Just got back from Pixar’s new film, Wall-E, and am reflecting on the meanings that come through without words. In this gem of a movie, Earth is a giant trash-heap and one lonely little robot is programmed to compact the trash and pile it up. Enter Eve, a sleek robot sent by Axiom, an off-planet spaceship serving as a hiding-place for humans, to scout out whether there is life on the planet and the exiles can return.
There is very little dialogue in the most moving part of the film, the first half: “Ev-a, Wall-e, Directive, and Plant.” Without words, however, the film conveys so much visually: what true love is and does; the need for love and companionship; the crucial importance of sticking to one’s task; the immortality of hope. And it’s visually gorgeous. The movie transcends its type to become a parable about environmental damage that argues this: we must all do what we can to heal the planet, even when we will not be able to see the end results.
There is a reason suicide is seen by some as an unforgivable sin: it betokens despair, the absolute hellish absence of hope, the giving up, the relinquishment of responsibility, the laxness in the hands, the loss of caring. People who love this earth and its generous beauty are only too prey to despair when we think about the struggle to return it to health. It will take so much work. We will not live long enough to see the planet healed. Is it then even worth doing? Should we not just give up?
The film presents us with a moral choice--to dally along in our cushioned everyday lives, remote from any real effort or strain, or to undertake the long, slow, tedious job of cleaning up our home. To do what we can, where we can, rewarded by small steps and single garden plots and increasing moves off the grid. For the common good. I see Wall-e as a parable for our times, and seeing it was of personal help to me.