THE POSTMAN

 

THREE STARS – Searching, Thoughtful

 

      

       “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

       This ancient Biblical proverb describing the impact we have one on another is artistically portrayed in the Italian film, THE POSTMAN.

       Set within the early 1950’s, the film explores the effect that the poet, Pablo Neruda (Phillipe Noiret), has on the lives of the people on a small island in Italy.

       The primary focus is on the life of an inexperienced shy islander named Mario Ruoppolo (Massimo Trolsi).

       Mario, searching for a life beyond his father’s fishing business, is providentially given the job of postman to deliver the mail to Pablo.

       Pablo Neruda is a Nobel Prize winning poet from Chile who was forced into exile for his politics and his popularity.

       Having never experienced the presence of a creative genius, Mario is enthralled by the poetry, the politics and the person of Pablo Neruda.

       With awkward sincerity, Mario establishes a friendship with Pablo.  This friendship, though inequitable in many ways, not only transforms Mario but touches the heart of Pablo as well.

       As we journey with Mario down the picturesque roads of his Mediterranean island, we also journey with him into a new world Pablo opens before him.

       At first Mario’s main motivation seems to be the winning of a beautiful young woman’s heart, Beatrice Russo (Maria Grazia Cucinotta). 

       Quoting Pablo’s poetry and mimicking his passion, Mario claims that he is not plagiarizing, but that “poetry belongs not to those who write it, but to those who need it.” 

       Mario wins Beatrice’s heart. 

       But there seems to be an emptiness in the victory.  Was it really Mario she loved?  Can a person emulate another to win love and still experience the satisfaction of being loved for who they are? 

       If we are not ourselves, or are playing a part,  then do we become a prisoner to the image we have adopted?  What happens to such a love when the image erodes? 

       But the beauty of this journey is that Mario doesn’t stop at such a mimicking stage.  Though not a creative genius himself, Mario is nevertheless birthed by Pablo into a new way of being.

        Like a blind man seeing for the first time, Mario begins to experience his world in a whole new way.

       When asked to describe the beauty of his island, he at first can only answer from his obsession:  “Beatrice Russo.”

       But after time, his eyes and ears are opened and he creates a place where we share with him his love of  his simple life.

       Mario’s art takes the form of an audio tape in which the waves and wind and heartbeat of his unborn son become the expression of his wonder and love.

       It is at that moment that we most identify with his awakening. 

       In the opening of his mind and soul to the beauty of the world, Pablo assisted Mario in experiencing a primary spiritual gift of having the eyes to see and the ears to hear.

       Jesus often spoke of such a need and lamented the absence of such a spirit when he asked:  “Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?”

       In his new enlightened state, Mario wrote a poem.  Following his mentor,  it spoke of the need to help our fellow human beings. The poem causes him to be invited to speak at a Communist rally where, in a riot, he is killed.

       It is then that our hearts reach out not only to Beatrice and their son, Pablito, but to Pablo himself.

       Though no words are spoken the questions revealed on his face communicate the depth of his thoughts.  

       Perhaps as he realizes that his coming into Mario’s life not only gave him life but caused his death, Pablo seems intensely aware of the power of one life on another.

       Created for love by God, who is love himself, Pablo and Mario exemplify for us an example of the power of love and the art of expressing it.

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