”Missed Him” – a Movie

The would-be assassin of Lars Hedegaard had – fortunately – trained to be a postman

How could a would-be assassin possibly miss his target at point blank? I have an idea: He was thinking like a postman, not like a killing machine.

Actually, I’m supposed to write about a movie. But in a way, this is precisely a movie. This claim is taken from the movie work.

One of the hard parts about a movie is to keep things straight. To remember that the main character has one objective in mind, and only one. This is actually an expression of the purity of heart, willing one thing. That the character is guided by this will alone. Mads Mikkelsen is, in the Danish movie The Hunt, continuously occupied by holding on — let the others come to their senses, let them figure out themselves that he did not assault the girl. Until eventually he cannot restrain himself any longer. The rumors spring from a small society, and need to be rolled back by that small society

That provides the true dramatic development. And this is the way to tell a story. One thing is decisive for the ability to provide an overview for a movie, to give it a subject, so that it sticks to one theme. All You Need Is Love is a good example. Rather than concentrating on the fact of baldness, it is merely mentioned visually to create space for the love story, and even for several. Several, possibly, in order to not lose sight of the aim: to tell a story about love.

One could imagine baldness being made systematic, connecting it to the will of Trine Dyrholms, creating a movie about how the hairdresser fights against going bald, showing that she acts against losing her hair as such. That could become a good movie, not a romantic sentimental one, but dramatically handling the problem.

Then, the postman, let’s get back to him. He was so preoccupied by his role as a postman that he forgot the original intention, that of killing. He had carefully dressed as a postman, even wearing a wig, so that nobody would recognize him as the postman. That could well have been an obsession for him. He has passionately made himself look like a postman, and even practiced it.

But postmen do not carry firearms, never mind fire them. He had not practiced that. But for his role as a postman he had trained very well. Lars Hedegaard opens his window, looks down and does not perceive the man at the front door as being disguised. The way he delivers the parcel was also right. He knows his stuff.

The whole progress not only looks as if copied from a movie, it probably is influenced by movies. In movies, one hits the target with ease. Right between the eyes. One doesn’t need to practice that. I recall only a very few movies where the killer was seen practicing killing. Usually he is a man who already knows how to shoot and to hit. Travis in Taxi Driver has been in the Marines, Michael in The Godfather is a soldier already when he enters the movie. The same is the case with people in Western movies. They already know how to shoot, and only practice with their bottles in case they need to retrain their skills in order to regain their former marksmanship.

By the way, this oneness of the will is also characteristic of our trivial everyday life and our behavior in it.

This could be the reason that the postman missed his target.. He has become preoccupied by being postman, and has watched too many movies. Fortunately.

By Mogens Rukov

Swedish, Danish