To recap: John Cusack and his Martian Child co-star Amanda Peet are the leads in Roland Emmerich's latest genocide-fest, 2012. The date most famously comes to us from the Mayan calendar, which is especially fascinating to Graham Hancock as well as people involved in AAT research.
I've been watching John Cusack's career for at least 10 years, ever since seeing Pushing Tin, which at plays like a note-for-note allegory of the old Osiris-Horus myths. Let me just say that not knowing the writers or producers of this film, I can't speak to their motivations.
But let me also say this: I find it almost impossible to believe that the symbolism in Pushing Tin is not intentional. On someone's part, at least. Knowing what we know about Hollywood, the person credited for a screenplay is not always the true author of the final product.
What exactly the meaning of it all is a matter of pure speculation.
Well, maybe not quite so pure- the evidence is certainly building up around these parts, it's just that it's leading in some pretty strange directions.
OK, we've looked at some of the interesting Osiris symbolism in Pushing Tin, so let's backtrack and look at the mythic narrative parallels:
OK, Nick Falzone (Cusack) is in a rivalry with Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton). Nick meets Bell's sexpot wife Mary (Angelina Jolie) at a family cookout and then runs into her while she is weeping at a supermarket.
Here we see what Mary is shopping for- vodka and lettuce.
Alcohol was identified with Isis, Hathor and Nephthys in Ancient Egypt. But for our purposes here we should remember that Isis was "the Lady of Beer," since Nephthys dressed as Isis to seduce Osiris (himself also identified with alcohol). The lettuce must be for Russell, since it was the favorite food of Set.
Interesting statement here - a double entendre? From the grocery store, Nick and Mary set out to a very festive Italian restaurant, which parallels the drunken party where Nephthys and Osiris hooked up.
There, Mary and Nick get drunk together and the viewer gets an eyeful of the elemental eroticism that made Angelina Jolie a superstar. As she suggestively plies her full, wet lips with her forefinger, Mary tells Nick that she grows plants.
Here is our smoking gun. From Plutarch:
“Whenever, then, the Nile overflows and with abounding waters spreads far away to those who dwell in the outermost regions, they call this the union of Osiris with Nephthys, which is proved by the upspringing of the plants.”
So right on cue, Nick then follows Mary home where she invites him in for a little "union." Nick's shirt is another interesting detail here- remember that Osiris is a space-dwelling god. Damn, if that shirt doesn't look like a starry night sky. Remember, the sky belongs to Nick- he tells us so in as many words.
The hits just keep coming- Nick returns from his tryst with Mary and Connie his wife Connie (Cate Blanchett) holds up her drawing of JFK. Killing of the Divine King, anyone? It's Osiris' tryst with Nephthys that brings about his assassination, and here we see recent history's most famous slain king.
How about that?
In the mythology, Set tricks Osiris by inviting him to a dinner party. And sure enough we see the Bells and the Falzones return to the restaurant where Nick and Mary hooked up. Russell dazzles the crowd with "Muskrat Love" (of all songs) and even Mary is seduced by his inexplicable charms.
Here's the very next scene: Nick meets Mary on the banks of the Hudson, where she tells Nick she confessed to Russell about their tryst. The river is self-explanatory, but the rain reminds us that Osiris was identified with all forms of moving water.
Inside the car, Nick refers to being murdered by Russell adding a cryptic reference to eyes. This could either refer to Russell's riveting stare or to the fact that Set had a thing for plucking out eyeballs...
Now, is this the funeral of Connie's father or of her husband? Nick inexplicably changes his hairstyle just at the point in the symbolic narrative where he transforms from Osiris to Horus. His struggles with Russell now erupt into open warfare.
Like in this scene, where Nick and Russell wrestle for dominance while ATC is emptied during a bomb scare. Note they are wrestling over Russell's feather- the Ostrich feather was the symbol of Osiris' role of judge, as we see in his mitre.
Nick is forced out of his job and sits at home wearing dark glasses. On an ordinary symbolic level, this speaks to his blindness- he can no longer see the planes in his mind's eye. On a deeper level, this reminds us again that Set tore out the eyes of Horus during their battles, and Horus tore off Set's testicles.
So the culmination of their battle takes place on a runway, a nice metaphor for the Nile. Afterwards, Russell and Nick lie together and share a laugh, not unlike Set and Horus during their own contendings. Note the wound beneath Nick's right eye.
So yet again, ancient symbolism and high tech colliding on the silver screen. What could possibly be the connection? We've seen this strange pull that all of the Egyptian iconography has had on people involved in the arts and sciences (and politics), particularly those most intimately involved with ultra-high technology.
It seems counter-intuitive, doesn't it? What could possibly be the connection?
I mean, I love mythology and all, but all of this symbology seems rather archaic in this day and age.
It also can get more than a little tedious, unless there is some compelling meaning behind it all. And certainly with Pushing Tin the meaning of it all has always escaped me.
Until yeterday, that is.
Let's take a look at a little visual detail in the film, something that I never really paid attention to until yesterday, strangely enough, even though I've watched this film over a dozen times...
On the lower left is the Bell's house, where Mary is seducing Nick, just as Nephthys seduced Osiris. Maybe the key to it all is here as well- the key to this inexplicable obsession with ancient mythology, to this incessant linking of ancient symbols to ultra-high tech (and flight, especially) that we see over and over and over beneath the surface in big-budget Hollywood films (though with the new Transformers film, the linking is now in your face).
That dog has star quality...
