Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest film, Digger, has been received with controversy, as well as a spate of bad reviews from the bourgeois press. This refreshing, bombastic, and witty satire hinges around the climate crisis, but it goes much further. It lays the blame for the world situation at the feet of US imperialism and its aged, hubristic political representatives.
Digger is deliberately on-the-nose and states its position very clearly.
Digger Rockwell, a ruthless Texan oil baron, is portrayed in a rather absurd manner (but by no means an unbelievable one). This is the capitalist class today: obscenely wealthy, detached, stupid, and egotistical. This class has a contemptuous attitude towards its workers and is far more interested in profit — and, in the case of Digger, the health of his ailing cat — than preventing the destruction of the planet.
Workers on his oil project warn him of impending catastrophe, but Digger ignores their concerns. His workers were (surprise, surprise) right about his shortsighted profiteering. Digger’s arrogance sets off a chain of events that threatens the destruction of Europe and, ultimately, life on earth.
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Sick system
The film’s POTUS, played excellently by John Goodman, encapsulates all sides of the American ruling class — a ruthless, sick, dying old man, leading a system in the same state.
The politicians and military chiefs discuss their options, from bombing the problem to smithereens, to blaming it on Russia and China, reflecting the situation we live in today. The US thinks it can bomb its way out of any problem, while constantly trying to blame the crisis on the bogeymen in the East.
Despite bragging about being the world’s biggest military power, the film’s hapless US officials are incapable of solving the crisis that they created, dragging the world down with them. Out of ideas, Digger suggests a mass censorship of social media to get away with their horrendous crimes!
It’s hard not to see a real-life analogy with the war in Iran. This massive military blunder by the USA — in no small way owing to its hubris — is revealing its weakening global position and exacerbating the world crisis.
Fourth wall
The film takes a turn at this point. We are actually watching a play within a film, with all the characters so far being played by actors in rehearsal. These sequences are reminiscent of Iñárritu’s Birdman, and introduce some interesting staging and camera work.
But the main purpose of this — in the style of Bertolt Brecht — is to break the fourth wall. We’re encouraged not to focus on character development, but the political message that the director wants to deliver.
That message is made abundantly clear: American capitalism is destroying the world.
Much has been made of the scene where Digger delivers his fiery monologue. According to most of the bourgeois press, this is the scene where Digger tells us — the audience — that we might hate him for what he did, but we all need him and are all guilty in the climate crisis.
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This is a bizarre misreading of the film: Digger explicitly said he is at the European Parliament. Since when were the masses ever invited into this thieves’ kitchen?
No, Digger is actually lecturing the squabbling mess of European leaders. He reminds them that they are all shareholders in his company, that the Europeans are nothing without American oil or US capitalism.
Imperialist decline
Is this not an honest reflection of real life? US imperialism’s war in Ukraine resulted in a cut off of cheap Russian oil and gas to Europe, throwing Europe into an energy crisis.
Since then, the USA has strengthened its energy exports to the bloc — now 14 percent to 15 percent of its total crude, and 60 percent to 65 percent of its LNG imports.
The relative decline of the USA has profound implications for the future of Europe. US imperialism was once able to hold Europe together. Now that its position is threatened by the rise of China and Russia, it’s no longer interested in subsidising Europe. As a result, the European powers can either grovel to the White House, seek alliances with other stronger powers, or go it alone and fight amongst themselves.
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It’s true that the film is ultimately putting forward a rather grim perspective. There are no depictions of the masses fighting back against the rotten individuals in power. But it would be false to say that it does not comment on the masses at all.
Film vs reality
The final scene of the film depicts the dystopian life that the embittered masses are now having to live — all for the actions of a hated ruling class and a system in which they had no say. While the film does not depict socialism, it certainly depicts the barbarism that capitalism — if unchallenged — has in store for us.
But, fortunately, we do not live in Iñárritu’s Digger universe. We are living in a world where class struggle is on the order of the day. Even as I write these words, school students across France are attempting to storm heaven, drawing in wider layers of the masses with them.
At the beginning of this year we saw the first shots of the American Revolution, with hundreds of thousands of workers across Minneapolis carrying out a de facto general strike that successfully defeated ICE.
Digger is a fun, entertaining, and daring film in an era of mostly un-daring cinema. The political points that it does put forward are sharp and astute. It faithfully reflects the world situation, which does appear absurd. But it’s not real life.
In real life, the future is communism.
