Hello everyone! Today we have a "special edition", so to speak, of my blog! Something I really don't do that often. It's gonna be a very long post, I'm gonna give my opinion on this amazing movie I just watched, as I won't let people with opposing views write History without me just being quiet about it. I should express myself also. But before we begin, how are you? How are things going? Wish you the best! How is the weather? I hope for good days in your life and in mine. So, let's begin. I have a lot to say!
For starters, the movie is aesthetically a triumph, I am instantly in love forever with its artstyle, which can only be described as unique, special, one of a kind, with its cartoony details that even so have strong shading and 3D features. I love the colors and the red noses, and I am eager to feast myself in it, to draw the characters, to just celebrate this new discovery in my life. I want to make a fanart to Jesper already! It inspires greatly, it's a party for the eyes.
Also, Jason Schwartzman, an actor I appreciate greatly, and that is not acting too much these days, is the major one in the movie, giving his voice and spirit to Jesper Johansson, that also became one of my favorite characters of the literary world. We also have Rashida Jones, another actor I really like, that gives her voice and spirit to the teacher, named Alva, that I also appreciate so much, for her strong personality, and her passion.
But, the main star of the movie is its story and reflection, which will be the major part of this long post! Let's talk about my perspective on it, while seeing a bit of the story also.
Before we truly begin, let me be clear:
YES, THIS WILL CONTAIN MAJOR SPOILERS!
Ist that out of the way? Well, moving on.
This movie tells the story of Jesper Johansson, who loves a very luxurious and comfortable life, with lovely silky sheets and breakfast in bed, enjoying what his father has built, which is, a very respectable mailing company. Mr. Johansson, the patriarch of the family, tries to give his boy a trade in life, so he can be more than he is at the moment, something that Jesper not only rejects, but repulses. He failed on the mailing academy, who trains the future postman of the business.
His father had enough of his children's deliberate failures, and decides to teach him a lesson, by promoting him to postman, despite his failure, and putting him in charge of the post office in a frigid island in the middle of nowhere, called Smeerensburg. Jesper resents, of course, but he has no choice, because his father also gave him a task: to successfully manage 6000 posts there, in six months or so, or he will be cut out of the family, put on the streets.
The journey is arduous, and arriving there, Jesper discovers a place straight out of Frostpunk, a dead-end place filled with resentment and bickering, filled by the cold and the lack of things to do. A whole tradition was built around it, with two rival clans on each other's throats just for the sake of it, in Romeo and Juliet style, except there is no romance to be seen, and the italian sun is a distant unreacheable dream.
Things couldn't get worse for Jesper, as he is trapped in this nightmare of a town, a locality in which have no need for a postman in the first place. He tries his best to do his work, dreaming of returning home, with no success, and this sounds like the end, but it isn't. In fact, it is where the movie begins.
Jesper, trying to get letters for , eventually meet Klaus, a person of few friends who live even further in the middle of nowhere. Klaus had a house filled with old toys, and while this seems not important at first glance, it's where things take shape in the end. Jesper at the beginning ran away in fear of the imposing figure of Klaus, leaving his bag of mails behind. In it, there is only a single half-letter in it, with a drawing poorly made of a sad child. How this letter gets in the bag, specially since Smeerensburg is no place for letters, you will have to watch the movie to see, because it is filled with nice its and bits, details like that, which in first glance, just like the toys, sound irrelevant, but that make the story work.
Klaus follows the track of Jesper, that ran away, and with very few words say something like "you are the postman, so deliver this toy from my house to this children at once", which Jesper does. And this is how things get deeper.
Words ran around about the children that, because of a drawing, gained a gift that spreaded joy to his bleak life. This movie particularly reminds me of the famous quotation by Adam Smith, that says "“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”. The postman has the goal of 6000 letters in a place that has no need for it prior to the miracle of the gift. The children had the goal of having a less sad life that feeds out of sadness and anger, prior to the miracle of the gift. It all comes from the gift, from exchange. The child of the "miracle" quickly associates his fortune with Jesper, and spread the word around "if you give a drawing, a letter, something, to the postman, you will get gifts!", and many quickly run with their last savings to the previously desolated post office, looking for more of the deed. Jesper sees his only opportunity to get out of there, and runs to Klaus, telling him about what is happening. Being convinced, after much effort from Jesper, to repeat the miracle, Klaus deliver more gifts from his house to the children that asked for it. The motion strenghens. Because the children don't know how to write, Jesper tells them to go to school so they can learn, a school that was previously in shambles, filled with stinky fish, with a teacher that is dreaming of the day she will, like Jesper, go away from there. Jesper, grabbing his opportunity by the throat, seeing the necessity of the children for gifts, and his necessity for letters, enrinches the story of the gift. Soon, everything will change.
Children start doing acts of goodwill in a place that has known only acts of violence, and as a result people slowly start to get more friendly to one another. This friendliness grows, and soon the Frostpunk universe is turned to a winter wonderland. The school gets renovated because the children can't get enough of it, toys flood the town, and all of this because of Jesper's sellfish interests.
The movie, of course, talks about selfless actions, don't fall for it, as selflessness, altruism, is a monster, a false God, one that was devouring the world of Smeerensburg before. No, it is sellfishness, looking after your interests, living your life, that set the good motion in order, and incentives people to gather around instead of fight all day long. Not only that, but altruism is the true enemy of this new world.
Not everyone is happy with the newly found joy around Smeerensburg, the chiefs of the old enemy clans are enfuriated because people are turning back into their tradition of bickering. It is based on the idea that man should live for one another, looking for one another, instead of doing what's best for them in the first place. People usually tend for cooperation, specially on a place that makes it clear they have nothing but gains with it. Only a subnormal and deeply artificial "tradition" can put them against each other. The true selfleness act is the act of violence, because it's based on the other, to make the other suffer, to see the other in pain, to gain joy from its tragedy. The opposite is the case with exchange of the free market. You give something good to another, expecting to receive something in return, or at least to smile on your action of goodwill, as the joy of others is way stronger as a fuel to satisfaction than their cries of pain. Something has to happen, some will has to come, in order to put the whole thing together, and that is Jesper's actions.
He is not unchallenged, of course, and the previoulsy feud clans join together in order to destroy both him and Klaus, while they bring jobs and a proper home to the nomadic and desolated saami people, which one of them becomes Jesper's friend and confidant, while Jesper develops a love interest with the teacher, those unhappy fellows of the clans burn their brains finding ways to hurt them, so the motion can be stopped, so Frostpunk can return.
They are almost successful at their goal. The plan of Jesper, to get 6000 letters, is revealed, to the shock of all around, who feel fooled by him. I think this is sincerely a mistake, of course, I think Jesper should just be honest about his intentions with them in the first place, but so what if his actions were motivated by his own sellfish gains? Look at all the good he spreaded! And this changes him deeply also, the more he realizes his potential to do good, the less little and petty he becomes, the more gentle and kind he gets, and he grows to love Smeerensburg, as that previously dreadful location becomes a Christmas beacon. In the end, even with Jesper's father proudly inviting his son to return home, he stays. The patriarch, that before felt worried about his future, embraces him and tells him how happy he is to have him as a son. In the end, Klaus discovered his joy of living, the teacher felt in the right place for the first time, and even after the passing of Klaus, his spirit remains. Once a year, on that special date, Jesper get to see his friend, while his spirit delivers joy to the children all over the world.
Yes, it is that good of a movie, it tells a tail about exchange, economics, that some traditions can imprision you, while others set you free. The movie, of course, will deny all of this, possibly stating that my review is rotted, dogmatic. Well, I don't shy myself anymore of giving my own libertarian perspective of things, and so this is my understanding of the story.
And so, with all this said, we should wrap things up, and rest, because I plan on writing another post tomorrow, in such a frentic week! A wonderful Christmas week! See you real soon, and thank you ever so much for being here, dear reader of this post.
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