``The Death of Dick Long” What is your intention in daring to depict comedy in a literary manner?

Continuing authorship from “Swiss Army Man”

There is another film that can help us understand this film: Swiss Army Man (2016), distributed by A24, written and directed by Daniel Scheinert, the director of this film.

A man is washed up on a deserted island, unable to escape and in despair, when he comes across a corpse. A large amount of gas spews out from the corpse's buttocks, and the protagonist climbs onto the corpse and, using the gas to power his way off the island like a motorboat. In addition, when the protagonist gets thirsty, a large amount of water comes out of the corpse's mouth, and he realizes that the corpse is truly versatile, just like a Swiss Army knife. This movie is extremely inappropriate, as it plays with a corpse.

In Japan, there are rakugo pieces that use death and corpses as humor, such as "Rakuda," "Sokutsunagaya," and "Koganemochi." What's interesting about these pieces is that they have an irreverent sense of fun that exploits a kind of taboo, like a joke said at a place like a funeral that makes you laugh, but only gradually builds up laughter, precisely because it's a situation where you shouldn't laugh.

However, there is one more thing that this strange film, Swiss Army Man, is trying to portray. No matter how convenient corpses may be, the protagonist's use of corpses for various purposes, as well as his ability to converse with and deepen friendships with them, is a strange and out of line with the values ​​of many people, and as one character in the film murmurs, it could be said to be a "disgusting" existence. The protagonist's painful thoughts and suffering that he is a "gross" person who should never be liked by others are depicted through his interactions with the corpses.

The truth of the incident depicted in "The Death of Dick Long" is also something that many people cannot understand. Zeke and his friends feel guilty about having hobbies that are outside the values ​​of society. They desperately try to hide the cause of Dick's death because they thought that they would not be able to live and have a family in the conservative environment of the American South if they did not.

"The Death of Dick Long" © 2018 A24 Distribution, LLC. All rights reserved.

Of course, the result is that someone dies, and there is little room for sympathy for their cover-up, which is an attempt to escape responsibility. If it is related to a crime, as in this film, then of course they will need to be brought to justice. But at the same time, it is true that they are a kind of minority, and their panic in their desire to prevent others from knowing about it is both amusing and pathetic.

Perhaps it is because, like them, we, the audience, also have one or two secrets or values ​​that we cannot tell others about, or have had experiences in the past. Even if there is absolutely nothing illegal about what we do, we are afraid that if we have such a hobby, we will be seen as creepy or ostracized, so we cannot tell anyone. Director Daniel Scheinert portrays the anxiety of such heretics, and asks the audience if there is a heretic side in everyone.

Literary themes hidden in the commotion