Us by Coopcarleton

Jordan Peele's Us

coopcarleton — 2023-12-02 22:15:38 UTC

Jordan Peele’s second feature film Us, released in 2019, provides meta-commentary on social and political issues in the United States of America. The film is much less apolitical than the other post modernist films released in the last three decades. The film follows Adelaide and her family as they sped a vacation at a beach home, a home where Adelaide stayed as a child (and had the dramatic experience of seeing her tethered double). During the stay the family is visited by tethered doubles. It is later revealed that the tethered are a product of a government cloning project in an attempt to control the people of the country. It is eventually revealed in the end in a shocking twist that Adelaide is actually her tethered body double as when she originally encountered her as a child she switched places with Red (the original girl above ground).

Social Commentary

coopcarleton — 2023-12-02 22:16:08 UTC

As far as social commentary both families in the (the one living above ground and the one tethered below) act as metaphors for both the rich and poor. The family living above ground representing the rich, with the family living below, representing the poor. This is supposed to be a metaphor for the growing economic gap between the rich and poor in the United States of America. Each family acts as a representation the same families experience can be greatly altered by differing financial standings.

Political Commentary

coopcarleton — 2023-12-02 22:16:36 UTC

The film also plays on the political fear of outsiders (often immigrants) in the United States that was specifically prevalent in the last decade. The film is making a mockery of the problematic ideology perpetuated by Donald Trumps campaign around building “the wall” in the late 2010s. The film attempts to use the tethered as a metaphor for the outsiders or immigrants, often neglected in the United States. The tethered represent outsiders as they are unknown and at first unidentified by the people living above ground. They are also representative of immigrants as they are forced to live a lower class than people living above ground, as immigrants were often considered second class citizens in society.

Hands Across America

coopcarleton — 2023-12-02 22:19:59 UTC

The film also features an over handed commentary on the past political movement titled Hands Across America, as at the end of the film the tethered engage in a similar chain linking of hands which shows how the tethered were supposed to represent the marginalized