I have recently seen the movie: "The Jungle Book" directed by Jon Favreau; who is more familiar to me as an actor. The screenplay is by Justin Marks from the book by Rudyard Kipling. A few words about the movie. It is beautiful. It may seem long to some at 105 minutes. The level of computerization and/or digitization and/or animation is remarkable. The music by John Debney will be perfect when Disney produces the stage version alla "The Lion King".
The only negative is the scary moments. Otherwise the film would be perfect for children.
It is from the pen of Rudyard Kipling, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature.
"The Law" as recited by the wolves was asked of Mr. Kipling and given to the Cub Scouts. Much of Kipling's work was written for young minds and much of that work is not without controversy. Kipling was and is the public relations man for Empire and the promoter of imperialism. He was dubbed in his lifetime 'The Poet of the Empire'.
In his poem 'The White Man's Burden" he writes: "Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child". Some of Kipling's work is racist. It was written in support of the U. S. during the Spanish-American war and our 'annexing' of the Philippines. [He lived in Vermont with his American wife for a number of years and they were happy there except for threats from a drunken brother-in-law. They escaped by moving back to England.]
Anthropocentrism is the belief that human beings are the central or most important species on earth. That belief/question is at the center of the Jungle Book.
Shere Khan hunts Mowgli because he is a man cub and has the red flower that destroys.
When there is a drought all the animals gather at a pool of water without incident because the peace rock is showing. When it shows the law says water is more important than any other law of the jungle.
To fight back at Shere Khan, Mowgli goes to a village and takes fire, the red flower. He races through the jungle and accidentally sets the jungle on fire. He then saves the jungle by diverting the water to douse the burning areas.
Does Kipling believe in Anthropocentrism?
I was left wondering. What about the peace rock? That river supplied water to the rock and the river was now diverted. When the next drought comes ... no peace rock. No chance for the vulnerable to survive. Man cub has altered life in the jungle.
It's not just 'the red flower' that destroys it's also what his protector Bagheera calls 'the tricks'.
