HARDWARE through a political eye
Im a fan of this film, and have seen it many, many times. But i decided to watch it a few days ago after not watching it in years. It just so happened that i was watching the Ronald Reagan funeral stuff on TV (here in the states) and just suddenly felt compelled to through in HARDWARE, and while watching it, i saw the film in a completely different way.
Ive been through all the basic symbolism , and of course the religious aspects, but i never really picked up on the political angle until now. My theory is still fresh, but the basic idea here is that the MARK13 actually represents the Christian supporting country of America, and the other characters as parts of the overall machine.
The MARK 13 is obvious, Jill paints a nice big American flag on its head (duh, how did i miss this?) and she uses it in a piece that includes burned up dolls (destruction of youth/innocence) and is a big ball of twisted metal. The MARK 13 is a killing machine that will dominate anything alive and is also a religious Christian device.
Jill and Mo seem to represent the 2 sides of the American government, Democrat and Republican. Jill is an artist, a liberal, and she is on welfare. And Moses (obvious religious) is a solider, a grunt, working for the Christian machine. He argues with Jill, telling her "where do u think your welfare checks come from.." like most republicans, bitching about their money, taxes, and helping others. He is also all about "survival of the fittest". a very republican "rich get richer" attitude. Jill says the art is not for him, not for anyone... she is also a "dope" smoker, she is independent and works outside of the system. (im not totally sure if she is a democrat, but certainly a liberal, and mo is for sure conservative). But there is more.
Mo is "divinely" protected, asserting his christian beliefs. Jill is meditating in the beginning, and given her attitudes, probably not christian. Shades is also in a meditative/spiritual state when he drops acid or whatever it is he does. Both characters are showing a clear spiritual side that is not christian. And what happens at the end? Well, both non-christian characters live, and the American-Christian killing machine is destroyed and takes Mo down with it. Mo is ignorant to the power of the machine and it kills him in the process, this is basically a symbol for the pro-christian american machine destroying all in its path, even its own supporters.
Im i totally off base? i dont think so, there is clear evidence here that there are some serious political implecations. Even small remarks, like Lemmy talking of the state of the world, the clear "nazistic" images constantly on the TV, that imply political power, racism, torture and murder. Is this a knock against america? Against Christendom? Maybe - maybe not, but its damn interesting. The film was released in 1990, so filmed in 89 and probably written before that. I wonder if any (or many) historical event in the late 80s influenced these ideas for Richard Stanley. I will dig around and see what else can be found out.
Has anyone one else watched this film this many times to catch this stuff? (and I should probably thank you for taking the time to read all this :) My theory is still fresh, so i would love to hear some other comments, as im not fully sure of the "big picture" yet.