The Lighthouse (2019)

Let’s move from an Oscar smash hit to an abhorrent snub: The Lighthouse.

The story of two men who are stuck working on an island together caring for a lighthouse while slowly going crazy is maybe the definition of a prestige B-movie.

It’s a film that on its surface may feel like a cheap, kitschy shock value movie but the second you actually start to engage with it starts to appear in a whole new light.

You’ll realize it’s a visually rich film with an even richer text and a deep well of symbolism and a lot to say about the relationship between God and man.

The film's writer-director Robert Eggers is an interesting filmmaker. Often it feels as though he is a creator of entertainment while also a writer of dissertations on the blurred lines between myth and history.

It’s no secret that he is an obsessive researcher when it comes to his screenplays. His first feature, The VVitch, ends with text on the screen that reads “This film was inspired by many folktales, fairytales and written accounts of historical witchcraft, including journals, diaries and court records. Much of the dialogue comes directly from these period sources.”

This not only feels like a “show your work” at the bottom of your test situation but also somewhat like a thesis for his career moving forward.

The VVitch gives us insight into the insane, broken 1692 brains of colonial settlers and his most recent film, The Northman, is Eggers speaking on the story of Amleth, a real figure from the 11th century.

Amleth got mythologized to the point that, by the 13th century, a complete collection of his exploits could have been compiled from multiple nations.

The Northman in many ways is Eggers stripping the stories to their bare bones and then adding his own meat to them.

Then you have this film, which is based on the story of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse disappearance of 1900.

It’s a simple story of three lighthouse keepers that went missing (most likely from a tide pulling them all into sea), but as with many unsolved mysteries, people like to theorize.

Eggers is no exception, theorizing that the crew went crazy and so on and so forth.

As far as symbolism goes on film, The Lighthouse is one of the most elusive and open to interpretation of the last 10 years.

There are some things we know for sure.

Firstly, we know that Eggers sees Willem Dafoe as a Posiden-type character; angry and spiteful towards those beneath him, but respectful of the sea and her creatures.

Then you have Robert Pattinson’s, Howard, who is a representation of Prometheus, a trickster, a liar, and a thief.

We see this as their arcs continue and they are led to the same decisions as their Greek counterparts and go onto similar fates.

Then you have the seagulls who appear in the film, and I’ll let Eggers speak on this himself. Here’s a quote from his conversation with the wonderful Perri Nemiroff over at Collider about the birds:

“Black Phillip [The goat from the VVitch] was such a nightmare that I didn't want to do another leading character animal, but I did want the chaos to really begin and the winds to change with Rob's character killing a seabird. But my brother sort of convinced me that having this prominent one-eyed seagull character was a good idea and so I took the plunge.”

The seagull plays many prominent roles in this film.

It is the malignant force that breaks your brain in Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven.

It represents the Albatross in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a sign of un-appreciation toward nature.

And going back to mythology, it also plays the role of the eagle in the story of Prometheus.

Part of the fun of film theory is you can really make a movie say whatever you want if you try hard enough.

So to go along with our half-baked research, fun facts, and personal story time we’d like to add a new segment: Film Theory Gone Wrong.

Here we’ll give you the worst film theory has to offer with the most ridiculous readings of films we can come up with:

This is Egger’s commentary on Pixar’s 1995 Toy Story:

Dafoe is a clear analog for Woody, the high-strung man who is overprotective of his master.

Pattinson is obviously Buzz Lightyear, the newbie who believes himself the hero of the story but has no understanding of the rules.

So what is the lighthouse itself?

Andy of course! The powerful figure whom the characters revolve their whole lives around and yet their God has no understanding of their existence, much less their autonomy.

Makes sense to us!

Guess Tomorrow’s Film