Netflixs The Platform Is An Accidental Coronavirus Movie
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Despite not being designed as such, Netflix’s The Platform was perfectly timed to parallel the Coronavirus outbreak and subsequent consequences.
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The Platform has proven to be one of the most timely films in recent memory with many of its themes reflecting certain elements of the COVID-19, or coronavirus, pandemic. Based on a script by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, the dystopian horror first premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019. Well received by audiences in attendance, The Platform won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness. The film also secured a worldwide streaming deal following the festival and debuted as a Netflix Original on March 20. The Platform has already drawn comparisons with Cube and Bong Joon Ho’s Snowpiercer and the Oscar-winning Parasite.
Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, the Spanish-language film follows the journey of Goreng (Iván Massagué) as he awakes in a tower-like prison. Goreng is quickly treated to an orientation by his new cell-mate, Trimigasi (Zorion Eguileor). With an initially unknown number of levels in total, the structure is known as a Vertical Self-Management Center, but more colloquially referred to as The Pit, and as Trimigasi grimly intones, there are three kinds of inhabitants: “Those at the top…those at the bottom…and those that fall.” Goreng then receives a stark lesson as to exactly what the older man means when the titular platform arrives with their daily meal. Prepared on Level 0, the meal starts as a lavish feast, but by the time it reaches Goreng and Trimigasi on Level 48, all that remains are bones and meager scraps.
The levels beneath them fared even worse, enduring either Trimigasi’s own spit-covered and broken glass-strewn leftovers or nothing but empty serving dishes. As a result, the lowest levels are forced to drastic measures to survive. Goreng himself learns this first-hand when the pair are randomly reassigned to Level 141. Despite bonding over their first month, Goreng awakes at the start of the second to find himself tied to his bed. Armed with a knife, Trimigasi makes clear his grisly, cannibalistic plan. Though Goreng is eventually able to escape with help from the mysterious Miharu (Alexandra Masangkay), his descent into madness and depravity – as well as his fight for survival and systemic change – had only just begun. While the film was more overtly designed as an indictment of capitalistic greed and “trickle-down economics,” The Platform also held a mirror up to a coronavirus-panicked society in a myriad of ways.
The Platform Demonstrates the Effects of Social Isolation
One of the main ways people have been advised to help curb the spread of COVID-19 is to go into quarantine if you have the virus or even demonstrate symptoms, and even those who are unaffected have been instructed to stay at home as much as possible and practice social distancing. Though The Platform offered a much more extreme version, such isolation is at the film’s center, offering both ends of the spectrum.
The Pit is meant to provide opportunity in tumultuous times. Goreng and Miharu voluntarily checked in for individual and social benefits, The Pit offering them a chance to achieve a goal: be it quit smoking, read more books, or even get a degree. Such proactive tasks have often been offered as an incentive for self-isolation in the wake of the coronavirus. Imoguiri (Antonia San Juan), however, was driven more by a greater good approach. After working for The Administration that created The Pit, she opted for the chance to stop spreading that which she spent years helping to exacerbate, which is eerily similar to the concept of trying to flatten the curve and not spread the virus.
Again, The Platform offers a much more extreme version. There’s no selection of streaming services. There’s no internet. There’s nothing to pass the time besides the one item each inmate chose to bring with them, their thoughts, and the daily arrival of food. The Platform touches on several consequences of such isolation, including depression and even suicide. Even Goreng descends to the point of hallucinations and despair. Despite there being more distraction in the real world, people have been no more beset by boredom and mentally worn down by the solitude. As a result, many have forgone the risks of the coronavirus by still venturing out – either acting as normal or otherwise seeking respite. In the wake of even brief isolation, it’s easy to adopt a more self-centered point of view and not see outside of yourself or your feelings.
The Platform offers a darker take on that symptom of isolation. By the time Goreng arrives in The Pit, the system has been in place for some time with the division between those on the upper levels and those on the bottom deeply ingrained. The same can be said between young and old. Trimigasi, after all, feels the need to remain steps ahead of potential, more virile threats rather than being able to rely on able-bodied assistance and companionship. It’s no doubt a reflection of real life, where so many are currently content to put such vulnerable and immunocompromised people at risk. So long have The Pit’s residents been isolated with only one other cell-mate for full-time company, they have all dehumanized each other so that their individual needs can take priority. In The Platform, it has led to upper and even middle levels gorging or otherwise spoiling the food (with no handwashing in sight) rather than thinking of sharing equally. In the real world, a similar mentality has been shown to have taken hold across the world, with many stripping supermarket shelves bare – not just of food but toilet paper and other essentials, even when not necessary.
The Administration Spreads Misinformation and Promotes Inequality
The Platform also takes on such ideas of “fake news” in a very real way. Equally, it tackles the way such misinformation can fuel bias and provoke division. There is, of course, the already established divide between the top and bottom levels, only exacerbated by The Administration. Once a month, they randomly reassign their inmates to new levels – sometimes higher, sometimes lower. Though the organization believes it does this to maintain balance, the random redistribution of inmates manifests as anything but an equitable organization. Instead, it merely throws gas on the fire, giving those once mistreated below an opportunity to enact petty or gruesome revenge on others once the tables have turned. The Administration also knowingly spreads lies, such as the fact that there are no inmates under sixteen in The Pit, no doubt to ease any guilt they may feel and maintain the air of respectability exemplified by the food preparation scenes.
The sense of division is most prominent in the treatment of Miharu. Stated as once being an actress with a desire to be the “Asian Marilyn Monroe,” she has been driven to violent bouts of mania by the time The Platform begins. The specific reasons for her descent are only teased, with the broader issues of The Pit no doubt meant to be viewed as the primary factors. Whatever the case, she’s viewed as an outlier, as other, by the mostly white population. Even Imoguiri, who is introduced with noble intentions, ultimately refers to Miharu with racial epithets and perpetuates the lies about her – all in order to sway Goreng against her. Such divisions are also explored when Goreng teams up with Baharat to fight the system with one character evoking their racial differences to keep them from working together.
The Coronavirus outbreak has only served to spark and further heighten such real-world divisions. While some behavior can be attributed to a symptom of isolation, a lot can also result from a bombardment of conflicting and contradictory information. There has been a spread in inaccurate information regarding the virus from the very beginning, especially when some officials insisted it was not a serious matter or even a “hoax” until it was too late. Even today, there remain contradictory statements as to how best to combat the illness. Equally, like in The Platform, a lot of division has been racially motivated. With many erroneously referring to the illness as the “Chinese Virus,” it has spurred on mistreatment of the Asian community.
The Platform’s Ending Offers a Message of Unity in Times of Struggle
Fortunately, The Platform isn’t entirely doom and gloom. Goreng manages to maintain his desire to fix the system, even after he has devolved to the point of murder and cannibalism himself. He chooses to remain in The Pit and accept death, no doubt knowing he is forever changed and not wanting to contribute to such heinous injustice anymore. Likewise, Baharat gives his life so that the depravities and deceptions of The Pit can be addressed, and Imoguiri commits suicide so that Goreng can live long enough to see that same endeavor potentially achieved. Not only does Goreng successfully show the other inmates that cooperation is possible, but that there is hope for the future. The Platform offers hope in the form of a little girl. Believed not to exist, Baharat and Goreng find her on the lowest level.
Choosing to send the little girl up to Level 0 and freedom, both declare the little girl to be “the message.” While it’s never expressly stated, it’s evident that the message is that future generations don’t have to suffer the way that past ones have and that if more people thought of others, things could be a lot simpler and many more could thrive. Since the coronavirus became an official pandemic, many have tried to share that message – be it through misguided musical efforts or more direct actions. Despite the fact that the film is but a heightened microcosm of the real world, The Platform still demonstrates that unity rather than division is the best way to ensure prosperity for all in tumultuous times and that the kindness and compassion of even one can mean the difference between life and death for many others.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/platform-netflix-coronavirus-metaphor-inequality-isolation-unity/
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