The deer symbolism in Leave the World Behind explained

It’s been a while since we’ve noticed a film on Netflix make good use of visible storytelling to put across its subject matters, but Leave the World Behind is a brilliant instance of methods to do it well, in truth many are announcing it’s one of the best films on Netflix at the moment.

Right from the get-go, as we’re shown the solar emerging over the world and then the town, something about it just feels eerie — it sort of feels too quiet when there will have to be that morning hustle and bustle. The movie is stuffed with moments like this, but one thing in particular that’s leaving fanatics stumped are the deer. Obviously they imply one thing, but what were the filmmakers trying to tell us by means of placing them in the movie?

The deer are important, they appear in the original book, and they seem in the film too — in fact, you'll be able to spot them in that glitchy, animated opening credits collection. However, the first correct sighting of the deer happens simply after Amanda (Julia Roberts), Clay (Ethan Hawke), and their youngsters narrowly keep away from being flattened by an oil tanker. Back at the house, Amanda spots a deer and its fawn, Clay notes that it’s meant to be a good omen. It’s nearly humorous how mistaken this observation seems to be.

Subverting expectancies

Whilst deer are generally portrayed as non violent creatures, the means they are presented in Leave the World Behind flips that friendly image. This was once totally intentional, as Sam Esmail, the film’s director, revealed to Tudum.

“To turn that sweet image into now this kind of ominous, menacing, nearly caution — I believed was in point of fact attention-grabbing. […] We at all times tried to take the things that we never in reality regarded as a danger and then flip it round on them.”

As issues start to spiral out of regulate, the deer grow in numbers, totally surrounding the area and the circle of relatives. Something that was cute and thought to be a good omen at first now becomes horrifying. The deer constitute a shift; as our characters’ lives are flipped the other way up, so too are our perceptions of nature, the world, and humanity.

The end of society

The tale supplies observation on humanity’s over-reliance on generation. It is generation (or its failure) that in the end brings about the finish of society in this film. Over time, the deer turn out to be much less timid and extra aggressive, whilst the human characters develop into an increasing number of helpless, and this surely reinforces the concept that society is collapsing and nature is taking up.

At the finish of the day, motion pictures are artwork, and as with all items of artwork, it’s kind of up to particular person interpretation. We know what the director was trying to say with the deer, and we will be able to hyperlink this to the film’s themes surrounding technology and society, but there’s all the time extra to say, or otherwise to look at it.

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