That F@%*ing Scene : Officer Arnaud Loved His Mother
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Whether you’re writing a novel, movie, television series, stage play or whatever it is you’re trying to write, an angry cop is about the hardest sell for a protagonist. No one wants to like a policeman who can’t control himself. Images of police brutality have been multiplying on the internet since Michael Brown’s death in 2014 and even if their job is undoubtedly complicated, everyone’s been asking for cops to do their job better… or for cities to hire better cops.
But one man did it. Actor, writer and director Jim Cummings turned the 21st century social media boogeyman into a likable guy in twelve minutes at the beginning of his excellent debut feature film Thunder Road. How did he achieved such a narrative tour de force? How did he bridge the broken gap of trust between the police and us, the people they’re supposed to protect? Let’s look at the scene together to understand how Cummings pulls it off.
Since the scene is not available online, I’ve taken the liberty to link to the original short film (that is basically the same thing) for reference. It comes from Jim Cummings’ Vimeo account, so I don’t believe he’ll mind.
What is so moving about a cop having a public meltdown at his mother’s funeral?
I’ve identified four reasons:
1) He’s vulnerable. The only cop-thing about Officer Jimmy Arnaud is his uniform. Although it lends him an immediate air of authority, Arnaud really acts like a little boy who just lost his mother. He’s confused, heartbroken and constantly relies on people who are outside the frame. He’s not trying to intimidate anyone or assert control over them. This scene is, first and foremost, a public display of pain and grief. Somewhat of a meltdown too.
That is key to defuse any worry about the nature of the character or the film. It indicates right away that it’s not about how difficult or how vital the job is. It’s more of a film about having to do your job while life is insanely difficult for you. This sort of vulnerability is a shared experience. None of us danced on a Bruce Springsteen song at their mother’s funeral, but we’ve all had moments where it hurt too much to care about what other people think.
2) It’s not about him. This is another point that immediately communicates who Jimmy Arnaud is and why you're a heartless bastard if you think he’s unsympathetic. Although he’s exposing HIS pain in front of the funeral’s audience, it’s not what he wants to be doing. He wants to pay tribute to his mother, who owned a dancing academy. He’s just so psychologically and emotionally lost that the only way he thinks of doing that is by doing a spontaneous dance number.
His actions come from a place of love. They are silly and embarrassing, but point towards a buried kindness inside the character. A selflessness and a gratitude of having been so well supported throughout his life. These latent feelings almost prevent your from laughing at the scene. Officer Arnaud’s heart is obviously in the right place and that humiliating spontaneous contemporary dancing outburst is just a way to express pain he cannot articulate otherwise.
3) The CD player. This might seem like a trivial detail, but it’s not. That CD player infers that Officer Arnaud’s decision was spontaneous and his mind disorganized by grief and various other problems. He didn’t plan this performance thoroughly. He just grabbed the first thing that played music he could find and ran with it. In his emotionally troubled mind, it seemed like the right thing to do. Distressed people don’t plan far ahead and this prop illustrates that.
4) It’s barely ever referenced after. Of course, you’ll need to watch Thunder Road in its entirety to understand that. But this emotional meltdown isn’t a big deal in the greater scheme of things. Not only Jimmy’s too busy managing his collapsing life to care about it, but people aren’t making it into a historical moment either. There’s a subplot about having a video recording of the dancing performance on the internet, but that’s it.
We’ve all had moments in our lives that seemed like the end of everything. Moments of no return that would define the rest of our existence. Part of what makes Thunder Road so emotionally engaging is that it refutes that idea. If you move along and take responsibility for your life, it’s just going to continue to follow its course. I’m not going to spoil the ending of Thunder Road, but it echoes this scenes as Jimmy Arnaud makes peace with his mother’s passing.
It’s beautiful. Watch it or just watch the short film linked above if you don’t want to invest two hours into a film about a cop.
