Doomsday

Here are the facts:

Post nuclear holocaust in the Big Apple, a nosey P.I. – ahem – journalist, snoops around for a scoop on Albertine, the mysterious drug that brings your memories to life.

You’ve heard it all before. “Right-Livelihoods” has voice-over narrative, investigation, a dark and dreary world, even a Femme Fatale, in the withered form of Cassandra. Kevin asks her for a kiss then justifies it by calling it a “reality-testing question” – right. She already “guessed” his name, hometown, scoop etc. it’s Kevin that should be testing his own reality.

Which brings us to the Cassandra complex, a psychosis put forth by Jung and explored in the film, 12 Monkeys, and plays a key role in the “Right-Livelihoods.” The Cassandra Complex directly challenges our notion of linear time, as any prophesy does, by positing a reality where the future or the past can be experienced in the present.

Sometimes I feel when I’ve planned a busy week in advance that I’m not actually living in the present, rather fulfilling a predetermined role or just putting my body in the right place at the right time. Our notions of free will seem to be based heavily on future consequences. Our notion of meaning often works the same way – for some, a meaningful dream turns sour when discovered it is a dream. What is meaningful for Kevin in his sad situation? The case? The explosion?

But all this veers away from the noir analogy.

The classic Bogart detective treads through the rain and night in his trench coat, finding temporary relief in the company of slinky red dresses and cigarettes and cares for no one but himself. Amidst murder and vice, he acts as if it’s the end of the world and he just doesn’t care. Noir rings true with a sort of neo-apocalypse the same way Westerns like “Pat Garret and Billy the Kid” do, by portraying single characters in the face of darkness and destruction all around them.

There is a sort of pathetic machismo that arises in these lonely survivors.