A classic I hadn't seen, because I shy away from the thought of too much intensity of a violent kind. (The scene from Disney's Aladdin in which Robin Williams's Genie imitates the "Are you talkin' to me" scene made me think, that does it, I have to watch that movie, but it still took me years and the development of a company like Netflix.)
The movie seemed somewhat more like a detailed character study than a movie. It does explore the dark side of reality in a forceful way. De Niro is always great to watch—the combination of beyond-handsomeness, incipient humor, passion, and incipient violence (not much humor in this movie though) I always find potent. The ending, while artful, supports the sense that sometimes directors want to direct and film violence because it is always works—but if there’s no other thematic ingredient? There are other themes a-plenty here, but they seem to disappear at the climactic violent moment. This movie—this was true of Scorsese’s Goodfellas too—is always smart and riveting—but I wonder how much wisdom there is in the implied world-view, and how much that matters. Maybe the world view is that things are bleak all right, and my own inability to face the bleakness is my issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment