“Hollowman”, directed by Paul Verhoeven, is
a classic Ring of Gyges story involving a brilliant scientist who takes part in
some extremely immoral behaviour after successfully making himself
invisible. The traditional Gyges story
suggests that any person, no matter what their moral strength, would abandon
all ethics and do whatever they wished if they knew for certain that they would
not be found out or not have to pay penance for their misdemeanours (Falzon,
2007). I, however, prefer to have a little
more faith in humanity, and that it would depend on the individual on what a
person does with the gift of invisibility.
The Gyges character in “Hollowman” is
Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon), the scientist who discovers the secret of
indivisibility for a military project and tests it on himself. Caine is established as a self-involved, egotistical person, with
questionable personal morals, often referring to himself as God. So does the power of invisibility exaggerate
his personality to that of a murderer?
Or is that the path every person would be doomed to if granted this
power?
Baggini (2011)
states that morality requires empathy and understanding, two qualities that
Caine lacks, and that an inability to relate to people is a failing of character. By believing he is superior to ‘ordinary’
people, including his colleagues, Caine’s sense of morality is already low to
begin with, suggesting that he was always capable of these deplorable acts, but
only societal constraint and fear of capture that prevented him from following
through on these thoughts.
On the
other hand, Baggini (2011) also suggests that a person being ‘good’ or ‘bad’
greatly hinges on whether a person can resist small temptations, and that giving in to one small temptation is enough to eventually snowball
into disastrous consequences because ordinary human decency is fragile. Once that decency is broken, it is difficult
to stop, like a damn bursting. Caine’s
morality is extremely fragile due to his less-than-model personality and
negative view of the ‘common’ man. His
‘gateway’ temptation is breaking the lab rules and going out, which leads to
voyeurism, rape and multiple murders. However,
he still cannot be considered ‘good’ simply because he had not yet given in to
his dark desires prior to becoming invisible; he is still an awful human being,
albeit a gifted and intelligent one. Even
before becoming invisible, Caine had given in to the temptation of personal
pride and glory by lying to the military about the status of his project. It is possible that this event is what led
him down the road to self-destruction, caused not by the power of invisibility
but by his own greed. His ‘gift’ simply
aided his actions.
“Hollowman” shows us the worst of humanity,
but does not explore what may have happened if a more relatable and empathic
character was granted invisibility. I
doubt that a person who is kind for kindness sake and not for personal gain
would sink to the immoral levels of Gyges.
If a person is understanding and compassionate towards their fellow
human being, it is unlikely that they would give in to desires as they would
consider more than their own personal needs but also the needs of the people
that would be affected by any actions taken whilst invisible. However, a person like Sebastian Caine who
only truly cares for himself would very easily succumb to the power of being
unseen.
References
Baggini, J. (2011). Serious men: the films of the
Cohen brothers as ethics. In H. Carel & G. Tuck (Eds.), New takes in
film-philosophy (pp. 207-222). London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Falzon, C. (2007). Philosophy goes to the
movies (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.
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