Conventional readings of the film would actually see Eo as the hero. However, a more critical evaluation sees that the donkey simply has no conception of heroes or villains, and instead exists in his own plain of non-human intelligence. Forcing the question of what animals think and feel.
ANDREW McGOWAN: With a plot centered around a meandering mute donkey, the Oscar-nominated Polish film EO has more than a few ambiguous moments, and its ending is perhaps the most befuddling of them all. The entire movie is a series of haphazard twists and turns, as the eponymous donkey stoically navigates the human world. Still, the third act is conspicuously perplexing, as subplots seem to enter and exit Eo’s journey with greater frequency and gravitas, only for the film to end in a sudden and tragic fashion. It is confusing and unsettling, and yet a deeper reading of the ending demonstrates its connections to the film’s most crucial themes…
After a beautifully crafted series of shots of the rogue Eo standing before a rushing waterfall, the final scene commences with Eo walking through a cow pen. Eo is the only donkey amongst the herd of cattle, but this doesn’t seem to faze the present humans, who edge Eo along with the cows into a slaughterhouse. In the last shot, Eo enters the building and the screen cuts to black over the sharp, unmistakable sound of blades slicing together. It is a troubling dénouement, leaving little mystery to the fact that Eo meets a violent demise.
Despite the disturbing straightforwardness of this final shot, its bluntness leaves the audience questioning the purpose of everything preceding it. Why bother including the drama of the truck driver’s murder or developing Vito and his stepmother so thoroughly as characters, just for it all to be irrelevant in the end? What is the point of Eo’s detours if they lead to nowhere but death? And finally, why didn’t the humans outside the slaughterhouse seem to notice that there is a donkey in their cattle herd? And why did they willfully lead him to his fate?…
The answers to these questions boil down to two integral themes explored throughout the film: animal rights and the serendipitous nature of animal life. The film emphasizes the topic of animal rights from its very beginning. Eo is introduced to the audience as a circus donkey, and although we never fully learn about the circus’ treatment of their animals, the second scene shows the circus being shut down over a new animal rights ordinance. Thus begins Eo’s journey, where he encounters a variety of people who treat him with either affection or abuse. In the periphery, he also intersects with hunters and trappers, all of whom come across as loathsome for their willingness to kill and commodify animals…
That emphasis on animal life and humans’ conception of it is the film’s second paramount theme, and it narratively justifies Eo’s long-winded, aimless detours. All throughout the movie, Eo moves in and out of people’s lives, sometimes making an impact and sometimes not. Regardless, the donkey remains seemingly indifferent. Even when the truck driver gets murdered or Vito has a supposedly life-changing interaction with his stepmom, Eo’s story moves forward with little to no consideration for his human company…
This is not to say that Eo is antagonistic. Conventional readings of the film would actually see him as the hero. However, a more critical evaluation sees that the donkey simply has no conception of heroes or villains, and instead exists in his own plain of non-human intelligence… All moments of identification with the creature are dubious, forcing the audience to question what animals think and feel.
All the same, one can hardly meet the final scene without strong empathy for Eo. As the donkey enters the slaughterhouse, questions regarding his emotions and intelligence reach a haunting zenith, and the movie’s two foremost themes collide. For all the debate surrounding what Eo is capable of understanding, we feel for him in his final moments, demonstrating how empathy can transcend across species—regardless of whether it is reciprocated or how we might choose to respond. That is the ultimate message that EO raises, and the unanswerable question that its ending leaves us pondering. SOURCE…
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