Repo Man
The age of sixteen was an interesting time for me. I was transitioning from “geek” to “freak,” a la Lindsay Weir in that overlooked but brilliant show, Freaks and Geeks. One feature of this transition was musical taste. I was getting into metal, but I had a friend, Jason Parks, who had embraced the punk rock scene (or at least whatever punk scene there was in Rockland County, New York). He made me a tape of the Circle Jerks’s iconic, 14-song, 15-minute album, Group Sex. As we walked around the track in gym class, smoking cigarettes surreptitiously while our teacher paid attention to the more athletic kids playing soccer, he also told me about the 1980s cult film, Repo Man, which boasted lots of punk. At that age, I liked the film for its soundtrack, but lately, I love it for its pro-single message.
Emilio Estevez plays Otto, a suburban Los Angeles punk kid, who, through a series of circumstances, becomes a “repo man,” essentially repossessing the cars of the down-and-out in the City of Angels. Through another series of circumstances, he and his repo mentor, Bud, become involved in a hunt for a Chevy Malibu said to contain alien life. This film has become a cult classic, and it subverts lots of the tropes we see in Hollywood productions, but here are a few of the romantic clichés it subverts:
1)The repo men with whom Otto works are all married to women. At a party, they’re all over him, touching his shirt and such, while their husbands can only look on with anger and insecurity. What does that say?
2)Miller, the mechanic at the repo firm, seems to be the only singleton on staff besides Otto. He’s the weird, spaced-out one, yet he seems to be the smartest, offering theories like “the more you drive, the less intelligent you are.” He also says, “I do my best thinking on the bus.” As someone who prefers public transportation and reads vigorously on the DC Metro, I’d have to agree. Spoiler alert: when Bud, one of the married repos guy, is killed by a SWAT agent who’s also looking for the Malibu, Miller is rewarded with the privilege of going into outer space in the Malibu.
3)Duke and Debbie, two of Otto’s pre-repo punk friends, are out on a crime spree, and upon the death of their third, Archie, Duke proposes to Debbie, “We should get a house and have a family.” When Debbie asks why, Duke’s well-reasoned response is, “Everybody does it. It seems like the thing to do.” Of course, two minutes later, Duke is killed while attempting to rob the liquor store, the parking lot in which Duke initiates this conversation. Otto happens to be in the store and makes the same proposal to Debbie, telling her, “I’ll make you a repo wife.” “Bullocks,” she replies, before tossing him a big bag of popcorn and running off.
4)There’s sortuva romantic subplot between Otto and Leila, a young lady also involved in the chase. Spoiler alert: at the end, when Miller offers the opportunity to fly in this Malibu into outer space, and Leila says, “What about our relationship?”, his response is a terse “Fuck that.” Hey, I would’ve said the same thing in that situation.
And that’s what I’ve been saying to movies that seem to give the message that romance = good. Singlehood = bad. A movie like Repo Man is a treasure because it gives a big middle finger to those movies. Very punk rock indeed.
Side note: Harry Dean Stanton, who plays Bud and whom Roger Ebert described as “speaking the language of disaffected youth,” and died at the ripe old age of 91; he lived longer than most married men. Emilio Estevez was married to Paula Abdul in the early 90s, but that marriage lasted two years. I guess he didn’t buy into it either. Again, very punk rock.
Emilio Estevez plays Otto, a suburban Los Angeles punk kid, who, through a series of circumstances, becomes a “repo man,” essentially repossessing the cars of the down-and-out in the City of Angels. Through another series of circumstances, he and his repo mentor, Bud, become involved in a hunt for a Chevy Malibu said to contain alien life. This film has become a cult classic, and it subverts lots of the tropes we see in Hollywood productions, but here are a few of the romantic clichés it subverts:
1)The repo men with whom Otto works are all married to women. At a party, they’re all over him, touching his shirt and such, while their husbands can only look on with anger and insecurity. What does that say?
2)Miller, the mechanic at the repo firm, seems to be the only singleton on staff besides Otto. He’s the weird, spaced-out one, yet he seems to be the smartest, offering theories like “the more you drive, the less intelligent you are.” He also says, “I do my best thinking on the bus.” As someone who prefers public transportation and reads vigorously on the DC Metro, I’d have to agree. Spoiler alert: when Bud, one of the married repos guy, is killed by a SWAT agent who’s also looking for the Malibu, Miller is rewarded with the privilege of going into outer space in the Malibu.
3)Duke and Debbie, two of Otto’s pre-repo punk friends, are out on a crime spree, and upon the death of their third, Archie, Duke proposes to Debbie, “We should get a house and have a family.” When Debbie asks why, Duke’s well-reasoned response is, “Everybody does it. It seems like the thing to do.” Of course, two minutes later, Duke is killed while attempting to rob the liquor store, the parking lot in which Duke initiates this conversation. Otto happens to be in the store and makes the same proposal to Debbie, telling her, “I’ll make you a repo wife.” “Bullocks,” she replies, before tossing him a big bag of popcorn and running off.
4)There’s sortuva romantic subplot between Otto and Leila, a young lady also involved in the chase. Spoiler alert: at the end, when Miller offers the opportunity to fly in this Malibu into outer space, and Leila says, “What about our relationship?”, his response is a terse “Fuck that.” Hey, I would’ve said the same thing in that situation.
And that’s what I’ve been saying to movies that seem to give the message that romance = good. Singlehood = bad. A movie like Repo Man is a treasure because it gives a big middle finger to those movies. Very punk rock indeed.
Side note: Harry Dean Stanton, who plays Bud and whom Roger Ebert described as “speaking the language of disaffected youth,” and died at the ripe old age of 91; he lived longer than most married men. Emilio Estevez was married to Paula Abdul in the early 90s, but that marriage lasted two years. I guess he didn’t buy into it either. Again, very punk rock.
