Eastern Promises
This was a terrific movie experience. (No, and not just because Viggo was naked). It started at the most basic story and structure level, and it paid off completely. As you watched the writer and director would pull your attention to little things, but it was never heavy handed. Then when you reached the end all the context was in place and you could nod your head admiringly and say, “Oh, so that’s why he did X or said Y.” That kind of fierce control of plot and structure is something I admire, and I think it is critical for a good viewing or reading experience. If a writer or a movie doesn’t know where they are going they will lose me very early in the process. The book is put aside and never picked up again, and I’ve been known to walk out of movies. This is a particular interest of mine because I seem to excel at plot and structure.
Putting aside my personal hobby horse - writing — I thought each performance was beautifully crafted down to the tiniest walk on part. Pay close attention to our heroine’s uncle. It’s an amazing role. Viggo was terrific, but the actor playing Kyrill will break your heart. I see some Academy nominations coming out of this movie.
This is a film I would see again, and I don’t often feel that way. At least we’re getting into the season of good movies again. Past time as far as I’m concerned. I’m sick of action movies where they are really just a Roadrunner/Coyote cartoon with humans. I love action, but let it be real. The fight in the steam room in Eastern Promises is as real as it gets.
Melinda
October 9th, 2007 at 9:57 am
I enjoyed this film on many levels as well. I loved the heavily restrained affect of Viggo. His passion and strength were so present and yet so subdued throughout most of the film, only to explode in the steam room fight, which as you say is as real as it gets. That same restraint is shown by Cronenberg as well. More of the story could be revealed earlier or in different ways, but he holds back and by doing so keeps us moving forward with the story. We yearn to know more about these characters because their depth is so apparent in their portrayals. From the driver to Kyrill to his father to the heroine and her family, each has great depth from the moment they step on screen. The director artfully strings us along, though, and only reveals what is necessary to get us to the next scene. We piece the story together bit by bit and are rewarded for our efforts.
October 9th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Enthusiastic agreement. I thought it was a superb movie, and I was afraid it would be “Godfather” with balalikas and vodka.
They caught the Russian criminal subculture beautifully. A lot of that tatooing stuff goes way back into Czarist times, btw, as does the special criminal/underclass dialect.
October 9th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
I also liked the fact that the relationship between Viggo and leading lady doesn’t extend past this very brief moment in time when they were united for a single purpose. No forced happy romantic ending. That really appealed to me.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
“No forced happy romantic ending. That really appealed to me.”
– yup, that was a good, subtle touch. The usual broad-brush approach was absent this time.
I also liked the way the Russians were _strange_. History has taken different courses there, and they have different reflexes.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:44 am
I was never a Cronenberg fan (who I always thought was way over the top) until I saw History of Violence a few years back. I was incredulous that while William Hurt got an Oscar nomination for a pretty bad performance, Mortensen and Bello were shut out. That’s another completely terrific, adult movie.
I agree with you 100% on Eastern Promises. I might even go see it in the theaters again. While there were a few little nods to the Godfather (especially that final scene of Viggo is very much like the final scene of Al Pacino in GII), but it wasn’t violent for violence sake.
The famous bathhouse scene showed the costs of a fight. So often in movies, when a fight like that happens, the victor might have a black eye but keeps going. There comes a time when you can’t keep going.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I learned one important lesson:
If you are going to attack someone that looks as bad ass as Viggo did in that film, bring a better weapon than a carpet knife. You may only get one shot in, and it looked like long slashing wounds just pissed him off.
October 10th, 2007 at 11:05 pm
“and it looked like long slashing wounds just pissed him off.”
– well, hormones can do a lot… 8-).
Actually, long slashing wounds are usually the way to go with a knife, especially a small knife. Stabbing immobilizes your weapon and puts you close to the other person, and it probably won’t kill quickly. Meanwhile they are doing Bad Things to you.
You just keep the blade moving and slash at everything you can reach. Pretty soon the person on the receiving end will bleed out and fall down and you can finish them off.
This is the reason for the characteristic “defense wounds” on the arms and hands for victims of knife attacks.
It’s also the reason why the person who _wins_ a knife-fight goes to hospital.
You can’t really parry knife-against-knife; the damn thing is moving too fast and your knife is too small. You have to parry with your other hand/arm, and that means you -will- get cut. You accept superficial cuts to protect the belly, groin and throat/face.
Knife duels, with two people facing each other with short blades, are a sucker’s game. The only efficient way to kill with a knife is by surprise.
But if you ever _do_ have to fight one, accept that you’re going to get cut, get in and slash and (if opportunity presents itself) stab in a wham-wham-wham frenzy; overwhelm the other guy.
October 11th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
Sounds like I have to go see this movie. These are some great recs. But I think I may to see the new Cate/Elizabeth flick first before I can call in my half of the swap.
October 19th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
“But I think I may to see the new Cate/Elizabeth flick first before I can call in my half of the swap.”
– it’s good. There’s a saggy bit in the middle, but the rest of it is splendid.
I loved the quiet scene where Raleigh is describing what it’s like to sail across the Atlantic and then see the New World rising up out of the ocean — it gave me a deep thrill, as if I’d been back there when the English were just breaking out of their island shell and the whole world was opening up, a universe of infinite possibilities.
And of course the defeat of the vicious Spaniards was wonderful, with Elizabeth in armor on the cliffs and the fireships going in. That really spoke to my Anglo-Saxon genes.
Glory to Gloriana!
As history, it wasn’t bad at all by Hollywood standards. They elided events and combined characters, but the basic course of the Armada campaign is shown truthfully. So is the politics — whether or not the Spanish deliberately tried to get Mary Stuart executed by the English, Philip did intend to put his daughter Isabella on the English throne.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:04 am
That really spoke to my Anglo-Saxon genes.
I find that such an odd statement. I suppose I could say that my Cherokee genes aren’t real happy with Europeans and their imperialistic ambitions. I’m also Scottish and Welsh, but one thing the Human Genome Project has firmly laid to rest is the idea that there are differences between humans no matter what their skin color or nation of origin.
Culturally, of course there are differences, and there are differences between individulas, but I wish people could realize that there is no inately superior “race” Human are fundamentally the same at the genetic level.
These are things I’m exploring in my novel — the idea that these invading creatures have worked to make us hate each other for perceived but not real differences.
I’m sure the right wingnuts will hate me even more, but I’m anxiously waiting for the day when we have a united Earth and we’re striding out to explore the stars.
October 21st, 2007 at 9:56 am
“I find that such an odd statement.”
– I was speaking metaphorically here, Melinda. “Blood” would have been just as good; the language, the traditions, the ongoing identity.
Drake circumnavigating the world and coming home with his ballast replaced by silver and gold to be knighted on the decks of the “Golden Hind”, burning the stores on the beach at Cadiz, the Armada, Captain Smith at Jamestown, the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth, Morgan at Panama, Cook in Hawaii, Clive at Plassey, the pioneers on the Oregon Trail, the First Fleet dropping anchor in Botany Bay, Franklin seeking the Nortwest Passage, Shackleton in the Antarctic ice, Churchill roaring defiance from London in the ‘Spitfire Summer’.
Conan Doyle put it wonderfully in “The White Company”, when the French seeress is asked what fate awaits England:
“My God!” she cried, “what is this that is shown me? Whence come they, these peoples, these lordly nations, these mighty countries which rise up before me? I look beyond, and others rise, and yet others, far and farther to the shores of the uttermost waters. They crowd! They swarm! The world is given to them, and it resounds with the clang of their hammers and the ringing of their church bells. They call them many names, and they rule them this way or that but they are all English, for I can hear the voices of the people. On I go, and onwards over seas where man hath never yet sailed, and I see a great land under new stars and a stranger sky, and still the land is England. Where have her children not gone? What have they not done? Her banner is planted on ice. Her banner is scorched in the sun. She lies athwart the lands, and her shadow is over the seas!”
It’s the epic of my people, the ones who remade the world.
October 21st, 2007 at 10:14 am
“These are things I’m exploring in my novel — the idea that these invading creatures have worked to make us hate each other for perceived but not real differences.”
– well, human beings have many things in common, being a strikingly uniform species genetically.
One of the things that we have in common is that we’re instinctive — literally — tribalists.
There’s no sense in repining over this; it’s just the way we are. Our default state is to pick a side and identify with it, whether it’s our ethnic group, religion, political party/ideology, nationality, our football team, or whether we back the Red, Blue or Green chariot-racing faction.
Tribes which didn’t do this didn’t leave many descendants (certainly not memetic descendants) because their neighbors ate them, though of course you can overdo it and identity is a fluid thing.
“Me against my brother, my brother and me against my cousin; my brother, my cousin and me against the world”.
If aliens actually were to invade the Earth, people would probably start strongly identifying with the human race as a whole.
Until that happens, they probably won’t, and I don’t see why they should or why we should waste time telling them they should. It’s like saying that Earth would be a paradise if we all obeyed the Golden Rule — literally true, but meaningless.