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Short film: The Flying ManShort film: The Flying Man
About the author
Sam Roggeveen
Sam Roggeveen is Program Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace (Opens in new window), published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.
Via Sullivan, I came across a rather dark short film called The Flying Man, which takes a subversive look at the superhero genre. The critic Sullivan links to describes it as a commentary on vigilantism:
In this beautiful, unsettling short film, “The Flying Man,” a powerful Übermensch actually takes it upon himself to be judge, jury, and executioner. Unlike the usual underdog superheroes of comics, where the audience is meant to casually rationalize their operation outside the rule of law, we are left completely chilled as he drops people from dizzying heights to their terrifying deaths with a sadistic resolve. He is in no way the protagonist, or even an anti-hero: he’s a terrorist.
'Terrorist' is not quite right, because the murders depicted in the film are not indiscriminate; the vigilante is targeting criminals, it seems. So here's a different interpretation: what if this flying ubermensch actually symbolises drone warfare? Seems to me you could easily read the film as an attempt to describe to Western audiences the kind of world a small-time member of the Taliban experiences day to day.
[vimeo:69882318]
Sam Roggeveen