The subtle and not-so-subtle brilliance of “Repo Man”
By: Beau Dure
Tags: Satire, Punk, Religion, Movies, Creativity

Repo Man is, by any measure, an odd film.

You have a Chevy Malibu with a MacGuffin — much like the briefcase in Pulp Fiction years later — that vaporizes those who look at it.

You have a gang of punks who talk a great game but are basically incompetent and petty.

“Just for that, you’re not in the gang any more!” “Duke, let’s go do some crimes.” “Yeah! Let’s go get sushi and not pay!”

You have Harry Dean Stanton taking his role of a repo man even more seriously than Cliff Clavin took his role as a mailman.

You have a bunch of strange, loose narrative threads about a televangelist and shadowy government agents.

And it all hinges on a young Emilio Estevez as Otto, who finds a lifeline out of parental abandonment and economic despair by taking a job that pulls him into a world that grows more surreal as the movie proceeds.

It’s hilarious.

But did you know you were watching a commentary on the punk scene, urban decay, religion, capitalism and nuclear war? No?

Watch all 40-plus minutes here:

The video points out some subtleties in the film, especially the setting of a Los Angeles that is very much on the periphery of the glitzy parts. (And yet also not Compton, which isn’t mentioned here. The scenes in Repo Man take place in an L.A. that is simply forgotten, for better or for worse.)

It also has some interesting behind-the-scenes trivia that explains a few of the film’s eccentricities. Some of the narrative threads that don’t go anywhere are the result of studio intervention, especially about the ending. (The person who had to convey that intervention was one of the film’s backers, Michael Nesmith. Yes, that Michael Nesmith. He’s led an interesting life beyond his time as one of the Monkees.)

The debatable part of the video is the theory about the mad scientist J. Frank Parnell and the Chevy Malibu. The video suggests Parnell himself is an alien. At face value, that theory doesn’t hold up because Parnell gives a much more plausible background story:

You ever hear of the neutron bomb? Destroys people — leaves buildings standing. Fits in a suitcase. It’s so small, no one knows it’s there until — BLAMMO. Eyes melt, skin explodes, everybody dead. So immoral, working on the thing can drive you mad.

But the face-value reading doesn’t explain everything. There’s a connection between Parnell and the UFO cultists, one of whom becomes Otto’s sort-of girlfriend. The Malibu is indeed a spacecraft, as we see at the end. (That said, we learn in this video that the ending we see is not the ending director Alex Cox originally intended.)

So maybe Parnell isn’t describing himself when he talks about going mad. Maybe he really is an alien who befriended one of the scientists at one of those scary New Mexico locations. But then why would Parnell succumb to the radiation in what would presumably be his own spacecraft? Maybe they tested the neutron bomb near him, and he initially survived but suffered a lethal does of radiation poisoning?

Anyway, it’s all fun to discuss.

Another possible theory not mentioned here: Is Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) meant to be Jesus? He sacrifices himself at the end, though it’s rather pointless. And when he leaves his hospital bed, the televangelist’s voice is heard exclaiming, “He is risen!” Perhaps that’s not just a throwaway gag. And yes, a religion student has suggested just that.

The video messes up one point here: The relationship between Otto and Leila is anything but stable. Sure, maybe Leila was conflicted when the government agent came in to torture Otto, but there’s little indication that Otto sees her as anything other than a frenemy with benefits, and Leila doesn’t seem to see him as a steady boyfriend, either. It’s only at the end, when Leila is pissed off that Otto is getting called to ride the Malibu to parts unknown, that she throws in the word “relationship.”

That exchange is included in a roll of funny moments from the film:

“What about our relationship?” “What?” “Our relationship!” “Fuck that!”

But it omits Leila’s last line, one of the best in a film with a lot of great ones: “You SHITHEAD! I’m glad I tortured you!”

So yes, it’s silly. But it’s also a wonderful work of art. Like The Young Ones, a British TV show of the same early-80s era, it finds humor in grim reality and adds a dose of the absurd. They also have great music.

Watch the video. But maybe watch the film first.