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Subject: "The backlash to this is really bumming me out" Previous topic | Next topic
Walleye
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Mon Jan-08-18 03:38 PM

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47. "The backlash to this is really bumming me out"
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I recognize it's not productive, or even a sign of a good movie that I want to make Flannery O'Connor required reading before people comment on this. But whatever. The irritating thing is that I find myself wishing that McDonagh had just steered the ship away from the giant, flashing political symbols like racism and police brutality because those are the things that keep making people compare it to lightweight political movies like Crash.

It's not a political movie. Or, rather, that scope is way too small. It's about sin and grace and how, in the fallen world, they both play as horrifying, destructive violence. O'Connor's work treated violence as the beginning, the middle, and the end of the story. Violence and pain isn't an instigation for personal growth beyond anger and into peace, it was transformative *in itself* because, in a rotten world, violence is grace. It's a purely unmerited gift that makes us into something new (notably, not necessarily something that looks better to observers) and destroys everything old.

The idea isn't complex but it is hard because we want to see a "beyond" to the story. Augustine's distinction between justice and mercy would be useful here too. We don't want justice because that means getting what we deserve - and that's death. We want mercy, but that's not going to be pleasant either. But when O'Connor did it, it resembled a tonally weird, grim joke. I think the pure recklessness of The Violent Bear it Away is probably best here, even if there's a real lack of 1:1 character analogues. But the title, Matthew 11's note that the kingdom of heaven HAS ALWAYS suffered violence and that the violent would bear it away warns us that looking for more is actually just looking away. You don't get to look past the child neglect, alcoholism, arson, child murder, and strongly implied child rape because that's the world we inherited. Instead, you get a secondary warning about "the terrible speed of mercy".

______________________________

"Walleye, a lot of things are going to go wrong in your life that technically aren't your fault. Always remember that this doesn't make you any less of an idiot"

--Walleye's Dad

  

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Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (McDonagh, 2017) [View all] , Frank Longo, Fri Oct-21-16 12:52 AM
 
Subject Author Message Date ID
Mam, that cast is bananas. I need to be seeing John Hawkes
Oct 21st 2016
1
RED BAND TRAILER:
Mar 23rd 2017
2
YES
Mar 23rd 2017
3
Of course all in!
Mar 23rd 2017
4
This movie would be 32 seconds long if it was a black lead.
Mar 24th 2017
5
The movie addresses this relatively head-on.
Mar 25th 2017
6
      yeah. for being written damn near a decade ago
Nov 22nd 2017
13
      Ehhhhhh...how so? (spoilers)
Nov 25th 2017
17
           I really, really disagree with both these takes.
Nov 27th 2017
20
                Did you catch Red reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?
Nov 28th 2017
21
                I didn't! That's a nice Easter Egg.
Nov 28th 2017
23
                     My mom is a *huge* fan and wore me down
Nov 28th 2017
27
                Dixon literally does a 180
Nov 28th 2017
22
                     I'll just cosign everything Walleye said in Reply 21 and leave it there.
Nov 28th 2017
24
                     Our appetite for plot contrivances differ wildly, I think
Nov 29th 2017
28
                     of course I knew you did it. who the fucking else would've? (c) Dixon
Nov 28th 2017
25
Thanks
Mar 30th 2017
7
Put it in my veins
Mar 30th 2017
8
Reviews are glowing from Venice.
Sep 09th 2017
9
Really fun...
Sep 12th 2017
10
No surprise, but this shit was excellent.
Nov 07th 2017
11
Top notch
Nov 14th 2017
12
This was laughably bad
Nov 24th 2017
14
...
Nov 25th 2017
15
Agree with most of this
Nov 25th 2017
16
      ^^actual factuals^^
Nov 26th 2017
18
      i think you guys are blowing up two head-scratchy (to me) parts
Nov 27th 2017
19
      no one behaves like real humans
Nov 29th 2017
29
      Unfortunately, I think I agree 100%
Dec 10th 2017
34
walk away Renee…
Nov 28th 2017
26
wow the reviews here are pretty polarizing
Nov 29th 2017
30
The negative reviews here are exceptions. Go see it.
Nov 29th 2017
31
RE: The negative reviews here are exceptions. Go see it.
Dec 04th 2017
33
It will definitely be nominated
Nov 29th 2017
32
This is Crash-level bad.
Jan 05th 2018
35
So now that I've had a night to sit on this.
Jan 05th 2018
36
While I won't try to sway you at all...
Jan 05th 2018
37
And that's all fine, and makes sense.
Jan 05th 2018
40
what did you make of the ex-husband's girlfriend?
Jan 08th 2018
44
      Three things:
Jan 08th 2018
46
           Upon a rewatch...
Jan 09th 2018
53
was that the point to you?
Jan 05th 2018
38
      No, it wasn't the point.
Jan 05th 2018
39
Mine is I couldn’t suspend belief for a main plot point
Jan 07th 2018
41
But this answers your Woody question imo.
Jan 07th 2018
42
Just saw it, in this line as well
Nov 04th 2018
61
I dont get the bad reviews in here
Jan 07th 2018
43
it's just a matter of taste
Jan 08th 2018
45
this, i think, is my stumbling block with this movie
Jan 08th 2018
48
That's because I wasn't describing what I liked about the movie
Jan 08th 2018
49
      ^^^
Jan 08th 2018
50
      I'm used to shutting up about movies I liked
Jan 08th 2018
51
      Strongly agree.
Jan 09th 2018
52
I just thought it was...fun?
Jan 10th 2018
54
I finally got around to this Fake Coen Bros shite....
Feb 28th 2018
55
RE: I finally got around to this Fake Coen Bros shite....
Mar 01st 2018
56
      The first half makes the injustice the point.....
Mar 02nd 2018
57
           I don't see the first half that way.
Mar 02nd 2018
58
the out of town guy?
Mar 04th 2018
59
I liked the messiness of this movie.
May 29th 2018
60
i liked it
Aug 19th 2019
62

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