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| Extraction 2's hero Chris Hemsworth |
I once saw a film - long forgotten now in other respects - in which the villains dispose of at the dead bodies of one their gang (possible one of their victims) by burning it in a furnace. The scene was oddly memorable mainly because there was no dialogue in it. They were just disposing of evidence that might have led the police back to them and need to leave no traces
Yet dead bodies do leave traces of their existence - and very memorable ones. Napoleon was supposed to go hunting over the battlefield the day after snoring the corpses of men he had sent to their deaths. These same corpses would then be buried communally, turned into fertiliser and the men who had fallen not given and individual graves. They had served their purpose.
Thomas Hardy's poem Drummer Hodge is about a young boy who, as his name implies, keeps soldiers older and more experienced than him in line and disciplined by his rhythmic drumming;
They throw in Drummer Hodge, to rest
Uncoffined -- just as found:
His landmark is a kopje-crest
That breaks the veldt around:
And foreign constellations west
Each night above his mound.
Young Hodge the drummer never knew --
Fresh from his Wessex home --
The meaning of the broad Karoo,
The Bush, the dusty loam,
And why uprose to nightly view
Strange stars amid the gloam.
Yet portion of that unknown plain
Will Hodge for ever be;
His homely Northern breast and brain
Grow to some Southern tree,
And strange-eyed constellations reign
His stars eternally.
Hodge is killed in Africa, presumably in the Boer War, and lies 'uncoffined' in a grave on the veldt. He must have been about seventeen and the battle in which he fell was probably his first. I am grateful to Alan Bennett for bringing the poem to my attention in his play The History Boys.
So-called action films these days are noted for the high body count they have, with the hero offing lots of anonymous baddies in various different ways. The latest I saw was Extraction 2 on Netflix - I must admit to having watched it in an idle moment a few weeks ago. Chris Hemsworth is the professionalit who rescues a family from eastern gangsters, killing dozens as he does so. It is not a subtle film but it did pass the 'not falling asleep during it' test at least.
I always think of the aftermath. What happens to the dozens of dead bodes that are left lying about after the hero has worked his way through them? The newspapers and media, of course, would soon unearth the killer of these men so he could not expect to have a quiet life - as he is shown doing at the beginning and end - and he would be soon be expected to tell 'his story'.
We liv ein a world in which there is no - or very little chance of anonymity and being forgotten by the world - yet modern heroes are expected to go into battle unknown and unrecognised. Not to mention their victims who will always have families, loved ones and supporters who will tell anyone who listens that their Grigory was really a nice man and should not remain nameless.
Edwin Lerner
My other blog is diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com
