Triangle of Sadness
Triangle of Sadness
By Austin Brookner, (c) copyright 2022.
I learned in microeconomics class in college that in order to solve a problem one must first completely define what the problem is. Never before have I seen a movie that so thoroughly elucidates the problem with how human society runs itself as Triangle of Sadness does.
To say this film is a takedown of the wealthy is myopic. When the tables turn on the island and it is Abigail the toilet manager who for all intents and purposes is the wealthy class, she behaves much like the wealthy class does in regular society. She taxes her own share of fish at a rate of fifty percent, which is the income tax rate in America for the highest income bracket. She embezzles funds allocated for the common good, in this case pretzel sticks, to a young hot guy to entice him to give her sexual favors. Not unlike the politicians of today who embezzle campaign funds or taxes for prostitutes or for clothes. She creates an arbitrary oligarchy. When Abigail creates an oligarchy who sleep in the life boat, and those on the outside try to entice the ruling class with Rolex watches to get inside the lifeboat. In the government of The United States of America this behavior is not called bribery. It is called lobbying.
That oligarchy that is created is not based on any specific attributes other than the people she prefers, in this case all the women on the island. That is - all the women except for the one who is handicapped. Much like in regular society, the disabled are are an afterthought. When Carl and the engine room worker take the pretzel sticks, they do not initially think to include the woman who had a stroke. This woman is also not included in the all female oligarchy that Abigail appoints. In our regular society, the disabled are not adequately provided for. There are not enough institutions for the mentally and physically disabled, and those that do exist, are chronically underfunded and unable to provide for the overwhelming demand.
It is not a coincidence that Abigail chooses the women to be her cronies. We see that in nature there is a natural aligning of genders with one another. The men on the island, excluding Abigail’s boy-toy, Carl, are seen laughing and pal-ling around together. When Richard kills the donkey, all three men rejoice as though it was an achievement for all of them, an accomplishment and advancement for men in general.
The cry for equality of women is already a syntactical error. What they are fighting for is equal treatment of women. To say that want equality is to imply that the genders are inherently unequal, when in fact, there is nothing of value that a man can do that a woman cannot also do as well if not better. On the island, it is the woman who has the skills to catch fish and make a fire. It is not because she is a woman that she has these skills. There do exist men who can catch fish and create fires. It just happens to be in this scenario that Abigail learned these skills at some point in her life, and none of the men on the island did. I do not know for sure how and why it is that men are generally in the positions of authority in this society, but it probably goes back to olden times when human societies were reliant on hunting for food. According to books, the men were the ones who were generally the hunters. This ability to provide food put them in a position of power. And as we see that the genders tend to naturally align amongst themselves, so therefore men kept that power tightly held within the other men. But to assume that society would be different if women were in power is wrong. Abigail behaves just like the ruling class of men do in our society. If women can do things as well as men, and if the genders are equal, then women are prey to the same foibles. The problem lies in human nature, not in the difference of genders.
And the genders are different. They have different nervous systems. Biologically, men hit their sexual prime around the age of seventeen; women in their mid-thirties. Men generally tend to be the more physically imposing and threatening of the two genders, and more apt towards physical brutality. We see this displayed when Richard kills the donkey and the men rejoice. We also see this when Carl tried to defend and argue his point that he did not eat all the pretzel sticks. His gesticulates with his hands and points with his finger. Yaya points out to Carl that his body language is aggressive. Carl is not even aware. During the first section of the film Carl becomes wildly physically aggressive in vocal tone and physical mannerism when Yaya puts the 50 euros down his shirts like one would to a stripper. This act by Yaya probably incites insecurity from Carl that in his profession he earns far less than the women, and that a job where the main qualification is to look good, is generally a trait valued to women in our society. Generally, the men are supposed to be the rugged providers, and the women the eye candy. In Carl and Yaya’s relationship, it is the woman who has the means to provide more than the man, which is a dynamic that Carl finds himself in again on the island with Abigail.
To take it one step further, not all people are equal. At least not equal in their abilities. Some are good at drawing, others like Yaya, are not. Some are better looking than others. Abigail prefers Carl, the model, to the man who worked in the engine room. Some are more brave than others. It was Richard who entered danger and bludgeoned the donkey to death, not the wealthy fertilizer seller who ran away in fear. The man who worked in the engine room displayed musical talent that others didn’t when he strummed on a self-made guitar. Yaya clearly has a keen fashion sense, exemplified by the necklace she is seen wearing made from sea shells. The yacht manager was good at collecting logs for the fire. This is not to say that one skill is better than the other. But they are valued differently. As Abigail says to the yacht manager, her collecting logs was not enough work to warrant a larger share of the fish. Making a fire and providing food trumps other abilities when it comes to survival.
When Abigail’s power is threatened, as it is when Yaya discovers that the island they are on is actually a resort, she assassinates the one who poses the threat. Or at least intends to assassinate. We are not shown evidence that she succeeds one way or another, but it doesn’t matter. The intention is enough. Abigail knows that the elevator to the resort leads to a society where she is a toilet manager again. To maintain her power on the island she results to cold-blooded murder, and in this way she behaves like the US Government does when foreign countries elect leaders that do no abide by their rule or when domestic leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. or Malcom X threaten their authority.
During Carl and Yaya’s argument in the car, Carl expresses a desire for the couple to be equal and be best friends. But as Yaya points out, she doesn’t want to sleep with her best friend. When a sexual relationship is formed between a man and a woman, there is an inherent imbalance simply due to biology. One is the penetrator, the other the penetrated. One is the impregnator, the other the impregnated. It is not an equally balanced scale. Although Yaya makes more money as a woman working in modeling than Carl does, she does not want to be the one responsible for feeding her partner, which is what paying the restaurant bill basically does. It means she is the one feeding Carl. As Yaya says to her boyfriend in the car - it’s not sexy. On the island where Abigail is the one who provides food for Carl, he places food and affection in the same breathe when he tells her that he loves her; she gives him food. He is echoing the same sentiments that Yaya relayed to him in the opening part of the film. Yaya desires to ultimately becomes someone’s trophy wife. He’ll feed her, she will provide love (at least some type of sex). She is not alone in this behavior. The engine room worker asks the woman who had a stroke if she ever used her sex or looks to get a job. The woman who had a stroke admits to using her body to get a job once. Also, in a desperate measure to get the attention of the tchotchke seller, she offers him her bosom. The wealthy Russian fertilizer has a younger girlfriend who asks him to buy her expensive gifts. After her agrees her next words are: Thank you, I love you. When sex or any type of love language is involved in a relationship, it is problematic to engage in physical romance if a partnership is truly equal. Where is the sexiness (a term used by Yaya) if both sides can provide equally for themselves?
Carl playacts as pool boy after Yaya flirts with the guy from the crew. While the crew member is no male model, he does have skills to work on a yacht - skills that Carl does not possess. As we learn early in the film, the qualifications for being a male model are to look good and walk. After Carl and Yaya argue over paying the bill at the restaurant and return to their hotel, Yaya speaks frankly with Carl. She tells him it is not about the money, it is about feeling secure and knowing her partner will be able to provide for her. She works in an insecure career. As a model, as well as other careers in show business for women, when the looks dry up generally the gig dries up. Yaya doesn’t have many skills to fall back on. Carl inverts his position when he playacts as the pool boy. He is now the working class person, and Yaya is the leisure class. As the working class pool boy he knows how to do things around the house. He can clean and fix the pool, clean the pipes, and has others skills that the leisure class can’t do on their own. Which is attractive to a leisure person who doesn’t know how to do these jobs themselves.
The only imperfection in this movie, in an otherwise perfect film, is that it extols the leadership John F. Kennedy Jr. and Bobby Kennedy and puts the weight of their assassinations on the US government. The Kennedy’s father bought both of their political careers. It was when JFK and Bobby Kennedy went after the underworld, the same shadowy channels that exerted power over the Democratic Party through dark and dimly lit tunnels and were responsible for financing their careers, that they met with their demise. This is the only part that the film gets wrong. Everything else it gets right.
Attributes that are valued on the island and the same attributes that are valued in regular society. Those being the ability to feed and provide shelter (although it is the woman this time who has those attributes rather the what is traditional considered to be the role of the man in regular society), being good looking (good looking in the eyes of the ruler, which on the island is the guy rather than in regular society which is generally the woman), being brave (Richard exemplifies bravery by killing the donkey and is rewarded with a kiss - albeit a spiteful one - by Yaya) and artistic talent (they hold a competition for who can draw the best picture of a donkey).
In today’s society, rewards have become divorced from true values to society. Those who exemplified themselves in war and battle were put into positions of authority, such as George Washington and Alexander The Great. Now the elite class obtain wealth without producing anything of tangible value. The financial sector produces nothing of its own aside from anything illusory. The United States has no more factories anymore. The Food and Drug Administration, one of not the most corrupt government agencies, has plotted to corner the food market in this capacity delivers fake food, comprised of genetically modified ingredients and unnatural chemicals.
The wealthy Russian fertilizer king tells the yacht captain the quote that you can tell a communist by someone who reads Marx and Lenin, and an anti-communist by someone who understands Marx and Lenin. Although these words are attributed to Ronald Reagan they were most surely not his own. One must go back as far as Woodrow Wilson probably to find the last American president who wrote his own speeches. Most politicians of recent memory don’t have an original thought in their brain including I got to go take a piss. Something about human nature creates a caste system. It occurs in capitalist society as much as it occurs in nature, when humans are stranded on an island simply trying to survive. We kill other species not for food but for sport. On the whole, we cannot feed ourselves. We steal and we lie. We are prone to bigotry, as the Russian shit salesmen is when he assumes the black engine worker might be a pirate. The human race is the most twisted species on the planet. We deny our nature and refuse to face ourselves, the ultimate height of hypocrisy.