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i am developing a fascination with this certain movie/fiction plot that i've seen appear in a few films of late. it's weird. not particularly a filmic theme, or should i say: not my usual theme that i love in films (ie. the recycling/self-referential postmodern theme). this one is more philosophical/existentialist one. ANYWAY.
three films: dead man, man on fire, the bourne identity. what do these three have in common? at some point relatively early in the film, the protagonist dies. the rest of the film is about what happens to them after that.
In dead man, william blake is killed off early in the film - when he's in bed with the girl and is wounded by the bullets that go through her body and out the other side. ostensibly he's only injured, but thematically from then on he's essentially dead. i suppose you could say the rest of the film is like his journey through/to the underworld (think of how it ends, with him floating off in the boat, not even 'dead' yet - though we know he is/will be). but the important thing here, what the entire film is about, essentially, is what william blake becomes once he's dead. or *who* he becomes, morally. because yeah, existentialism. william blake is *not* a bad guy, he's a pretty ordinary 'good' guy. but after he's shot at the beginning, he goes on to carry out all sorts of morally unsound deeds - chiefly, murder. he kills without regret or second thought, really, and the narrative still continues to keep him as the 'good guy'. it's more examining his actions than judging him on them. and that's the whole point. once blake is 'dead', he's not accountable for any 'moral crimes' he commits. just like the protagonist in albert camus's existentialist textbook, the outsider, once blake has been killed there are no morals. without his life, there are no life-governing laws. and jarmusch isn't very subtle about it with the superimposed skulls on johnny depp's face and the indian called "nobody" (not to mention the title of the movie, for fuck's sake).
Man on fire. Creasy is killed when Pita is kidnapped - he's shot, injured badly. from then on, he's not accountable for his moral behaviour. ostensibly the film is about righteous revenge, but ultimately it's creasy being in a place where there is no moral judgement on his actions (ie. killing others). there's kind of some hint at the morals of it - after every day of killing, creasy immerses himself in the swimming pool like some pseudo-baptism, but you could just as easily read the blood-soaked water as another death metaphor (the creation/destruction birth/death thing with the womb water and all the blood). from the kidnap scene onward, creasy is dead. whereas previously he was filled with moral angst over his past career as an assassin (one who is meant to have no moral qualms about killing), and is on the path upward. from the kidnap scene onward, creasy is dead. he has no such concerns.
the bourne identity is interesting in terms of examining this kind of narrative. because jason bourne kind of does the opposite of the above. of course, the beginning of the film is bourne's death - where he's floating in the ocean. prior to that he was an assassin, one without moral judgement or accountability on killing. post to his 'death', he seems to regain the moral 'life' - like the whole baptism/rebirth thing being pulled out of the ocean, i guess. but then there's a point in the film where it seems to slip back into the above pattern again. when he and marie split paths. what happens? bourne kills, despite what he's said to marie the previous night about not wanting to find out any more after the horror of discovering he's an assassin. it's kind of telling, what he says about marie, telling them she's dead because she "slowed him down" - like bourne's own moral life slowed him down, so he got rid of it - died again, essentially. even one of the last exchanges between marie and bourne before they seperate - he says he's "going to end all of this" - as in, commit suicide. despite the outer plot of the film in its climax, where he's telling conklin that he 'doesn't want to do this anymore', he goes on to kill everyone in his path just to get out of the building.
anyway. it's interesting looking at this kind of thematic thing in comparison to the thorn in![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monkeycrackmary's side, the girlfriend-in-refrigerator plot device, where the protagonist's significant other is killed by the enemy, and so the protagonist is therefore morally justified in wreaking revenge (which i think is the plot for the bourne supremacy, no?). because these movies aren't really about revenge for the injury of the protagonist - this isn't william blake hunting down and justifiably killing the person who 'killed' him in the first place. the moral judgement of their actions is all gone once they are symbolically 'killed'.
anyway, it's late, i'm tired, i've been watching too many movies and can't be very coherent. just thinking aloud.
anyone have any other films they think fit the same pattern that they can recommend me?
three films: dead man, man on fire, the bourne identity. what do these three have in common? at some point relatively early in the film, the protagonist dies. the rest of the film is about what happens to them after that.
In dead man, william blake is killed off early in the film - when he's in bed with the girl and is wounded by the bullets that go through her body and out the other side. ostensibly he's only injured, but thematically from then on he's essentially dead. i suppose you could say the rest of the film is like his journey through/to the underworld (think of how it ends, with him floating off in the boat, not even 'dead' yet - though we know he is/will be). but the important thing here, what the entire film is about, essentially, is what william blake becomes once he's dead. or *who* he becomes, morally. because yeah, existentialism. william blake is *not* a bad guy, he's a pretty ordinary 'good' guy. but after he's shot at the beginning, he goes on to carry out all sorts of morally unsound deeds - chiefly, murder. he kills without regret or second thought, really, and the narrative still continues to keep him as the 'good guy'. it's more examining his actions than judging him on them. and that's the whole point. once blake is 'dead', he's not accountable for any 'moral crimes' he commits. just like the protagonist in albert camus's existentialist textbook, the outsider, once blake has been killed there are no morals. without his life, there are no life-governing laws. and jarmusch isn't very subtle about it with the superimposed skulls on johnny depp's face and the indian called "nobody" (not to mention the title of the movie, for fuck's sake).
Man on fire. Creasy is killed when Pita is kidnapped - he's shot, injured badly. from then on, he's not accountable for his moral behaviour. ostensibly the film is about righteous revenge, but ultimately it's creasy being in a place where there is no moral judgement on his actions (ie. killing others). there's kind of some hint at the morals of it - after every day of killing, creasy immerses himself in the swimming pool like some pseudo-baptism, but you could just as easily read the blood-soaked water as another death metaphor (the creation/destruction birth/death thing with the womb water and all the blood). from the kidnap scene onward, creasy is dead. whereas previously he was filled with moral angst over his past career as an assassin (one who is meant to have no moral qualms about killing), and is on the path upward. from the kidnap scene onward, creasy is dead. he has no such concerns.
the bourne identity is interesting in terms of examining this kind of narrative. because jason bourne kind of does the opposite of the above. of course, the beginning of the film is bourne's death - where he's floating in the ocean. prior to that he was an assassin, one without moral judgement or accountability on killing. post to his 'death', he seems to regain the moral 'life' - like the whole baptism/rebirth thing being pulled out of the ocean, i guess. but then there's a point in the film where it seems to slip back into the above pattern again. when he and marie split paths. what happens? bourne kills, despite what he's said to marie the previous night about not wanting to find out any more after the horror of discovering he's an assassin. it's kind of telling, what he says about marie, telling them she's dead because she "slowed him down" - like bourne's own moral life slowed him down, so he got rid of it - died again, essentially. even one of the last exchanges between marie and bourne before they seperate - he says he's "going to end all of this" - as in, commit suicide. despite the outer plot of the film in its climax, where he's telling conklin that he 'doesn't want to do this anymore', he goes on to kill everyone in his path just to get out of the building.
anyway. it's interesting looking at this kind of thematic thing in comparison to the thorn in
monkeycrackmary's side, the girlfriend-in-refrigerator plot device, where the protagonist's significant other is killed by the enemy, and so the protagonist is therefore morally justified in wreaking revenge (which i think is the plot for the bourne supremacy, no?). because these movies aren't really about revenge for the injury of the protagonist - this isn't william blake hunting down and justifiably killing the person who 'killed' him in the first place. the moral judgement of their actions is all gone once they are symbolically 'killed'.anyway, it's late, i'm tired, i've been watching too many movies and can't be very coherent. just thinking aloud.
anyone have any other films they think fit the same pattern that they can recommend me?
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what! what! tbi is PERFECT for slashing. clive owen's character, hello! the bourne identity is *all* about jason's 'inner life' - he doesn't remember anything except these strange things his body does without volition. *he's* not hiding anything during the first movie. and the scene with clive (aka 'the professor') in the grass is quite intimate, i thought... throughout that entire scene i was holding my breath that clive knew him before, and of course jason doesn't remember so clive's all heartbroken and shit and then carks it, of course. you know? DUDE. IT IS SLASHY. *I* COULD WRITE THAT.