Alvin had a sense of serenity and wisdom to him that seemed to generate from his grasp of what time is about, what it is worth and has the power to accomplish. It's as though the elderly have seen and wrangled with enough of it to make peace with its reality. He can take several weeks to make an excruciatingly slow trip to see his brother -- their falling out has lasted 10 years, and he needn't rush over in a day's time to set things right. (I even like to think he was on a sort of quest or pilgrimage, paying some kind of slow penance to atone for his short temper at the time of their fight).
With the cyclists, he can acknowledge missing the vitality and mobility he took for granted in his youth, now that he's left to long days of remembering them.
Best of all, he knows that 10 years will wash away a bitter grudge between brothers. One of the best parts of all is that we never learn what exactly their disagreement was about; they both have a proper appreciation of the magnitude of that 10 years, and that it can sweep away all the bitterness and bad blood. All of the insignificant stuff they don't need to take with them.
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Nice post. This is sort of what I had in mind in my first comment when I said the pace of the movie was integral to its meaning; only you've said it so much better!
Alvin said he had to do the journey his way. Clearly it's not about getting there quickly, or he wouldn't have turned down the car-ride offer. And he said he didn't like people driving his bus. He wasn't just trying to get from point A to point B in the straightest, quickest line. The journey was about reflection.
I also had the sense that hastiness, that acting without thinking is what maybe got him into a few jams in life, so becoming more deliberate in his thoughts and actions was more important to him now.
I'm glad Lynch plotted the movie in this disciplined way. It could have so easily degenerated into a calvacade of quirkiness — with Alvin meeting up with one freakshow after another (I thought the deer lady verged on that — the implausability of one hysterical person hitting that many deer ... maybe that's an argument for the fire theory), but instead he looked for the quiet depths in run-of-the-mill people.
And I really liked the nature of Alvin's stubborness. It was part of his deliberation, his determination. It was realistic. He knew that he was an old man and relatively helpless in ways and that he had to rely on the kindness of others to a great extent. He knew what he could do on his own and he knew what he needed help with, and I think that was a real strength in his character.
"I also had the sense that hastiness, that acting without thinking is what maybe got him into a few jams in life, so becoming more deliberate in his thoughts and actions was more important to him now."
Good point, kc. It was in keeping with his character to do it that way.
When he first started his trip and his hat blew off, I remember thinking, it's going to take him 10 minutes to climb off that mower and go get his hat and climb back on. And I started thinking about how it takes old people much longer to do everything and there's nothing they can do about it. And I thought it must be frustrating, but also sort of nice not to have to worry about hurrying, because you simply can't.
Well said, Erin.
I had the same impression when his hat blew off — a sense of how piddly inconveniences to younger, able-bodied people are major time-consumers for the elderly. The effort of retrieving the hat underlined the immense effort of the journey itself.
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