Tommy lee jones and Samuel L Jackson are heading towards the twilight of their years... the "Sunset" of their lives, if you will, both heading towards death. The Sunset *Limited* is Tommy lee jones putting a *limit* on that sunset -- through suicide.
Yes - I know thats what the train in the movie is called, but this is the deeper meaning.
bumpitty
shareWhen White (TLJ) says "I believe in the Sunset Limited", it's a double entendre.
One one level, he believes in the train, Sunset Limited, as his fate (by suicide). The train, to him, carries the empty vessels of commuters, who are numb to the world, but not yet as aware as he is. Instead of climbing on board the train, and enduring a 'numb and empty' life, he wishes to fall beneath it, to end his 'pointless' life, and give a wake-up call to the commuters. (He checks to make sure the station was empty of onlookers... the only witness' would be those on board the Sunset Limited).
On the other level, he believes that all good things come to an end (art, culture, music etc), as represented by a sunset. What Black (SLJ) proposes, through his religious beliefs, is "eternal life", or a life after death. This is essentially, an unlimited sunset, proposing an afterlife (or simply understood as 'more' life), which White does not believe in. He believes "in the sunset, limited." To him, death is the end, there is no hereafter.
So personally, I don't think that White was putting the 'limit' on the sunset via suicide. I think that it is a reference to two separate but equal arguments, for and against faith.
or at least, this was my base interpretation.
So what you're saying is that my interpretation unfairly favored White's point of view?
shareI'm not saying your interpretation is right or wrong, and I don't think it favors anyone's POV. I think the point I was probably trying to make is mainly about your mention of the suicide being the 'limit' White imposes on the sunset.
I was just saying that I (personally) don't think the suicide is the 'limit', I believe that the 'limited' is more directly related to White's notion that there is no afterlife. If there was, the 'sunset' would be unlimited. The 'limit' is a matter of faith, or in White's case, atheism.
mask or face: When we say the sun is setting on a person's life that means they are gradually growing old and eventually dying. It refers to the natural process of aging. As in the phrase "the sunset years".
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=the+sunset+years
I don't see how the afterlife or reincarnation is a continuation of that idea of a the natural aging process -- after you die, you wouldn't necessarily stay old (in heaven) or even remain in the same body.
If dying equals a kind of "sunset" as in the 'sun setting on one's life', wouldn't a suicide be hastening instead of limiting it?. There is an actual locomotive line from CA to FL called the Sunset Limited, maybe the movie's name is simply reflecting that.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are". Nin
thespar: the process of getting old and dying naturally is what i meant by sunset. suicide is putting a sudden limit on that.
shareI see what you mean. That would work much better if we had a couple of geriatrics in the movie though wouldn't it? Or maybe a couple of terminally ill people about to have their suns 'set' so to speak. Black and White seem just past their primes 50-60 ish.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are". Nin
thespear: Tommy lee jones is 65. avg life expectancy in the USA for males is 75
shareI was talking about the characters' ages, not the actors. Did either of the two characters look to you like they were on their 'death beds' or in 'God's waiting room'?
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are". Nin
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