Revisiting "THE POSTMAN" 1997 Movie.

One of the most underrated movies of the 1990s was (➜)The Postman-1997 . IN  The Postman, Costner plays a drifter who roams the remains of the (1)>>Pacific Northwest in 2013, after technological destruction has made the place a wasteland as dry as Waterworld was briny. Scrounging for meals by reciting scraps of Shakespeare to people who have forgotten all literature but are experts in knitting Comme des Garêons-style sweaters, the fellow stumbles across the uniform and undelivered mail sack of a dead man, and, thinking the USPS badge of authority will get him food and shelter, calls himself (2)>>The Postman, a representative of the United States government. The theme of this film brought out the best of " Americanism".  It's a story about how much we take for granted — and how desperately we would miss the little, gracious things that connect us today. It is a story about the last idealist in a fallen America.  Kevin Costner's character changes all that, by creating a "postal service." Initially it's just intended to deliver mail as a way of giving the people hope in the knowledge that there are other communities out there that they can stay in contact with, but it becomes something much more - the postal service actually turns into a revolutionary movement that seeks to unite all of the rural communities together and overthrow General Bethlehem  Here  A man who cannot let go of a

dream we all once shared. That was once the NATION . Who sparks restored faith that we can recover, and perhaps even become better than we were. The movie, based on an award-winning science fiction novel by (2.2)>>David Brin, takes place in 2013. The dust clouds have settled after nuclear war, and scattered communities pick up the reins of civilization. There is no central government. Costner is a lone figure in the wilderness, friendly only with his mule, named Bill. They support themselves by doing Shakespeare for bands of settlers. Bill can hold a sword in his mouth, and in “Macbeth” he plays Birnam Wood. His master recites lines like, “Life is a tale told by a moron,” not the sort of mistake he'd be likely to make, especially with a woman helpfully prompting him by whispering, “Idiot! Idiot!” Or maybe she's a critic.Costner is conscripted into a neofascist / racist army run by (3)>>Gen. Bethlehem (Will Patton). He escapes, stumbles over an abandoned U.S. Mail

van and steals the uniform, cap and letterbag of the skeleton inside. At the gates of a settlement called Pineview, he claims he has come to deliver the mail. Building on his fiction, he tells the residents of a restored U.S. government in Minneapolis. The sheriff spots him for a fraud, but the people want to believe, and the next morning, he finds letters pushed under his door. Walking outside, he discovers that all the townspeople have gathered in hushed silence in a semicircle around his lodging, to await his awakening and appearance--the sort of thing that happens in movies, but never in real life, where some helpful townsman invariably suggests, “Let's just wake the sonuvabitch up.” In a movie that proceeds with glacial deliberation, the Postman becomes a symbol for the survivors in their struggling communities. “You give out hope like it was candy in your pocket,” a young woman tells him. It's the sort of line an actor-director ought to be wary of applying to his own character, but Costner frankly sees the (4)>>Postman as a messiah, and there is a shot late in the film where he zooms high above a river gorge in a cable car that serves absolutely no purpose except to allow him to pose as the masthead on the ship of state. This is a vary long film . It rather slow as you could imagine it . Its part Science Fiction & part Western . The reinstatement of snail mail turns out to be the catalyst for a sweeping revolution, and a heartening reminder that a society which has been dashed is never fully beyond restoration.

Post Apocalyptic America .

In the "fictional" Time Line 2013 , the world was decimated either by a war , or the plague . The Postman deliver a  philosophical aspect, which is " THE RESTORED UNITED STATES of AMERICA" . Whole concept is of great value if you consider the frighting posibility that one day our nation and government will collapse . There is   a bit of hope that mankind will eventually recover and re-form society, although it wouldn't be anything like what society is used to today. The New America will have to have a new set of values . The message is brought to YOU in an unexpected way.  The real problem with THE POSTMAN is that this is a story of someone who should be delivering good news. He is a bearer of hope, but the hope he delivers is merely his makeshift lies. A simple lie that had huge  repercussions where lives of people were drawn in for the common good to fight an emerging oppression , many died believing .What makes America, America? Is American what we want it to be? This is probably the reason why in the film, they make a new American flag and on its white lines it reads “The Restored United States of America” At one point, the villain tellsThe Postman  “you don’t care about anything! You value nothing! You don’t believe in anything!

That’s what makes me better!” and The Postman answers “I believe in theUnited States!” letting us know that yes, this is a film that cares for its country; it simply wants a better one. For the true post-apocalyptic to work, there needs to be survivors. With some scenarios, such as with The Postman, there's the possibility of rebuilding civilization (once you subdue the feudal warlords who've filled the power vacuum). Earth can also repair itself; the Postman tells survivors that the birds are migrating again and the rains are back. But in some post-apocalyptic yarns, survivors are doomed, Earth can no longer heal itself nor support life, it's just a matter of time before everyone is dead. This is the truly tragic post-apocalyptic scenario, because it means that survivors must ponder what once was and can no longer be. At the end of the film there is a great battle scene , its like an epic that builds to the momentum  . The makeshift army of the Postman battles a well equipped (4.2) Holness army of  General Bethlehem . If YOU look at the Postman's "army" they are men , women and children armed with what ever you can call a weapon . The scenario is right out of David and Goliath , Bethlehem's army has all the sophisticated weapons , the Postman is out gunned . What twists around in this story is the bravery of (5)>>the Postman who challenges Bethlehem . While Bethlehem who seems to not

recognize the Postman's real identity as a former member of the Holness . The Postman jumps to the challenge in a brave way , knowing that his army would not stand a chance , he goes and sacrifices himself as being responsible . Finally Bethlehem realizes who the Postman is , he sighs (6)>>" Shakespeare !"   He undertakes to challenge General Bethlehem for the leadership of the Holness movement . The fight was to be to the death. The Postmen was in no shape to fight him after being wounded.  Yet he has no choice but to fight . Who ever wins decides where the future will go as far as a "new nation" . Bethlehem over comes the Postman on the ground during the fighting . It seems all but hopeless , evil would triumph.  Just when you thought it was over , The Postman pushes Bethlehem , uses all his might , says “I believe in the United States!” , badly hurts Bethlehem . To where he is incapacitated.  The Postman pounces on  top of him, begins to strangle him. Bethlehem tries to pry the fingers from his throat, but can't. He's going to die The Postman is urged on. By both sides. Holnists Carriers. Ford. Even Holnist Luke. He looks up at th  faces -- and finally lets Bethlehem go. The General gasps for breath. As Ponytail and Chubby move forward to untie Ford, The Postman looks to both sides.   What the Postman says next is  why I love this story . He's really against violence. It was never his intention to be involved in a conflict .  He says this to both sides : "It doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to kill each other.  We can live together. We can -- " Here the message is clear .(7)>> There is going to be new laws ,   He isn't worth it. I'm the head of the clan now! There are going  to be new laws (to all ) Law one! No more killing! There's going to be peace .The Postman looks at carriers and Holnists alike.  Bethlehem is eventually murdered by his own colonel, who agrees to end the conflict. Forgotten for an instant, Bethlehem makes a last, wild  lunge, grabs Ford's gun  As Bethlehem aims at The Postman, a SHOT rings out. Hit Bethlehem's hit  in the chest, Bethlehem blinks in amazement before he falls to the ground, dying. Getty has shot him , his own colonel who through out the story had a conscious .  The surrender of the Holness is the climax of the movie. With all the action in the film , the ending is a bit obscure . We next jump to the birth of the Postman's daughter , as Abby in bed, holding her new baby in her arms. She's reading a letter. What she reads makes her smile. She  puts the letter down and cuddles her baby. IT's winter , and its snowing . The Postman has been away for a long time . Probably restoring the United

States , connecting all the rural communities .  Abby tells her baby named " Hope" ," Your daddy wrote to tell you that he'll be here as soon as he can. And that he loves you very much".   Abby looks up to see The Postman standing at her door. She looks at him, smiling with tears in her eyes. Its a rather touching . He then tells Abby ,  "Mail's slow. I'll have to see  about that".  Abby smiles down at the child in her arms. The film ends with The Postman and Abby's daughter, Hope, unveiling a memorial to her father - he did not survive to see the creation of the utopic St. Rose. However thanks to his legacy, by his daughter's time a fair amount of civilization has been restored.

2047AD.

The Film next ends in the future . A beach town. No wall, no sentries, just cottages lining  a dozen sand-swept streets. A crowd has gathered to hear The Postman's daughter, HOPE, mid-thirties, speak. Besides  her, a bearded, 52-year-old Ford in his postmaster's uniform. They stand before a large, tarp-draped statue.  She unveils the statue: we've seen this before. It's The  Postman on his horse, low-slung in the saddle, leaning down to pluck the letter from the Little Boy's hand. There's an OLDER MAN in the audience who seems especially moved by the statue. There's a younger man beside him. The Postman's daughter speaks about her father .  She says, " But he never did see St. Rose. There was too much to be done.  He'd made a promise and in keeping  it -- he traded one dream for another. With no regrets. An  so, in honor of my father..." 

The movie ends with a glimpse of "hope" in the future . Thats something we can all build today .

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Some trivia about the Movie .

The Postman, in which Petty played the mayor of Bridge City. Tom Petty mentioned back in 1982 while filming the video for his song "You Got Lucky" (a post apocalyptic themed story) he wanted to do a small part in a futuristic movie. He said he wanted to portray a post war character, which he finally did in this movie.  , who apparently was someone famous in another life. Postman: I know you. You’re famous.

Bridge City Mayor: I was once… sorta.

In the sequence where Kevin Costner's character names Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) as President, he continues with another reference to The Beatles by telling the assembly "It's getting better. Getting better all the time" from the band's song "Getting Better".

There are differences between the film and the novel: In the novel, The Postman's name is Gordon Krantz and he was originally a student at the University of Minnesota. The Major cities in the United States were destroyed by several EMPS and the release of bio-weapons. In the post apocalyptic United States, Gordon traveled west to Oregon in the aftermath of the bio-war and performs scenes from William Shakespeare plays for supplies. Gordon takes the sack of mail to a nearby community to barter for food and shelter. Gordon enters Corvallis Oregon led by a sentient artificial intelligence called Cyclops and agrees to help the scientists whom created Cyclops in a war against the Holnists. Nathan Holn, the founder of the Holnists was executed sometime before the events of the novel. Gordon allies himself with a tough tribal group made up of descendants of ranchers, loggers and Native Americans led by a Native American special forces veteran against the the Holnists whom are their bitter enemies and the novel ends with Gordon discovering the Holnists have another organized enemy to the south and identities their symbol: The Bear Flag and the Holnists and their enemies unites to revive civilization.

NOTES AND COMMENTS:

(➜)The Postman-1997 .  Why people got this movie mixed up with a "Postman Rings Twice". Post apocalyptic films usually fudge their dates:  Mad Max has been keeping cars and roads running for just a few years, yet people have devolved into bloodthirsty hooligans almost immediately (was Lord Humungus just chafing away at a desk job somewhere, polishing up his Beast Master armor for a rainy day/end of the world to come around?)  The Postman is no exception. Costner's other movies , Field of Dreams. The Postman is a very different story, yet it aims to deliver the same message to the heart: We are in this together.Ironically, The Postman movie's message is exactly opposite to the moral message conveyed by Waterworld..(1)>>Pacific Northwest in 2013. The year is 2013, after a great war has destroyed the United States, leaving isolated pockets of people struggling to survive. There are references to plague and fallout. It's an interesting alternative "time line" of the "future" , two blog posts ago I wrote about the TV miniseries Amerika a plot twist of what our nation would look like under Soviet control . Though its set in the years 1987- 1997 , its probably one of the least liked (2)>>The Postman, a representative of the United States government. The Postman knows he's a fraud and opportunist, but the people don't. It's only a matter of several eons of running time before Costner predictably catches hero fever, trying to rekindle the people's memories of a time when a mail carrier was a vital link in community life, and by extension, in American democracy (as if there were no mail service in non-democracies). His made-up story about a restored U.S. government gives the good folks inspiration to fight Bethlehem's cruel domination. "The Postman" never gets beyond the most obvious good-versus- evil sentiments. Much of it is mired in flag-waving cliches, constantly sapping interest in the early visions of a nation turned upside down.(2.2)>>David Brin.  (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus and Campbell awards . Brin's body of science fiction, when taken as a whole, is normally categorized as hard science fiction, in that most (not all) works apply some degree of plausible scientific or technological change as partial plot drivers. Exceptions include the graphic novel The Life Eaters, in which Norse gods assist the Nazis.  (3)>>Gen. Bethlehem The rural Pacific Northwest is ruled by a brutal militia under the command of self-styled General Bethlehem, played fiendishly by Will Patton, in the film's liveliest performance. A former copy machine salesman, Bethlehem oversees a Nazi-like legion in a protection racket extracting food, goods and loyalty from the townies.(4)>>Postman as a messiah. The movie had its hawkish moments , The film's love interest, a young married Oregonian woman named Abby (British actress Olivia Williams) who wanted the Postman's semen due to her obliging husband's infertility (and then was seen semi-nude in an extended sex scene with Costner), told the messianic Postman: "You give out hope like it was candy in your pocket" -- this quote was representative of the hokeyness and questionable nature of this good-hearted, cloyingly sentimental, sincere, but heavy-handed and individualistic film statement that only the vain, self-glorifying Costner could deliver as the film's mythic figure. It seems crazy here , she { Abby} is  married in a post -apocalyptic society that morality has broken down to a point that husbands give their wives to surrogate  husbands  / males  assumed to be fruitful to produce children is just the opposite of the feminist  Handmaidens Tale by Atwood .(4.2) Holness army of  General Bethlehem .  The hypersurvivalists are more commonly referred to as Holnists, after the founder of their ideal, Nathan Holn. Many times through the book, curses are uttered which damn Holn for his actions. Nathan Holn was an author who championed an extreme, violent, misogynistic and hypersurvivalist society. Holn is said to have himself been hanged in the novel, but in the time following what should have been a brief period of civil disorder, followers of Holn prevented the United States from recovering from the limited war, and the plagues that followed.The Holness represents a racist , fascist  ideal , the worst of humanity after the Nazis.  (5)>>the Postman who challenges Bethlehem . Members of Bethelehem's army are allowed to challenge him in one-on-one combat for his position. (The last man who did got his tongue and balls cut off). (6)>>" Shakespeare !" We'll never know the real name of the Postman , Costner's character . He's a drifter , a man with no name like Eastwood's gunslinger in the 60's films " Fist full of Dollars" .     The main character is called "Shakespeare" when anyone wants to call him by a particular name, because he made a living traveling from place to place performing the works of William Shakespeare (more or less) until the events at the beginning of the movie. For most of the rest of the movie, he is addressed as The Postman. (7)>> There is going to be new laws .  The Holness movement had its Law of Eights . Here are the law of 8ths quoted through out the movie . 1. You will obey orders without question.  2. Punishment shall be swift.  3. Mercy is for the weak.  4. Terror will defeat reason. 5. Your allegiance is to the clan. 6. Justice can be dictated. 7. Any Clansman may challenge for leadership of the Clan. 8. There is only one penalty - DEATH. While the Holness laws held sway a communities , replacing them with any part of the Constitution of the United States , Bill of Rights will be a great task for the POSTMAN.