Get Out is such a smart and brilliant movie that, more than a year after its release, people are still talking about it and coming up with new theories and ways to analyse it.
For instance, Twitter user @kyalbr recently tweeted his Freudian analysis of the movie, and it's pretty incredible.
So, Freud's essay on the "uncanny" made me think of Jordan Peele & Get Out. The weird coincidence that the German word for the uncanny or the unsettling is "unheimlich" and our procedure for rescuing the near dead is "the Heimlich." But, then my thoughts spun out of control: https://t.co/EUZIHrg4j7
He specifically addressed the use of two secondary characters: Jim Hudson, the blind man who bids on Chris, and Georgina, the maid.
In order to keep this thread structured, visualize two branches. The first branch: Jim Hudson 🌱 The second branch: Georgina. 🌿 And, let's start with the first. But, who the hell is Jim Hudson? This is Jim Hudson. https://t.co/KY1XhpOp49
Kyle explains that Hudson represents "colourblind" racism...
In this way, Peele delineates Hudson's racism from Rose's and Jeremy's--siblings who have two figuratively dueling forms of racism: Jeremy's racism is physical and violent, Rose's (no less dangerous) is pleasant and white womanish. But, Hudson's racism? Colorblind. https://t.co/wb73YzcCVf
...something which is reinforced by the casting of Stephen Root, who similarly played a blind man profiting off the talent of a black artist in O Brother Where Art Thou.
At the radio station, there is a blind station manager who asks if they're Black. Ulysses (Clooney) says "yep...except our guitar player." The station manager says he doesn't need blacks. Clooney says kidding. We're white. Except our guitar player. Root is the blind man. https://t.co/8dzTfIfwJt
Kyle connects Freud's suggestion that losing one's eyesight is symbolic of impotency, with Jordan Peele's use of Chris' camera as an emblem for the potency Hudson covets.
Now, Hudson's lack of eyesight is not something Freud would miss. In Freud's estimation, to lose one's eyesight was a form of castration and lack eyesight is a form of impotency. The question, then, is does Peele at all tie Hudson's desire to any phallic, black object? 😐 https://t.co/5nNCmzPh4g
As for Georgina, Kyle asserts that she's representative of Freud's concept "unheimlich".
Now, for the second branch, Georgina. Freud's entire premise behind "unheimlich" is that for something to be creepy, it can't just be new and unfamiliar but has to approach familiarity. Here's a long quote but these could very well be Betty Gabriel's acting notes. https://t.co/XmUtQteA6P
And that the notion of the "uncanny valley" can be tied to the sunken place.
Speaking of animatronics, Freud's theories were obviously then introduced into robotics and helped to explain what is now referred to as the "uncanny valley" the intense discomfort we feel towards things that appear almost human but not quite. https://t.co/bDH3qbv3ON
TL;DR:
Anyway, So, in Branch 1, colorblindness is a tertiary form of racism not often discussed in the analysis of Get Out. In addition, Freud could read a castration complex into Hudson's desire for Chris's eyes. https://t.co/IugG1buF1F
And, in Branch 2, Betty Gabriel nails the portrayal of Georgina because she plays her perfectly in the unheimlich, the uncanny valley which (on a chart) could literally be described as the sunken place. https://t.co/jQirDwwE7i
People on Twitter were very into Kyle's analysis...
@kyalbr
@kyalbr whew! great thread.
@kyalbr
@kyalbr @SLSmith000 Don't. Stop. My mind needs more!
@kyalbr Sunken place = uncanny valley 👀
@kyalbr This is so good I have goosebumps....
Mind. Blown.
