Frozen
There are several points of interest in this film that are markedly different from the usual. Westerns are usual; usually male-oriented, action-oriented, male-dominated and the central character, usually male, is also unwaveringly consistent and truly the protagonist, espousing universal virtues from beginning to end of the tale. Many of these points of interest will distract me from the most interesting point I mean to make, which is that eight or so years before the blight of Covid-19, Frozen made a (counter-intuitive) holy virtue of voluntary isolation and repellent socialization, personal protective equipment (to preserve the well-being of other people), and the blessing/curse of permanent solitude. That’s a lot of inversions of the usual.
Frozen is girlish rather than boyish: The foolish little sister wins the sympathies and allegiance of the entire audience very early in the film by being insistent, intrusive, mischievous and fearless, while the titular protagonist, the older sister, is reserved, cautious and less spontaneously attractive, less endearing. And the leadership role in their interaction, usurped by the younger sister leads swiftly to a demonstration of her folly, with near-lethal consequences.
After the life-threatening introductory episode, Elsa, the older sister, withdraws from easy, intimate contact with Anna, the younger…forever…which also damages the younger one greatly. That history of closed doors, secrecy and social distancing inflicted on Anna by Elsa results in crisis at Elsa’s coronation, when Ana’s need for contact with Elsa betrays the new queen’s secret lethal inner self and a balmy summer kingdom is suddenly and inadvertently plunged into permanent winter.
Then a lot of interesting stuff happens, and culminates quite brilliantly in Anna’s singular act of loving self-sacrifice late in the film that opens Elsa’s heart and completely reverses her belief system, which leads immediately to a very happy ending in deed.
But, here and now, in the 2020 winter of our discontent, with a nation divided against itself and with filthy Foxheads anxious to spill the blood of us freedom-loving CNNts, Frozen points toward simple acts (and attitudes) of loving self-sacrifice (the sacrifice of cherished talking points and uncompromising stances) as the way to open our hearts to our adversaries and heal the breach, the gulf that preserves our fixed ideas in frozen, insupportable isolation. Turn the other cheek without dropping your pants.
Funny as all-get-out, with a great many stirring songs, and it made its point about the slippery slope between solitude and isolation almost a decade before the pandemic outbreak of our current international social crisis. And it’s quite a remarkable masterpiece of film making, as well. Frozen 2 didn’t grab me at first but goes farther in explaining the blessing/curse granted/inflicted upon Elsa, while extending the frozen/fluid boy/girl metaphor in fascinating ways that bear much further contemplation.
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