"It happens sometimes. People just explode. Natural Causes."

I know I'm not alone in this but Repo Man was such a strange film to me. It was one of the few on our list of movies to watch that I had never heard of and I was excited to see it. Our discussions in class about these types of films were interesting. This whole idea of 80's movies moving in a different direction of style over substance, where it completely had to do with image and the rest didn't really matter, intrigued me. But when I saw Repo Man I wasn't the least bit intrigued. It wasn't a horrible film but it wasn't a good film either. While interestingly blurring genres (the film has elements of science fiction, comedy, drama, horror, detective, western, and romance) the film was an overall disappointment. I went into it hoping to see another Blade Runner and ended up with another Dude Where's My Car?.

After watching Repo Man a second time I decided that there was absolutely no use in trying to find any hidden meanings or connections. I've come to the conclusion that it is merely a film that celebrates the bizarre, one that tries to entertain us by piling strangeness on top of strangeness. The world that director Alex Cox creates is one without any direction or sense. It begins with a scene where a cop disintegrates after looking into a macguffin of a trunk that apparently is holding four extraterrestrials that look like sausage, and the ridiculousness doesn't stop there. When Otto is sought out and chosen to become a repo man (which is never explained to us why and appears to be due to fate or chance) he is thrust into a world that is even more offbeat than the punk rock, rebellious youth world that we originally find him in. We soon witness a ridiculous, unordinary world that is without consistency and is overtly contradictory, one that rains a hail of ice cubes, contains glowing green cars, and gives lobotomies to people who aren't crazy. At one point early on Bud and Otto are driving and Bud says that he should dress like a detective. Moments later when the camera cuts to two longer shots, the scene goes from daylight to night time and then cuts back to daylight, all during the same conversation. While Bud preaches the moral code of repo men (I couldn't help but think of High Plains Drifter and what Eastwood was doing with moral codes) they snort speed while Bud claims, "Ordinary fuckin' people I hate em."

Repo Man is filled with ridiculous and puzzling characters and settings. All of the characters seem to be in groups and come in and out of the story without any logic or purpose. Characters like Plettschner who isn't introduced but is thrust into the film without warning, Miller who is clearly crazy while he dances and chants like an Indian and says things like "John Wayne was a fag", and Lite whose gun sounds like a futuristic laser pistol when fired, all make up the group that Otto is, at least at first, unwilling to join. Before this we see that Otto's family isn't any more normal as his mother and father sit on the couch smoking a joint, brainwashed by a religious infomercial on their television. The film's settings are equally bizarre. The streets are strangely vacant for being Los Angeles, something I would only guess has to do with production decisions or budget restraints. At one point Otto steals a car from a man inside a laundromat, a place where people casually lay passed out on the ground. The gas station and grocery store are filled with various products that all look the same and are strangely labeled exactly what's inside them. Every box, can, or bottle is almost featureless except for the various labels including "drink", "beer", "food", and "pretzels". This creates a very distinct look and allows the locations to seem as if they are surrounded by collections of words that randomly crash into one another. As it was mentioned in class by professor McRae the 80's were a time of numerous generic goods. I would like to think that the filmmakers are commenting on a particular point in history. But since I refuse to believe that there is really any underlying meaning to this film, I think the filmmakers are simply using the strangeness of this particular image to create something that is in some ways satirical but overall just cool to look at.

The film actually uses music in very interesting ways. Aside from a clever leitmotif of tense, sci-fi horror used during the Chevy Malibu scenes, the filmmakers set up interesting moments where music appears to address different genres and stereotypes. When Otto and Bud first run into the Rodriquez Brothers, the scene quickly turns into a chase sequence where they skid across large puddles of water while surf music is being played. When Otto is first riding in the car with Lite, they eventually turn on music that is clearly satirical as they ride down the rode listening to funk that could have just as easily not been diegetic. But at many points the music just seems strange, adding to this weird and cryptic feeling to which the purpose is unclear (Secret Agent Man in Spanish).



Overall, there’s just way too much to talk about regarding Repo Man. Much like the postmodernist Natural Born Killers, the film is a never ending collage of images that crash and collide, giving film students a lot to look at and potentially analyze. But unlike Oliver Stone’s film, Repo Man doesn’t seem to have a clear message or purpose that would be typical reasons for analysis. One thing that I did enjoy about the film was that Cox was able to successfully create a world that I’ve never seen before. He creates a world where normal activities include shaving people’s heads at work while discussing John Wayne’s sexuality. Where people wear one lens sunglasses at night. Where driving makes everyone more stupid. And where some deaths have no other explanation than that “people just explode”.