The Beauty in 'Trash'

Set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Trash shines a light on the issue of corruption within the political realm, and the citizens' own police force through the eyes of three boys who take it upon themselves to finish what one man started and overcome it all. Mark Kermode called this film “a cross between Slumdog Millionaire and City of God.” I believe that this film is a window film, because within this film lies the “ability to speak truth to reality” as Andre Bazin, a film theorist, stated. I enjoy watching window films such as this one, because they don’t really end. Even as we walk out the theatre or turn off our TVs, the story continues in our minds and in our lives, and it’s up to each of us to decide how we want to end that story.

There are many prevalent binary oppositions in the film such as rich versus poor that the director, Stephen Daldry, used to create meaning. What’s interesting about that is that these oppositions can be applied to everyone in every culture around the world. While it’s true that, in reality, not everyone is the same, and that the idea of good and bad can be relative in some cases, in this film, in order to get the audience to root for the underdog, the difference between the protagonists and antagonists is completely clear. There is a good side and a bad side. On the good side, our protagonists are poor, young, they work at a trash dumpsite, and have no power or influence in any case whatsoever. On the bad side, our antagonists are rich, older, and they have some kind of power, either as a politician or a police officer. As stated by Somdah, “... they show all aspects of Brazil... they touched on police brutality, inequality...” People would think that in the face of such power, for a poor kid, it’s easy to feel powerless. However, in this film, using those binary oppositions, it’s able to communicate to the audience that no matter how great the obstacles seem, there is something to be said about working together with others to overcome them.

Out of all the film theories, the theory that interested me the most, that can also be applied to Trash, is the suture theory. The suture theory is basically when you have two different shots that, when shown one after the other, seem like one seamless shot to the audience, as if they were sutured together. Using that theory as the foundation, all of the five senses used in a film can act as a suture between shots. The five senses serve as a way to open us up to the world around and beyond us. Therefore, to incorporate that into a film is the best way to get the meaning across to the audience, because even if the audience does not understand anything else, they will at least understand that.

One of the first senses used as a suture in the film is sight. In the third scene of the film, we see a man in a profile shot. The side of the face that we see is darkened. We then cut to his not-so-long-ago past and see him, supposedly, burying his daughter, Pia Angelo. We then cut back to his face, where we can see some of his facial features, but most of his face is still darkened out. We cut back and forth till his face becomes a completely clear frontal close up. The meaning that I was able to derive from this was that as we look into those bits and pieces of his past, we are gradually able to piece together who Jose Angelo is. I say that the suture theory is applied here, because taking those different scenes and blending them together allows the audience to come up with the conclusion that we are looking through Jose’s mind and what he’s thinking about without actually taking ourselves out of the story. The fact that they are continuous shots makes it seem seamless in the eyes of the audience.

Out of the other senses used in the film, touch is one of the most important, because it acted as a suture in Trash in order to create meaning much more often than the other senses. The first instance we see touch incorporated, and acting as a suture is when one of the protagonists, Raphael, finds the wallet, the most significant item in the whole movie, amongst the garbage at the dumpsite. After emptying the wallet of its money, and splitting it with his best friend, Gardo, he curiously digs through the rest of its contents. The first thing he pulls out is the ID of Jose Angelo that has an inked fingerprint on the front. Once Raphael presses his finger to the fingerprint, it cuts to a shot of Jose bloodied and beaten. The shots become sutured together by that simple action. Every time that Raphael touches an object from the wallet, it brings us to the continuous shot of Jose being tortured by the police for information about what was inside of the wallet. Since Raphael opened the wallet, it’s as if his life became sutured to Jose’s life. They’re now both unknowingly connected. This leads us to the moment that Raphael closes the wallet with all of its contents inside. As soon as he does so, we see a shot of Jose being zipped up in a body bag. The wallet represented Jose’s life, which Raphael has opened and looked through; thus, when the wallet was finally closed, that moment signified the end of Jose’s life. These two different scenes were completely sutured together in a beautiful and meaningful way through touch.

As mentioned before, touch is one of the most important senses in the film, because it was used in a way that reinforced already established connections between characters. Whether it was between the three friends, or between one of them and a complete stranger who was in a similar situation, the physical contact allowed the audience to see and understand that there was a sort of kinship involved within the poor population of Rio de Janeiro. One of the most important of these cases is when Raphael and Gardo, after finding the wallet, and wanting to hide it in a safe place, go to the sewers to meet Gabriel, or Rat, as they call him. They try to keep their distance from him. We find out seconds later that Rat is isolated from everyone else because of his skin disease, and all he had to say to that was, “What can you do, eh?” Rat was deprived of the connection that physical contact could provide him, so when he went along with Raphael and Gardo on their mission to figure out what the items in the wallet meant, he was able to finally have that connection that he longed for.

The absence of touch carries just as much meaning in the film as touch itself. A little while later, the detective, our main antagonist, kidnaps Raphael, and tortures him in order to get him to give up the wallet without putting a hand on him. He sets him in the backseat of a police car and the driver harshly drove around in circles, slamming on the brakes occasionally, giving Raphael a concussion. When Raphael refuses to speak up, the detective tells one of the police offers under his authority to kill him and then drives off. The officer shoots his gun, purposely missing Raphael, and the next day, he is found half-dead lying in the street. I find it interesting how, in this scene, there was no touch involved. Touch can act as a weapon, as well as an object of affection. However, this film seems to want to only associate touch with good things. For the antagonists to not get their hands dirty, and to not be in physical contact at all with the protagonists exemplifies the distance and lack of understanding and compassion between the two groups. It also further demonstrates just how close the protagonists are to each other. After the whole ordeal, Rat kisses Raphael on the head despite how bloodied and battered he was, therefore reaffirming the friendship they had, and reminding him that he was not alone in this.

While the film continued to use touch as a means of connection throughout the film, such as with Gardo’s meeting with Mr. Clemente, Jose Angelo’s uncle, in prison; there was also a big focus on hearing as a suture in this scene as well. Gardo and Mr. Clemente were two complete strangers to each other; however, their situation sparked a kinship between them to the point that Mr. Clemente took Gardo’s face in his hands, and gave him the code that would lead to the downfall of Santos, the very same corrupt politician that landed him in jail in the first place. What caused him to do that, however, was the fact that Gardo didn’t exactly come empty-handed. He had read and memorized a letter that Jose had written addressed to Mr. Clemente, telling him to “Fear no more. It is accomplished.” At first, Gardo was just conveying the letter, but then we hear Jose’s voice instead. It then cuts to a shot of Jose writing the letter. When he is finishing, Jose looks directly at us, and proceeds to end his letter. Not only did this scene also incorporate sight into the mix, but by doing so, it allowed the audience to fully experience what was going on in each of the characters’ minds at that moment. I believe that this scene helped with pulling the audience in, and making them feel like they are a part of the story.

There is another scene that also combined some of the senses covered to suture the shots together. While Gardo was with Mr. Clemente, Raphael and Rat were sneaking around at Santos’s property. They were caught by one of the workers who told them about Jose, who was Santos’s right-hand man at the time, and how he stole 10 million dollars from him, and hid the money and the ledger somewhere. While he’s going through the story, using sight and hearing as sutures, we cut to the actual scenes, and are able to see how it all took place.

Finally, we get to the best scene of the whole movie, in my opinion, and we see how sight, touch, and hearing are all incorporated to create meaning. First, we see Raphael going over the plan on how they-re going to get their hands on the Bible. The Bible is needed in order for them to crack the code. As soon as Raphael mentions one part of the plan, we would cut to the scene of that part of the plan in execution. Funnily enough, nothing went according to plan, but at least they had managed to get the Bible.

After that ordeal, the three of them gather in an empty room, and try to crack the code. Gardo leaves to find food, and while he’s gone, Raphael manages to crack the code, which leads them to a cemetery, the same one where Jose Angelo buried his daughter, Pia Angelo, at the beginning of the film. With the help of some kind strangers, they managed to escape the police, and catch a ride to the cemetery. During the whole scene at the cemetery, where the detective catches up to them, and forces them at gunpoint to find and give him the money, there is haunting non-diegetic music building in the background. It’s meant to throw the audience off and make them believe that something bad is going to happen to the kids, however, that’s not the case. Just as the music reaches its climax, Pia Angelo, who happens to be still alive, comes out of hiding, and drops a small statue on the detective’s head. The 10 million dollars, that was in Pia’s coffin, went back to the poor and the film ends with the four kids together and happy.

In conclusion, the suture theory can be applied to every aspect of the film, and to every sense that we use to watch films. Trash was the perfect example of how to incorporate the senses, and apply it to suture theory. Not only that, it was an amazing film, overall. Trash covered many topics, such as corruption, discrimination, and many more, all while staying true to itself, and not getting too political. “In plot terms, this is classic underdogs-beat-the-system material, down to an improbably happy ending that bears no relation to the realism Daldry haphazardly aims for...” as stated by Jay Weissberg. However, it has a way of showing the audience that it’s not a matter of where you came from, it’s a matter of where you’re going.