FILM ESSAY

For photos: http://www.mgm.com/dustfactory/

Healing Life’s Hurts at the Movies:
The Dust Factory

Rose Pacatte, FSP
October 2, 2004

When I was in high school I saw the 1956 French film The Red Balloon (directed by Albert Lamorrisse) during a religion class. At that time it was a much-acclaimed movie about a boy who makes a pet out of a balloon and chases it everywhere - and it has absolutely no verbal narration. The viewer has to search for the filmmaker’s meaning in the scenic narrative while creating his or her own meaning at the same time. I was completely lost and I psychologically fought the experience, which means I really didn’t want to be there and refused to be entertained or inspired. I proclaimed my absolute boredom to anyone who would listen. The Red Balloon is a cinematic fantasy and I didn’t understand the language. As a kid growing up I was totally into reading fairy-tales but the kid chasing the balloon didn’t do much for me.

Carl Jung and Storytelling

Today I might interpret The Red Balloon differently because I realize that fantasy, whether told orally, through books, art and movies, can have not only elements of parable, but they are almost always psychological. The famed Swiss psychologist Carl Jung (1875 – 1961), for example, believed that understanding and engaging in fantasy for children is a pre-stage for understanding symbolism, and by extension, metaphor, parable and allegory. Indeed, these are the ingredients of storytelling and imaginative play. These concepts are also present when, as we grow is age, and hopefully wisdom and grace, we engage our moral imagination through stories to sort out life’s choices and reflect on their practical and transcendent consequences for self and others. This is, as we know, a process called discernment.

Carl Jung is probably best known in the faith community for his personality typology of personality, made famous by the Myers-Briggs test for behavior preferences. However, Jung’s personality theories as a whole are interesting for analyzing stories told through image and sound – the movies. Some films that can be analyzed by applying Jungian criteria to yield a greater understanding of the (mostly white male) human nature and experience and the essence of story telling, run from the violent exploration of male identity in the 1990’s in Fight Club (1991) almost any M. Night Shyamalan film (my personal favorite is his unappreciated 1998 filmWide Awake about a ten year-old whose beloved grandfather has died and he spends all of fifth grade looking for God), to accepting death, loss and life in Truly Madly Deeply (1991) to exploring the hero’s journey in high fantasy myths such as George Lucas’ Star Wars Trilogies or Peter Jackson’s recent The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Jung divided the human psyche in three parts: ego, personal unconscious and collective unconscious. He believed that fantasy is a function of consciousness that liberates a child’s need for play – and play is how children make sense of the world. Jung, like Freud, put forth a theory about the collective unconscious of humanity as a reservoir of common experiences that everyone is born with (reminiscent of the philosopher Plato’s teaching of pre-existent concepts in the World of Ideas). For example, the way so many people share and describe near-death experiences characterizes this idea of shared unconsciousness.

Jung also gave the world the notion of archetypes, or universal, mythological models that we are born with and use as ways to understand life, such as those of “mother”, “wisdom”, and “hero” figures that rescue maidens or battle good and evil. He was fascinated by dreams, our shadow-selves (our dark side). He posited the principle of opposites in the spiritual experience, like St. Paul expressed so well when he described his inner struggle in Romans 7:14- 25 as one of being pulled in the direction of right and wrong at the same time. Jung believed that each person has feminine and masculine characteristics, an analogy we find in the parable of the woman who loses a coin in Luke 15:8-10 – the only time the Gospels offer us a feminine image of God. Jung differed from Freud who considered physical symbols for sexuality as indicators of biology; for Jung they represented spiritual power and fertility. (It would be fascinating to apply all of Jung’s personality theories to some of the newer television shows as well, such as HBO’s The Soprano’s, and F/X’s Nip/Tuck and Rescue Me, never mind the reality shows.)

Though Jung’s contribution to psychology and other fields remains theoretical and sometimes contested, much of his work remains very useful for understanding human behavior, some aspects of spirituality and - storytelling.

The Dust Factory

A new film by first time director Eric Small (who also wrote the script) is being released by MGM this week called The Dust Factory, a film that easily lends itself to Jungian analysis and evokes the need for healing.

Fifteen year-old Ryan (Ryan Kelley who played one of the children in Project Greenlight’s 2002 feature Stolen Summer and is one of the teens in the current Mean Creek) seems to be a normal kid, except that he has not spoken since he witnessed his father’s tragic death at the age of nine. His mother (Kim Meyers) has remarried and she and her husband (Peter Horton) treat Ryan as any other teenager. His grandmother has just died, and his Grandpa Randolph (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has Alzheimer’s. Despite everything, the family keeps going in a spirit of expectation and hope.

One afternoon, Ryan puts on his in-line skates and joins his bike-riding friend Rocky (Michael Angarano) to go fishing at the lake. They take a short cut and Ryan falls through the rotted planks of a bridge into the lake. He is knocked unconscious.

When he comes to, however, he cannot understand why Rocky is not there. He goes home to find his grandfather alert and well and he leads Ryan on a journey to a magical circus place called The Dust Factory. There he meets Melanie (Hayden Panettiere; Raising Helen and the upcoming 2005 release Racing Stripes) and is attracted to her. Grandpa is the wisdom figure, and Melanie is a guide and conscious mirror to Ryan’s unconscious. A scary clown figure (always a symbol for inner conflict) mysteriously beckons Ryan over and over to take a risk on the flying trapeze in the Big Tent. Ryan’s fantasy world thus becomes the place where he has to confront his fears about death, life, grief, love, family, growing up and ultimately the possibility to choose healing. The audience is invited to take a ringside seat inside Ryan’s story of a near-death experience after which he emerges through the symbolic waters of rebirth to new life.

All the characters and events of the film fit right into Jung’s broad theories of personality that I have only partially introduced above. If you are into analyzing film on any level, The Dust Factory will provide much material for reflection and conversation.

Storytelling and Hope

The Dust Factory reminded me of The Red Balloon because they are both imaginative stories where the main characters do not speak. Additionally, both films are about the games we play in our minds, as characters, filmmakers and audience, when we are trying to make sense out of life and sometimes life’s hurts. The Red Balloon can be called a family film, though I expect most family members will not be entertained; if you are curious (or nostalgic) the film is still available on video at www.Amazon.com.

The Dust Factory has received a seal of approval from the Parent’s Television Council, probably because it has no problem language, sex, violence, drugs or alcohol. It is rated PG by the MPAA and A-II by the USCCB, because of its themes and scary moments. Although these kinds of films are suitably categorized as “family films” I think they are more valid for adults who need or want to revisit the past to heal the future. The attractive young cast may attract some adolescents, but I think it may lack the cultural diversity to hold the larger youth audience.

That being said, “When hope is the needed medicine for a damaged soul, story is the right prescription.” *

If you enjoy fantasy, visit The Dust Factory.

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Dr. Sunwolf, Santa Clara University , 2004, Once Upon a Time for the Soul: A Review of the Effects of Storytelling in Spiritual Traditions , Communication Research Trends