Only God Forgives- Ryan Gosling

Skinny tall cop that never speaks is dead, why is he in the field with Talking Cop and Singing Sword Cop? Also why does Gosling get dis-armed when he spared Singing Sword Cop's stupid kid?

The more I think about the more layers there are. So, sword cop is obviously some supernatural manifestation of justice whether angel, god, or demon. I think it would be a mistake to assign malice or any self serving needs to him though. He is old testament justice and it is meted out strictly and without emotion. He is a force of nature. The measure of his justice is based not only on evil actions but on the remorse the person feels for those actions. Hence the castration by arm cutting metaphor. At first I thought this was the God of the title, but after sitting with the movie for a bit I think Julian is actually the God, since he's the only one in the film that seems to actually forgive anything and spare life/ harm. So, Julian is a twisted Jesus figure, who gives up his body as penance for the sins of his fathers. I think this is where the incestuous undertones come in as well. The mother represents fire and emotion. It is self serving and worldly. The incestuous undertones are a representation of the passions of the human sphere. Julian lacks a father figure and seems to find one in sword god, but he is not. The sword god is wholly removed from emotion and passions; he is entirely otherworldly. So, in the final scene we see Julian bridging and escaping from the human sphere by submitting to the godly sphere, thus realizing transcendence from the mundane.

I think this is a big reason why a lot of the people who liked drive hate this movie. Because the characters aren't characters they are metaphors and archetypes. They don't have character arcs because they can't. They are who they are. The movie is entirely allegory. That's my rough interpretation after one viewing anyway. I'll probably watch it again when it hits blu-ray and it'll probably be more cohesive.

He is the one singing romantic ballads though. He is also the one with a functional family he tenderly cares about. You could say that when he becomes the Avatar of Justice he leaves all emotions behind though.

Yeah, there's clearly some allusions that I'm missing. I don't think he's ever not supernatural, but I don't know what those scenes are about. Maybe a Freudian eros/thanatos thing? I guess that idea sort of ties a lot of stuff together. The movie seems heavily Freudian, but I'm not knowledgeable enough to decipher all the symbolism.