Patricia Goodwin is the author of When Two Women Die, a novella about two women who died and became legends in the historic seacoast town of Marblehead, MA, available now on Amazon.
I haven’t seen the
movie Compliance directed by Craig
Zobel – yet. However, I am familiar with the real life story of 18 year-old Louise
Ogborn’s terrifying ordeal at a Mount Washington, Kentucky McDonald’s as shown
on ABC’s 20/20, a report unbelievably illustrated by the actual security film of
the incident. In fact, if it were not for this security tape and police records, no one would believe this sordid incident happened. It reminds me of when General Dwight D. Eisenhower entered the death
camps at the end of World War II: he ordered photos to be taken of every
atrocity because, he explained, "The day will come when some 'son of
a
bitch' will say this never happened." There is a Nazi connection to this
story, which comes later.
During the real life 2004 incident at the
Kentucky McDonald’s, a male caller held Louise Ogborn hostage for several hours
via her older female manager, Donna Summers, while communicating to Summers that
he was a policeman, that the girl had stolen a purse from a customer and that
she needed to be strip-searched. He ordered several other people around as well
until the girl was sexually assaulted and humiliated. Incredibly, this is a
true crime. Nearly 70 other incidents like it have occurred in 30 states, in
rural areas such as Devil’s Lake, North Dakota; Fallon, Nebraska; Hinesville,
Georgia; Fargo, North Dakota and Juneau, Alaska.
I have also seen
the Law & Order SVU episode based on the 2004 crime, “Authority”
starring Robin Williams as the caller, Professor Milgram, a character named
after the Yale psychologist
Stanley Milgram who conducted experiments on the willingness of subjects to
follow orders, believed to be a study on whether people in general would comply
with immoral acts or acts they knew were wrong, when - as the Nazis said they,
in World War II, were - just “following
orders.” In the Milgram experiment, electric shocks were supposedly delivered
to subjects who screamed, squirmed and begged the authority figure to stop.
These subjects were never shocked. They were acting. Yet, in the experiment,
subjects in “authority” were still willing to hurt their fellow human beings
even though those suffering begged for mercy.
The implication of
this movie, and the title Compliance,
is that people will follow authority. Okay, sure, most people have cow genes in
them. They follow the herd and the herd follows the shepherd, and I’m not
talking about real authority here. Not God or His Son. Just “their manager.” Add
to that herd mentality the fact that people in rural areas are taught obedience
to all authority figures, however minor. Notice that the real life
incidents of this horrendous crime did not occur in a major city where a more
sophisticated young girl might have absolutely no shame in running down the
street naked to escape this dilemma, nor would she have taken off her clothes
in the first place. These incidents were always perpetrated in a rural town
where there is only one job, one place to work, real embarrassment in losing a
job, and - kids are taught obedience and respect. I always told my daughter
that if any of her teachers or any authority figure, like a boss or a priest or a policeman asked her to do anything she felt was wrong or made her the
least bit uncomfortable, I would tear down there and stand up for her, so she
need never worry about saying, “No fuckin’ way!”
I digress. Ah, the
soothing passion of rebellion.
I’m not going to
talk about stupidity. That’s obvious. Or, is it?
You see, I think
that this crime is not about following authority. I think it’s about taking
part in violence against what I have always felt was The Last Minority – that
is, beautiful, young women. No, scratch the young. Young only makes it more
titillating. The woman does not need to be young. However, let’s say she is in
order to discuss this movie, where the woman is young. In fact, she is a
pretty, young girl.
Why are beautiful,
young women The Last Minority? Simple. No one really cares about them, and no
one will ever care whether they live or die except that “they look so good
doing it.” (I’m quoting myself, a poem I wrote called “The Pretty Door” in my
book Atlantis, poems about the United
States being another Atlantis.)
Consider the news
media. People who criticize the news media’s extensive coverage of the murders
of beautiful women over the many other people who are killed are missing the
real atrocity that’s going on. The criticism usually generated at the media is
that only beautiful victims get coverage, but what’s really happening is that
only beautiful victims look really good dead. Why? It’s about power.
Everyone,
including the people watching this movie, wants power over the pretty young girl.
The caller – Like most rapists, rape, even phone rape, is the only way he can
have a “relationship” with a pretty girl. Her manager – This incident is her chance
to have some real power over this pretty, young girl sparkling with promise and
youthful energy just beginning her life, instead of coming to terms with sad,
unfulfilled dreams, as her manager might be – in real life the female manager
giggled when the perp asked if she were married, and though she was engaged at
the time, her fiancé’s actions brought that dream to an abrupt halt. The creepy
fiancé - like the rapist, would never have seen such a pretty young girl naked
or touched such a girl ever in his life if it had not been for this perverse
event. (At the very least, Walter Nix, the real life fiancé, was remorseful. He
called a friend that very night and said he had done a bad thing.)
Each and every
participant wanted power over the young girl, both in the movie and in real
life. And, the movie viewers are also participating. We always do.
Power over each
other is what we do every day.
We bully each
other. There’s cyber-bullying, sibling rivalry, school bullying and bullying by
managers on the job to both sexes for many different reasons that boil down to
just one - we enjoy having power over someone, even for a minute.
In fact, the Nazis
were the ultimate bullies. That’s such an understatement. I am reminded of
another film, Woody Allen’s Hannah and
Her Sisters in which Max Von Sydow’s artist character says about Nazis and
The Holocaust, “The reason why they can never answer the question, ‘How could
it possibly happen?’ is that it’s the wrong question. Given what people are, the
question is ‘Why doesn’t it happen more often?’ Of course it does, in subtler
forms.”
I think bullying is our way of life. The Director of Compliance said this, “The point of the movie is to be open to all interpretations, and the only reading that bumps with me is when certain people say, ‘Why didn’t they just not do it? Why didn’t they get another job?’” says Zobel. “I’ve had jobs like this. Some people have to eat shit for their jobs because they need the money.”
I think bullying is our way of life. The Director of Compliance said this, “The point of the movie is to be open to all interpretations, and the only reading that bumps with me is when certain people say, ‘Why didn’t they just not do it? Why didn’t they get another job?’” says Zobel. “I’ve had jobs like this. Some people have to eat shit for their jobs because they need the money.”
I submit that bullying is NOT
exclusive to low paying jobs. I think the bullying goes on and on at every
level to both sexes, some of it subtle, most of it direct and brutal. Brutal
would be covert or overt sexual abuse and we all know that form of bullying
happens mostly to beautiful women. An example on a subtle level, advice given
to working moms: “Don’t ever say that you want to stay home because your child
is sick. Say you are sick.” Of
course, you can’t say that either
after one day. No one can be sick for a week any more. That’s a luxury. Early
on, I noticed a complete denial of the body and any of its needs in the
business world. What do you mean you have to go to the bathroom? Comfort and
convenience go out the window. Now, there are kitchens in most offices. Dare I
believe things are changing? I doubt it. Every aspect of the office is a chance
for bullying - from not being allowed to eat lunch or be sick to long hours and
exhausting travel to good people being passed over for promotions and people
being fired before their pensions are in effect
– no matter whether the pay is low or high – all of these are examples
of bullying. As for “eating shit” – did you know that receptionists in some
small businesses must also clean the bathrooms? That dirty little secret
doesn’t show while she’s looking elegant at the entryway.
I
remember an incident that occurred while my husband and I were driving over the
Mystic River Bridge, going south in Boston, MA. On the bridge, we passed about
four police cars in a huddle around an Oldsmobile with its door left open. My
husband asked the toll collector what had happened and she said, “Guy jumped,”
without stopping for a moment her task of counting out our change, which she
handed to my husband without another word or glance. Whose life was harder, that
of the man who jumped or the toll collector’s? Who had been bullied worse in
life?
We experience subtle
bullying all day long in every day life. While waiting in line at the bank, at
the DMV, the IRS, the whatever, every time even the smallest amount of power is
given to a person they milk it for whatever it’s worth to torture someone else,
usually in a petty way, whether holding up that person’s time, making him/her
fill out another form, or just saying, “No, I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”
Hurting each other
becomes entertainment. Oh, yes, even in real life, those who have the power,
however petty, stand there with a little satisfied smirk on their face.
Sometimes that
power is actually used to help our fellow human beings. There are millions of
nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, police, firefighters, bank tellers, even
store clerks and fast food wait staff who help people all day long and make
their lives easier. Those would be the few good men at that Kentucky McDonald's who refused to comply with
the caller. But, those few didn’t do enough.
Beautiful girls
are probably most famous for bullying because in school they and their
boyfriends are the cool kids and the cool kids are often the ones who bully
everyone else. Again, they look so good doing it, right? Obviously, bullying has a sexual element that
is impossible to ignore. Sex is powerful. In its positive sense, loving sex is
about the wonderful power of loving someone and being loved back. In its
negative sense, people actually get a sexual thrill out of power over beautiful
women. You can’t blame Compliance for
violence against women, because Compliance
is just telling the truth. The real issue is what we take away from the movie.
Is it fair for
intelligent, rebellious people sitting high up in their NYC co-ops now
criticizing the characters in the movie Compliance
to judge those who need their jobs and are too timid to disobey authority, even
petty authority?
Ah, yeah. It is.
It’s time folks to think for yourself and not “ask your manager” whether what you think is
wrong is actually wrong. Doing something wrong or hurting someone is a moral decision, like following the Nazis. You can say no. I know a Vietnam vet who refused to torture
someone during the war. If he can say no, anyone can. It’s time to stop zapping jolts of electricity into our fellow suffering human beings. We’re all in
this together.
Here’s an
interesting story about a beautiful woman – ah! I have your attention. I was a
nerd in high school. The cheerleaders, who were exquisitely beautiful, used to
torment us. They liked to slide down the stair bannisters when we were on our
way to Accelerated English and drop us like bowling pins. I can still see their
perfect, shining white teeth laughing.
One of those
lovely cheerleaders came up to me in the grocery store years after high school.
She said, “Patricia, I want to apologize to you for being so mean to you in
school. I’ve had so much trouble in my life that I found out what it was to be
hurt and I want you to know how sorry I am.”
I told her I had
always admired her for her beauty and athletic skill. I also told her I didn’t
remember her ever being mean to me, in fact, I thought she had been one of the
nicer girls. I was saddened that her life hadn’t turned out as promising as it had
seemed in high school.
We’re all in this
together. Crime is crime. Hurt is hurt. Beautiful women are not made to be our
victims. Compliance is not about
people blindly following authority; it’s about people taking the chance to hurt
someone who never hurt them instead of taking charge of their own lives.
It’s about a
perverse sense of power over The Last Minority.
*UPDATE: Pat Healy, the actor who plays the caller, wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal, "How to Survive Playing a Sadist" about what it was like to actually see, on the set, the torment he was causing, even though he was witnessing actors' reactions. He threw up. The film Compliance, and the real life incident, have many levels of psycho: another observer said that the caller, by being remote, was playing God. I wonder if he was cold and distant, or getting off. Healy also commented in his article that the remoteness of modern technology was in some way responsible, that if the caller could have seen what he was doing, he would have stopped. However, I think Healy is reacting like a good man. The caller was evil, in my estimation - a taker - a person who takes away for his own gain at the loss of another.
**UPDATE: I was about to post this blog url on YouTube, where I am PoetryTube, until my eye caught a comment below the trailer for Compliance. This comment by spikesamurai was obscene; it had 4 likes, and it proved everything I said in this blog post. I couldn't post my url because I didn't want anyone like that coming here and reading what I hope is a heartfelt, intelligent reaction to this film.
©Patricia Goodwin, 2012
**UPDATE: I was about to post this blog url on YouTube, where I am PoetryTube, until my eye caught a comment below the trailer for Compliance. This comment by spikesamurai was obscene; it had 4 likes, and it proved everything I said in this blog post. I couldn't post my url because I didn't want anyone like that coming here and reading what I hope is a heartfelt, intelligent reaction to this film.
©Patricia Goodwin, 2012
The
Pretty Door
This only opens the pretty door
hair eyes nose mouth
this time
God didn’t play a joke
or did He?
Pretty
opens
not
the talent door
bend
over, clean the bathroom, make the coffee,
here,
take out the trash
not
the smart door
bend
over, clean the bathroom, make the coffee, here, take out the trash
Pretty
opens the rich door
“You
are the equal of Kings!”
when
she passes
for
white bread
in
a white world
she’s
self-educated
that’s
the key
when
learning to speak
She
mimicked her favorite actresses:
Myrna
Loy as Nora Charles
Maureen
O’Sullivan as Jane
Meryl
Streep as anyone
She
practiced grammar and
took
an etiquette book from the library
in
order to pass
for
a short while
angels
sing
“She
shall have Springtime
wherever
she goes.”
“...and,
as she passed,
she
took the Spring.”
“Wear
a veil to hide your looks - and
keep
it down!”
“Women’s
faces have too much power!”
Blondes
are the last minority
no
one will care
if
they suffer
except
that they look so good doing it
and,
when they are murdered,
they
make sexy victims on the evening news
every
one of them
fears
being stopped
by
a cop
on
a lonely highway
as
much as a black man
they
are about as safe as a black man
“He
told me to step out of the car…
he
threw me against the car
and
frisked me.”
“I
rested my hand on the seat next to me.
He
took it as an invitation.”
“He
was waiting for me…”
“you
could sometimes see
her
twelfth year in her cheeks or her ninth
sparkling
from her eyes;
and
even her fifth would flit
over
the curves of her mouth
now
and then”
Her
face only opens the pretty door
since
she was twelve, she couldn’t
walk
down the street
in
peace
lying
in a pool of blood
she
had a restraining order
don’t
sit next to a man unless you want it
“They
put us in a trailer, it was so hot in there,
I
couldn’t breathe.
I
pushed my nose into a crack in the side.
I
thought, this is it.”
“She
was sleeping soundly
and
upon her eyelashes there lingered tears.”
this
still happens in Atlantis
©Patricia Goodwin
Atlantis (Plum Press, 2006)
