Erwin-Northfork

The film’s lack of a strong narrative made the film a little hard to follow; however, I do have to agree with some of the other bloggers in that it did provide a feeling of a dreamlike state. In dreams, things don’t always play out in order nor do they seem to follow any set pattern and the same goes for the movie, however, the overall philosophical undertones are pretty well seen. The notions of death play a heavy role. Irwin is dying, which may symbolize the death of the town which is being forced to evacuate. Like Irwin, there are a few residences that are still struggling to hold onto what they have. While his death seems to be long and painful, upon his death he seems free of his pain and the film provides evidence to suggest that at the moment of death a new journey will emerge. At the beginning of class, Dr. Redick made mention of angels and how the men in the movie are portraying angels in a different light. Yet it seemed to me that they weren’t angels at all, however, the wings on their jackets and the feathers in their hates do bring about a sort of curiosity at their true nature.
They seem to be evacuators of the town, which is something everyone may agree too; however, they seem to be susceptible to the same flaws as regular humans. Such examples include their obsession with their cars and their desire for their reward for evacuating a certain number of citizens from the town. Father Harlan seems to be more angel than those who are supposed to be portraying angles. He is caring and unwilling to leave Irwin behind even with the onset of the flood, which of course can be said to portray the Flood from biblical times. He even addresses some of the “angels” by name who in turn appear to hang their head in shame or are unable to look at him for some other reason.
A last note of interest is the end of the film where O’Brian senior and his son are attempting to evacuate the last people on their list that would allow them to gain their reward of land. At this point the events that Irwin seems to take a large part in appear to be fantasies that may be contributed to his deteriorating condition. However, snow appears in the middle of the house in which the O’Brians are searching which seems to be the doing of Irwin. This raises the question of Irwin’s nature, is he a former angel finding his way home upon his death or is it someother supernatural event at play?