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Re: Perdition, anyone? I know the road... (spoilers, if that'simportant)
mmmm.... i hate to be a killjoy, but i'll throw in my two cents, anyway.
which are probably only worth about 1 1/2 cents, as it is-
i enjoyed the movie, but i thought it was really, really predictable. great
performances, just predictable. i could have told you the whole story after
watching the trailer, for crying out loud.
but it was pretty...
and, uh, that's really all i can even think to say about it. it was worth
the $6.75 matinee, i guess.
(worth more than my opinions, apparantly!! ;)
melanie
>From: Layne Petersen <laynepetersen at earthlink_net>
>Reply-To: Layne Petersen <laynepetersen at earthlink_net>
>To: OTR List <Over-the-Rhine at actwin_com>
>Subject: Perdition, anyone? I know the road... (spoilers, if
>that'simportant)
>Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2002 01:27:07 -0600
>
>Hey all... I've looked back and can't find anything, but if I'm repeating
>already treaded-upon ground, please forgive...
>
>Has anyone hit "Road to Perdition" yet? I saw it twice this weekend (once
>because I really wanted to see it, and once because my friends wanted to
>see
>it and I liked it enough the first time to see it again). I'm probably
>doing
>nothing more than paraphrasing what critics have already said (Peter
>Travers
>in Rolling Stone, for one), but I though it was a really pretty incredible
>film. There were so many beautiful images/concepts, but I guess I kind of
>expected as much from Sam Mendes after "American Beauty". So, I guess I
>kind
>of went into the film expecting to like it.
>
>I loved the father/son relationship. I mean, that's the absolute center of
>the film. "I love my father and want to understand him. And be near to him
>for the first time in my life." "I love my son and don't want him to become
>like me. At any cost."
>
>At first I thought Tom Hanks was miscast in the role he's in. But on the
>2nd
>viewing, I really liked him. It's against type both for him in the context
>of his career and for the role itself. And as the son of one of those
>strong, silent midwestern men, he pretty much hit the proverbial midwestern
>nail on the head. His conflicted realization that his son is all he has
>left
>after pushing so hard just to leave town and his realization that he really
>needed his son just to survive was pretty devastating to me. I mean, my dad
>and I have a pretty decent relationship, but I found myself wishing that he
>wanted to know me enough just to have asked "what do you like?" when I was
>a
>kid.
>
>I loved the ending as well. The friend I saw it with on Friday night wasn't
>as up on the ending as I was. I guess I pretty much thought he had to die.
>I
>mean, I suppose, like "American Beauty" it's kind of spelled out in the
>first minute of the film that he's going to die, but it's still a shocking,
>beautiful, sad, complex few minutes of film. His last words as his son
>holds
>his head aren't "I love you", but "I'm sorry". Over and over. It just made
>me wonder where he came from (the line about how he had no father, so Paul
>Newman became his father). It's just hit me hard, as I've kind of said,
>because of issues I'm kind of working through about my relationship with my
>dad and how they've formed me. That feeling of "I let you down" rather than
>"you mean the world to me." And the sound of the water hitting the shore
>being so strong rather than music just reinforced that sense of renewal in
>the idea that "my son doesn't have to take the road I have". Maybe I'm
>reaching, but it's how it struck me. Travers (in that Rolling Stone review)
>makes mention of the last line and it's complexity - "He was my father" -
>it's so completely simple, but it gives such recognition of who the son is,
>and also who he doesn't want to be at the same time. I guess the comparison
>that comes to mind is the Luke/Anakin relationship in "Return of the Jedi".
>That complete recognition that "this is where I came from. And absolutely
>where I don't want to go. And I love this man, but I hate what he's become.
>But there's still hope."
>
>Another film it also reminded me very much of was "Unforgiven". It's in a
>different genre, obviously, but the idea of the completely reluctant
>avenging angel was still really strong. "I'm done, but I have one last
>thing
>to do". Maybe not as strongly as "Unforgiven", I suppose. But still there.
>
>Anyway, I'm sorry I've babbled so long about this. But this film just hit
>me
>on a lot of separate levels in a way that nothing has in awhile. Thoughts?
>
>Layne
>
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By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us,
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- Teilhard de Chardin
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