Gangs vs. Government - Movie screenshots

The viewer is treated to a truly surreal sight in one particular scene in the movie Marathon Man (1976). Visually, these two screenshots from the scene depict a bizarre difference between the law and the citizens. And all without words.

In Marathon Man, a student is on the run from Nazi dentists and two-faced, corrupt, secret government agents (we are seeing the latter). The student can’t enter his apartment, and asks a neighbor to “rob him”, getting him clothes and his gun. In exchange they can steal stuff like his TV. But when the agent confronts them, this happens.

                       

With an expletive, the neighbor mocks and dismisses the agent, and he leaves.

Just visually speaking (no, I am not confusing my film and visual culture classes taught by the same instructor. I’m not crazy. YOU’RE CRAZY), we can determine a lot from this.

First of all, the audience is supposed to root for the gang. The gang is helping their neighbor and is getting a TV or stereo in exchange, an informal business transaction. The viewer is supposed to treat a street gang as benign, a force of good. The agent is working against our innocent protagonist, and is helping the Nazis, perhaps in exchange for a cut of the profits. The government agent hired to represent the people is corrupt, a force of evil.

You can see from their faces that the gang fears the law and the law appears to be in control. In the actuality of what we’re seeing, the thieves have the guns and the control over how it plays out. They are quick to realize this, and taunt the agent out of there. Yet they still fear him and his retribution. Note how the gang has a variety of stances when preparing for a shootout, as they have a diverse number of beliefs in the way they should deal with the agent.

We can definitely see a difference of money. The agent is very well-dressed in a suit and tie, and is so well-paid that he is probably on the clock during this scene. His gun is bigger, and possibly better. The gang is wearing only casual clothes and has very small, but many guns. The agent is also white, and the gang of various non-white races (except perhaps the man on the far left, whom it’s a little hard to tell).

There is also a big telling of the balance of power. The government is a few people representing the many, and yet they do not in any way represent the people. The people vastly outnumber the government, especially if they are armed (this could be great evidence to be used in the current gun control debate). It could also go for the “V for Vendetta” saying of “People should not be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of the people.”

Finally, take note of the neighbor on the far right, crouched down and picking the lock. If you were to watch the scene in its entirety, you would notice that at no point when the agent confronts them does he even flinch or acknowledge he’s there until he eventually taunts and tells him to leave. In a twist, the neighbor is representing the people (the student, Levy) and not the government.

Before the agent enters the scene, the neighbor knows that he can continue his good task and the friends and people around him will protect and support him should anything happen. I’m willing to bet when they were acting this out the actor for the neighbor had to be specifically told not to flinch at the agent’s arrival, because they were trying to prove a point here. Perhaps that point is that society and friendship are more helpful to a person than the government is.