The X-Men: Deconstructing the Other

I am, as has been brought to my attention on several occasions, something of a “movie snob.” This means I regularly turn up my nose at mainstream Hollywood flicks in favor of more obscure, antiquated, or pretentious artistic films like “The Lion in Winter,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Henry V,” etc. etc. However, I have tried to reassure my critics on this point that, despite the prevailing opinion to the contrary, I do on occasion enjoy a good big-budget movie along with the rest of the masses. This weekend, in fact, I went to the movie theater in the mall (the temple wherein America worships high-priced and flashy banality) to watch “X-Men 3: The Last Stand,” a major summer motion picture, albeit the heyday of its popularity was SO three weeks ago. And I rather enjoyed it, just as I enjoyed its two predecessors.

If you can lower your artistic expectations and have a healthy ability to suspend your disbelief about the science of the whole thing, the story of the X-Men is really great. Its an exploration of how we deal with other people who are different from us, which, basically, is what the whole of human history is about. In previous films in the series, I left thinking about minorities and our history of treating them poorly, from marginalization to outright genocide. In addition to that, this most recent film made think about xenophobia, and how we construct notions of the Other. I've ranted on my blog before about the danger that comes from an ideology that divides humanity into categories of “us” and “them,” and the X-Men movie really plays with this idea.

In the first place, we see, as we have in the previous installments, the xenophobia of the humans against the mutants. This minority is demonized and dehumanized until they are viewed as things, as monsters, and not people. The politician in the first movie who was pushing for the Mutant Registration Act (I can't remember his name) was the spokesman for this kind of rhetoric. He says, “Are you in favor of registering firearms? Well, some of these so-called “children” have more destructive capability than any hand gun.” The result is the creation, a construct, in the minds of the mainstream of an inhuman “Other.” Once this construct takes hold, all kinds of intolerant and destructive behavior becomes easy to rationalize. After all, its not like they are people, like us. While fictional, this story is reminiscent of the times in history where this demonization of a group of people as the Other has led to horrific ends. The treatment of the Jews under the Nazi regime is a notorious and tragic example.

But this movie, specifically, also showed how easy it is for members of a persecuted and demonized minority to respond by dehumanizing their oppressors. Instead of working to undermine and destroy the pernicious human/mutant dichotomy, they seek merely to reverse it. Magneto and his ilk demonize humans (calling them filth, or unclean, or less advanced) until they become the Other in much the same way mutants are for some humans. By doing so, they serve only to reinforce the negative stereotypes that have been placed upon them, causing the humans to act with even more hysteria and intolerance. Magneto cannot even continue association with one of his former mutant henchmen after they accidentally receive the mutant “cure,” saying that now they have become “one of them.” The operative word here being them. Those people. The Other.

Only the X-Men see the Buddhistic truth that these distinctions of us and them are illusions and that, on the most fundamental levels, we are all the same. Acts of ruthless violence, prejudice, and intolerance become close to impossible when we recognize this simple fact: that we are all One. The X-Men use their powers to protect people, whether mutant or human. They work consistently and passionately to secure equal rights for mutants, but they do not give in to acts of bitterness or revenge. They extend the open tolerance to others that they have not received. This is, I think, a constructive model for any minority group, particularly those I happen to belong to, that is seeking to establish its own legitimacy and secure equal rights. We cannot respond to persecution in kind; we must turn the other cheek. We must recognize the humanity and equality of those who do not recognize ours. It's not easy; many of the X-Men are tempted by Magneto's passionate andvengeful ideology. But in the end, Charles Xavier will always be the celebrated, compassionate visionary, while Magneto, with his obsession of power and hierarchy, will be hated as the meglomaniac idealogue.This all may be really obvious analysis to you, but I think its worth spelling out. No lesson could be more appropriate for our times. We live in an age of fear - fear of the Other. The X-Men invite us to protect ourselves from extremists while also respecting the humanity of all man-kind. Too many, I fear, enjoy the movie's action sequences and special effects (which were definitely fun) and don't spend too much time thinking about the premise underneath. I think we all could do with a little self-evaluation to see where and how we have employed the false notion of the Other in our ideology, in our politics, in our religion, and in our day-to-day interactions. We could be reminded of the danger of extremism and hate-mongering, of xenophobia and stereotyping. We all need to be reminded (now, tomorrow, forever) that true and lasting peace is impossible until we exchange the lie of the Other for the truth of the One (not Neo).

But, hey, it was just a movie.