hey wisecrack Jared again and today we're talking about one of the best
superhero movies in years Logan Logan is radically different from other superhero
movies and especially other x-men movies that's because well it's not really a
superhero movie at all this fresh approach to the franchise puts forward a
surprising message about the world's relationship to nature and even a meta
commentary on the Marvel Cinematic Universe that you might have missed
welcome to this wise crack edition on the philosophy of Logan and you guessed
it spoilers ahead but first a quick recap Logan is the heart-tugging tail of
Wolverine Charles Xavier and their refugee kid Laura evading cyborg child
predators out to weaponize mutantcy it takes place in a future where mutants
have become nearly extinct and Logan drives an uber to save enough money to
escape from the law with Charles before we can dive into the philosophy we have
to understand what the movie is it's a Western and not just because it's sandy
and takes place in you know the West according to sociologist Will Write in
his book six guns in society the classic Western follows a pretty standard
structure our hero often a man from the wild enters a social group gets dragged
into a conflict to protect his new civilized friends before finally saving
the day and usually becoming a part of this new group to grasp Logan's Western
roots pay attention to be from the wild part. when I found you, you were pursuing a career
as a cage fighter. I gave you a family. throughout all the x-men movies both
good and so bad we're reminded of Wolverines
animal nature people don't change, Wolverine. You were an animal then you're an animal now I
just gave you claws. Logan doesn't really find a new group of friends but
finds a family with Laura and Charles and later with the other transigen kids
the film makes a point to juxtapose the civilized love of his friends with his
innate wild nature there's Logan violence his resilience to pick up Laura
in the first place not available call a cab is swearing out of my car and we
even get some distinctly animal-like noises while Logan is sleeping
as an ode to all this we see Charles and Laura watching a classic Western in
their hotel room Shane in the film our gun-slinging hero Shane emerges from the
wild makes friends with some homesteaders and staves them from a
cattle baron shane realizes his violent ways have no place in society and rides
back into the woods perhaps to die depending on who you ask
replace homesteaders with family and cattle baron with mega-corporations and
you've got Logan in a nutshell a very deliberate nutshell but as much as Logan
is a Western like Shane it's also a post Western in the tradition of movies like
Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven a post Western discards be tired black and
white binaries between good and evil it explores what happens when these men of
the Wild West return to a drastically different world one that has moved past
them they are in short about living in the end of an era Charles the world not
the same as it was just as I post Western might feature a Cowboys violent nature
as a relic of the pre-industrial era you want to come along
it ain't like it used to be but it'll do Logan features Wolverine as a relic from the
age of mutants he liked a post Western hero has to grapple with what it means
to be living in a new world a world where mutants are nearly extinct the
only evidence of Logan's former world is an x-men comic book with that in mind
we can start to understand what Logan is trying to say about nature all we need
is a little help from a 500 year old English legal practice seriously let me
explain nature as a theme is everywhere in Logan
Charles tends to a garden Logan wants to escape the world and live on the open
seas and Charles compares Laura to wildlife. And by the way Laura's foot
claws are the obvious result of her gender, ya know? Is that a fact? nature is also juxtaposed
with technology natural mutants are set up against cyborgs twice were reminded
that Laura isn't natural she's not a natural f*ck up like you. she's a business
mistake R&D gone bad. unlike you she isn't pure she wasn't made by nature
the family farm is pinned up against a giant agricultural company pumping corn
syrup into our body and Charles laments being pharmaceutically castrated by all
the drugs he's taking I guess you'd prefer me pharmaceutically castrated rambling
on like a lunatic and Logan a natural mutant is being killed by his artificial
adamantium skeleton there's a specific historical development that embodies the
struggle and can teach us a bit about how our world and Logan's works
it's called enclosure enclosure was an English practice of taking communal land
free for anyone's use and enclosing it into private farms cutting it off from
the public the underlying logic is take something opened unpredictable imperfect
and uncontrollable and order it with rules and laws to the detriment of the
public in the West vast open swaths of land were free for animals to graze in
before the advent of barbed wire encouraged farmers to fence them in to
the detriment of these free spaces enclosure not only motivates the
conflict in Shane didn't expect to find any fences around here but all the
themes in Logan seem designed to reflect it too in Shane a group of homesteaders
Duke it out with the cattle Baron's to see who has the right to order the wet
that's Riker's spread all that over there. Thinks the whole world belongs to him
whether that order is for everyday people God didn't make all this country
just for one man like Riker or for the cattle Baron's moneyed interest in Logan
the Munson's Duke it out with transigen over this same issue of land a
conversation about eminent domain becomes very enclosuresque as public water
becomes unavailable to the Munsons when we wouldn't sell they tried eminent
domain, been screwing with our water. And Logan yearns to be on the open ocean a place
free of borders and the creeping encroachment of corporate enclosure but
this focus on enclosure takes on another meaning as Logan and Charles Duke it out
with transitigen to see who has the right to order the future of mutantcy say
conflicts of enclosure are not necessarily of open space but of well
everything as writer Raoul Martinez notes enclosure has moved beyond territories
extending the reach of markets into every corner of our lives in what some
have dubbed an enclosure of the mind intellectual
property rights are being extended to include facets of life that were once
considered uncommodifiable algorithms symbols words ideas seeds and even human
genes in other words if pythagoras were alive today somebody would have patented
his theorem and created some kind of triangle based startup ideas which once
freely contributed to society are patents and commodities to be traded
gene sequences freely available in nature are becoming the intellectual
property of pharmaceutical companies transigen has turned the genetic
information of Wolverine and countless other mutants into patents and R&D
projects they can't have things with patents running around hurting people, can they? it's
not just like companies are making a profit off someone else's gene the core
logic of enclosure is turn any semblance of the Commons which is unmanageable and
potentially dangerous and turn it into something manageable the goal was not
to end mutant-kind, but to control it. when it comes to the enclosure of genetic
material the naturally occurring version becomes a liability to the corporate
interest seeking to profit off their own artificial version random mutantcy went
the way of Polio. We embarked on our next endeavor. Growing
mutants of your own. Precisely. hence the Wild West of
naturally-occurring mutants must end just as Shane marks the end of the
lawless open land logan marks the end of organic mutantcy. mutant powers are fine so
long as they are in the hands of a corporation that allegedly has
everything under control meanwhile events like Charles seizures
become proof that natural mutantcy is dangerous and uncontrollable I'm so sorry
enclosure creates a world where safe and business-friendly are walled off
from the unwieldy wild and anything outside these borders must slowly be
incorporated into it the logic of borders both real and metaphorical are not lost
on Logan the beginning of the film shows Logan navigating between the United
States and Mexico the border operates to let American businessman and partygoers
in and out in the service of business while presumably keeping everything else
out the films ending when Laura and her friends escape to Canada doesn't give us
a physical border but the open expanses of the Canadian wilderness this creeping
control of business into all aspects of life frames Logan's eternal struggle a
man who drives around people for money Logan only initially risks his life for
Laura for a fat stack of cash meanwhile Charles serves as a counterpoint all of
that gardening stuff becomes a compelling metaphor for Logan Charles
nurtures people out of compassion and encourages Logan to care for Laura
regardless of money. She's your daughter Logan. This nurturing attitude is juxtaposed with
Pierce who reminds Caliban I got a theory that people don't really change. and dr. Rice who
prefers artificial design over nature. you can't nurture rage simply design it
from scratch the real battle for Laura is a battle for her soul will she be like
Logan a man who can't break the mold or can she avoid his mistakes by living
with a nurturing family Logan eventually seems to side with Charles opting to
refuse the money from Laura and give up his life
Logan's nemesis x24 is a soulless version of himself a compelling reminder
of what he could have been a mindless mercenary at the beck and call of his
corporate masters In the final showdown with the Reavers
we get a real Captain Planet moment when all the kids use elemental forces ice
electricity and grass to kill a reaver Laura gives a eulogy for the fallen
Logan reciting the words from Shane how you run up home to your mother tell her
everything's alright ain't no more guns in the valley you run on home to your mother and tell
her tell her everything's alright there aren't any more guns in the valley in Shane these
words justify his retreat back into nature while his violent ways saved the
homesteaders they can never exist alongside the town they hope to build
devoid of violence Shane can't break the mold and neither can Logan. Man has to
be what it is Joey, can't break the mold. can't break the mold.
Laura's words remind us that Logan's violence was incompatible with the
future Charles had hoped for Laura but his violence also enabled them to
build that better future free from violence and the interference of people
like transitigen it's the end of an era for the x-men and Logan's sacrifice
established a new world for his daughter so while Logan shows a triumph over the
logic of enclosure what if this also served to be a sly commentary on the
state of comic book movies let's not forget that westerns were Hollywood's
bread-and-butter for many years similar to how superhero movies are today if we
want to reframe nature versus business to artistry versus business the struggle
of Logan as a character reflects the battle over the soul of Wolverine in the
ruthless profiteering world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they're
pissing contest with Fox who owns the x-men rights nothing is sacred Marvel
allegedly canceled Fantastic Four comics to deprive Fox of source material Fox
will sue the hell out of Marvel if any of their movies dare say the word
mutants and entire movies are made just to that Fox Sony or Marvel can retain
the rights to certain franchise and should the x-men ever get reacquired by
the MCU it would have to fit the mold so to speak and adhere to whatever tonal
stylistic choices Marvel executives have made while adapting itself to play nice
where they're decided on continuity all for the sake of ticket sales in a
sense the freely interpretable source material
the x-men would be enclosed by the MCU and maybe that's why Hugh Jackman's
Wolverine really had to die to stop Fox or Marvel or anyone else from getting
their grubby little hands on what may be one of the best depictions of a
superhero ever made thanks a lot for watching wisecrack. Peace. Hey wisecrack thanks
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