The nature of human beings has been researched widely by scientists all over the world. This has resulted in different thoughts about human life and nature. Some people argue that conception marks the beginning of life. The Catholic faithful largely holds this view. Others hold the opinion that life starts after about two months since conception. All the same, there is one thought that is actively engrossed in the medical field, that humans are alive only when their brains are functioning. Medical experts term a person as dead when the brain stops functioning. This paper aims to analyze the movie “Talk to Her,” directed by Almodóvar Pedro, about human life and nature. The moral issues portrayed in this film will be discussed, and their critique will be given.
Moral Issues in the Movie and their Critique
It is arguably clear that the concept of love and family is the main issue drawn from the movie. Marco, one of the main actors, is said to have been separated at the beginning of the movie. Marco is seen to be disturbed by this reality, as it is evident that he loved his sweetheart, Angela. In one incident where he takes Lydia home, Lydia finds a snake in her kitchen, gets frightened, and comes out of the house crying for help. Marco steps in to offer assistance and kills the snake. However, he is seen crying, and when he later asked why he cried after killing the snake, he recalls how he killed a similar snake while with his lover in Africa. He continues to say that he loved and enjoyed being with Angela and that he cried on remembering that they are now separated.
Lydia is seen to have been hurt by Nino Valencia, her lover, on several occasions. In an interview on one of the television programs, she walks out of the interview after the presenter insists that Lydia talk about her love with Nino Valencia. Also, her father had been a bullfighter for many years. He wanted Lydia to be a bullfighter as well. It turns out that Lydia finally becomes a bullfighter and struggles with chauvinism to compete with the male bullfighters.
The effects of love and family on Lydia are manifested when she gets distracted during one of the bullfights to the point that she gets hit badly by a bull. It is seen as if she intentionally allowed the bull to hit her to express her anger over Nino. She sustains the injuries, but, unfortunately, goes into a coma. Her condition is seen to worry not only with her family members but also with her friends. Marco and Valencia are the two most worried men. The two keep visiting Alicia at the hospital while she is in a coma.
Martin Benigno is a nurse who is said to be a virgin at the beginning of the movie. Benigno makes it his duty to wash his sick mother, polish her nails, comb her hair, and dress her. He does this until his mother dies. However, love draws him close to Alicia. He keeps peeping through the window whenever Alicia is dancing on the other side of the road. This love compels him to attend to Alicia as a nurse when Alicia goes into a coma. He is the only male nurse granted exceptional permission to attend to Alicia, even when no other female nurse is present.
When Benigno gets arrested on allegations that he raped Alicia, nobody goes to visit him apart from his friend Marco. It is arguably clear that Marco is compelled by the friendly love that he has for Benigno to visit him. This is also evident when Marco says that he would not have been offended if Benigno told the prison officials that Marco was his lover to have them talk face-to-face. True friendship has no boundaries. His former mates at the hospital withhold all information about Alicia and the pregnancy from him. This leaves Benigno in a state of devastation.
On the other hand, Benigno is seen to worry more about Alicia’s condition. One can argue that love has bound Marco, Benigno, and Alicia. In this movie, love has resulted in Benigno being jailed. Marco, on the other hand, is separated as his lover opts for another man.
The above characters show how the life of a person can be influenced by love and the family. Like Benigno, some people can go as far as talking and having sexual relations with their lovers, even when they are in conditions such as a coma. Benigno is heard telling Marco that he wants to marry Alicia even in her state of coma. Like Lydia, others go to the extent of harming themselves through bullfighting so that they can express how they feel about their lovers who took them for a ride.
This is also shown by Benigno, who throws himself from the rooftop of the prison so that he can be in the same condition as Alicia, a person he has admired for long. Honestly, love and family influence the way a person behaves and lives.
Another issue that can be learned from this movie is the effect of parents on the life of a human being. On one occasion, Benigno gets the chance to talk to Alicia after her dancing class. He discloses to her that his mother had died. He later tells Marco at a different incidence that his father left for Sweden never to come back again. It can be argued that the absence of both parents to Benigno could have resulted in a weird obsession with a lady in a coma. To this, I shall argue that parents have a profound effect on their children’s lives. Parents offer guidance to their children. They instill good morals that are acceptable to society to their children. Could Bengino’s parents be alive when Alicia was in a coma, then the likelihood of Benigno raping Alicia could have been very low?
Artist’s Conception of Human Nature and Its Critique
The director of this movie tends to agree with Goldenring (198) and DeGrazia (667), who argue that a person is dead if his brain is not functioning. This is made clear by the fact that the doctor at the hospital in which Lydia is taken agrees with Marco that a person is dead when the brains are not functioning. Marco is seen to be disturbed by this revelation. At one point, he witnesses Lydia open her eyes and thought that she would recover soon. Besides, this doctor says that people in a coma cannot be predicted when they will be back to life. Such patients do not have feelings and cannot conceptualize an idea.
Regarding this conception, I agree with the director, who expresses the thought that people in a coma do not have feelings. Their brains do not function, apart from the normal physiological processes. However, such people should not be neglected based on the argument that they do not have feelings. There is a need to continue taking care of them, as there are chances that they might wake up again.
The conception of the director regarding human nature has been brought out by Alicia and Lydia as well. In Lydia’s case, Lydia goes into a coma after being hit by a bull. Many people, including Marco, come to visit her at the hospital. Nino Valencia also visits Lydia and is at one time seen talking to Lydia, hoping that she would hear and probably recognize him once she wakes up. This never happens, and it is so unfortunate that Lydia dies while in a coma.
In the second case, Alicia goes into a coma after being hit in an accident. It turns out that Benigno is picked as among the best nurses to take care of Alicia. He has done this job satisfactorily for four years while taking part in all the activities that a care nurse is required for. He washes her, massages her, changes her clothes, and cleans off her menstrual blood, which many men cannot stand. He does all this with the hope that Alicia will marry him once she wakes up. Unfortunately, this is not the case as Benigno commits suicide on receiving news that his son was born dead, and Alicia is still in a coma. Unfortunately, he does not realize that he was being deceived about the status of Alicia.
In contrast to Benigno’s expectations, Alicia does not remember anything that Benigno tells her upon waking up from the coma. She forgets everything, including the tender care that she received from Benigno. It is arguably evident that the person becomes dead when the brain stops working. Alicia does not have feelings and cannot conceptualize an idea. Therefore, the director of the movie defends the concept of human nature; without brains, a person is dead. In this scenario, I argue that this could be attributed to the fact that Alicia was “dead” while in the coma, as her brain was not functioning. All the words of love and encouragement that Benigno was telling Alicia did not sink into her brain. Alicia’s brain was not functioning; therefore, she was dead.
Additional Critique of the Movie
I shall argue that being in a coma does not imply that a person is dead. Although the person in a coma does not respond to immediate situations as a normal person, the person is still alive and should not be ignored. The behavior of Benigno is a good example that supports my argument. Benigno continues to talk to Alicia even when all other visitors say nothing to her, apart from staring and sympathizing with her. Benigno is heard telling Marco that women should be spoken to, even when in a coma, as they have a mysterious way of life. One can agree with this position, given that Benigno has worked as a nurse for more than 20 years of unquestionable experience.
A dead person cannot continue to carry out various physiological processes that a living person can do. One such process is menstruation. Both Alicia and Lydia continue to experience menstrual periods, even while in a coma. In one of the most unthinkable incidences, Benigno rapes Alicia. This follows a movie, ‘Shrinked Lover’, that Benigno had watched the previous night. Two lovebirds, Alfredo and Amparo, continue to love and have sex with each other, even after the man becomes adversely affected by the experimental diet that his wife Amparo had discovered. After the rape, Alicia is said to have missed her periods, indicating that she got pregnant.
Is it possible to get a dead creature pregnant? Not! Only creatures that are alive can get pregnant and maintain pregnancy. Alicia continues to be pregnant while in the coma. It is believed that being pregnant positively impacted Alicia as she finally woke up, maybe, shortly before birth. Marco confirms this when he visits Benigno’s grave and says to the dead man that Alicia could wake up as a result of his actions. It is so unfortunate that the baby, which is a boy, is born dead.
However, the fact remains that Alicia gets pregnant and can sustain the pregnancy while in a coma. It is unfortunate that Benigno, who worked hard to bring back Alicia, did not live to see Alicia waking up again. If he had been told the truth about what happened to Alicia, he would not have committed suicide. Also, Alicia is seen attending to dancing exercises at her former class. She is also seen accompanied by her teacher, Katerina, to the theater to watch a silent movie. This shows that although she did not remember what was said to Benigno, Alicia did not completely forget what she loved about life; dancing and watching silent movies. Therefore, I rest my case by restating that a person in a coma or a person whose brains are not functioning is not dead, as argued by many medical practitioners.
Conclusion
Love and family have a strong influence on the life of a human being. In the movie “Talk to Her,” the main characters are seen to have been influenced either by love or family. In the medical field, a human being is said to be alive when his brains are functioning. The movie’s director has developed this thought by portraying two ladies, Alicia and Lydia, as being dead while in a coma. Benigno is seen to fall in love with Alicia and believes that Alicia is hearing all the words that he is telling her.
On the contrary, Alicia does not marry Benigno when she wakes up after four years of the coma. Therefore, I conclude that a person in a coma is not as dead as viewed by many medics. Alicia got pregnant after being raped by Benigno. She also sustained the pregnancy and gave birth to a boy, though the child was born dead. Amazingly, this pregnancy helped Alicia to wake up.
Works Cited
DeGrazia, David. “Christopher Kaczor, The Ethics of Abortion: Women’s Rights, Human Life, and the Question of Justice.” Ethics 121.3 (2011): 665-669. Print.
Goldenring, John. “The Brain-Life Theory: Towards a Consistent Biological Definition of Humanness.” Journal of Medical Ethics, 11 (1985): 198-204. Print.
Talk to Her. Dir. Almodóvar Pedro. Warner Sogefilms (Spain), 2002. Film.