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Well i watched it. Eugene Brackin was adorable.
But either i'm thick, or I just don't get it. What was all the 'circle is closed' stuff, as motivation for taking his fellow employees/boss as hostages with no demands? Uhh, it really didn't make any sense to me at all. If he wanted 72 hours inpatient, that's easy enough to arrange...
Ok in the Die Hard era of films, it was nice to see a hostage movie where the hostage taker really didn't intend to hurt anyone. And he was sexy as FUCK in his suspenders / braces. Yes.I really enjoyed when he asked his hostages what they wanted for dinner. Really sweet. I think he just wanted their attention, just wanted to get to know them. But the guns sort of make it hard core, yanno? Once he brandished a gun, he was going to die, that was it. No hospital escapes for him. Poor Gene.
The girl was a bit OTT, especially when drunk, and having sex with a hostage? Huh? And Larry/Michael Ironside - not the best character on his CV, oh no. Dreadful. The old lady? Does kartwheels to the flagpole to escape? WTF?
And the bullet in the forehead? I enjoyed that, and the smile afterwards, but i didnt get it. I know he knew he was going to get killed; he told the girl as much. But why did he do deliberately step out in the line of fire, knowing he'd get killed, and die with a grin on his face? Eh?
This character doesnt turn me on anywhere near as much as Henry Buchanan in Age of Innocence (1977). I dont want to feel sorry for someone. I like awkward gaucheness, yes. I like clumsy social backwardness as much as any girl, especially when the geek is as RP / mannered as they come. But I dont feel any attraction towards a 'nice guy' who does really strange things like taking coworkers hostage for ill-understood reasons, and ends up getting a sympathy fuck by a drunk girl trying to make another coworker jealous. That doesn't get any trumps in my deck, no.
Buchanan still stands as my most favourite entirely shaggable and least pitiable or hatable character of David's entire career so far. A character that stands to his morals, a character who has real motivations for what he does, etc.
I'm drifting.
Still. Not a completely bad movie, especially when you compare it to Bruce Willis' barefoot walking on glass in Die Hard opposite sexxxay Alan Rickman... at least it DIDNT get my pulse pounding - i dont need any more of that!
But either i'm thick, or I just don't get it. What was all the 'circle is closed' stuff, as motivation for taking his fellow employees/boss as hostages with no demands? Uhh, it really didn't make any sense to me at all. If he wanted 72 hours inpatient, that's easy enough to arrange...
Ok in the Die Hard era of films, it was nice to see a hostage movie where the hostage taker really didn't intend to hurt anyone. And he was sexy as FUCK in his suspenders / braces. Yes.I really enjoyed when he asked his hostages what they wanted for dinner. Really sweet. I think he just wanted their attention, just wanted to get to know them. But the guns sort of make it hard core, yanno? Once he brandished a gun, he was going to die, that was it. No hospital escapes for him. Poor Gene.
The girl was a bit OTT, especially when drunk, and having sex with a hostage? Huh? And Larry/Michael Ironside - not the best character on his CV, oh no. Dreadful. The old lady? Does kartwheels to the flagpole to escape? WTF?
And the bullet in the forehead? I enjoyed that, and the smile afterwards, but i didnt get it. I know he knew he was going to get killed; he told the girl as much. But why did he do deliberately step out in the line of fire, knowing he'd get killed, and die with a grin on his face? Eh?
This character doesnt turn me on anywhere near as much as Henry Buchanan in Age of Innocence (1977). I dont want to feel sorry for someone. I like awkward gaucheness, yes. I like clumsy social backwardness as much as any girl, especially when the geek is as RP / mannered as they come. But I dont feel any attraction towards a 'nice guy' who does really strange things like taking coworkers hostage for ill-understood reasons, and ends up getting a sympathy fuck by a drunk girl trying to make another coworker jealous. That doesn't get any trumps in my deck, no.
Buchanan still stands as my most favourite entirely shaggable and least pitiable or hatable character of David's entire career so far. A character that stands to his morals, a character who has real motivations for what he does, etc.
I'm drifting.
Still. Not a completely bad movie, especially when you compare it to Bruce Willis' barefoot walking on glass in Die Hard opposite sexxxay Alan Rickman... at least it DIDNT get my pulse pounding - i dont need any more of that!
amused
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"What was all the 'circle is closed' stuff, as motivation for taking his fellow employees/boss as hostages with no demands?"
I never did figure out the circle being closed, per se, but if you listen to the poem that's quoted throughout the movie, I think it gives some clues. (It's called "The Hollow Men" by T.&nsbp;S. Eliot--it's one of my favorites--I love cryptic poetry--and I was first exposed to it through that movie. The "circle" may have something to do with the stanza that starts with "Here we go round the prickly pear," obviously a darker version of the children's song "Here we go round the mulberry bush.") Anyway, there are more clues provided by some of Eugene's flashbacks and hints that he was abused as a child, leading to him being withdrawn as an adult.
As an adult, I think he finds his mild-mannered existence so dull and meaningless that he decides he wants to finally do something daring and exciting that will finally get him some attention and make him feel powerful--before he goes out with a bang, rather than a whimper. Up till then he feels like a "hollow man." (I think the grin on his face is because he intended from the outset to commit suicide. He also made a point that no one else would get hurt--however, everything goes awry with the lady's leap out the window, which really upset him.)
"Does kartwheels to the flagpole to escape?"
Remember when she and whatsername (played by Kate Vernon) went to the bathroom and she talked about her botched abortion and starts crying? I guess that memory, triggered by the hostage trauma, flips her out and she flashes back to her happier days as a cheerleader as she cartwheels to her death.
"The girl was a bit OTT, especially when drunk, and having sex with a hostage?"
He was always in love with her but never had the nerve to tell her. She knows it and flirts with him, but she primarily has sex with him to spite their evil boss who had harassed her in the past.
I saw it as a study of how the situation affects all the hostages, as much as it is about Eugene. Everyone's personality changes when the gun comes out.
"I dont want to feel sorry for someone."
But I thought you liked seeing him in pain? I don't want to feel sorry for anyone either, but Eugene really got to me. I guess I was just in the right mood when I saw it for the story to click. I like movies that make you think, and Eugene is such a puzzle.
"If he wanted 72 hours inpatient, that's easy enough to arrange... No hospital escapes for him."
I certainly would never consider the psych ward an "escape." I don't condone what he did at all, but I can understand from personal experience why suicide would be preferable to incarceration in a mental hospital.
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Still, i wouldnt want to shag Eugene Brackin. Henry Buchanan? Yes, nightly til i cant walk and end up with ten babies.
David? YES. But that's a foregone conclusion ;)
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I enjoy physical pain on screen, hence i thoroughly enjoyed watching Larry dream about shooting him in the head, and i enjoyed the bullet at the end, but emotional pain doesn't do anything for me. I like ficticious pain that i know will end / isnt going to leave lasting damage to the character. Its hard to explain my kink, really, but i guess its pain-fetishism?
Oh i can understand why suicide would be preferably to inpatient too; I was reacting to a remark Eugene made about how if he didnt hurt anyone, they'd just cart him off to hospital, not lock him up or kill him. Towards the beginning of the movie. Almost as if he wanted to go there, like that was his plan? Maybe i misunderstood.
I think it makes me overly sad to think he intended to commit suicide from the beginning - the optimist in me hopes for life to find a way, yanno?
I suspect having the book will help.
Thanks for trying to explain bits of it to me - perhaps a rewatch is called for tonight, to see if i can 'get' it this time?
Nah, no need for spoiler alerts on my blog - if someone doesnt like what they read, they can de-friend me. The likelihood of finding these movies and seeing them is so unlikely anyways, i dont worry too much about spoiling people. Doctor Who OTOH, i try not to spoil people.
(no subject)
No, you're probably right. I must have forgot that line.