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carlin_rilkoff
Reviews
71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (1994)
A Techno-Capitalist Critique
Hanake's 71 Fragments has been, in my estimate, misunderstoodat least when discussing the final sequence involving Maximillion and the "senseless" murders he commits at the bank. Other people have since commented, the end crime is without motive, "in cold blood"; in other words the work of a psychopathic youngster who has one day suddenly decided to kill a group of people; or the (media-created) "archetypal" teen who after to many bloody films and video games can no longer resist the violent urge these violent images create. What a shallow film this would be if the above were true. Understandably, this is the initial reaction the film produces since there doesn't seem to be any motive whatsoever, but upon closer inspection the motive is unveiled in a most interesting way: it is the motif of the televisions which are transmuted into the Maximillion's motive.
There is a constant presence of televisions throughout the filmthey're always on in the background,the film begins with a newscast criticizing Clinton (America's golden democrat), etcand so this constant, this motif, must mean something: but what? Let us consider the television motif in the following way: the "television" is just an extension of the very "technology" which gave it life, and so, that being said, we shouldn't limit ourselves by seeing television as an independent object, but rather a single object in a system of objects. And incidentally it is in the last scene where the film's focus radically shifts from "television" from the whole of technology, and it is in this shifted focus where Hanake reveals the film's significance. The film is a critique of technology; or more specifically, the alienating effects of said technology, including, of course, but not limited to, television.
A simple survey of technological interaction in the final scene might help demonstrate this: the boy drives up to an automated fuel dispensary (technology) and finds that it is out of order (if any of the following details are slightly off, please forgive me: it has been a number of months since I last viewed the film), he goes to the ATM machine (tech) and discovers it is out of order, inside a vehicle a driver (tech) begins to honk (tech) incessantly at the boy whose car is occupying the automated fuel machinelet's stop for a moment. It should be clear there is a strong presence of technology here, what might not be clear is how these technologies are alienating Max, or driving him towards his own "end". The phenomena taking place here is similar to that of road rage in that the driver who is honking his horn is honking simply because there are no other options other than using it, and of course, as everyone knows, the very sound is enough to cause somebody to erupt. Unless the person is a complete lunatic, if you bump into somebody on the sidewalk chances are you'll apologize and move past and continue on your way, but in the vehicle no such social nicety exists and so human interaction is reduced to a shrill honk. Inside the bank Max is pushed to the ground as he tries to cut in line so he can pay for his gas, but these dehumanized beings think only of themselveshaving already been alienated themselves through technology from their species-beingand act selfishly and cruelly towards Max. What occurs afterwards is the culmination of what can simply be regarded as a "bad day," and personally I can see where this anger comes from. Banks are notoriously stressful, as is driving a vehicle, and while Max's response is anything other than "normal" we can, at the very least, understand why he is acting this way. To say that this crime is unmotivated or senseless is to rob the film of it's meaning. There are people who commit terrible acts without reason, but Max isn't one of them. To believe him so is a failure, in my opinion, to understand the film, which is an honest depiction of the effect technology has on individuals; a failure to sympathize with Max in the exact same fashion those people leading up to the shooting failed to sympathize with him.