'Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful.
It’s the transition that’s troublesome'
Two brothers fighting in a war, the death of one leads to the other
losing his mind.
In the beginning of the film Marcus tattoos wings onto
Thomas’ back but lectures him saying “a drawing of little wings won’t make you
fly. You can’t fly.” Thomas disagrees but before the argument can get any
further there is an explosion nearby and the troop is ambushed. At the end of the fighting there is a long
shot showing that Thomas is the last one standing, separate from the rest on
them. He sits facing his brother Marcus who is the last man to fall.
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| Moments before Marcus dies, the two brothers sitting facing each other |
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| Marcus and Thomas lying side by side |
A powerful moment I found was when Thomas was carrying his
dead brother through a small stream in the forest. He falls down and after many attempts
of getting back up, he eventually just lies down beside his brother. When the
camera shows the two of them lying on the ground the audience can see the
likeness between them. They look like the same person. One dead, one alive. As
Thomas refuses to believe Marcus is dead, he shakes him, telling him to get up and walk,
trying to get him to talk.
Throughout the film we get the sense that something strange
is happening or going to happen. Thomas walks around gripping the pages that say
“the dead will be resurrected,” the day is coming, the day is coming. He buries
all the dead bodies except his brothers. There is always a kind of darkness around,
Thomas doesn’t know where he is going but he just keeps moving on, with his
brother over his shoulders. He
eventually comes back to the place the solders are buried and we see the graves
and crosses all dug up as if they didn’t want to go, they refuse to be buried if Marcus wasn't buried with them. The
bodies lie above ground looking unsettled with the flies buzzing around.
Marcus’ body lies among the rest and also has flies buzzing around, Thomas sees
this but still won’t accept that his brother is dead.
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| Thomas trying to fly |
The film has a very uncertain feeling about it especially at
the end when Thomas desperately tries to get Marcus to move. “I’m not asking
you to do anything impossible,” he says, telling a dead man to get up and walk.
“I can fly” he tries to make a bargain, if Thomas can fly then Marcus must get up
and walk. He runs and runs thinking he will take off into the sky. Eventually
he stops though, and in those last moments he realizes that he can’t, when he finally
gives into reality, his brother is dead and he is the last man standing, he
loses the fight. Somehow the dead Marcus stands up, with the army of the other
dead solders standing behind him, lifts a gun and shoots Thomas in the back. The
half drawn wings on his back look broken and are dripping with blood.
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| The army of dead solders standing on the other side of the river |
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| Thomas and his broken wings |
The film ends like this, both brothers dead and march to join the rest of the solders, harassed by flies, leaving the viewer with an uneasy feeling. A dead Marcus shoots his brother with a dead army watching from behind.
