MovieChat Forums > The Big Empty (2009) Discussion > what exactly is 'the big empty' !spoiler...

what exactly is 'the big empty' !spoilers!

posted 21 years ago by pyromanpro
8 replies | jump to latest

every post disscussing the matter has read something like this:
"its outer space, the movie is showing us that were'r really igsignifigant."
or something along those lines.
i dont mean to bash the writers or belivers of this theory, it's probably right, but i think that there should be another option.
so here's my theory:

The movie wasn't trying to show us how unimportant we are, its doing the opposite. why would Cowboy be making people happy if we are so unimportant? The "big empty" is inside us. remeber what Neelie said about Person in the begginging? well i dont. but its something aboot how hes empty inside or somesuch. (4:12 as of this writing, go piddle on someone else's parade)
the emptyness must be filled by happiness. i think i just lost my point but stay with me here the sooner you face it the better off your gonna be. what?
i gotta mosquito bite. bummer. ahem. if your still reading imma go now. by-e

(5:15 ok then im pumped to finish this madman) i think that my little idea beats the poo out of the previous idea, although im afraid to look at what i wrote before. it makes more sence. im rambling now because i want to make my point without having anymore facts.
so its time for my catch phrase!

enough rambling im done.
(tadaa!)

P.S. before i go id like to remind you that what you just read was free, so dont complain if you didn't like it, its not like you saps payed or anything.

[–] Mahalie 21 years ago

Yeah, I wouldn't pay for anyones opinion but I can complain because it was a waste of my time.

[–] eyodir 21 years ago

Forgive me for not being a deep thinker, but I'm fairly confident that the 'Big Empty' was the dry lake bed, and if I were inclined to make my head strain itself, it's symbolic of Los Angeles and the John Persons character's vapid nothingness of a life in said city. I'm sure the latter is what you were implying, in any case.

[–] daniel-yocum 20 years ago

The Big Empty is atleast four things;

*the unfufilled or unsuceeding inside; the effected character's lives - see other posts above
*the desert
*the limitless space above (sky)where allegedly these people go
*your personal future that you fill with your personal choices-it is empty until youchoose, act, and create your life, an existential self defing-giving your empty life meaning (I don't agree with this philosophy completely but I think Anderson does)

Does this mean that the cowboy is death standing in for fate herding us along into the big empty forcing us to respond, choose, have/make meaning in our lives? Why does the cowboy need Person to bring the blue suitcase or the rest of the suitcases for that matter? Couldn't the cowboy just bring them in the RV? Are the blue suitcase our own baggage that we carry along and it equips us with all we need to choose paradise? And the shoes shod our feet to journey down the lane of life bowling that big blue marble, life/existence is a big game? Don't slip up and scratch or you will lose a whole frame and you will need Grace (undeserved pardon) to give you another chance. John got two strikes in a row before bowling the 11th frame, what (in the movie) would you call as the two strikes in his life? Giving his shoes away? Taking the offer in the begining? Saving Grace?

[–] zzz05 20 years ago

yeah, didn't the bartenderess or somebody refer to the desert as "the big empty" at one point? Of course, it has enormous symbolic value as well.

[–] h2fleet 20 years ago

There are a lot of interesting ideas in this post. I saw the movie over the weekend, and the more I stayed with it, the more I liked it. The bartender did refer to the desert as "the big empty," and it certainly is symbolic of unfulfilled lives. An observation, how do the persons being transported know that things will be better on the other side? Are they committing themselves out of faith? Or do they just want to escape what they perceive as a dead end?

Whether Cowboy works for satan is a good question. In classic literature, the devil offers someone a deal that is too good to refuse. That satan would offer an actor a chance to get out of debt is funny, but a better offer would be to get the part. And why does the main character have to be the baggage carrier? I think if you go too deep, you may not enjoy the movie.

The main character's life may not be too good in LA, but he has a dream. In Baker, there are no dreams. There is only escape. (And why didn't they show the thermometer in the movie? Supposedly, the biggest thermometer in the world is located in Baker, CA). John fights for his life, and finds happiness, and he has reason to be optimistic about his success as an actor. He did not take the easy way out. But then he was coerced to carry the bags in the first place, so he wasn't searching for paradise. He was trying to get out of hell.

[–] ixbxi 19 years ago

they did show the thermometer.

[–] vexner 19 years ago

I thought that "the big empty" was intended to be a play on words, a take off of "the big easy", implying that Baker, CA (and places of its kind) are pretty much the opposite of cities like New Orleans, i.e., 'nothing ever happens in Baker' or some such....

[–] alexskiboi 19 years ago

Big Empty

I fell in love with the film from the first moment I saw it, and all week i thought about what it meant. My conclusion is as follows:

The message of the film is as follows:

What if you were given the chance to leave everything you know and are to travel to another paralell universe where everything could be better or different?

The film, "The Big Empty", is about the empty hollow feeling inside all of us. Cowboy gives people a second chance at life. He gives us the possibility to leave this world where we are stuck in a rut, where our life has become a mundane routine. He offers people the possibiity to leave this world for the chance at a better life in another world.

(Think about Jon's character. He lives a life where all he knows his is failing life as a actor. What if he had the possibility to be great at something else but will never know it because he continues to follow this path of acting. In the paralell world Cowboy could bring them to, he could be somehting different. He could travel and be successful and have fun. Unfortuneately in this world he is stuck in a rut and will continue his failing life of unhappiness.)