March 27, 2011

  • Just a movie blog...

    127 Hours

    Definitely a little tougher to stomach the second time around.  But I'm willing to bet that the fact that I was forced to see it on bootleg for my first viewing of it likely cheapened the visual quality, and thus stripped it of having the realism that it was meant to have.  What's a girl to do? They didn't release the film in my area for a very long time, and I wanted to see it.  At the time, bootleg was the only answer.  Fortunately, I did like the movie, so I still paid my dues by purchasing it on Blu-Ray the other day (heh, that still feels funny to say Blu-Ray. At least it has less syllables than DVD).  Anyway, it was that second viewing that was....yeah....much more difficult to watch without writhing a little.  Fortunately the likes of the Saw movies desensitized me a BIT, so the gruesome nature of the infamous "arm amputation" was bearable.  I totally get that some people still passed out, however.  It was so horrendous, especially that white...whatever it was that gave the most trouble to cut through.  Nerve or tendon of some sort?  CRINGE.

    My biggest thoughts are not on that movie, though, but on this one....

    Buried (PLOT SPOILERS!)

    I never got to see this one in theaters, since it too was nowhere to be found in my town, or barely any other town for that matter.  It would have joined my collection if there was more reason for it to exist, however.  I loved the concept of it, the creepy stuffiness of it.  It was so ingenious and it certainly kept me at the edge of my seat for the entire viewing of it.  I was tense, eager, and anxious, no doubt feeling that way thanks to the genuine fear that Ryan Reynolds was able to portray nicely for me through the character Paul.  But in the end, when it was all supposed to matter for some important reason, it fell to shambles.  There wasn't a happy ending, nor was there any purpose to its unhappy ending.  I'm not opposed to movies that star a doomed main character, but that character's fate must have some sort of meaning for me.  There was no meaning here.  He was kidnapped by an insurgent with a chip on his shoulder about how much Americans suck, gets locked up in this coffin with minimal supplies, and forced to conjure up ransom money for his release.  The FBI, State Department, and the many other powers that be are summoned at any opportunity Paul can muster to try to find him before it's too late, all while he tries to contact his wife, save his co-worker, and make ransom videos.  To top it off, he communicates with a "rescuer" of sorts, who then decides to lie to him about having saved someone else when he really didn't. Sure, perhaps such a lie was necessary to give our star hope and to buy his trust, but that surely didn't help when it truly mattered in the end.  When it all comes full-circle, this poor man gets contacted by his employer, who in turn decides to tell him that his family will not be compensated after his impending doom because they tricked and manipulated him into confessing that he violated some term of agreement.  

    Then, his supposed rescuer claims that he has been found, that they're close, that he'll be saved. He calls his wife to say he's coming home, only to find out the rescuer found the very man he claimed to have rescued already, someone completely different, and located somewhere else.  Oh the rescuer was extremely apologetic for feeding Paul false hope, of course.  But that is where the aforementioned lie cuts down into the deepest crevices of a soul that knows it's slipping away.  I can imagine the last floods of thoughts going through Paul's mind, the sheer panic he must have felt in his last literal handfuls of breath, how this man lied to him about ever rescuing anyone, how he himself lied to his wife about coming home (even inadvertently), how his family won't be taken care of in the wake of his expected death. Needless to say, Paul does indeed die in the coffin, suffocating not from lack of air, but by the downpour of sand that cruelly rushed to seal his fate. The horrible irony is that the inundation of sand was set off by an explosion on the surface which was caused by his company attacking exactly where they suspected he was buried.  And that is where the movie ends.  There is no solution to the tragedy, no hero to be had.  There is no justification for anyone's bad choices, except our star's.  A regular schmo of a man dies for no good reason whatsoever, and there was no explanation for it.  

    I know that sort of stuff happens every day in real life, but in a movie like this, with such intricacies and potential to be something else other than the advertisement of the cruelty of people with a lust for money, there should have been more.  There are only the victories of the abductor and Paul's evil employers. There must be a reason for it.  Shouldn't there be?  But there is none.  The only reason I can fathom of it not having any sort of satisfying conclusion is this: The point of the movie had nothing at all to do with the character's demise, nothing at all to do with he himself being buried alive to die. Perhaps what really is "buried" in this movie is not some innocent man trying to make a change in his life, but the burial of the corrupt and greedy scheming of wealthy corporations, who would rather manipulate a "lesser" person desperate for his very breath to save their own hides from any would-be loss of money.   Perhaps it's to "bury" what actually is important, or at least should be important.  Perhaps it's to hide away from the world what is meant to be seen, and fought against.  But now that's it's buried away, it's lost forever, and no one will ever know.  That's the only explanation I can think of for a movie such as this.  And that's okay too if somehow, someway, something good can come from it.  But no good came, and seriously, why would I want to see a corporation get away with that?  Why would I want them to succeed at whatever expense they were willing to make? Because that's all that happens here in this movie, in my opinion.  The bad guys get away with it, and they're not even cool bad guys.  It's just....well....very disheartening.