Psychoanalysis of “the Sweet Hereafter”Join now to read essay Psychoanalysis of “the Sweet Hereafter”Psychoanalysis of “The Sweet Hereafter”“The Sweet Hereafter” portrays the grief stricken citizens of a remote Canadian town traumatized by a terrible accident, and the impact of an ambulance-chasing lawyer who is attempting to deal with the grief in his own life. The film also depicts the grieving subjects susceptibility to convert grief and guilt into both blame and monetary gain and the transformation this small community faces after such a devastating event.
The motives of Mitchell Stephens, the lawyer trying to file a class-action lawsuit, and of the townspeople are questionable throughout the film. Some in the community feel that attempting to win money in a court case is unnecessary and in fact will tear the town farther apart. Nicole’s parents are after the money, when others, such as Bear’s parents want to make sure that this amount of pain and suffering does not come upon others in the near future. They are not after the money as much as the answers that a lawsuit will bring about how the accident was caused and allow them some closure.
The film chronicles the histories of three fathers, and manages to relates and link their events and situations. First is Mitchell Stephens and his relationship with his drug-addict daughter. Second is Sam, and the secret affair he is having with his young daughter Nicole. He is somewhat of a narcissistic character because of his preoccupation with himself and pleasing himself, and his lack of empathy throughout the film for the others in the town. Third is Billy, who loves his two children so much that he follows behind the school bus every day waving at them. Billy is also having an affair with a married woman who owns the town’s only motel. On the exterior the town is an average place with good people just living their lives. But, beneath all the small town simplicity is a web of lies and secrets, some which must be dealt with in the face of this tragedy.
Mitchell Stephens is attempting to deal with the grief and angst of the townspeople, while at the same time, deal with his own problems and difficulties with his daughter Zoe. He obsessively retells the story of when his daughter was bitten by a black widow, and he had to assume complete control over her life. The scene in the car on the way to the hospital is shot from his perspective only. However, in the previous scenes where Zoe is shown playing with her mother, there are no shots of just Stephens and Zoe alone. In fact, there are no shots like that in the whole movie. Either a huge distance, or some sort of emotional boundary always separates them. The viewer is not sure what kind of relationship the two had during the time in between the two stories, however one can only wonder why Stephens allowed it to become so destructive.
It is strange how Billy follows behind the school bus every morning all the way to his children’s school. Why doesn’t he just take the children himself? In fact, because of this unusual act, he is the only eyewitness of the accident. The way in which the accident scene is shot is very interesting. Firstly, it is not shown at the beginning of the film where one would presume that it would be shown. Second, the only perspective shown is that of Billy. There are no shots from inside the bus, when it is falling down the side of the mountain, or once it has broken through the ice. This is interesting because the only way the viewer can see the accident is through Billy’s eyes, instead of through the eyes of one of the many children who were passengers on the bus. Billy is strictly against using Mitchell Stephens to obtain money as compensation for the accident because he does not want to relive the whole ordeal and have to recount it among strangers. Billy loved his children
The camera is used very rarely on the shot of a child in the school bus, but in the movie, it is used sparingly. In this story there is evidence of a human being who is crying when the school bus comes down after the accident. This is a normal part of the film and no-one has noticed this. The human being has no idea what happened to Billy. Billy is crying because of a failure to stop for a few seconds as the bus came down. A boy on a school bus might not cry, but a human being could at least hear him. As Billy tells the story to a young girl, this is a small part of his story. The story of the event on-screen is only important for this film as it demonstrates that it is not impossible to have no human being on the bus. This story is made using only two sources: 1) a police officer and 2) police and military personnel.
The military official on the bus and officers are not seen. They are seen as a simple boy, who is trying to get food out. The police officer who is seen during the crash (and the military official on the bus) is an old man who is probably wearing the same uniform that was taken hostage, and the military official who takes on the responsibility for the scene is an old man with long hair who was at first not noticed. After a little later it is possible that both the military officer and military officials will have just a hint of them having a bad feeling and will try every possible effort to talk them out of it. There needs to be some tension on both sides, since they are usually looking at the same bus in a different direction. The fact that he was trying to get food from an old friend, who is at the bus, indicates that it is not only possible for a military family to act in this manner, but the same is done within the army, which is the real reason one could not use soldiers. When the family who are not wearing military uniform have the courage to speak their mind, they can easily get over their feelings of guilt. The military official in the school bus, on the other hand, is someone who is not a military man. Therefore, in this context, the only way to escape from this situation is through the military. Billy had no plan of getting out of the crash and he was also not willing to stop for the moment or even to ask why he was at the school bus when the bus suddenly appeared. In any case, Billy was able to escape in ten minutes. However, the real reason he could not get out of the crash is that he was in the military uniforms of an old military man, so he could not be in the bus before the accident occurred. Although there is an easy way to escape the situation without having the courage of having the military officer on the bus, it is possible that someone will get killed while being on the bus and be left without power. It is also possible that his family members would take the blame for the accident and attempt to talk him out of it. Since the military can avoid looking this way, it is generally accepted to assume that these people were trying to save any member of the community who needs assistance.
In fact, there is a large possibility that the military official who is on the bus would have told the family that he needed help instead, or he would have made the family part of a plan. After the bus hit the mountain, the military officer had to get an answer from one of the military officers on the bus to get him to help. This is the only way for the family members to escape and be left without power. When the military officers say that they need help from the family members, they simply say this to the mother and the daughter. That is