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I saw the movie again a couple nights ago, and it occured to me that the three bounty hunters represent the final, unrelenting natural enemies of the man who is now on the spiritual journey.
Johnny "The Kid" Pickett is the dark, negative and mischievous personalty, negative emotions and impulsiveness.
Conway Twill is the chatterbox mind, always finding associations and reasons, making up stories and distractions.
Cole Wilson, is Brutality, relentless and the ultimate enemy, eventually even destroying the other two enemies when their true natures conflicted.
All three of them had their own ailments and weaknesses also, which brought them comfort or misery, or an untimely end.
At the moment of Death, the dark brutality of Wilson meets the guardian angel of Nobody, or the death of the body meets the passage of the soul to the afterlife. and the final enemy is vanquished.
So the question is how to be attentive to these enemies, perhaps, and keep them from tracking oneself on the way to the final destination.
Johnny "The Kid" Pickett is the dark, negative and mischievous personalty, negative emotions and impulsiveness.
Conway Twill is the chatterbox mind, always finding associations and reasons, making up stories and distractions.
Cole Wilson, is Brutality, relentless and the ultimate enemy, eventually even destroying the other two enemies when their true natures conflicted.
All three of them had their own ailments and weaknesses also, which brought them comfort or misery, or an untimely end.
At the moment of Death, the dark brutality of Wilson meets the guardian angel of Nobody, or the death of the body meets the passage of the soul to the afterlife. and the final enemy is vanquished.
So the question is how to be attentive to these enemies, perhaps, and keep them from tracking oneself on the way to the final destination.
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Re: The three natural enemies of Dead Man
Tue, February 10, 2004 - 10:34 AMInteresting idea. I thought of them as the Buddhist concept of "hungry ghosts." In Cole Wilson's case, quite literally. This is their purgatory as well as Blake's, but they are so lost in their own impulses and twisted attachments that they will never find their way out. They're demons without really knowing it. I guess that's not such a different concept from what you are saying below.
And you can see Blake as Nobody's angel of death as well as the reverse, because Cole kills Nobody trying to get to Blake, who is already beyond his reach by then.
What do you think Nobody means when he tells Blake to go down to the trappers because it's a "test"? Does he pass or fail when Nobody has to come to his rescue?
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Re: The three natural enemies of Dead Man
Sat, February 14, 2004 - 11:05 PMI think the test was to keep his honesty and composure in the face of potentially dangerous, strange and unusual circumstances, and also to keep fidelity with Nobody. Sort of like a necessary point of potential chaos or breakdown in the journey through the woods.
There are several points where Nobody sends Blake away or takes leave of him, and it seems like a constant attraction/alienation continuum in their relationship.
I think he passed the test, even though it resulted in quite a bit of violence.
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