"Listen."
The Fabelmans gave us an explanation, of sorts, as to why Spielberg is such a sentimentalist. He really, really can't help himself. So watching Disclosure Day, his first movie since Fabelmans, it felt like a social blank check in the economy of tact. Since we understand him now...we should just let him get away with it. Right? I mean, he has an excuse; No judgment, cash the check.
He really outdoes himself here.
This is gluttony akin to a Las Vegas bender. The ending is so naïve and out of touch that it breaks through to outright delusion. And of course I don't bristle at these ideas but the execution of them; Empathy Good. I'm a fan. Communication also great. But this is so focused on being shameless Wholesome-core Amblin Entertainment that even the villains feel ineffectual. Every time Colin Firth was on screen I was either smiling or chuckling. And not because he's delightfully wicked or pants-pissingly evil, but because he's just...limp. It's an almost comedically pathetic performance. So it makes the action feel benign and inert.
The only time I really felt anything was when Margaret has a panic attack on the train and Daniel helps her come down from it by placing her hand on piano strings. It's moving because, for the first time in this movie, Spielberg is actually confronting something head-on. But even that's undercut by the story making their trauma...useful? Thank God they have PTSD from being abducted as children, it's so beautiful now that it serves a purpose.
He doesn't even confront the parallels therein: this information about aliens has been hidden from us, we've been deceived, they've lied to us for 80 years. Yet the aliens do the same thing: use deception to experiment on beings unknown, particularly children who grow up scarred from the experience. But don't think about that! The aliens mean well and they're not scary. Their experiments grant magical powers that, once you work through your trauma, you can tap into.
All of this would be much more interesting if it was given complexity and nuance, if it was allowed the freedom to be jagged and messy. The idea of these videos making people stop in their tracks and a news anchor simply telling people to 'Listen' to one another is pure fucking lip service, a shortcut. I can clearly see the vision of a more challenging movie that wasn't so antiseptic but Spielberg commits the very sin his villains do: he hides the truth.
The Bone Temple actually does all of this right, almost word-for-word.
In 28 Years Later we're given an 'Other' that's not handled with kid gloves. The infected, particularly the Alphas, are fucking scary, but they're never dehumanized. In fact, Samson's arc in Bone Temple is about him getting back to his normal self and the grander implications therein. So we sympathize with the infected because we're shown that they're not zombies or monsters but just sick people. It's about the importance of grace, empathy, and patience. Though we're also never deluded into thinking they're not dangerous in this state.
Garland gives the movie a hopeful ending but one that comes with a healthy dose of skepticism. Despite Spike and Kellie being complete strangers to Jim and his daughter, watching them from on high through binoculars, they still decide to help them. The last exchange of the movie being
"Do we help them?"
"[...] Of course we do."
Jim has a pregnant pause but he nonetheless decides to do the selfless thing despite his limited perspective. This isn't just a set-up for a third movie or a fan-service cameo but it ties up the thematic follow-through of the entire movie.
In conversation with the bit in 28YL where Jamie tells Spike about how scared he was of Kelson as he waved him over, there are so many instances in this movie of people watching others from afar and making up their minds about them:
• Kellie sees Kelson and Samson from a hilltop and thinks they're the Devil and his demon in a Castle Of Bones, even convincing Jimmy and the gang of this
• The man in the barn, forced to take part in a duel with a Jimmy, picks Jemima because he perceives her as the weakest
• Conversely, Kelson recognizes Spike through his mask because he has clear vision
• The infected turn on Samson as he changes back just as the Jimmies turn on Jimmy as they're shown his true self
• Jimmy's entire perspective is literally turned upside-down and he's killed by a horned red-skinned Samson as he sees him in a hallucinogenic haze
• Most interestingly, we're finally given the infected POV which reveals that they see non-infected as snarling monsters that need to be killed. This isn't dissimilar from how people like Jamie, Erik, and the Jimmies see the infected as monsters that need to be killed
Jimmy had mentioned early on how each of the Teletubbies "have televisions in their tums" and that they'll "watch each other's televisions ad infinitum." This recalls the opening of the original 28 Days Later where the virus originated because of a bite by a chimp being forced to watch televisions showing barbarity; infected and non-infected alike, both sides killing each other ad infinitum because of what they perceive.
" 'cause in my mind it's always there, the evil face that twists my mind and brings me to despair."
When Kellie, finally disillusioned, asks Kelson if he's Old Nick, he says "No. Nothing is. No one is. It's just us." It encapsulates everything that Disclosure Day wanted to achieve but fell short of.
Kelson puts on the Iron Maiden show for Jimmy out of fear, of course, but Jimmy only opened up to him because Kelson was patient and empathetic enough to listen. Jimmy even says "I like talking to you" because, for the first time, he's actually feeling heard. The same applies to Kelson accidentally finding a cure: he decided to sedate Samson instead of simply killing him. Change is brought about because of grace and empathy.
Peace and respite are possible.
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