The Last Rise and Fall Shown to us by the Man Who Chose “Swollen Foot”: The Film The Whale

Abstract

The film The Whale goes beyond just depicting one aspect of the life of a morbidly obese man. As the audience watches Charlie, the main character who helplessly chose to live a morbidly obese life, we are compelled to reflect on what it means for ourselves to rise from the ground as we live in a gravitational field. Ultimately, this film is in line with director Darren Arnofsky’s previous masterpiece, Black Swan. While the Oedipus complex runs through both films, this film goes one step further than Black Swan to face head-on the theme of “swollen foot,” which is the original meaning of Oedipus. Through this move, we realize the essence of the Oedipus complex—something more fundamental than castration anxiety—something that we have been missing.