A Late Show Christmas
Did you catch the decorating of the Late Show Christmas tree Monday night? Joe G from Joe G's Pizza brings the pie, Sirajul and Mujibur bring the miniature Empire State Building, and Rupert Jee brings the meatball to place atop the tree. As Late Show traditions go, I'd put it in the middle of the pack. Here's a handy list of six Late Show holiday traditions that come to mind. From worst to best...#6- Dave calls the Thanksgiving Butterball Turkey Hotline.
#5- This tradition has never been acknowledged, but the day after Thanksgiving, Dave starts the monologue with a joke of this nature: I went shopping this morning. It was a madhouse. I was shoved. I was harassed. I was fondled. (pause) Hell, I'm going back tomorrow.
#4- Decorating the tree.
#3- Dave guesses which pies his mother has baked for Thanksgiving.
#2- The kids trick-or-treating on Halloween.
#1- The annual Christmas show. Paul does his Cher impression, Dave and guest Jay Thomas throw footballs at the items on the top of the tree, and Darlene Love sings "Christmas Baby, Please Come Home." This year, the Christmas show will be Thursday the 23rd. Check it out.
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Tonight, I watched "Mystic River" again on HBO. There are great performances by Oscar winners Sean Penn and Tim Robbins; and Kevin Bacon is equally worthy of mention- lively and assured.
Yet, after a second viewing, I still can't shake the feeling that the movie doesn't play fair. SPOILER WARNING- First, you have two characters set up equally as suspects in the central crime, both through extraordinary coincidences. Then, the resolution comes from left field- the boyfriend's mute brother and his friend, whose motivation for the murder I still can't explain. Director Clint Eastwood and screenwriter Brian Helgeland ("LA Confidential) would have been better off avoiding the mystery aspect of the film completely. We could still enjoy ourselves judging the characters' behavior and watching these talented actors.
The worst offense of the script is the treatment of the female characters. The men are all forgiven their sins due to the horrific nature of the opening sequence. Meanwhile, Marcia Gay Harden's supporting character is put through the ringer. She's lied to by her husband (as is the audience), then widowed by his friend after she goes to him for help. We naturally identify with her throughout the movie because we care about her family and we share her confusion about her husband's alibi, so where does that leave us at the end when she's on the street, alone, crying out for her child. It's pretty vicious treatment.
Laura Linney's character is more confident, but shockingly cold and calculating in the final scenes. If this is the author's alternative to putting the women in the background, I'll take the wallpaper.
It's a little too easy to look at Eastwood's macho film career and conclude that he doesn't understand women, but the evidence in this case is there on the screen. I don't understand them, either, but I can usually recognize them. This time, I don't.
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I hope to post tomorrow night. I got a free pass from work to a sneak preview of "Spanglish," starring Adam Sandler. I'll let you know how it turned out. Also, the Edgar Renteria/Cardinals soap opera continues to drag on. Will he follow the money or his heart? Wednesday may be the day we find out. Stay tuned.
posted by CM @ 11:34 PM
3 Comments:
I disagree with your reading of Mystic River. MORE SPOILER ALERT- I think it's easy to see Marcia Gay Harden's character at the end of the movie and relate so strongly to her suffering that the viewer would want to somehow "blame" Eastwood for the harshness of this depiction. But by definition, this movie is a tragedy. Her suffering is the main point of the story and I found it absolutely heart-wrenching. Depicting this pain is not a fault of the film. It would be dishonest and "vicious to women" if Eastwood DID NOT show it.
From the outset of the film, we are shown that this world is a male-dominated one, in which most of the major players, be they the grieving, the cops or the victims, are men. I can picture the three young boys at the film's beginning playing in a treehouse with a sign out front that says, "No Girls Allowed." As these characters age and are forced to deal with adult responsibilities and real-life horrors, the social structure- the law, business owners, the church - are all male dominated. The fact that Marcia Gay Harden's character gets less screen time serves to underline this point. Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, etc. get flashier roles in this narrative, because, in this world, men are the active forces that spur the events. Ultimately, however, Penn's character, in his desire for personal vengeance, Robbins' character, in his acceptance of his victimization, and Kevin Bacon's character, who turns his back on the truth, are all revealed as corrupt.
I think anyone watching the film with a feminist viewpoint can see these themes easily applied to the world at large, where women are often subjugated and squeezed out of society's unfolding hierarchy. Are the male characters' "forgiven of their sins"? Maybe. In real life, are these dominant institutions also forgiven of their crimes? Frequently.
Laura Linney's character is more complex, but my read is that, because she's quietly an accomplice in her husband's crimes, she exposes the downfall of passive and abiding females. Like Penn's character, she too lost her daughter at the beginning of the film, but her "cold-hearted" reaction derives from allowing her husband to seek his own version of retribution. She, by doing so, becomes a "male" character in the film (though she's far hotter than any of the men) and allows the male-dominated establishment to roll over the truth.
Chris, in your reading of the film, the male characters get off scot free, but that's because in their view of the world, as its been depicted, justice HAS been done. Eastwood shows us this is faulty, and by showing us Harden's pain, we, as viewers, understand this tragedy in an incredibly poignant way.
I agree that the coincidences of the investigation are too simplistic. But I'm willing to forgive the plot device as the deeper themes reveal themselves later in the movie. I agree that the treatment of Harden's character is "vicious". It's vicious to the audience as well, but the sharpness of the tragedy depicted brings about the rare film that aspires to shed light and maybe even hold our institutions accountable for their sins.
It's available in your local video store.
Let's have Harden's character drop a shiv in Penn's character's back and call it even.
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