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September 19, 2007
"a pious little scrap of sleaze"
Lately I've been enjoying Christopher Orr's movie reviews. His assault on The Brave One is a fun example. Calling it "not merely the most morally repellent film of the year, but a contender for the stupidest," Orr concludes that
For all its showy stabs at remorse, its ostentatious moral handwringing, this is a film that unambiguously endorses vigilante killings--at least, as long as you're Jodie Foster, and you feel really bad about it, and you're doing it all for the kids. Foster, and everyone else involved in making this disgraceful film, should be ashamed.
I'm guessing he didn't like the movie much.
Technorati Tags: chistopher orr, movies, The Brave One
movies | By maphet | 03:19 PM
Comments
Hollywood is fascinated with the revenge motif. Take 2002's The Count of Monte Cristo for example. I really enjoyed the movie but it plays fast and loose with the original plot of the book. While the movie ends with the message that if you're smart enough to pull off a clever revenge scheme, you can be happy in the end, the book has Dantes realizing the dead-end that is revenge and trying to mend the damage. Hollywood took yet another a story about redemption and forgiveness and ran it through its cookie cutter. I guess that's why they make the big bucks. They like clean, settling resolutions and real life, as with the Dumas' book, is unclear and unsettling.
Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, Lew Wallace who wrote Ben-Hur said that Dumas' novel was one of the chief inspirations for his book. The themes of the two stories are remarkably similar with the Ben-Hur movie adaptation doing a great job of retaining the intended redemption theme.
Posted by: Alex at September 20, 2007 09:46 AM