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"White Noise" (http://www.whitenoisemovie.com/)
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375210/)
Directed by Geoffrey Sax
Universal Pictures
PG-13 / Australia:M
2005
Reviewed by a contributor January 13, 2005
It is tempting to just write off "White Noise" as being yet more lubrication for the romance culture, as well as propaganda for religious thinking and paranormal research of questionable scientific value. The movie revolves around Jonathan Rivers's (Michael Keaton) grief over his deceased wife (Chandra West), who died under mysterious circumstances. Jonathan persistently tries to keep contact with her by way of electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and succeeds in communicating with her ghost through what sound and look like intelligible signals present in TV static. Jonathan does this to the point of seeming to neglect his son (Nicholas Elia) emotionally. Jonathan's behavior worries Nicholas; he wonders whether his father is going to be alright. After Anna's death, things fall apart for Jonathan family-wise, and his stress carries over to his work, but Jonathan's otherwise idyllic family life, intimate life and career are interrupted only by Anna's death.
Whether EVP is bogus or not is not the point here. What is interesting about "White Noise" is that full-spectrum radiation isn't the only thing that is white in this movie. "White Noise" goes out of its way to depict bourgeois Euro-Amerikans probably making at least six figures. Jonathan is an architect with some managerial responsibilities. Anna Rivers is an internationally renowned, financially successful writer. None of this is necessary for the plot to work except that Jonathan is able to buy several LCD or plasma TVs, an LCD monitor, and audio studio software, to use for EVP monitoring. Jonathan suspects that EVP enthusiast Raymond Price (Ian McNeice) or an obsessed fan of Anna's may be stalking him, but Raymond is able to receive EVP messages from persyns who aren't famous and seems to be interested in all those with whom he communicates through EVP. So, even Anna's being a famous writer is not needed for the plot to work, but "White Noise" still makes a point of depicting rich white people.
"White Noise" offers decadent parasites suggestions for new ways to spend their leisure time and provides them with more reasons to buy products. The MP3 player product placement was obvious in "Blade: Trinity" (2004) , but in "White Noise," the hi-tech product placement is bound up with Jonathan's trying to deal with the death of a loved one. And why should Jonathan have all this EVP equipment, but not other people? Even if EVP were real, we could speak of inequality in the access to EVP equipment. Like many other movies featuring obviously wealthy Euro-Amerikan characters, "White Noise" takes their wealth, and the class structure, for granted and then proceeds to focus on their adventures with the romance culture. This reflects the reality of imperialist-country parasites' lives. Their lives are so empty that they have to look to the romance culture for ways to create meaning in their lives. Yet, this same culture benefits only gender oppressors, including the majority of adults in the Euro-Amerikan nation.
"White Noise" also adds to people's reasons to engage in serial killing: ghosts told me to do it. "White Noise" is similar to "Murder by Numbers" (2002), for example, in presenting new justifications for serial killing, but in "White Noise," there is simply no way to avoid the kind of serial killing depicted unless viewers think that it would be safer for wimmin to not drive alone at night. In "White Noise," a womyn is attacked while she is driving her car. [Spoiler warning] The implication at the end of the movie is that ghosts drove a working-class man construction worker (Mitchell Kosterman) to do it. The background of this is the romance culture, so the movie opposes the romance culture to serial killing and makes gender oppressors look like victims of serial killers. Of course, this is nothing new; "Saw" (2004) does the same thing for example.(1)
What city "White Noise" is set in isn't clear. The movie is about serial killing, with a paranormal twist, in Anywhere, u.$.a. "White Noise" will contribute to movie viewers' fear of serial killers, but it is unlikely that the movie will actually decrease serial killing. So, what we have here is a movie that just encourages serial killing by presenting more rationalizations for it. At the same time, the movie reinforces the romance culture.
A psychic (Connor Tracy) warns Jonathan not to "meddle" with ghosts, who later put Jonathan's life at risk. EVP enthusiast movie viewers may take this as a warning to themselves, but this will have no impact on serial killers who think they are carrying out the will of ghosts--or God, like in "Frailty" (2001).
Jonathan at Raymond's place--EVP enthusiast Raymond likes to help others
contact their dead
Other reviewers are giving "White Noise" a hard time, focusing almost exclusively on artistic criteria, so the question arises: is there anything good in this movie. The movie's portrayal of a u.$. white "worker" as a serial killer isn't going to score any points with some sections of the white labor aristocracy; although we have to point out that globally and statistically, the Amerikan labor aristocracy is the leader in producing serial killers. So, the movie may disturb the Amerikan so-called workers' contentment, but the movie pits imperialists (Jonathan) against lesser parasites, which makes it more difficult to see the labor aristocracy's role in imperialist parasitism. "White Noise" doesn't get into who the worker is, or exactly what led up to the serial killings, but it would not be surprising if many movie viewers were uncomfortable with such a portrayal of what looks like stark difference within the u.$. white oppressor nation. Architect Jonathan lives in an upscale home; the white serial killer construction worker works out of what looks like an abandoned building, but can still afford to have all his own EVP equipment. Also, many viewers will perceive "White Noise" as "exploiting" their emotions about deceased loved ones, but their anger with the movie over this will just whip up their sentimentality for deceased family members.
"White Noise" does not deal with mental illness explicitly, but as with so-called mental illnesses and their "symptoms," we could ask if there is some social basis to the perception of EVP and other paranormal phenomena as being real. Whether EVP is bogus or not (some viewers annoyed with "White Noise" claim that EVP is bogus and feel that the EVP premise insults their intelligence), EVPs may represent a longing for relationships with certain deceased people, for instance, relatives and spouses. In other words, "EVP" might originate inside the imperialist-patriarchy. This is especially clear when EVP coincides with certain kinds of electronic equipment that are not as accessible to exploited and oppressed people in the Third World. Jonathan devotes so much attention and resources to communicating with Anna's ghost. Raymond Price did the same with his dead son. The question "can we blame them" obscures the economic privileges that make EVP recording possible in the first place. In "White Noise," Jonathan first receives faint electronic signals from Anna's ghost through a cell phone, a stereo radio, and a car stereo. He moves on to using sleek video displays and computer equipment. What's next?
Notes:
1. "Imperialist-country parasites feel a little bit guilty after seeing : 'Saw'," http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/movies/long/saw.html