FILM / Color, Competition, and Combustion: Connections between Vince Gilligan’s Wilder Napalm and Better Call Saul / Amanda Mazzillo
Image © TriStar Pictures
Vince Gilligan’s screenwriting debut came in the form of the part-Firestarter, part quirky-indie-comedy Wilder Napalm. This captivating and unique film bears to mind some tropes which come up throughout Gilligan’s future work within the worlds of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
Color plays a major part in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Characters gravitate to specific colors in order to showcase their emotions. Marie, played by Betsy Brandt, frequently wears and surrounds herself with objects in various shades of purple. Purple is often seen as a color connected with royalty, but this feels more of a surface-level meaning that Marie herself might give the color. Marie wants to feel safe and protected. She also shoplifts fancier items in an effort to live up to the ideals she associates with her most used color.
The color green plays a big part in Walter White’s identity. During the first time he cooks meth, he wears a green apron and little else. With the connections between green and greed, this signifies that Walter’s major concern was money, and puts underlying suspicions on whether his goals were ever purely focused around making sure he left something to his family.
In Better Call Saul, we are shown the differences between Jimmy and the Saul identity he takes on later by his wardrobe. As Jimmy, his clothes match more with Kim Wexler and the lawyers of Hamlin, Hamlin, McGill, and in mocking Howard Hamlin by wearing an almost identical outfit to create a parody of a billboard, Jimmy starts to rebel against that ideal. In scenes with Kim, he reverts more back to the simple style closer to hers, but as he falls deeper into the Saul dynamic, his clothes become more intense and involve a larger variety of brighter colors, including some warm colors like red, which has connotations of blood and power.
In Wilder Napalm, Vida—played by Debra Winger—has an almost obsessive connection with the color green. She paints the white on her cigarettes green. She primarily wears this color and paints portions of her house with this hue as she is stuck on house arrest. In Breaking Bad, one of the big connotations of green is money and greed, but with Vida, the color seems to symbolize nature to a higher degree. She’s stuck inside all day every day. The color also is related to jealousy, which she feels in relation to all that she is not allowed to do, and to an extent, she shows some jealous feelings toward her desire for her husband Wilder to use his powers of creating fire with his mind.
Wallace, Wilder’s brother, seems almost surrounded by shades of red and yellow, while Wilder is often seen in blue suits with the exception of his firefighting uniform. Near the end of the film, Wallace wears a red padded suit which brings to mind old superhero movies. This solidifies his connection to the color, and his feelings toward fire. Wilder and Wallace view their fire powers in extremely different ways. Wilder, ever since lighting a house on fire and accidentally killing someone inside, views his power as a curse, something he must fight back and apologize for. Along this frame of mind, he becomes a volunteer fireman, which often involves putting out fires his wife sets at their own house during her house arrest.
On the other hand, Wallace has made an entire career from his fire-based powers, as a circus clown named Biff. He longs to go on David Letterman and reveal his powers to the world, hopefully to get a movie deal. Wilder though feels coming out in the open would only lead to The X-Files level intrusions and testing if you are viewed anything but the normal human. He worries he will be probed and prodded, so he vows to keep his powers a secret. The colors Wallace and Wilder choose to wear give insight into their characters and the way they feel about their telepathic fire-starting powers.
Wilder Napalm explores the vastly different approach brothers Wilder and Wallace give to the same job, a topic which is a major aspect of the dynamic between Chuck and Jimmy McGill in Better Call Saul. Both Chuck and Jimmy are lawyers, but do not share the same view of this profession. Chuck sees Jimmy as making a mockery of the law with his degree from the online law school at University of American Samoa. Go Land Crabs! Jimmy practices law with a flair for the dramatic, and a bright wardrobe to go along with this approach to his career.
In Wilder Napalm, Wallace uses his power to become a carnival clown, all pizazz, bright colors, and flashes. While Wilder approaches his powers in a more subdued, at times ashamed way. The dynamic between the two is always tense. Neither one respects how the other treats their ‘talents.
In Better Call Saul, Chuck and Jimmy share a similar dynamic. Chuck does not believe jimmy is a real lawyer and says, “Slippin' Jimmy with a law degree is like a chimp with a machine gun!” He wants his brother to know how little he respects his law degree and approach to practicing law. Wilder acts in a very similar manner when he refers to his brother Wallace. He shows his dislike through his expressions as well as commenting on Wallace’s career being a literal clown. Wallace throws this dislike back at Wilder feeling like he never takes any chances in his life and this causes tension between the two, especially when Wilder’s wife Vida is in the picture.
Wallace and Wilder both have affection for her and use their vastly different personalities to attract different aspects of her to each other. Vida loves Wilder, but is drawn in by Wallace’s carefree attitude, especially towards fire and his powers. Vida begs Wilder to light her cigarettes with his mind, and he can do it—something Wallace cannot do—but Wallace is the one who is more eager to attempt such feats.
In one especially memorable scene, Wilder and Wallace fight for Vida’s attention in ways which are mostly silent—and only noticed by each other—, but once Vida catches on, she is fed up with their competitions and doesn’t offer affection to either brother.
Wilder Napalm is a perfect representation of Vince Gilligan’s work, showing where some of his common tropes and themes were first shown, and how they are still present in even his most recent work. The connections between Wilder Napalm and Vince Gilligan’s other work showcase how well he has always represented these interesting and challenging themes which play such a major part in Better Call Saul: one of the best modern television shows.