Watch: The Body “At The Mercy Of It All”

07 Apr 2014 — Evelyn Malinowski

Learning that The Body's I Shall Die Here inspired Jason Evans' (Hey Convinct!/Purple Brain) short film "At The Mercy of It All," we understand how it is that the visual tension works so well with the audio, and how The Body's jarring, horrifying music could evoke a piece satiated with discomfort. But why specifically the scary bearded mountain man, the brokenhearted Thoreau? Living in Montana, this romanticized state of isolation, as well as its frightening aspects, is a common thing, and there are a lot of men around here who look like actor Todd Schrock. This archetype of ole' skinny obsessing over decontextualized newspaper clippings, scheming, struggling to uphold the difference between reality and dream - or nightmare - seems on the verge of kitsch, a stale story of a man unable to cope with loss or a blow to the ego, reminding us of Ted Kaczynski (who was, by the way, hidden in the Helena National Forest near Lincoln, Montana during the time of his assaults), and takes away from the authenticity of The Body's soundscape. Still, as voyeurs we long to know this lonely man's living situation: what happened between him and Laurie to make him flee into the woods? Did she drop him off and never come back? Constantly bewildered, and at one point trying to contact his inner child who knew how to play the piano, we watch him struggle to keep his mind engaged, the essential thing for surviving in the wilderness. He's clearly not on any mission - he is posing, ogling topographical maps, walking around like he's afraid of slipping on the ice and totally out of his element, acting as if he's worried he can't find something but doens't reveal what it is he needs. At the end of the video, we would believe that he was afraid that he'd lost the sunny picture of him and his girlfriend or sister who has a car. This image upsets him, for he is jealous of the warm scene and probably the car, so he drops it in the snow and walks away. Is this piece ironic, archetypal, or successfully representative of man's restrained hostility? In any case, I think someone ought to give him a ride out of there.

I Shall Die Here is out now on RVNG Intl.