The Psychology of Le Dernier Combat: When Id, Ego, and Superego Wage War

It's a post-apocalyptic world, but somehow you've lived to see it. But things are strange-the music just doesn't seem to play anymore. Your voice is missing, and the blank skies, (the weather used to be so unpredictable), will probably yield fish or rocks today. It's a desolate world where man hunts man, and you have to be careful, or your necklace, your favorite one made with human fingers, is going to be defamed-and you are going to die.

Such is the world that Luc Besson portrays in his 1983 debut feature film, Le Dernier Combat. The mind functions in mysterious ways. The way in which one thinks is a reflection upon one's surrounding environment. In Luc Besson's film, Le Dernier Combat, Freud's theory of the self may be applied to the three characters that appear in the interim of the main protagonist's flight from the desert world. Due to this circumstance, the film acts as a witness to the manipulation of society upon the unconscious mind. Through these means, Besson makes a clear statement that despite outside forces, there remain some fundamental truths about all cultures and human nature that remain constant.

To comprehend the implications of Besson's incorporation of psychoanalytic theory into Le Dernier Combat, it is crucial to have a basic understanding of the theory of self. According to Freud, the mature adult mind has three divisions: an id, an ego, and a superego. The id consists of pure, unadulterated, instinctual energy - and exists with a bodily need and therefore demands the immediate removal of that tension. In other words, the id demands immediate gratification of bodily needs and is governed by the pleasure principal. The ego is governed by the reality principle and operates in the service of the id. That being, the ego comes into existence to bring the person into contact with experiences that truly satisfy his or her needs. "When the person is hungry, the ego finds food, when the person is thirsty, the ego finds liquid, when the person is sexually aroused, the ego finds appropriate sexual objects" (Hergenhahn, 31). Lastly, the superego is the moral arm of the personality. It develops primarily from the internalized patterns of reward and punishment that the individual experiences. The fully developed superego has two subdivisions. The 'conscience' is the internalized experiences for which the person had been consistently punished. Engaging in these behaviors now, or even thinking about engaging them, makes the individual feel guilty. The second subdivision of the superego is the 'ego ideal', that is the internalized experiences for which the child had been consistently rewarded. The superego constantly strives for perfection and is, therefore, as unrealistic as the id. Therefore, the job of the ego becomes more complicated. Not only must the ego find objects and events that satisfy the needs of the id, it also must find objects and events that do not violate the values of the superego.

To understand how Le Dernier Combat complicates the psychological premise of 'the look' it is important to understand Freud's theories as interpreted by Laura Mulvey. In her groundbreaking 1975 article, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, (in which for the first time the idea of 'the look' was addressed in film, and is still debated today) she outlines the issues pertaining to the Freudian concept of scopophilia when applied to the medium of film. For Mulvey, scopophilia, or the love of looking, comprises of two aspects, voyeurism, or the libido, and narcissism, via the ego. The voyeuristic element is laden with sexual desire, and includes the pleasure of looking at someone without their knowing-more than likely in the dark. Certainly, connotations for film-going audiences can be derived from this theory. The narcissistic ingredient, however, pertains to theories of basic human instinct that when one looks at something, one wants to see himself/herself reflected. Freud and Mulvey argue that men have the desire to manipulate and be active doers, who want to conquer the world. Therefore, they are phallocentric. Women, on the other hand, feel as if their anatomy is lacking. By not having a penis her psyche will be molded to accept passivity, and ultimately become masochistic. Different forms of cinema seem to appeal to the genders. Westerns, action films, mysteries, and film noir, are all typically associated with the masculine, but also must have a narrative to survive. The masculine audience is in need of a narrative to avoid falling into total libido-for if that occurs, he will inevitably become consumed with himself, and undergo psychological castration and loss of the almighty penis. Women, on the contrary, were most likely to appreciate the melodrama. In this form of film, her masochism could be re-affirmed.

In Le Dernier Combat, all of these psychological elements are presented in the form of an allegorical narrative. "Le Dernier Combat, is the tale of an unspecified holocaust where all seems lost. Survivors…have lost the power of their vocal chords as they stumble about in a Paris reduced to ruins and rubble, and surrounded by the sands of the desert. They are constantly on the forage for food and water [and sexual gratification]" (Hayward, 28). Besson introduces the audience to three main characters, which will hereafter be known as the Brute, the Hero, and the Doctor. Each of these men may represent an aspect of the psyche as outlined by Freud, being the id, ego, and superego, respectively. While psychoanalytic theory has been applied to other films by Besson, (such as Mary M. Wiles' 1997 article, Mapping the Contours of Cyborg Space in the Conspiracy Film: The Feminine Ecology of Luc Besson's 'La Femme Nikita'), there has yet to be a full interpretation of Le Dernier Combat in this manner.

The character of the Brute represents the division of the mind known as the id. He regresses, as a human being throughout the film, and ultimately only understands pleasure and the animalistic use of force. This is exemplified by his choice of bargaining goods offered to the doctor, which were firstly food and secondly money. These are the consumption commodities of the 1980s, and Besson is noting that even in a post-apocalyptic world they are still a dominating presence. Furthermore, to display his id nature, the Brute is the most vocal of all the characters-though none can speak, he snarls, grunts, and moans more then any of the others. Interestingly enough, the Brute is incapable of having a dinner with civility. He attempts to prepare a meal of fish, even speculating about the cleanliness of his flatware, but circumstances beyond his control eliminate the event from reaching proper fruition. While the fish is cooking, the gas runs out, while the music is playing, the tape unravels. These events occur due to the incapability of the id to make contact with the objects it needs to satisfy it's need. (The ego must cater to that). Instead of engaging in preparation, the Brute resorts to eating the fish raw. In this manner, he has begun his regression into his genuine infantile nature-an image which is exaggerated by the Brute's costuming of only white bikini underwear resembling a diaper.

Indeed, as the film progresses, the Brute becomes less and less of a coherent, communicative human being, and more of a lusting animal that is pure id. A clear example of this linear progression can be made with his attempts to enter the hospital. At first he tries to bargain with the doctor, secondly he attempts treachery. At this point he abandons human negotiations and tries to file down the bars separating him from his goal. When this proves futile, it is implied to the audience that he even leaves the human tool for brute strength, and tears down the obstacles in his path like a crazed animal.

When the Brute encounters the object that can satisfy his sexual desire, he merely follows the pleasure principal and cannot conceive of the need for future gratification. Furthermore, he is without a moral or social conscience as the superego is. Therefore, the encounter results in the woman's death. While the audience is not given a clear picture of what happens when the Brute finds the source of sexual gratification-a scene from another Besson film, Messenger, The Story of Joan of Arc, offers similar parallels. While a woman is being raped, her attacker in his frenzy kills her, rather then negotiate with her resistance. It is easy to imagine this as the probable and similar way in which the woman was killed by the Brute. To summarize, the Brute descended into infantile actions and senseless violence, and exemplified his id tendencies by following the pleasure principal to unrealistic and disastrous measures. His actions prove that mankind needs some form of social and moral structure to survive.

The character of the old Doctor is the embodiment of the superego, which is just as unrealistic as the id. He took pity on the Hero upon discovering him near death. This is due to two reasons, firstly, the superego is under the direction of a moral compass. Coherent with the 'conscience' subdivision, the doctor never engages in violence in any way-even when it appeared as if the Hero would attack him, he did not take actions to defend himself. The doctor seems to prefer avoidance of the Brute rather than a clever attack scheme, indicating his passivity. The one time a weapon is fired at the Brute, it is not a real gun, but a harmless flare rifle. The second motivation was more insidious, and leans toward the 'ego ideal'. "The doctor saves the hero's life for his own selfish purpose; he is no longer of an age or physical well-being to be the proper fornicator for the young woman; and it is made clear that his interest in bringing the young couple together is not without voyeuristic intent" (Hayward, 32). It has been argued previously in regards to Besson's films that voyeurism is "the superego of the state apparatus" (Wiles, 45). Here, the doctor is all that is left of social concerns. He nulls much of the independence that is left in the Hero. The audience will no longer see him urinating at free will (as he did in the middle of the street without qualms upon his arrival to the city) or openly relieving himself from sexual desire. (Rather then using a blow-up doll openly, he chooses to masturbate underneath his blanket while he thinks the doctor is unaware of his actions. However, in an attempt for the doctor to rebuild the future, the doctor apparently threatens a naturalistic truth; that of a higher being. (As a type of heavenly response, rocks miraculously fall from the sky and result in the Doctor's doom). His sterile hospital and his voyeuristic intentions do not seem to be conducive to a proper meeting of man and woman. Furthermore, in one scene when he is 'examining' the Hero, it is unclear whether he is looking at his stomach scars, or genitals. His eye is shown through an extreme close up shot magnified several times by the glass he holds. This clearly indicates, in addition to many shots of his peering eyes through slots in doors, that he is a creature of voyeurism, and superego incarnate.

The Hero is left to negotiate between the Brute and the Doctor, resulting in the natural conclusion that he is the embodiment of the ego. Functioning on the reality principle, he seeks out the objects to fulfill the needs his body demands. Indeed, much of what we see of the Hero centers on his eating, drinking, and quest for sex. The social interactions with the Doctor obviously do not intrigue him, (as shown through his apathy towards the ping-pong game) but were forced on him by the moral compass of the physician/superego. His interaction with the Brute proves to be most apt for psychoanalytic analysis, however. The battle the two engage in results in a circular wound around the Hero's navel. This is an obvious reference to motherhood and the womb. To confirm this suspicion, there is a scene in which the Doctor is examining the Hero and places his stethoscope in the center of the circle, and chuckles to himself-as if indicating either the folly of the natural means of birth or over the Hero's need for a womanly connection. The id inflicts the wound, indicating want for nourishment that the ego is not providing him-at this stage of the Brutes regression he cannot see the Hero as a partner. Certainly, nourishment and food play a critical role for the characters in Le Dernier Combat. "They act as substitutes for what cannot be had-sex, love, the maternal body, yes-but they also signify a nostalgia for an aestheticism, a tradition of value around the consumption of food and drink that has disappeared" (Hayward, 38). Indeed, all of the actions among the three male characters can be viewed as an internal dialogue of the Hero, for whom the narrative centers. Acting as a typical ego, he went to seek the means to satisfy his desires-to return a smarter individual after his mental discourse. Using the violence of the id to destroy another for his own purposes, he still retains the social concerns of the superego, by subduing the rest of the car gang-and realizing there will be some politics involved to stay on top. (He appeases the greatest challenge to himself by giving him a finger as a token, rather then killing him as well). With this accomplished, he can finally receive the sexual satisfaction and nourishment needs that he is entitled to.

To conclude, Besson displays that despite changes in environment, some rudimentary basics of life remain unremitting. Le Dernier Combat, demonstrates through the main characters how Freud's theory of the self may be applied and a more successful mental state achieved. The constant forces will always remain-which include the requirement for basic human needs and an underlying presence of god (or some threatening power that rules). Besson proves that his film can act as a witness to the operation of society upon the unconscious mind-however, despite ones environment, there will always be a hierarchy of slaves, and those who want for more among men.