Thursday, November 12, 2009

Cranky at the Movies






José Iriarte said...

Ugh. That sounds dreadful.

Unknown said...

I guess the problem here is that you want it to reflect life only how you know it and not how it sometimes is for people other than yourself. That movie may be a tad extreme, but stuff like that does happen to people, even good people, all the time. Just imagine all the people right now who have lost their homes and are homeless and jobless, etc. They've lost everything and nothing seems to be getting better for them...

Lou said...

I have been a Coen Brothers fan for years, and find that their films either strike a wonderfully warm chord...or they don't. My favorite Coen Brothers film is "O Brother, Where Art Thou" and their last one, prior to this one, "Burn After Reading" was ... just okay.

Your points are accurate. Why spend entertainment money to watch relentless despair? We go to movies to be entertained, to have our emotions tugged one way or another, not to experience the same, dragging, "why are we here?..oh, to suffer" treadmill that doesn't...inspire.

That's it, right? We watch films to be inspired...either towards something or away from it.

Nice post, Nancy.

Nancy Kress said...

S.M.D. -- Do you really think life for some people never ever offers a break? Yes, there are people who "right now" have lost their homes and jobs, but have they also lost love, health, kids, and integrity all at the same time? And does the universe instantly pumish a single transgression just when things are getting better? I don't buy it.

Luke said...

While I am not a fan of Coen Brothers' more bleak work (see THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE), I don't think it is necessary for fiction to perfectly apportion positive and negative reward to its characters according to their just deserts. Nor is it realistic. Reality doesn't always provide for the theme, the overarching principle, the clear connection of reward to action.

Maybe it has to do for what you look for in your fiction: entertainment, or something else entirely.

JKessel said...


I liked the movie, though I agree that the ending has grim implications. But I thought the point was not necessarily that God overwhelmingly punishes even the least transgression (though check out the Old Testament sometime), but that perhaps the universe is completely arbitrary, and reward or punishment is only a fantasy created by humans out of what is essentially a quantum mechanical universe (Arthur, is, after all, a physics professor,and I don't think the Coens chose that by accident). And maybe at the end the doctor is simply calling about his bill, and the tornado misses the school.

I'm happy for your move to Seattle. We should talk sometime.

Ann said...

The point of the film seems to be that one's actions in no way influences the good or bad that happens to a person. It's sort of a chaos theory of life. Everything is random. There is no fate and our spiritual purity or lack thereof is meaningless.

Bleak indeed but not far off what some people believe.

r. r. vlorbik said...

there's some great despairing art.
dostoyevski perhaps its master.
but it's pretty unusual and maybe
most readers... and maybe almost
all moviegoers... never develop
much of a taste for it.

"you gotta give 'em hope"...
not just a political slogan
but a theory of storytelling.
vonnegut famously sez
make a character want something.
well, then, there's some *hope*
that they'll *get* it.

again and again one's stories
are about characters *choosing*
to accentuate-the-positive
and... win or lose... make things
*better* for having so chosen.

people want to hear these stories.
also they want *others* to hear 'em.
the gospel for instance.
*this* guy even died and came back!
greatest story ever told!
there's *always* hope!...
why, you can be slowly tortured to death
and have it be okay! tell the world!

i haven't seen the new picture and won't
till the DVD rolls around in netflix.
so i don't know what the coens
are up to there. probably something
that'll reward multiple viewings though.
how'd you like _barton_fink_?

Thomas Geza Miko said...

I said what Nancy said, but in one short paragraph. See:
If you want to see a movie with morally ambiguous protagonist(s) that you like, despite their bad choices, rent Appaloosa. Can't recommend it enough.
Tom Miko

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