The Apollonian-Dionysian Dichotomy in John Frankenheimer’s ‘Seconds’ (1966)
Seconds (1966) is a sci-fi psychological thriller directed by John Frankenheimer. In my eyes, it’s a perfectly made film, and I found it to be a fascinating exploration of several existential themes: identity, choice, desire, fantasy, regret, eternal youth, and the wish to start life again. (The philosopher Slajov Žižek analyses Seconds in his 2006 documentary ‘The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema’, and it has been celebrated by the South Korean filmmakers Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho, with the former arguing it is “the most serious commercial film in Hollywood’s history”.)
The film derives its title from the concept of being given a second chance at life; Arthur Hamilton (John Randolph) is offered a “rebirth” by an organisation simply called “The Company” (a nondescript name like that is a red flag already). The Company offers people, such as Arthur, the promise of a new life: The Company fakes the person’s death, alters their appearance with cosmetic surgery (they get a brand new face and physique), and then their staff physically and mentally conditions the client to help form their new identity. Arthur gets to pick what kind of life he wants. He decides to follow his dream of being an artist. So he starts a new life in Malibu as an artist (named Tony, played by Rock Hudson), living in a beach house with a manservant (employed by The Company).
The film creates a dystopian vision of what could happen if we were given a second chance at life. We end up questioning the reality of wish fulfilment. The film essentially drives home the message ‘Be careful what you wish for’. Arthur, understandably, struggles to feel comfortable in his new skin and living his new life at first, but he eventually acclimatises to his new personality. He leaves the restrictions of his old stuffy existence — mirrored by scenes of his commute in New York — and enters a more freeing life as a single man (he was in a sexless marriage before) — mirrored by the relaxed beach setting of Malibu. However, despite the change, which seems palpably desirable, he finds himself growing restless. One form of ennui was replaced by another. This reminded me of how ancient Stoic philosophers warned about the impulse to escape (oneself and one’s distress) through travel. (I’ve written about this topic here and here.)
He initially spends his time on his own, painting or walking (he doesn’t find the Manservant great company). While visiting the beach one day, he meets the free-spirited Nora Marcus (Salome Jens), and the two quickly become attracted to each other. Nora explains to Arthur that she, like him, also left her former life behind. What I want to focus on in this essay is the next scene that unfolds. One night, Arthur accompanies Nora to a Bacchalanian party in Santa Barbara.
Bachannalia were unofficial, private Roman festivals dedicated to Bacchus, another name for Dionysus: the Greek god of fertility, agriculture, wine, and festivity. The Greeks also called Dionysus ‘Bacchus’ because when celebrating the deity in drunken revelry, participants would enter a state of bacheia, or frenzy, in which one loses the sense of oneself and is freed from cultural constraints that tell them how they should move and live. In Greek mythology, the maenads were the female followers of Dionysus, and their name literally translates to the ‘raving ones’, owing to the state of excitement and madness they would enter when engaging in Dionysian rituals (e.g. ecstatic dances). Non-mythologically, the followers of Dionysus/Bacchus would also achieve ecstatic states — through music, dancing, and drinking. This would create, in the words of the sociologist Émile Durkheim, a state of collective effervescence: an intense feeling of excitement and euphoria, and a sense of unity, that arises when involved in a group ritual or gathering.
At the Pagan ritual/party in the film, revellers dance, sing, and strip naked to stomp grapes together in a large vat. It’s a scene of joyousness, wild celebration, and unconstrained behaviour. We see that Arthur is uncomfortable and resistant to join in. Nora strips and joins the other naked revellers in the vat. Arthur calls her name, trying to persuade her to come back and leave the orgiastic grape stomping. But the crowd grabs him and forces him into the vat. The revellers shout in unison “Stomp those grapes!” Arthur eventually lowers his inhibitions and begins to enjoy himself. We see a new side to Arthur, a part that was pre-existent and dormant — capable of being expressed but had never, up until that point, been expressed.
The scene reminded me of the first episode in the second season of Peep Show, ‘Dance Class’. This is when Mark Corrigan (David Mitchell) agrees to go to a dance class with love interest Sophie Chapman (Olivia Colman), and Jez (Robert Webb) tags along as well. Mark is under the impression it’s salsa, but, to his horror, it turns out it’s Rainbow Rhythms, which is “quite full on”, as Sophie puts it. (Rainbow Rhythms was inspired by the real ‘movement meditation’ called 5Rhythms, created by Gabrielle Roth in the 70s. 5Rhythm classes are still held across the UK.) Rainbow Rhythms represents everything Mark stands against. When he finds out the dance class he signed up for isn’t salsa, he peeks into the room, sees the New Agey attendees, and says, “I’ve walked into my own personal nightmare. Must remain non-uptight for Sophie, even if they make me play trust exercises with their genitals.”
The New Age, free-form dancing environment is antithetical to Mark’s British, repressed nature. Many Brits (me included) can relate to Mark. I’m sure Arthur would relate to his discomfort as well, and vice versa. When watching the grape stomping scene in Seconds — which was considered pretty controversial at the time, due to the full-frontal nudity on display — I couldn’t help but think that this was highlighting the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy. This is a contrast that the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was interested in; it concerns the difference between the Apollonian force (which stands for rationality, logic, order, and harmony) and the Dionysian force (which represents ecstasy, madness, chaos, and passion).
Nietzsche argued that Western culture had become too biased towards the Apollonian, neglecting the Dionysian. He thought that striking a balance between these two opposing forces, or values, was necessary for achieving true greatness in life and artistic endeavours. We can view the Apollonian and Dionysian as of equal importance, and a culture that favours one over the other will suffer deficits. As Jules Evans writes in The Art of Losing Control, “These two approaches are complementary — a healthy philosophy of life integrates both. Without Dionysus, the Socratic path risks becoming arid, over-cerebral rationalism. Without Socratic ethical reflection and practice, Dionysiac ecstasy is just a rush.” (The ‘Socratic path’ is more or less equivalent to Apollonian values.)
The Pagan ritual scene in Seconds illustrates how the interplay between culture and identity can stifle forms of self-expression and limit our bounds of what is acceptable. Arthur is not ‘the kind of person’ who would lose his inhibitions, get naked around strangers, stomp grapes, and act wild. But with his newfound identity, and a little push, he discovers that he can break free from the narrow constraints of his former identity (and culture) and let loose. And when he does so, he discovers a side to himself — and a form of joy — he may have never experienced before (or at least, not since being a child).
As well as highlighting the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy in a general sense, this scene seemed to bring into focus the more specific divide between mainstream American culture and the countercultural scene of the 60s. In the mid-60s, when filming took place, California was home to the hippie counterculture, which embraced Dionysian values. Hippies embraced the ecstatic — their revelry, dancing, nudity, and mind alteration were a shock to mainstream citizens. Arthur’s old and new life can be seen to represent these contrasting attitudes and lifestyles in America at the time.
These opposing forces and values persist today, and they exist in every culture. Seconds is impactful in myriad ways, but its portrayal of the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy is one theme that personally stood out for me. It raises questions about to what extent our sense of identity is culturally determined and how natural impulses can be constrained by dominant cultural narratives. Mark from Peep Show genuinely detests Rainbow Rhythms and everything it represents. But not every British person is like him. Subcultures can accommodate the Dionysian instincts. Even though Mark is not home at Rainbow Rhythms (I wouldn’t be either), his purely Apollonian, stiff-upper-lip mentality often gets in the way of his happiness. But he does break out of this on a rare occasion — for instance, when he snorts cocaine with his latest love interest, April.
In the case of Arthur, perhaps his former life was too Apollonian (and stifling), but we also see him swing towards the other extreme. When he hosts a party with Nora, he gets too drunk; he acts boorishly and reveals details about his former life to his guests, which he was meant to keep secret. Having been stuck in his habitual, conventional way of life for so long, Arthur seems to have overcompensated when discovering this new side to life. This shows the danger of becoming too Apollonian as well as the pitfalls of becoming overly Dionysian. We shouldn’t give way to intoxication and chaos all the time.
Characters like Mark and Arthur can help us think about the specific contexts — occasions like concerts, parties, festivals, raves — where one may ‘stand outside oneself’ (which is the literal translation of the Greek word ekstatis, from which we derive the term ecstasy). These contexts, which help us to balance the Apollonian with the Dionysian, can challenge our assumptions about our identity and the culture we’re enmeshed in. If culture influences how we model ourselves, and Western culture has become overly Apollonian, then occasions or places that welcome the Dionysian instinct can act as a healthy corrective to this cultural bias.
Originally published at https://www.samwoolfe.com on January 6, 2025.
