MovieChat Forums > The Mosquito Coast (1986) Discussion > Theme (spoilers)

Theme (spoilers)

posted 21 years ago by Lucent
20 replies | jump to latest

I think the theme of this movie was that by escaping society, Allie began to mirror its evils.

Society, whether it's awful or in decline or cruel or whatever, is largely inescapable. It's like the only salesman in town of something you need. He can spit on you, charge whatever he wants, and even beat you with the item you wish to purchase. You can either take this or try to make the item yourself, which is exceedingly difficult.

Allie didn't like this, so he went elsewhere. The first thing the movie hammers into us is that it takes a different kind of person to pick up and leave the machinery of society. However, the dark side of this personality isn't revealed until much later.

Eventually, Allie becomes an inescapable society unto himself. His family cannot leave him for the same reasons he couldn't leave society: inability to procure food and shelter, lack of safety, lack of luxury, etc. Allie provides them with all these. In return, he requires their complete loyalty in working toward his goals and tolerates no disobedience. He becomes the same monster as the society he so badly wanted to leave.

By the end of the movie, he's turned his son into the same monster society had made him into.

[–] deimos517 21 years ago

I think the theme of the movie revolves more around the impossibility of a utopian society. Their little town was for all intents and purposes practically perfect. Self-sufficient, organized, ecologically sound, non-violent, etc. Then a bunch of thugs with guns come along and ruin everything. It's basically saying that human society has and always will be dominated by those with the power to kill. In creating a perfect society, Allie didn't think ahead to the prospect of external influences. He thought he could isolate himself from the insanity and madness of the rest of the world. As an idealist, Allie really didn't want to face or accept the possibility of violence or having to protect his town.

So, Allie was definitely correct in criticizing America for being decadent and allowing a culture of greed and stupidity to flourish. But he was wrong to criticize America for having nuclear weapons. America has those weapons because outside the city walls there are thugs with guns ready and willing to hurt us. It's depressing but who said being a realist was supposed to be fun?

[–] aleen_o 21 years ago

your review is very well thought out. One note: the authors of the freest nation in man's history--America--warned that our unprecedented freedoms would last only as long as we obeyed God and until society figured out that it could vote itself entitlements. I pray for God to restore America as the beacon of light that our founding fathers gave their all to birth.

[–] ajbarrow 19 years ago

One of the major subthemes of this movie was how unproductive and useless religion is. God and church don't produce the things that get us by every day-- man does, by his own ingenuity. The missionaries took people from the village, where they were needed. They were counterproductive toward the goal of creating the perfect society. If they had only realized that defending themselves from the greed of the outside environment was a priority, they could have survived.

[–] tnilfo 17 years ago

Did we watch the same film? How can you say the movie suggests that religion is unproductive and useless when the only successful civilization we see in the story is Goodspell's? His village is clean, orderly and happy. They have built a magnificent church and comfortable housing. His people are clothed and fed. They sing so sweetly that Allie's children mistake them for angels. Goodspell's people may have given up their freedom and their free will to become mindless drones to the preacher's TV, but in return they had a thriving society.

Contrast this with Allie's family -- Allie believed that technology and innovation would save them, but it was this that destroyed them. Allie had no faith but in himself. Most important to him was freedom (only for himself, he was a tyrant and dictator with his family) but in the end his freedom was a wretched impoverished sort and he was almost dead.

[–] brightfamouscucumber 13 years ago

Uh... I don't usually just come right out and say this but, here it is: WRONG!

First, both ways of life are about religion. There is the religion of the theologist, represented by Spellgood Ministries, and there is the religion of the atheist, represented by Allie Fox. Both, however are quite persistent in their own ways of thinking, which is how they both qualify as being religious.

Second, both religions showed productivity, one at building up farms and buildings, the other about building up social interactivity.

Third, both showed how conterproductive and destructive they CAN both be to each other.

Fourth, the missionaries didn't take ANYBODY away from anybody else. The people who left Jeronimo and wound up at the mission did so entirely on their own..

Then, there's the fifth: how can you survive when the buildings you built are the cause of the destruction of your dwellings and the contamination of your water supply, and ergo your food supply?

How can you survive when the fuel for the power for your society is the fuel used to destroy your own dwellings?

This movie is not about survival in the wild nearly as much as it is about being part of a larger society despite any attempts to rid yourself of the societies you might have come from, and the need to recognize societal values not only of yourself but of others, or the consequences you could wind up having to face.

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[–] paul-r-welke 19 years ago

Aleen O,
Your post is illogical. How can America be the "freest nation in man's history" is these "freedoms" are conditional on blind obedience to a theoretical entity (or "God")? This freedom is just a disguised form of slavery, which makes it even more dangerous.

--P.

[–] thomas_bastholm 19 years ago

the freest nation in man's history--America????

sure...

[–] saxman418 14 years ago

You have completely misread this movie. Allie is trying to escape from the prison that is America, just as your founding fathers were trying to escape the prison of the 'Old World'. Unfortunately, these settlers made exactly the same mistakes as Allie and the preacher, by destroying the culture of the natives using both technology and religion they created a new prison for themselves - your 'freest nation in man's history'.

[–] jaylenoh 14 years ago

Correct. The religion part is the worst, because it's ORGANIZED religion which is just another business in the guise of something righteous. And it's used by politicians to manipulate votes. Works well, too.

[–] camel-wides 13 years ago

doubtfull, since our founding fathers were mostly atheists

[–] brightfamouscucumber 13 years ago

The Founding Fathers of what is now called the United States of America were indeed declared to be atheists by the Anglican Church, otherwise known as The Church of England, which happened to be the flavor of Roman Catholicism that was under the direct control of the Kings (and Queens) of England, the country they had all decided to completely separate.

However, the vast majority of these Founding Fathers remained devout in their beliefs, and were members of the quasi-religion known as Freemasonry until the days they died. Many, like George Washington never sat for a portrait to be painted of them without wearing the apron and other accouterments of Freemasonry.

Among the least religious would be Benjamin Franklin, who, as a Quaker, also known as a member of the Society of Friends, did not share much of the beliefs of the other former Anglican Church Member Founding Fathers, including the parentage of more than fifty illegitimate children who where known to him, still had a very religious a habit of quoting biblical passages every time he appeared in public, which were different passages depending on which day of the week and month the day happened to be.

So, were they really atheists? I think you should do a better job of checking your sources. While what you say is something that many of their enemies would have said of them, it is hardly close enough to accurate to be something for you to be passing along, since it really wasn't true.

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[–] TemporaryOne-1 20 years ago

deimos517, I loved your analysis of this film.

Another powerful theme is how people are blinded by what's right in front of them. They don't see the truth for what it is. They don't appreciate what's standing right in front of them. People believe in illusions.

For example, Allie wanted to go to Honduras for two reasons: leave corrupted America, and make inventions in a place where people would appreciate them.

He failed to see that inventions themselves are corruptive and destructive. He failed to see the beauty in the jungle; all he wanted to do was "fix" nature's imperfections.

People who want to live in nature want to leave behind machines and noise, not take it with them.

Another major theme of the film and book is the fear of becoming complacent.

Complacency abolishes free thought, free will, and action (meaning, getting physical to change things). Even Allie becomes complacent. He invents machines to do all the work for him, instead of doing the work himself.

But I love Allie. What he needed was to run his own farm in America.

[–] karl-134 21 years ago

Very nice, I really like this idea of the movie's theme. I think it's quite accurate, though I think reading the book would probably give a better idea of what the moral of the story was.

[–] Lucent 21 years ago

Thanks, I'm glad you appreciated the analysis; I put several days of thought into it after seeing the movie.

I wasn't aware the movie came from a book, though. Would you mind ruining the book for me and explaining what its theme originally was? Is it considerably more elaborate than the movie, or were parts just changed?

[–] TemporaryOne-1 20 years ago

The film is an exceptionally accurate adaptation of the novel. There are a few events in the book that were omitted, but everything in the film comes straight from the book, verbatim.

The themes in the movie are the same themes in the book.

The dominant theme is - no matter where you go, corruption/evil/violence exists. Even if you're in a lagoon that's not on a map, pieces of corruption float ashore anyway. Even nature itself is corrupt. Nature's heat burns you like fire, then drowns you in a flood.

An underlying theme is the concept of not seeing the truth that stands right in front of you.

[–] standbyme91 20 years ago

I only saw it for the first time a couple of days ago
The thing that got me was that he was trying so hard to keep his family alive that he ended up 'killing' himself. I know that he was shot, but in a way he bought it upon himself.

~Todo para la familia(Everything for the family)~ The Brother's Garcia

[–] SpecificSomewhere 20 years ago

I love the way it explored the thought that good intentions do not automatically mean good results. In trying to be the hero to his family, he became the villian.

"It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not."

[–] robatl1711 17 years ago

"It's like the only salesman in town of something you need. He can spit on you, charge whatever he wants, and even beat you with the item you wish to purchase."

Necessary evils. Kinda like dealing with the DMV, post office, court clerks, and other government entities... plagued by workers who are uneducated, unhelpful, lazy, and just plain mean

~R.

[–] bill7576c 14 years ago

You make (or you made in 2004), a very good point.

"This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin' out there!"

[–] 14 years ago

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