This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Welcome to the Jungle
Plot Overview
Bad
boy Beck “grew up a in a very rough place;” when he was
pushed he pushed back. He came to the attention of the big boys in
Chicago who hired him as a debt collector. The movie opens with
Beck (Dwayne Johnson) confronting the entire L.A. Lakers offensive line in a nightclub
over a debt of $50K one of them owes; he'll want his ring for
collateral. When his boss Billy Walker (William Lucking)
manipulates Beck's vig, he tells him he wants out in order to start
a modest Italian restaurant. Billy will let him off the hook and
finance the restaurant once he does one last job for him: return
his recalcitrant son Travis (Seann William Scott) from the Amazon
rain forest where he went in search of treasure after dropping out
of two semesters of Stanford.
The whole
town of El Dorado with its adjacent mine and surrounding jungle is
owned by ruthless entrepreneur Cornelius Hatcher
(Christopher Walken) who rents Travis a room in his hotel and
contracts for 50% of whatever he finds. He thinks he knows the
whereabouts of O Gato do Diabo (The Cat of the Devil) a priceless
ancient gold artefact, but he needs to borrow a boat to retrieve
it. Local barmaid Mariana (Rosario Dawson) will loan him her
uncle's boat for 50% of his black market take. We don't think all
three of them are going to end up happy here. Beck just wants to
complete his job, but as Mariana is “barmaid by day, rebel
leader by night” the whole jungle is a hot zone. Mariana
needs the bauble to buy the slaving Indians hope in the form of
clothing, shelter, land, grain, and tools. Their sorry lot is
reminiscent of J.G. Farrell's Troubles:
Down
below, by the club-house steps, four late arrivals were preparing
to set out for the first tee, the breeze ballooning their plus-fours
as they waited. There would still be time this evening for
nine holes, or eighteen if one was not too particular about the fading light.
As they moved away from the club-house a great number of ragged men
and boys materialized around them raising a piercing, pitiful
clamour. Some of these tattered figures were so old and bent that
they could scarcely hobble forward to press their claims, others
mere boys who were scarcely bigger than the golf-bags they were
hoping to carry. The golfers looked them over and made their
selection. Those who had been rejected retired disconsolately to
the shadows where they had been lurking. There was little hope now
that another party would set out that evening.
The Major sighed, stretched, yawned and presently went home,
disturbed that old men and children should have to hang around the
club-house until late night in the hope of earning a sixpence. He
thought: ‘Really, something should be done about
it.’ But what could one do? (174)
Ideology
Black Laker Brian had come up short
on some of his wagers for which Beck had come to collect. He at
first thinks he's there for advice or an autograph, but when
it dawns on him he wants his ring, well, that just ain't gonna
happen, at least not willingly, not even when he offers to pass it
to him under the table, “down low, down low,” so as not
to embarrass him. The title of this movie derives from words in a
rap song, “Run That” by Mark Ronson & Che Smith,
which also includes the line, “Some people love me, but a lot
of niggers hate me more.” It has to do with
“niggers” receiving their comeuppance and trying to
avoid embarrassment.
The sub rosa
message is accomplished through reference to Santa, with his
naughty & nice list here represented by Beck's Option A (the
easy way) and Option B (the hard way,) and by baboons establishing
male dominance through humping captive explorers while they try to
avoid male embarrassment having to pee with their hands
in cuffs and trying to avoid penis-entering fish in the river.
Let's look at Noah as a type of Santa
Claus. Consider Santa provisioning his sleigh with gifts
manufactured by elves at the North Pole. Let's compare Santa's
sleigh with Noah's ark. Researcher Mark DeWayne Combs working from
Genesis and ancient
sources tells us, “we can reasonably propose accurate
proportions of the ark to be 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51
feet in height” (27.) That would dwarf the people working on
it making them look like elves. Furthermore, “Christ
himself referenced the flood (Matthew 24:36-39) … that those
outside of Noah's immediate family ‘knew not until
the flood came and took them all away.’ … This
brings a detail that would impact the choice of location —
the absolute necessity of isolation” (Combs 52). In our
modern Santa myth, the elves' construction takes place at the
supremely isolated North Pole.
Santa's sleigh is pulled by eight
reindeer harnessed in pairs. Noah's ark was filled with pairs of
exotic animals. (Gen. 7:17)
“And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters
increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the
earth.” Santa's sleigh also flies up above the earth. The ark
landed on (Gen. 8:5) “the
tops of the mountains”, the roof of the world. The sleigh
lands on the rooftops, too.
Next, Santa comes down the
chimney to take care of the families on his route. Noah himself
collapsed in a drunken heap to deal with the families in turn.
(Gen. 9:18-19) “And the
sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and
Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons
of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” At
this point he's to take care of all his three children and the
grandkids, and so cover all the children in the world, not
violating any laws of physics.
Here's what happened. (Gen. 9:20-23) “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.” The song, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” tells us, “He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty or nice.” Ham was naughty in the same way as Rick was disresptful of Beck, throwing liquor in his face, or the monkeys humping the men.
Noah sorts out his gifts according to his naughty and nice lists. (Gen. 9:24-27) “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” Shem and his brother Japheth were a nice pair as were Ham and his son Canaan a naughty pair. The blessings come down through the generations by means of what we call the Christmas spirit, and so do the warnings at least, here suggested in a movie.
More
germane to modern times is perhaps the lineage of Cush. Cush was
also a son of Ham (Gen. 10:6),
settling in Africa. Cush is Hebrew meaning black. Researcher Bodie
Hodge confirms that “As a general trend, Ham is the father of
many peoples in Africa” (122). Dr. Ide adds, “Ham sired four
sons: Cush (translates as ‘black’) … and Canaan
the youngest” (62).
Hodge holds forth that:
“Generally, from the Middle East in the land of Shinar
(modern-day Iraq, where Babel was), Japheth's descendants went
north toward Europe and Asia, Ham's went toward Africa, and Shem's
remained in the Middle East” (183). Those of European descent
in this movie and for our purposes can be taken to be the (blessed)
descendants of Japheth. So are the “barefoot
Indians” as “James Anderson points out that the Amazons
of Europe and Asia are descendants of Magog (Scythians), and
interestingly we have Amazon tribes in South America” (Hodge
185). The bush pilot Declan (Ewen Bremner) is Jewish seen from his
castigating Hatcher for having “wandered too far from the
word of God” and for his circumcised airplane (“Is that
duct tape?”) As such he would be Semitic, descended from
Shem. That leaves nigger Rick, from Ham, coughing up reparations
for the others.
Production Values
“” (2003) was directed by Peter Berg. It was written by R.J. Stewart and James Vanderbilt. It stars Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott and Christopher Walken. Walken is one cocky wacky bad guy. Seann William Scott and The Rock have superb antagonistic comedic chemistry. Ewen Bremner as the strongly accented bush pilot was cool.
MPA rated it PG–13 for adventure violence and some crude dialogue. The movie excels in action and combat. The plot though unrealistic is easy enough to follow. Runtime is 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
The pilot warns of God's judgment, The Rock has a cross tattoo on his arm, and the adobe church has three exterior crosses. This is not enough to make it a faith-based movie, so no worries.
Though it's a silly and derivative movie, the action won't disappoint and the lead did many of his own stunts, ouch! Recommended for action/adventure aficionados.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Edge of your seat action-packed. Suitability for Children: Suitable for children 13+ years with guidance. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Good for Groups. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three and a half stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Combs, Mark DeWayne. End the Beginning. USA: Splinter in the Mind's Eye Pub., 2014. Print.
Drunken Noah scene depicted in a Civil War vintage woodcut, made after a drawing by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (German painter, 1794–1872) from his archive, published in 1877, and more recently by iStock.com/Getty Images. Used under license.
Farrell, J.G. Troubles. © 1970 by J.G. Farrell. London: Jonathan Cape, 1970, 1983. Print.
Hodge, Bodie. Tower of Babel: The Cultural History of Our Ancestors. Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Pub., 2013. Print.
Ide, Arthur Frederick. Noah & the Ark: The Influence of Sex, Homophobia and Heterosexism in the Flood Story and its Writing. Las Colinas: Monument Press, 1992. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org