Like the 1969 version, the Coen Brothers’ True Grit is a traditional western. Characters in the movie speak with the theatrical elocution of the nineteenth century that Charles Portis uses in the novel. While there is something rather funny about criminals involved in courtly verbal exchanges, the language also seems to fit the Old Testament concept of vengeance and retribution. The sepia tones and sweeping natural panoramas in the cinematography further remove the film from a modern setting. All these choices authenticate the sense of time and place and further reinforce the western ideals of rugged individualism and self-reliance. Continue reading
A Serious Man poses some questions of Biblical proportion: What does God want from me? Are the bad things that happen some sort of a sign? Am I righteous? What have I done to deserve this agony?
Larry, a physics professor who teaches the theory of uncertainty, begins to live it. According to Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox, which appears among the physics equations on the board in Larry’s classroom, a cat is placed in a box with a flask which may or may not break and emit radioactive poison. According to quantum physics as long as we don’t check to see what happened to the cat there is a superposition of states in which the cat exists in every possible state simultaneously. In other words, until you open the box and look the cat is both alive and dead – a quantum system that is a mixture of states.
The simultaneous car accidents in which one man lives and one man dies sort of echo this theme of alive and dead, as does the story of the Dybbuk at the beginning of the film. The two scenes in the synagogue juxtapose a funeral followed by a bar mitzvah. Larry does seem a bit like the cat in the box being acted upon rather than acting, uncertain whether he is spiritually dead or alive. Larry has no context for answers, only questions, confusion, and pain. Continue reading
Burn After Reading is more of the Coen Brothers’ ruminations on greed. Though No Country for Old Men and certainly Fargo provide humorous moments, Burn after Reading is more like Raising Arizona in its sensibility and humor. Brad Pitt is hysterical as Chad, the impulsive fitness instructor who helps his co-worker Linda who tries to cash in on a disk of classified C.I.A. information accidentally left at a gym in the D.C. area. Linda wants the money to pay for cosmetic surgery which, she believes, will lead to love.
As in No Country for Old Men and Fargo, greed induces characters to abandon their moral parameters. None of these characters are professional criminals. Each becomes the bumbling crook in order to obtain or keep something that is not theirs. In each case one of the main characters fails to value the opportunities for happiness already present in his or her life. In each case there is something at represents happiness that he or she is willing to break the law to get. Continue reading
Sinema7: A Movie Watcher’s Guide to the Seven Deadly Sins
Can watching movies make us better people? Sinema7's approach provides relevant thoughts about pop culture and ethical behavior for everyone. Check it out!
