Tag Archives: thursdayswidows

10/14/21

What would happen if we lived underwater?

I would like to discuss the motif of water in “Thursday’s Widows.” As we discussed today, the opening scene is surprisingly relaxing and calm despite the fact that we are watching dead bodies floating in the water. This tranquility associated with the water suggests to me that water in this story acts as a refuge from the chaos in the characters’ worlds, it is almost like a utopia. Tano even alludes to this, he asks “what would happen if we lived underwater?” (I have a screenshot of this but I am not sure it is copyright-free to post), additionally acting as an element of foreshadowing of his death. For Tano, Gustavo, and Martín, the economic and personal stressors in their life become too much to bear and the three of them fantasize about death as an escape from it all. I think that this is reflective of capitalist societies and the idea that there is no peace in capitalism, and so the men resort to finding peace and freedom in the water because the economic stress becomes overwhelming.  

Thursday for Widows is definitely a complex piece of detective fiction, with multiple crimes and criminals. The important message to take away from it is that when death becomes glorified over living in a broken economic system, there is a problem, and there are many victims. It is interesting because while three characters are dead, I would hesitate to say they are the true and only victims in this story. These characters caused just as much damage as they endured, they represent the ways that capitalism causes pervasive damage by creating an unlivable world. Claudia Piñero creates a story that unveils the intricate ways that the economic collapse in Argentina caused widespread tragedies with multiple victims. In the scene in which Tano attempts to convince his friends to end their lives, there is an overpowering sense of defeat; as if they have lost this game of survival. They are resigned to their fate, not even Ronnie attempting to change their perspective works. This attitude is what makes me consider that the water is a symbol of freedom and escape, the ultimate end to a hopeless system.  

10/13/21

Thursday’s Blog Post

Thursday’s Widows demonstrates how a film can be just as effective as a detective fiction short story in making a statement about economic and sociocultural issues. As “detective fiction,” I definitely found I wasn’t as engaged in “solving the mystery” as I was when reading Borges or Bermúdez, because I just knew that through no effort of my own the answer would be provided for me eventually – films naturally don’t require as much “work” as reading does. However, because of the use of prolepsis in the film I nonetheless found myself looking for clues and suspicious characters over the course of the movie, because we discovered early in the film the location, means by which, and victims of the crime. As a “literary device” in film form, prolepsis (foreshadowing?) was effective in providing intrigue from the beginning.

With respect to the genre and its broader meta-message, if we are to believe that the killers were in fact Tano, Gustavo and Martín themselves, the movie strays from typical detective fiction in that there is really no detective figure central to the story. I think the absence of a glorified state personnel, like a detective or police officer, as a main character, definitely serves as a critique of the state itself – especially when we consider that these men committed suicide largely because of the state’s actions (the collapsing economy). In this way, the film “flips the script” to demonize the state, whilst celebrating and sympathizing with the killers, much in the same way as Bermudez’s Puzzle of the Broken Watch, where a police officer ends up being the killer.