Gene Hackman

I dreamt that I was watching one after another of a series of very short video clips, each of which featured the actor Gene Hackman sitting at a table with a young boy. They were playing a father and son. In each clip, it was understood that the boy had just said or done something, and that the father was reacting to it. All that was actually shown was the reaction, though, and the viewer was left to guess what exactly it was a reaction to.

In the first several clips, the son was healthy-looking and full of life, with golden curls and all that, and was called “Danny” or something like that. The Hackman character was reacting with anger, but in a lovably grumpy sort of way, saying such things as, “Gosh darn it, Danny!” The kid was unfazed.

In the next several clips, the son was called “Marvin” and was played by a different actor. (I didn't think the man was supposed to have two sons, but rather that the son's name and appearance had been changed halfway through the series.) Marvin had a sickly grayish complexion and small mouse-like features, and he was just sitting there as if catatonic. Hackman was gently reassuring him, saying things like, “There, there, Marvin. It’ll be all right, son.”

Someone saw what I was watching and asked why I wanted to waste time on such pointless videos.

“Because it’s Gene Hackman," I said. "He's a good actor."

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Upon waking, I dismissed it as just another random dream -- until it occurred to me to ask, Why Gene Hackman? As so often in dream interpretation, once the question has been posed, the answer is obvious.

Although in the dream I sound like some big Gene Hackman fan, in fact I barely know his work at all and have (I think) only seen him in one movie: the 2001 Wes Anderson film The Royal Tenenbaums. Hackman plays the title character, a man who tries to trick his ex-wife and children into letting him back into their lives by pretending to be terminally ill. In short, it is a movie about a fake illness being used to manipulate people.

And then there's the name: gene hack man -- genetic manipulation, hacking the human genome, or using genes to "hack into" a man. This in the context of a fake illness being used to manipulate people.

I certainly hope this means nothing more than that I've got the birdemic on my subconscious mind, and that the transformation of "Danny" into "Marvin" will not prove to be in any way prophetic.

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Note added: By a weird coincidence, just after posting this, I checked Anonymous Conservative and found a Gene Hackman reference.

Swedish artist who survived two murder attempts after drawing the Prophet Mohammed is killed in a mystery car crash as the Police car he was traveling in swerved at high speed into the oncoming lane of traffick and hit a truck head on, killing him along with his two police protection officers. I hate to say it but vehicle hacking and hijacking may be getting democratized, to the point any group with a grudge will be able to hire someone to do it. At this point, I wouldn’t drive a new car if it was free. The funny thing was, in the movie Enemy of the State, Gene Hackman’s ultra-educated super-spook only drove old, beat-up 1970’s cars and trucks. Michael Westin in Burn Notice too. Good writing.