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unpopular opinion time.
i'm finding that i have kind of a soft spot for the brave. i mean, the film itself is full of flaws, but as a johnny fan? i can't help but go n'awww. because seriously, it's so revealing.
and i'm not trying to be all crazy and "OMG I KNOW JOHNNY DEPP", just making deductions here that are kinda obvious from 20 years worth of interviews and behaviour and whatnot.
but anyway. the brave. it's like, his heart was obviously in it, but so were all his neuroses. the movie has *potential* to be good. there have been better movies made from worse scripts. it's obvious that he's tried to make an issue-movie as well as a personal journey-movie, but what lets it down is that the audience isn't really allowed to get close to the character(s). the way to giving the movie impact and heart would have been by opening up the character to the audience, letting them sympathise with him and understand him, but liek, that's where depp's neuroses come into play.
it's pretty obvious from what he's said that around that point in his life, he was still a pretty disillusioned, sulky kind of celebrity. for all intents and purposes he seemed to resent immensely anything that would contribute toward his status as a 'celebrity' (as opposed to an 'artist'), including both the hollywood system as well as *fans*. so like, it makes sense that both his performance and direction of the main character would shy away from letting the audience get close to him (the character). depp so obviously saw that as a weakness, the audience loving a character; or at least couldn't find a way around the audience loving a character that didn't lead to what he despised so much - the 'hysteria' of being a fan, as opposed to respect from someone who - 'objectively' - admired art.
so whereas it could have been quite a touching piece on the loss of cultural identity of american indians, the conduit to sympathy for the plight he's portraying is non-existent. the audience is forced to resort to disbelief and/or scorn at the parts that require more suspension of disbelief, and the character's flaws only serve to drive the audience further away rather than give them deeper insight or sympathy. so the film becomes more and more frustrating, the pointed/different characteristics of the film stand out and jar obviously instead of smoothly being taken in, they stand out more as flaws than poignancy or quirkiness.
Also, the plot of the movie pretty blatantly speaks for itself. Oh Johnny. you're a guy who's made some bad decisions but has a heart of gold, and now, in order to preserve the purity of your culture you're going to let yourself be tortured to death by being tied in front of a movie camera? uh, yeah.
so like, considering all of the above, why do i find myself having a soft spot for this movie? because like, i have a soft spot for johnny depp. i have a soft spot for 21 jump street, fer crikessakes. it's pretty obvious that johnny took himself too damn seriously up until like, 5 years ago. he had a kind of attitude that i just can't buy into myself (being a cheesy fangirl, duh). but find that i can't resent him for it anyway. it's like, i don't know. the kind of feeling i have for that phase in his life/career is the same kind of feeling i get when i see baby gloom cookies walking down the street. he took himself too serious and had AGNST over stuff that he didn't need to, it just makes me want to pinch his cheeks and schnoogle him. especially as he is in so much more of a mellow place right now.
just thank christ for tim burton et al, who made use of the wonderful actor (yes, with a heart of artistic gold, because he is a fucking AWESOME actor) so he didn't ending up making 'arizona dream' and/or 'dead man' over and over again.
also, PRITTY.
and i'm not trying to be all crazy and "OMG I KNOW JOHNNY DEPP", just making deductions here that are kinda obvious from 20 years worth of interviews and behaviour and whatnot.
but anyway. the brave. it's like, his heart was obviously in it, but so were all his neuroses. the movie has *potential* to be good. there have been better movies made from worse scripts. it's obvious that he's tried to make an issue-movie as well as a personal journey-movie, but what lets it down is that the audience isn't really allowed to get close to the character(s). the way to giving the movie impact and heart would have been by opening up the character to the audience, letting them sympathise with him and understand him, but liek, that's where depp's neuroses come into play.
it's pretty obvious from what he's said that around that point in his life, he was still a pretty disillusioned, sulky kind of celebrity. for all intents and purposes he seemed to resent immensely anything that would contribute toward his status as a 'celebrity' (as opposed to an 'artist'), including both the hollywood system as well as *fans*. so like, it makes sense that both his performance and direction of the main character would shy away from letting the audience get close to him (the character). depp so obviously saw that as a weakness, the audience loving a character; or at least couldn't find a way around the audience loving a character that didn't lead to what he despised so much - the 'hysteria' of being a fan, as opposed to respect from someone who - 'objectively' - admired art.
so whereas it could have been quite a touching piece on the loss of cultural identity of american indians, the conduit to sympathy for the plight he's portraying is non-existent. the audience is forced to resort to disbelief and/or scorn at the parts that require more suspension of disbelief, and the character's flaws only serve to drive the audience further away rather than give them deeper insight or sympathy. so the film becomes more and more frustrating, the pointed/different characteristics of the film stand out and jar obviously instead of smoothly being taken in, they stand out more as flaws than poignancy or quirkiness.
Also, the plot of the movie pretty blatantly speaks for itself. Oh Johnny. you're a guy who's made some bad decisions but has a heart of gold, and now, in order to preserve the purity of your culture you're going to let yourself be tortured to death by being tied in front of a movie camera? uh, yeah.
so like, considering all of the above, why do i find myself having a soft spot for this movie? because like, i have a soft spot for johnny depp. i have a soft spot for 21 jump street, fer crikessakes. it's pretty obvious that johnny took himself too damn seriously up until like, 5 years ago. he had a kind of attitude that i just can't buy into myself (being a cheesy fangirl, duh). but find that i can't resent him for it anyway. it's like, i don't know. the kind of feeling i have for that phase in his life/career is the same kind of feeling i get when i see baby gloom cookies walking down the street. he took himself too serious and had AGNST over stuff that he didn't need to, it just makes me want to pinch his cheeks and schnoogle him. especially as he is in so much more of a mellow place right now.
just thank christ for tim burton et al, who made use of the wonderful actor (yes, with a heart of artistic gold, because he is a fucking AWESOME actor) so he didn't ending up making 'arizona dream' and/or 'dead man' over and over again.
also, PRITTY.