Tuesday, April 21, 2009

A matter of honor.

In Bruges wins the award of being the first film that I've watched more than once in 2009. Less than three days after watching it for the first time, I bought a copy of the film and watched it a second time. It is that good. The primary reason that I love it so much it the Ralph Fiennes character, Harry. The entire movie revolves around a matter of honor.

Honor is important. The idea that anyone could adhere to any form of moral absolute, either internal and subjective OR transcendent, is foreign to much of contemporary thought. Harry, though, is at all times a happier being than Kaufman's Caden Cotard, even if he is a gross exaggeration. Ray is emotionally tortured because he has come up against a moral absolute (killing children is evil) and must deal with it. Cotard is emotionally tortured because he can't find any moral absolute to bang his head against.

The appeal of gangster movies (and, maybe, the real life gangster lifestyle) may be this: These men have a way of life and a code of honor. The codes lived by may be wrong or right, but they are codes nonetheless. In a gangster universe, we are not left to ourselves. There is wrong and right. There is transcendence.

1 comment:

brando said...

I agree that Harry is the character that tips the scales towards "brilliance." Ralph Fiennes should do more comedy. I need to catch up with this movie again, I was guarding my words too closely after I watched it. This is the trouble I have with the whole idea of ranking, I wait and wait for the end of the year and by the time I get there I forget about movies like this.

As for Mr. Kaufman, I like what you said about being able to think of eight movies that you liked more while openly admitting that you were aware of Synecdoche's ranking on the list of objectivity. I can't say that I would like to revisit this film, but then again I probably won't revisit Milk, Waltz with Bashir, or Up the Yangtze ever again. Geeks do make lists. We certainly are geeks.

I think you are justified in calling him a functioning nihilist. I like the adjective "functioning" to precede this because it likens his nihilism to an addiction. Sometimes drugs and booze are a part of a functioning person's being, in the same way Kaufman depends on lines like "Fuck everyone. Amen." to express himself. Through this expression he finds his genius.

I still think "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" is his best feature. I think there is redemption, the kind you were hoping for in Synecdoche. If not complete redemption, then the hope for a second chance. The ending still brings tears to my eyes.

Thanks for letting me borrow "M." It was what I had hoped for, ranking high on my list of thrillers with "Night of the Hunter."