"BRUISER" Review

BRUISER

MILES WARREN (2020)

“BRUISER” by Miles Warren (2020) is a short film that aims to probe our understanding of masculinity, with an emphasis on the toxic ideologies that can often inform our views of what it is to “Be a man”.

BRUISER opens with a sequence of still shots of violence, taken from online videos. Warren says that this is where he first started to form the the idea of BRUISER in his mind. After accessing these videos, he began to further contemplate the implications of the content being readily available online, and asks “what would it do to that kid to see his father be so outwardly violent and aggressive?” This, is when BRUISER began to manifest itself as a short film. 

Violence in itself is nothing new to us and from the beginning of time, there has always been a general belief that if something is to stand in the way of progress, then it must be annihilated in order to succeed. In Le Guin’s (1986) “The Carrier bag theory of Fiction”, She argues that the foundations and structure of modern storytelling are of male origin and predominantly, of violence. Le Guin speaks about how violence has been normalised as an essential part of what is to be Human and how absurd this notion is, saying:

“Wanting to be human too, I sought for evidence that I was; but if that’s what it took, to make a weapon and kill with it, then evidently I was either extremely defective as a human being, or not human at all. That’s right, they said. What you are is a woman. Possibly not human at all, certainly defective. Now be quiet while we go on telling the Story of the Ascent of Man the Hero.” 

It makes for a compelling argument and Le Guin articulates this in a way that forces you to reflect on my own identity as a man. At times for me, being a Man can appear to be- perhaps ironically- synonymous with being a misanthropist. As a Teenager, much like the protagonist in the closing events of BRUISER, I felt a need to ‘prove’ myself, be it with physical strength and aggression, or mental strength- perpetuating the ever-damaging belief that Boys don’t cry. What I was out to prove is still up for debate, but there was an inherent part of my identity that can relate to wanting to perpetuate these traits of toxic masculinity. Fortunately for me, I found my true identity from breaking away from these beliefs, rather than being restricted by them, but not everybody has the privilege to be able to do this. Sometimes just the geography you are born in dictates the person that you are likely to be. It could of course be simpler than this though. Maybe it is in our nature, that one unwavering instinct that still remains in us after all this time. We are violent because it’s built into our DNA, the need to protect and to dominate; to be the Alpha, to tell the story. 

Although incredibly valid and relevant, Le Guin’s 1986 essay doesn’t grapple with the evolution of the access to violence in-line with the modern world and the continuation of this storytelling. There’s a new(ish) kid in Town, and it’s called the internet. The internet has changed our lives immeasurably and content of any nature is now openly available, anywhere in the world, at any time, with a few clicks of a button.

It is important when discussing BRUISER, to bear in mind the Author’s inspiration to create the film was the human effect of mass media and it’s newest ally; the mobile phone.

It is interesting to explore the design of the mobile phone as something not being born accidentally, but having a semiotic history surrounding the “Black mirror”. The Black mirror is rooted in occultism, used in the 1600’s to practise magic, but also by the Aztecs as a means to see the future, or to view an altered ‘self’. We have evolved and developed phones to resemble these mirrors and even have modern examples that acknowledge the function of the Black mirror, see 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). When watching content on a phone, much like the black mirror, it removes the observer through the means of a metaphoric portal, whereby you are taken into an alternate reality, desensitising us to what should ordinarily be unacceptable. Media has long established that the phenomena of “Schadenfreude” is alive and well, accepting that we derive pleasure from the suffering of others. It’s the reason we thrive on bad news.

It concerns me that the access to content of a harmful nature and the increasing separation of a tangible ‘self’ when accessing media will only serve to perpetuate the cyclical nature of violence and annihilate consequence, choosing instead to describe the victor in these fights as a ‘Hero’. In a short essay, Kimberly Christopherson discusses these changes to autonomy with the introduction of anonymity. 

She says this about being anonymous online,

“This factor (Anonymity) may lead to an extreme sense of freedom for the individual and allow him or her to engage in behaviours typically disapproved of by others without fear of the consequences that may ensue as a result.”

It is nothing new to tell you that there is a fast-developing bond between Humanity and Technology. What you may not believe however, is that your friend, the Phone, may not really be the positive influence that you believe it to be. Discovery is innate in Humans from the moment we are born, we open our eyes to discover a whole new world outside of the confines of the fleshy walls in which we were suspended in for 9 months and our brains are flooded with new information, new experience. Then, as nature intends, we learn to walk and talk and we do not stop from thereon. With Technology however, that is changing. The acquisition of true experience is becoming outdated, and now that we have the ability to achieve an (albeit less-effectual) alternative style of experience at our fingertips, why put in the additional energy of doing? This is not only a tragedy in the sense that experience is substituted for second-hand discovery, but that it limits our ability to find our own identities. We are missing out on interactions with new places, people and cultures at our own expense and are being shaped and moulded more than ever through the means of social media. There is a scene in BRUISER which demonstrates this well; the Protagonist is at a friends house, the friend finds the video of his Dad fighting online and begins to taunt him. This of course leads to violence and establishes in the young men that this is the experience they should mimic, this is what is expected of them, this is normal.

There are many themes explored in BRUISER, but it’s biggest achievement is finding a realistic story to correlate the two themes of Media and Identity and the harm that can be caused when the two cross-over. The idea of Toxic masculinity is nothing new, but we owe it to our future generations to break this cycle and to encourage connection and understanding through the means of real-life, meaningful interaction. Technology is going nowhere and although there are many positives, we must remain vigilant in identifying the truth we find in reality, and the fiction beyond the mirror.

WATCH BRUISER HERE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DF-ey-AIpg&t=466s

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ursula Le Guin (1986) The Carrier bag theory of Fiction. 

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction

Chrisopherson. K. (2006) The positive and negative implications of anonymity in Internet social interactions. Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota. “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a Dog.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222428988_The_positive_and_negative_implications_of_anonymity_in_Internet_social_interactions_On_the_Internet_Nobody_Knows_You%27re_a_Dog