MovieChat Forums > The Twilight Zone (1959) Discussion > The Obsolete Man

The Obsolete Man

posted a year ago by Darren (1451)
16 replies | jump to latest

I've always been moderately entertained by this episode, because I think the overall message is good: the individual has worth, has rights that ought to be respected, and that we have a better society when those rights are respected; and it also has the message that an oppressive state that would crush the individual is evil.

Apart from that, I have never been overly impressed with the episode. The brutal, totalitarian state is far too accommodating of Wordsworth the dissident. It generously allows him his choice of how he is to die, thus permitting him to expertly orchestrate the humiliation of the nation's totalitarian dictator. Real dictatorships don't work that way. They don't smugly accommodate dissidents' final wishes; they crush them ruthlessly. They don't offer a choice as to the method of execution; they just take you out behind the courtroom and put a bullet in your head. The dictator doesn't pay you the respect of a personal visit; one of his extremely junior flunkies signs your death warrant, and you are carted off to your doom. The victim has no power. The lone individual is doomed, and without hope.

I like the message, but I can't suspend disbelief and buy into the story.

[–] [deleted] a year ago

You kind of have to suspend disbelief to watch The Twilight Zone.

[–] strntz (12773) 9 months ago

It generously allows him his choice of how he is to die, thus permitting him to expertly orchestrate the humiliation of the nation's totalitarian dictator.

How did that work out for him?? LOL, well, that certainly didn't work out well, but that was a circumstance that was unforeseen. I'm sure that was the last time they let a dissident have his execution live or at least in the manner and circumstance of his choosing.

The dictator doesn't pay you the respect of a personal visit..

I think the Chancellor was a dickhead but I don't think the Chancellor was the head dick.

[–] mikethemartian (6983) 9 months ago

It is my favorite episode with Burgess Meredith.

[–] strntz (12773) 7 months ago

I like all of his episodes. I think Obsolete Man had the best written, but I enjoyed Printer's Devil (a rare 1 hour favorite) and Mr. Dingle the Strong as a guilty pleasure. Time Enough at Last is iconic in the Zoneverse, but probably my least favorite Meredith episode.

[–] Owlwise (1546) 4 months ago

It may be that you're taking too literal an approach to this episode, and to the series as a whole. It's fabulism, which can encompass satire & allegory while still being its own distinct sort of storytelling. You're right about real-life totalitarian governments, of course ... but this is finally a story about the inner world, the human condition, rather than the literal outer world. It's about two very different modes of experiencing life, two very different modes of meaning & purpose for human beings. It's about those famous words from Camus:

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.

And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.

Romney Wordsworth dies, but he's not defeated. In fact, he dies victorious by keeping faith with his own beliefs.

[–] stevewyzard (1727) 4 months ago

Well said - thanks for posting this!

[–] wrlord (1218) 5 days ago

More than that, it's very stagey -- theatrical. It's not meant to be realistic.

[–] Owlwise (1546) 3 days ago

Exactly. And that theatricality makes it work all the more powerfully.

[–] wrlord (1218) 3 days ago

Agreed. Many shows from that period used the same techniques. I'm put in mind of the Star Trek episode "The Empath."

[–] Owlwise (1546) a day ago

Excellent example!

I'd add the Outer Limits episode "Nightmare" to that list.

[–] TM1617-2 (667) a month ago

Darren, you have excellent delving. Those things are true, but in "The Obsolete Man", I don't think that the nation is totalitarian. It seems to simply practice the expungement of 'worthless' citizens. The idea is to make a country as efficient as possible, not to control every aspect of it. Romney's request being granted actually supports the manner of the government. The man is determined to be of no use, so it is believed that he is harmless and it doesn't matter to anyone how he dies. Yes, this episode has one of the best messages of the series.

[–] Darren (1451) a month ago

Oh, I think it is sufficiently well established that the state in this episode is totalitarian. First off, it would take a totalitarian state to amass such dossiers on individual citizens, and then declare them to be obsolete and exterminate them. This would be a state with a well-developed surveillance system, as well as one that no doubt encourages people to inform on each other. And moreover, the chancellor straight up tells Wordsworth that the problem with Hitler and Stalin was that were mere precursors to the ideal, whose failing was that they didn't go far enough in committing mass murder to eliminate every last citizen who opposes the state. This is impossible to read any other way than as a state that wants a population made up entirely of passive, compliant drones.

[–] TM1617-2 (667) a month ago

You could be right, but the atmosphere is so relaxed and government's delivery so gentle that I don't gather totalitarianism. There is an obsession with executing people who are deemed a waste of time and space due to their occupations, which is a more specific issue. Although the devices match your suggested category, the attitude doesn't. Of course the country has gone unfathomably askew, but I'm not sure how well it fits a legal label. It might be more accurate to say that there is a fictional and impractical form of dictatorship created only for the moral.

[–] Darren (1451) a month ago

You could be right, but the atmosphere is so relaxed and government's delivery so gentle that I don't gather totalitarianism.

Well, yes, this was exactly my point. It's the whole problem I have with the episode, and what makes it one of the weaker ones for me, despite how well regarded it is. It represents a totalitarian state, the rhetoric is that of a totalitarian state, the willingness to crush the ordinary citizen dissenter is that of a totalitarian state, but the gentleness, the accommodation, the willingness of the highest official of the state to personally indulge a request by the condemned for a face-to-face visit... these things are very much out of character for a totalitarian state.

The best art should capture truths we know from real life, and that means a certain amount of realism, even in fantasy or scifi settings. You can half faster than light travel, magic, whatever, but your characters need to behave like real people for audiences to relate and buy in. The episode is weak, because it relies almost entirely on something called "writer's fiat" -- i.e. something happens entirely because the author simply writes that it happens, regardless of likelihood or even plausibility. The author needs it to happen, in order to tell the story the way he wants, so it happens. That simple. To my mind, it's something that rates right up there with "deus ex machina" as a hallmark of weak or poor writing.

[–] TM1617-2 (667) a month ago

Oh, you meant that the problem was that the only explanation for the country was that it had become totalitarian, and that, specifically, was not presented correctly. You and I mentioned very similar things about elements in this episode appearing only for convenience. It was odd that we agreed under the guise of disagreement.

[–] mikethemartian (6983) a day ago

I was thinking something similar about “The Eye of the Beholder”. It is a fascist totalitarian government that forces everyone to be identical yet they give misfits multiple chances to have “corrective” surgeries.