As humans, we are bad at confronting the parts of ourselves that we don’t like – especially if those parts are particularly ugly. To cope, we do one of two things. Number one: we tell ourselves stories that make us feel better about who we are and what we’ve done. Number two: when we can’t seem to trick ourselves, we resort to complete denial and silence.
The End is painstakingly aware of our tendencies, and wants to show us what a house of cards we’ve created for ourselves. It stars Tilda Swinton (Mom), Michael Shannon (Dad), and George MacKay (Son) as a wealthy family who have survived twenty-five post-apocalyptic years in an underground bunker. This was possible due to a great deal of wealth accumulated through Dad’s career as an oil tycoon (or rather, leader in the energy sector, see number one above).
The balance of the family is upset when a Girl (played by Moses Ingram) shows up outside the bunker unexpectedly – the first time anyone has found them in quite some time. After some argument, they decide to let her in, and the shake-up resurfaces old wounds. Lies they’ve told each other collapse under the slightest scrutiny, and silences turn into conversations again.
It doesn’t take much for the guilt to simmer to the surface. The Girl doesn’t really probe and prod, or try to turn the family members on each other – she simply voices her own pain and guilt at leaving the rest of her family behind. In context she is an easy character to forgive, having survived in a post-apocalyptic world and made an impossible choice.
Mom and Dad are much less sympathetic – though they would like to be seen as such. First, you have Dad’s career involvement in an industry that ostensibly caused a climate disaster that wiped out the world’s population. Besides that Mom and Dad have also abandoned everyone but a few to die – the only people they brought are those who could make their lives easier. And they did so at a time where the threat to their lives was not so immediate. So they see the Girl’s guilt as a threat – if what she did was wrong, their actions are truly unforgivable.
I have not yet mentioned that The End is a musical. The numbers are very reminiscent of the classical musicals of early Hollywood, and are well crafted and catchy. But with the movie taking place in a very modern underground bunker instead of a soundstage, the numbers are jarringly out of place.
Even this aspect supports the themes, however: it is another example of people who are in denial about what has been lost. Musicals have always functioned as a form of escapism, here that escapism has turned ugly; commandeered by people who don’t want to deal with their guilt.
All of this works for me on an academic level, and the filmmaking and execution of the ideas is fairly strong. The film still feels a little uneven, though – it just doesn’t have quite enough ideas to fill the long runtime. The additional characters beyond the four main ones don’t get much depth, and we never leave the bunker and its surrounding area, giving the movie the feel of a bottle episode.
Still, The End is a strong first narrative feature from Joshua Oppenheimer. He is best known for directing the critically acclaimed documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. But Oppenheimer takes well to the fictional side of things, even co-writing the script, which is very good. I am looking forward to his next project, whatever it may be.
