- "Everybody Knows" song selection
- Dealing with loss: world (general)
- Dealing with loss: Lois and Martha (personal)
- Foreclosure on the Kent farm
- Newspaper headlines and homeless man
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<Transcript below>
And to get into Scene 3, we can say that the transition is
pretty smooth. The burglar in Scene 2 just commented on Superman being dead,
and as Batman paused for just a moment, the burglar asked, “where does that
leave us?” Then they cut to black and Scene 3 comes in as the visual answer to
that question.
A black flag flies with the Justice League logo, serving as
the title card for the film. And then the music starts in. The song is
“Everybody knows” written by Leonard Cohen and Sharon Robinson, performed for
the film by Sigrid. The song is a great choice, with fitting lyrics and a mood
that matches the somber feeling of the scene. The artists also align with the
fact that this scene has a worldwide scope. Even though there are the personal
moments with Lois and Martha, there are also images from all around the globe,
as we’ll talk about later, and the artists of the music are also international.
Leonard Cohen of course was a legendary folk artist from Canada, and Sigrid is
Norwegian.
And the lyrics work well, for the movie and in some sense on
a meta-level. The first line is “Everybody knows that the dice are loaded,” and
we see a portion of Superman’s military funeral, which we also saw in BvS. The
dice being loaded is like things are stacked against you or the game was
rigged, and that idea kind of applies to Superman’s struggle with the world and
the fact that he didn’t really get a fair shake with the public; narratives
were being twisted and perceptions manipulated by Lex Luthor.
“Everybody knows the good guys lost; everybody knows the
fight was fixed.” This also refers to Superman and BvS where Lex was fixing
things and the good guys lost in the sense that Superman died.
Some other lines are not as specifically about the ending of
BvS but more so just about the general feeling of the world, both in the movie
and in relation to current events in the real world. Running through them
quickly: “The fight was fixed,” “The poor stay poor, the rich get rich.
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking.” “Everybody got this broken feeling,
like their father or their dog just died.” “Everybody knows it’s coming apart.”
So there’s this general malaise and also a feeling of things deteriorating
rather than getting better. The reference to a feeling like someone just died
connects more specifically to the loss of Superman, and we also know that, in
the movie, both Clark and Bruce dealt with the loss of a father. In fact, loss
of parents and loss overall is one of the main themes in the movie that we’ve
already identified. We’ll say a bit more about that later, but using the song
is a very poetic way of initiating that theme. Whereas Scene 2 kind of clumsily
initiated the theme about fear, Scene 3 very elegantly initiates the theme
about dealing with loss.
There’s also a line, “Everybody knows that the captain
lied,” which if we stretch for it we can connect to Batman as the captain of
the soon-to-be Justice League, but he lied to Alfred and even himself in BvS,
and that self-delusion is part of what led to this point. Another specific
connection to a character is the line, “Everybody knows that you love me baby”
which connects to Lois, who features prominently in the scene and was of course
the love of Superman. There’s even a line about “long stem roses” and also an
emphasis on the flowers around Superman’s monument in Heroes Park.
The song is also very fitting in that it shifts to a more
violent kind of tone and instrumentation right when the scene shifts to the
anti-Muslim violence on the city streets. And “Everybody knows that the plague
is coming” is a nice foreshadowing of the parademons and the unity later in the
movie. So overall, kudos on the song selection and the performance and
production by the musicians involved.
Next we want to comment on the worldwide perspective in this
scene. The filmmakers made a clear effort to establish this as a worldwide
phenomena. Right from the start, they show Superman being mourned in the cities
around the globe. The black S symbol, which is an homage to the black armband
from the Death of Superman comic books, is seen in several locations, starting
with his coffin in Arlington, but then it’s also displayed at the Notre-Dame
Cathedral in Paris and on the MahaNakhon tower in Bangkok, where the text in
Thai on the black banner translates to “we will not forget you.” At the end of
the scene, we’ll also see a black banner on the Tower bridge in London, which
is a nice connection coming right from Wonder Woman this summer and it is used
as a direct flow from Scene 3 into Wonder Woman’s entrance in Scene 4.
But there are a few things that this worldwide scope
accomplishes. First of all, it reinforces the impression that Metropolis is not
just an isolated fictional city but a city that fits along with the other major
cities in the world. And it also places it in a somewhat realistic world
because of the sentiments that we referenced earlier. Second, the worldwide
scope previews the extent of the threat that will arise later in the film but
it also previews the idea that different people from a variety of backgrounds
can be unified. And third, and this is especially nice for fans of the full
Dawn of Justice trilogy, this worldwide montage echoes similar scenes in Man of
Steel and Batman v Superman. In Man of Steel, when Zod was arriving and introducing
himself to mankind, the filmmakers explicitly showed us people from various
countries and continents. Then in BvS, there was a Superman montage that
spanned Mexico and Russia and either the arctic or the antarctic. They
continued to show that Superman’s impact was worldwide. So now it makes sense
that the mourning for his death would also be worldwide.
A more specific connection, of course, is the location of
Heroes park and the remains of the Superman monument. That is a key location
for every film in the Dawn of Justice trilogy. It was the center of the Black
Zero event and the start of Superman’s final battle with Zod, it was the site
where Superman and Doomsday started their exterior battle, and here in Justice
League it is marked with flowers and memorial offerings, still showing the
scars of that battle with Doomsday. And later in the movie, it will be a key
location yet again.
Now, it’s not just that the world is mourning. There is also
decay and desperation, perhaps spurred on by the loss of a hero and protector.
As Amanda Waller said in Suicide Squad, the world changed when Superman flew
across the sky, and then it changed again when he didn’t. The world is in
shambles and more dangerous now that Superman is gone. Not just because of
Superman literally not being there to stop crime, but also the collective
cultural spirit of cynicism, maybe because it shook their world that Superman,
someone who they thought was more powerful than all of them, could actually be
killed. If Superman can die, it reminds everyone of their mortality, and that
might lead to some collective hopelessness.
This decay is shown most explicitly in the next scene with
the London attack, and it’s later mentioned in dialogue by Martha and Lois, but
it’s also shown here in Scene 3, most obviously with the anti-Muslim incident.
This can be interpreted as a commentary on current events and anti-Muslim
sentiments that are pretty strong in certain segments of society. The way that
the scene was staged and shot also really emphasizes the anger and depicts
people lashing out in violence. The fact that the police officers were cast to
be noticeably smaller than the brutes they were apprehending gives the audience
an implicit sense that the criminals are nearly overrunning the authorities and
they have their hands full with Superman gone. This moment outside the
Muslim-owned business also speaks to the question of how we choose to respond
to challenging times. Some people respond with anger and violence. And if the
loss of Superman represents a loss of hope, then we’re seeing here how some
people respond unproductively to that loss. And as our listener @WonderWoeMan
on twitter pointed out, Justice League from start to finish is basically a
story about grappling with a reclamation of hope. And Scene 3 here is showing a starting point
for that arc, and it is picking up the reins of BvS in terms of having it be
fairly realistic in tone.
https://twitter.com/WonderWoeMan/status/931698326558429184
In many interpretations, both of the character and the
current movies, Superman also represents America’s leadership in the world --
whether that be leadership just in the sense of military might as the country
with the largest defense spending by far, or American leadership in terms of
the shining city upon a hill, as Ronald Reagan described it. From this
perspective, the death of Superman would represent the loss of American
leadership, as has happened just in the last year or so specifically because of
a retreat to isolationist positions and against globalism, trying to close its
borders, and America withdrawing as a leader on things like climate change and
nuclear anti-proliferation. Many political commentators here and abroad are
writing about the loss of American leadership, and like the loss of Superman,
it leads to the question of what will rise up in its place. On an international
level, there’s Europe trying to claim the mantle of moral leadership and
countries like China and Russia trying to leverage American decline for their
own advantage. But what’s more relevant to Justice League is more of the
emotional level -- where do we find hope and inspiration if America is no
longer providing it like it used to? Or do we abandon hope and optimism and
replace it instead with anger and hatred at outsiders or those we view as
other? The movie answers this question by making the case that we need to stick
together and find our strength in our common connections. And if we keep to the
notion of Superman as representing America, then the movie is actually saying
by the end that America is needed as an international leader but it should not
be alone, it should be a collaborative partner with other nations.
There’s a lot more to be said about that, but we’ll just
leave it there for now. Getting back to more in-story details, one thing we’ve
said on this podcast in our BvS analysis was that at the very end of that film,
there seemed to be a clear hint of inspiration. We’re thinking about Bruce’s
final monologue and the candlelight vigil where people said that Superman’s
monument was all around them. That inspiration found in Superman’s sacrifice,
we said, was a big part of how Superman managed to defeat Lex even though Lex
succeeded in killing him. Yes, Superman died, but he was not publicly defamed
like Lex had hoped -- instead, Superman was a beacon of selflessness and
inspiration. So in that sense, Lex’s plan backfired.
And the worldwide population is mourning Superman and
honoring him, so in that sense Superman did die a hero. But it seems as though
the general public didn’t all take up the mantle of being his monument and
being heroes in their daily lives. It seems as though things have given way to
negativity and depression. So were we wrong about that inspirational bit at the
end of BvS? One explanation is that the inspirational part may have been
short-lived. Maybe people intended to live as monuments to Superman’s ideals,
but it’s part of human nature that we drift back into more modest habits.
Furthermore, villains may have also been unleashed, and without Superman
around, they were bolder and able to get away with more. It seems like one of
the trailers mentioned how terrorism was on the rise with Superman dead, and
that would fit with this idea. Overall, as Jor-El predicted in Man of Steel,
Superman can set an example but this scene may be showing a bit of mankind
stumbling and falling, but one day -- in fact it will be by the end of this
movie -- they will join him in the sun.
Anyway, the public adoration of Superman clearly aligns with
the fact that Superman won them over with his sacrifice at the end of BvS, and
maybe they desired to live by his example but, realistically, that’s easier
said than done.
Now let’s move into the more personal elements of the scene,
specifically Lois Lane and Martha Kent. We see a figure moving toward the
monument in Heroes park, in the dreary rain holding a black umbrella. There is
an elegant shot from above that shows the black umbrella coming into the gap
amongst the flowers around the monument. We also see an unnamed character
laying flowers, with a jacket that has a Superman S on the back. And then
eventually we see that the earlier person was indeed Lois Lane, Superman’s
fiance and his world, with their love story having been profoundly developed
over the first two films. She brings us to a very personal level of the theme
of dealing with loss. Whereas some in the general public may deal with loss by
showing anger or despair, Lois here is clearly showing sadness. Later on we
will also learn that the loss has affected her productivity and her sense of
purpose, but for now it’s more about the raw emotions of missing Clark at home
and in general.
Stopping for a moment to empathize with Lois, there are a
few things going on here. Yes, this is a woman who has lost her romantic partner,
so that is relatable in a general sense. But more acutely, she has also lost
her fiance before even getting to be with him as fiancees. It’s the loss of a
loved one and also the loss of the future that you had envisioned with that
person. And going even further, if we think about Lois’s role in Batman v
Superman, we realize that Lois also hurts because she knows this was not just a
loss for her but for the whole world. In BvS, Lois was very aware of what
Superman meant to the world and that he was a beacon of hope that meant
something. Her actions in BvS were to try and protect the reputation of
Superman so that he could continue being a force for good, and she also tried
to protect Clark from the slings and arrows of the public so that he would be able
to continue. She was even willing to put her personal desires aside because she
knew that the things he could do for the world were more important than just
her. So she loved Clark but she also cared about what Superman represented in
the world and what his future potential could be as a hero for years to come,
and now, despite her efforts, Superman is lost. She was unable to protect Clark
and Superman both. And this scene beautifully captures both of those elements,
showing Lois at the public monument and also in the privacy of her bedroom.
And the other main personal connection in the scene is
Martha Kent. Of course she represents the idea of a parent losing a child,
which is emotionally powerful and known as one of the great tragedies in any
parent’s life. We also get some more specific layers from the scene and from
our knowledge of the the prior films. Losing Clark is especially painful for
Martha because she never wanted to share her son with the world. She knew of
the dangers of being Superman, and if she had her way, he would’ve just stayed
close to her as her safe little boy. But she allowed him to have the choice,
and he made the choice to sacrifice himself as Superman.
We see that she’s moving out of the Kent Farm. This is yet
another important location in the Dawn of Justice trilogy. It was the serene
and stable location for a transient Clark in Man of Steel, and the sacredness
of home was violated when Zod was looking for the codex. Then in BvS, it was
the place where Superman went when he was dealing with the weight of the world
and needed to hear some comforting words from his mother. But now, having lost
both Jonathan and Clark, with the gravestone shot reminding us of their resting
places, Martha is letting the house go. She either doesn’t want to live there
anymore, perhaps because of the painful memories or because there’s no one left
who would be coming back to visit, or it’s possible that she can’t live there
anymore. Either way, we see that it’s foreclosed by the bank and that’s a loss for
her too. And she’s basically letting it go, similar to how Bruce let Wayne
Manor go and then it deteriorated and deteriorated, as we saw in BvS. Luckily,
both homesteads will be reclaimed by the end of Justice League, representing
the return of hope and purpose.
So we see how hard the death is hitting Martha and Lois, and
we see that it’s affecting their life situation, too, not just their emotional
state. So that is something that will be followed up on in the movie. And like
we said, this clearly establishes the theme of how we deal with loss. That
question is something that can be traced in several different ways going
forward.
To close out this scene, though, we just want to point out a
few other things we noticed. First of all, for those who are interested in
mapping out the geography of this universe, we see from the foreclosure sign
that it’s listed by Comanche Realty and the town is Comanche, Kansas. As far as
we can tell there’s no town called Comanche in Kansas, but there is a Comanche
County in South Central Kansas, right on the Oklahoma border.
There’s also a moment in the scene where we see a newspaper
vending machine and the headline -- “David Bowie, Superman, and Prince --
aliens called back to their home planets?” This reminds me of similar jokes in
the Men in Black movies about celebrities being aliens, and there it was done
for humor, but here it’s actually fairly realistic. If an actual alien like
Superman were confirmed to exist, then there would be lots of speculation and
stories about other people possibly being aliens. And people with special
talents or quirks would be likely targets for conspiracy theories like this. So
this sort of story is actually pretty plausible.
We also noticed on the newspaper that other headlines read,
Citywide Crisis and Supergerm could end humanity. These headlines not only
reinforce the feeling of general malaise and negativity but they are also
reminiscent of DC comic book stories. Any use of the word “crisis” stands out
to DC fans because that word is often used to refer to universe-changing
events, and there have been many stories in the comics about supergerms or
infections, including some even in recent years, perhaps inspired by the real
world concerns about antiobitic-resistant bacteria. The only other headline we
saw was a partial phrase at the top that said “waging war on the human race.”
We don’t know what that is in full, but it’s kind of a foreshadowing of
Steppenwolf.
The last little tidbit we wanted to mention was the homeless
man on the street whose sign reads, “I tried.” We took this to be an homage to
Watchmen, with the film being directed by Zack Snyder and it has the famous
“End is nigh” guy. So this is sort of saying, I tried to tell you the end of
the world was coming, and now it’s here. This may seem a bit premature because
the end of the world doesn’t seem imminent yet, but with Superman gone and the
loss of hope it may feel like it’s headed that way without anyone who can stop
it. Some fans of Snyder’s have also said that this “I tried” could be like
Snyder saying that he tried to make his Justice League film, but it was
overridden by the studio executives. That doesn’t quite work out timing-wise,
though, because this scene seems to have been filmed by Snyder as part of
principal photography, so it was before the full WB takeover and reshoots. If
you wanted to stretch for a meta-level meaning, however, you could try to say
that it’s maybe Snyder’s comment to those who hated Batman v Superman. He tried
to make something special and meaningful and was pushed out by certain segments
of the audience and by WB from following his vision fully.
But anyway, that’s some pretty loose speculation. Looking
across the scene overall, it had some nice emotional weight reinforced by the
music and the smooth camera movements, plus the use of slow-motion.
Thematically, this scene sets up the idea of dealing with loss, and in terms of
scope, this is basically the only time that we see how the world has responded
to Superman’s death. The only other real presence of ordinary people in the
film is the Russian or Ukrainian family, and they don’t have a direct
connection to Superman in the sense that they don’t grieve for him and they
don’t call out for him, and it actually ends up being Flash who saves them.
With regard to the trilogy, this scene is very well
connected, in our opinion, to both the style and the substance of the prior
films in the series. As Deo Robinson, one of our listeners, wrote on YouTube:
(quote) “the montage not only ties MOS and BVS together, but even SS. That
film's entire premise was based on Superman's death and there was a brief
montage of his funeral and the people's reactions. I also like how it made the
world's void left by him very clear without words or exposition. Just people
mourning and criminals getting bold.” (end quote)
End of Episode
That’s our analysis of Scene 3. As we mentioned before, the
final shot in London flows nicely into Scene 4, and this world-without-Superman
montage also forms a great bookend with Lois’s final monologue. Basically, this
scene shows the sadness of a world that has lost hope, and her monologue
describes the return of that hope. And here where we see the black S’s of
mourning draped on skyscrapers, it will be replaced by the shirt-rip and
Superman returning to the skies at the end of the film. Because of this parallelism,
it might’ve been nice if this montage had actually been the opening scene of
Justice League, but alas.
Next up in the movie is Wonder Woman’s opening scene, and
speaking of Wonder Woman, we are actually going to turn our attention back over
to that film by Patty Jenkins. This will allow us to focus on Wonder Woman
around award season, when it has already been nominated for a Producers Guild
award for best picture and the producers, including Zack Snyder, have already
been recognized by the American Film Institute. Moreover, by spending the next
few weeks on Wonder Woman, it will bring us that much closer to the digital
release of Justice League for when we continue that analysis.
But thank you for listening, and as always, we thank some
other great DC podcasts -- the Suicide Squadcast and Man of Steel Answers.
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