Mythological Movie Recommendation: A Man Called Otto
Great stories are about more than the events that transpire around their protagonists. They are about the principles that reflect real-world human development. Those are the types of stories on film I wish to address here, as they have had an uncommonly strong effect on my development. I hope to help introduce these influential stories to people who haven’t seen them and wouldn’t be likely to ever watch them on their own. Though many of these are among the most popular and successful movies ever made, general audiences still often overlook their subtle profundity. Even movies that have already been analyzed to death can still be assessed through a different lens. Great art always leaves more to be revealed and gifts us more to learn from.
Thematic discussion only ahead. No spoilers.
A Man Called Otto is not the simple and endearing love story that Tom Hanks’ (i.e., “America’s dad”) performance as a lovable grump makes it appear to be. It unapologetically explores the masculine desire to exit an unfulfilling life. Here, suicidal tendencies are presented casually and unassumingly because they are framed through the story of a curmudgeonly widower missing his lost love. We cannot help but like Otto and understand the motivation behind his unsightly attempts at self-termination, no matter how ghastly his situation is.
The way we are commonly expected to think about suicidal individuals is that they are in an out-of-control, desperate, and (hopefully) fleeting emotional state. They cannot function normally. They are momentarily lacking self-awareness or the perspective to realize the obvious and accepted conclusion that killing oneself is always a bad idea. They just need to snap out of it and return to the normal perspective everyone around them so effortlessly embodies.
Grumpy old Otto does not conform to this stereotype. He is smart, practical, successful, mature, and genuinely helpful. He has lived a good life by his own assessment. He has found meaning to a degree that most people never do. But he is also now lacking the one crucial component that would make him want to stick around: a place to belong in the world, his doorway to experiencing all its beauty. The death of his wife has robbed him of the core component that allowed him to function at full capacity here. And so, all the positive benefits, the goodness he is capable of, just distort into a malaise of alienation from the world and judgment upon its inadequacies.
Otto’s story shows ordinary people who will never come close to experiencing it that, sometimes, the inclination to end life is not born out of desperation. Sometimes it can be calm, measured, and of sound mind. And that’s far more terrifying and lamentable. It’s much more unsettling to think that someone can just be walking around, having lived a full and fulfilled life, still living their life, and somehow be eager to leave it through gruesome means. It’s impossible for most minds to comprehend this state of functioning because it requires have totally integrated the dark and light sides of life. Perhaps they fear that if they ever let themselves wander too close to the abyss, they might consider stepping into it too. They lack the composure Otto has mastered.
Otto does not run from his darkness. He seamlessly flows between meeting people, eating lunch, fixing radiators, clipping coupons, and attempting to hang himself. And perhaps it is because he does not conform to the stereotypes of desperate suicidality that no one close to him, even the people who interact with him daily, seems to realize how much he is suffering and the acts of which he is capable. It’s simply beyond their worldview and remains invisible to them right beneath their noses.
Sometimes, a man has too much to offer and no connection to the world. Sometimes, he is only underutilized potential. It is through the context of people he cares about that his perspective and skills gain subjective value to him. Otto’s is a life surrounded by color that he intellectually understands but that he cannot see or directly experience anymore. Though he finds some minor sense of purpose in solving problems he knows only he can, none of that means much until he regains a sense of connection to the world and a place to belong in it. Like every man, he requires a special witness to his virtue. It matters to him only when it matters to her.
The hardest part of experiencing Otto’s story will be attempting to truly empathize with his position, not merely observing and understanding it. It’s easy for any of us to imagine how we might react upon losing the person we love most in the world. But unless we are of a similar temperament to Otto, we cannot picture wanting to calmly kill ourselves as he does. And unless we can see the world through Otto’s eyes, we will have a difficult time ever reaching out and helping him connect again, no matter how much we want to.
