+1
I personally have a hard time reading too much of a political allegory here. I guess one could interpret the 'wall' as a literal representation of red state border wall, but I don't buy that. That concept is just too obviously anchored to current events and will probably fade quickly as time passes, leaving this movie heavily tethered (lol?) to this decade. If that was the intention, I don't think the constant references to Hands Across America would have been necessary at all, linking more to the 80s for its wave of Africa-targeted charities. Writing this out now reminds me of the introductory text of unused tunnels under the U.S. If anything (for me), that references much more the underground railroad at least in a literal tunnel structure kind of play. Still though, that's tenuous if anything more than a nod.
I wonder if Peele just one day thought how fun it would be to build a dark story around something that was supposed to be so positive of a world charity event and worked backwards from there, constructing this script. Everything feels loose and casual, nodding to this or that but not really committing to anything specific except, of course, for the playful horror of it all. Doing so leaves the projecting up to the audience to take and run with whatever they choose. I mean, "running" with it was a theme, no? The daughter practicing track? The daughter's shadow running after her? My point is, it is easy enough to grab onto anything in a movie in which we expect to find layers of symbolism and meaning. My dog cocking her head to the left is cute, but doesn't mean she's contemplating astrophysics.
This movie was very fun for me. While I can appreciate all the reading into it angles viewers are taking from it, I don't think I buy it. Sure, hints are there, but nothing commits any more than having a character wear a Thriller shirt sets up the wide-eyed scary shadow Red (in red no less and don't forget the dancing, just like zombie Michael Jackson's reveal in his Thriller horror video). Is that any less of an interpretation? It was given as much service as anything else.
*EDIT*
To offer another approach on this, I feel these political possibilities were handled similarly to how characters could control their shadows discussed earlier. This ability (and arguably pivotal plot device) was not consistent nor was it really fleshed out as to how it works, why, or why the only character that discovered this ability was the son. Arbitrary stuff at play. Things are just there and, while they work in a moment, are never developed further than "because." Hey, that's totally fine! I enjoy it as I did this movie. I only offer this perspective as a cautionary example for those reading so much from so little.
Last edited by ynwtf; 04-08-19 at 06:44 PM.