereafter, his actual head wound appears for good.
The black dot appears during Miranda's voice over, like this: '...at exactly the right time [black spot appears & vanishes] and place.' Approximately 5 seconds go by between the black dot and the actual head wound's appearance. Interesting that it appears right at the word 'time' given the emphasis on time, clocks, watches, etc. in the film.
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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.
I'll have a look at this over the next week. I've never actually noticed that Michael's wound mysteriously appears after we first see him coming out of his "sleep".
shareActually I don't think I noticed it either, till I saw it mentioned on these boards - then I went back and watched it closely and came to believe the sudden appearance of the wound was accurate, which giving the film another tilt towards the supernatural for me.
And somehow, before a day ago, I never noticed this prefiguring black dot that appears 5 seconds before the wound leaps onto Michael's head!
I haven't seen anyone discussing the black dot before. Could it possibly have been put there to direct the viewers' eyes to his head, so they didn't miss the sudden wound appearance...?
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I don't come from hell. I came from the forest.
I've had a look at it now.
First of all, the dot is definitely from the film itself. It's on the DVD, but has been cleaned up for the blu-ray. You can still make out perhaps the faint outline of the dot on the blu-ray, but it is no longer pronounced at all.
For convenience, I took snapshots of the dot and another at the first moment we see Michael's wound, both from the DVD. I'll tell you what though, capturing the dot wasn't easy. You really do have to press pause at exactly the right time and place. To say it's fleeting would be an understatement.
The dot:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2r2r9eu.jpg
The wound:
http://i53.tinypic.com/2e0nuxh.jpg
As you can see, the dot is a little lower on Michael's head than the wound is. The dot is pretty much on his eyebrow. They are very much shaped the same, albeit turned 90 degrees from eachother.
It's a curious coincidence, and a very astute pickup, midnight_muse.
Thanks so much for capturing those pictures, Tha_ej!
(In Miranda's soft voice): Everything begins...and ends...at exactly the right...time...and place...including this black dot.
As you can see, the dot is a little lower on Michael's head than the wound is.
Isn't that one of the chakras? They received knowledge from another world/time. They are enlightened. Yet they are damaged because they were not ready for it, unlike Miranda and the girl with the glasses.
They also reminded me of a lobotomy scar. . .
I think louisecolette has hit the nail on the head (pardon the pun). I've been doing some research into this and here are my findings.
The mark is similar to a 'bindi' the dot which people mostly from south asia wear on their head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bindi_(decoration)
The area between the eyebrows "is said to be the sixth chakra, ajna, the seat of "concealed wisdom"". "The bindi is said to retain energy and strengthen concentration".
It is the third eye, the invisible eye which provides perception beyond ordinary sight.
This area is also the exit point of kundalini energy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kundalini. What Michael and Irma had experienced was Kundalini Awakening, where through meditation (when they were sleeping maybe?) the kundalini energy finally reaches the head producing a profound mystical experience; enlightenment. Notice just before the mark appears on Michael's head he can hear Miranda's speech on "Everything begins and ends...".
But why were Michael and Irma left behind? Miranda, Marion and Miss McCraw demonstrated wisdom, an understanding of nature and respect for the world we live in. Hanging Rock is millions of years old, it is older than humankind, and will go on to outlive us. It has seen far more things than we have ever seen. It has absorbed millions of years of wisdom and energy. I think the 3 who disappeared were simply absorbed by the rock, to be eternally part of this earth. Michael and Irma were rejected, they did not possess the wisdom required to enter the next stage, but were nevertheless enlightened by the likes of Miranda.
I think that makes sense. It may not be about conventional wisdom, simply whether you are what the rock requires. Perhaps if you have human concerns, needs or uncertainty, then you are not required. Michael is intelligent, caring, thoughtful and deep but computer still says no. So as the other poster said, maybe he wasn't ready. Personally I think he was ultimately unwilling to leave Bertie and the mortal world but that's just my theory.
Bertie is another example of someone not particularly book smart, and who isn't much enlightened, the rock has no impact on him and neither is he remotely interested in becoming one with the universe, at least not at this point, bless him. Edith isn't obviously tuned into her surroundings and although Irma is ethereal and bright, she also made it back. There are a few other seemingly book smart types in the group as well as Mademoiselle who certainly understood the finer elements of the world but she felt no compulsion to go when she could have.
So yeah, it could be that the rock was looking for certain qualities that some possessed and others didn't quite have, or have at all.
That's a theory, the 2 girls and McCraw are more intellectual than down to earth.
But Marion and McCraw arent sympathethic characters. I found them more annoying, than wisdom. They have no empathy to the other mortals.
I cannot understand McCraw dissapearence, and not Mme.
Any thougth