SPOILERS.
Gabriel Byrne's hat plays an important part in this movie. When he is about to be killed, an assassin takes the hat and scales it into the woods. When he's about to kill someone else and is wearing only his underwear, he grabs his gun and his hat and races outside. The last shot of the movie has Byrne pulling hit hat brim down low over his eyes then slowly raising his face to stare at a departing friend. In fact, everybody's hat is kind of important. We see the hat of a dead person half way down the stairs before the camera shows us the body at the top. Jokes are made about people's heads having outgrown their hats. A pudgy gangster keeps complaining about his rivals giving him "the high hat."
Obviously the hat seems to "stand for" something but I'm not sure what. Lives? Maybe. But in fact I couldn't follow the plot either, and I kept getting the names of the characters mixed up except for a few of the most important. The plot is all twists and turns, as stylized as the dialogue -- "twist," "bumped off," "yegg," "roscoe." The whole thing could have been lifted out of, or turned into, an old comic book, perhaps "Crime Does Not Pay," which I remember from childhood.
And, as in a comic book, it's hard to care much about who gets "leaned on" or "bumped off" since they're all cartoons anyway. Not that the story or the film is designed to be realistic. There isn't nearly as much blood as in most gangster movies. And Byrne takes several poundings, any one of them enough to hospitalize a rhinoceros, without any sequelae more than a bit of a wince as he struggles to rise from the floor.
I guess, though, that I didn't want Byrne to get "bumped off." I don't know why. Maybe it's his homely face and tragic demeanor, which made it easy for me to identify with him. With that mournful visage he should run for elective office -- maybe president of the United States. He'd at least have the political cartoonist vote in his pocket. And I suppose too that I was glad to see Albert Finney survive in one piece. He's a decent dramatic actor but he has an outstanding way with comedy. (That droll American accent.) And he must have a good sense of humor too, without any pride to speak of. When Byrne bursts into a lady's room he shouts that the other gals should get out. One of the "gals" in the background is Finney dressed in a maid's costume. He makes a hurried sign of the cross and rushes out along with the other girls. He also has a line, "Dis is da kissoff," which is a repeat of a line he had in "Two for the Road," some 30 years earlier. How can you not want a guy like that to survive? That line isn't the film's only link to the past. One character's name is Judy Barton. And an inconspicuous poster informs us that Lars Thorwald, a prize fighter, will be featured in an upcoming bout.
So anyway I couldn't follow the plot exactly. But looked at as an exercise is stylization this is a pretty good movie. A good deal of imagination has gone into it, the dialogue, the location shooting, and especially the direction. I don't just mean bravura jump cuts or negative shots or simple-minded tactics that are meant to draw attention to themselves. I mean more subtle stuff, of which I will give just one example. While two henchmen wait on the road, Byrne marches Turturro into the woods to kill him. Turturro gets on his knees and begs for his life. Byrne, realizing that NOT killing Turturro is likely to get HIM killed, nevertheless relents. Turturro stumbles off into the woods and there is a long shot of Byrne standing alone among the longleaf pine. There is a slow dissolve and Byrne's figure is replaced exactly on screen by the figures of the two henchmen back on the road, standing next to their car, and choking with laughter.
This is by no means a perfect movie, but it is a perfect original. And we give Academy Awards to blockbusting by-the-numbers disasters like "Titanic."
Gabriel Byrne's hat plays an important part in this movie. When he is about to be killed, an assassin takes the hat and scales it into the woods. When he's about to kill someone else and is wearing only his underwear, he grabs his gun and his hat and races outside. The last shot of the movie has Byrne pulling hit hat brim down low over his eyes then slowly raising his face to stare at a departing friend. In fact, everybody's hat is kind of important. We see the hat of a dead person half way down the stairs before the camera shows us the body at the top. Jokes are made about people's heads having outgrown their hats. A pudgy gangster keeps complaining about his rivals giving him "the high hat."
Obviously the hat seems to "stand for" something but I'm not sure what. Lives? Maybe. But in fact I couldn't follow the plot either, and I kept getting the names of the characters mixed up except for a few of the most important. The plot is all twists and turns, as stylized as the dialogue -- "twist," "bumped off," "yegg," "roscoe." The whole thing could have been lifted out of, or turned into, an old comic book, perhaps "Crime Does Not Pay," which I remember from childhood.
And, as in a comic book, it's hard to care much about who gets "leaned on" or "bumped off" since they're all cartoons anyway. Not that the story or the film is designed to be realistic. There isn't nearly as much blood as in most gangster movies. And Byrne takes several poundings, any one of them enough to hospitalize a rhinoceros, without any sequelae more than a bit of a wince as he struggles to rise from the floor.
I guess, though, that I didn't want Byrne to get "bumped off." I don't know why. Maybe it's his homely face and tragic demeanor, which made it easy for me to identify with him. With that mournful visage he should run for elective office -- maybe president of the United States. He'd at least have the political cartoonist vote in his pocket. And I suppose too that I was glad to see Albert Finney survive in one piece. He's a decent dramatic actor but he has an outstanding way with comedy. (That droll American accent.) And he must have a good sense of humor too, without any pride to speak of. When Byrne bursts into a lady's room he shouts that the other gals should get out. One of the "gals" in the background is Finney dressed in a maid's costume. He makes a hurried sign of the cross and rushes out along with the other girls. He also has a line, "Dis is da kissoff," which is a repeat of a line he had in "Two for the Road," some 30 years earlier. How can you not want a guy like that to survive? That line isn't the film's only link to the past. One character's name is Judy Barton. And an inconspicuous poster informs us that Lars Thorwald, a prize fighter, will be featured in an upcoming bout.
So anyway I couldn't follow the plot exactly. But looked at as an exercise is stylization this is a pretty good movie. A good deal of imagination has gone into it, the dialogue, the location shooting, and especially the direction. I don't just mean bravura jump cuts or negative shots or simple-minded tactics that are meant to draw attention to themselves. I mean more subtle stuff, of which I will give just one example. While two henchmen wait on the road, Byrne marches Turturro into the woods to kill him. Turturro gets on his knees and begs for his life. Byrne, realizing that NOT killing Turturro is likely to get HIM killed, nevertheless relents. Turturro stumbles off into the woods and there is a long shot of Byrne standing alone among the longleaf pine. There is a slow dissolve and Byrne's figure is replaced exactly on screen by the figures of the two henchmen back on the road, standing next to their car, and choking with laughter.
This is by no means a perfect movie, but it is a perfect original. And we give Academy Awards to blockbusting by-the-numbers disasters like "Titanic."