It's lonely being a cannibal. Tough making friends.
I got to show Ravenous (1999) to kestrell and alexx_kay yesterday. It was delightful. Zelda, you were one hundred per cent correct about me and this movie. I keep coming back to it. It has all sorts of things I love, and the way it unites them is beautiful. For a movie about human flesh, this is damn good-looking. Blood pouring down window glass with the light behind it is a gorgeous color, of course, but I also like the contrast between attractive human bodies and devastated corpses, bleak snow or acres of mud versus gorgeous clothing, fine horses, stark mountains, bright blue skies, the sun through branches. (This movie has a fucked-up reason to show you the sun through evergreen branches. Of course it would.)
Alexx and Kestrell wondered how I took the cannibalism, since I'm a vegetarian. I was less bothered than you might think by the human flesh--by the time the camera lingers on the act of eating, the flesh has been made into a delicious-looking stew with chunks of carrots, potatoes, and onions. (I feel the urge to make something similar, using seitan.) The disturbing part for me was the coercion--either tricking a person into eating human flesh, or placing them in a position where they have no choice but to eat or die. There are circumstances where cannibalism isn't necessarily evil, e.g., if you're starving to death in extreme circumstances and you have access to a human body which you didn't personally murder. But one person coercing another to eat something vile... that makes me angry. Antonia Bird dug down to a deep nerve in my morality.
This time around, I noticed how fond I am of Colonel Hart. Of course I like him. He's a burned-out old guy who still tries to be a decent person and look after the poor jerks assigned to Fort Spencer; he retains a sense of humor even as he drinks and desponds. He's played by Jeffrey Jones, who looks like a big sad fox and does a good Dad Voice. The movie does well at giving you the sense that all the characters would turn out to be complex people if the story had a reason to find out about them, which it doesn't. Total, ruinous spoilers from here on in. I'm going to spoiler cut a post about a seventeen-year-old film because, if there's someone out there who hasn't watched it and wants to, trust me, it'll be more fun to go in without knowing the twists.We know just enough about Hart for me to watch his character development with a sense of tragedy and go oh shit no not the nice old dude don't do this to me, yet go on liking him even as he slaughtered his way through unoffending minor characters. Apparently cannibalism turns you into Wolverine, subtracts years from your age, and makes your strength as the strength of ten. It's hard to listen to Ives talking about how cannibalism cured his suicidal depression, and see Hart looking happy and healthy and at peace with the world for the first time ever as he dishes up person soup, and restrain yourself from a brief fantasy of finding someone to eat who wouldn't be missed.
Wendigo-ness fades, so you have to make the choice to kill new people constantly, and then keep making it as long as you want to keep your well-being. The powerful thing about Hart's downward slide is that he's initially coerced into being a monster, too--Ives brought him back from the brink of death by hand-feeding him pieces of George and Private Toffler. After that, he starts doing vile things on his own time.
I see that a lot in monster fiction--the human turncoat, who buys into monstrousness because "welp, this is my life now." This character is there to be a villain the good guys can manipulate, and whose second change of heart and tragic death in the home stretch will provide the heroes with a net gain. (An example of its being done badly would be Andy from the first season of Sleepy Hollow the series, who gets powered up by Team Evil near the end, and starts attacking the heroes Because Evil or something. Sleepy Hollow is down there with the Star Wars prequels in unconvincing villainy.)
Ravenous manages to sell me on this character arc, because cannibalism is so appealing it seduces the viewer, let alone the characters, and because Hart retains his free will. He goes from being coerced into eating people, to killing them himself, to bringing other people "into the fold," and what I love is the way he tries to justify this all to his conscience. An officer should be a father to his men, right? OK, so he's got to do the decent thing by Boyd, because otherwise it's curtains. Everybody does patronizing things to Boyd, but Hart is straight-up treating him like a child: crouching down to look him in the eye and unchain him, gently helping him to totter across the yard. It would be less uncomfortable and intimate if he weren't so damn kind about his villainy. The moment when he starts yelling at Boyd to man up and start killing is also visibly the moment when he, Hart, realizes that he's talking a load of crap and can't bear to take his own advice. He's still a decent authority figure, and he is full of regret and remorse, no matter how much he pretends otherwise. You can't hide from yourself. He's also not hot, like Robert Carlyle, or young and pretty, like Guy Pearce, so the end of his collaboration is the end of his life and he's not even gonna make it to the last scene. I choked up a little, I'll admit.
RIP
Colonel [Firstname] Hart
17something - 18fortysomething
~He Regretted Fucking Up~
Other, minor things I noticed this time around:
--No matter how much I scream at the characters, "NO! Fire at him NOW! Both barrels! My God, what the fuck are you waiting for, you've got a gun, use it! BASH HIM ON THE HEAD!" they don't listen to me.
--Ives takes off his clothes in a deliberate strip tease while staring Boyd down. I almost expected him to twirl his belt and fling it off camera.
--Ives and Hart dress for dinner--Hart in a new black jacket and fancy waistcoat, and Ives in a wine-colored frock coat with a black velvet collar. It's amazing how much this distances them from our first impressions.
--The Native siblings are George and Martha. What this says in a story where Uncle Sam is represented by a fancy cannibal, I'm not sure. *waves arms* SYMBOLISMMMMM
--Is Ives's forehead painted with a bloody cross because he's Charles Manson, because he's the Antichrist, or because he has an imperfect understanding of Ash Wednesday? We don't know and may never find out.
--I like this film enough I may seek out the director's commentary track--Antonia Bird isn't alive for me to fangirl at her, but I'd love to hear her talk about her work. And there's a commetary by Robert Carlyle which looks like a lot of self-indulgent fun for me. "There it is, the obligatory Robert Carlyle arse shot," he says over a screen image of his own pallid buttocks. "Why anybody would pay money to look at that I've no idea."
--I want to learn the merry tune that plays as Ives chases Toffler through the woods, and play it on the banjo everywhere I go.
Alexx and Kestrell wondered how I took the cannibalism, since I'm a vegetarian. I was less bothered than you might think by the human flesh--by the time the camera lingers on the act of eating, the flesh has been made into a delicious-looking stew with chunks of carrots, potatoes, and onions. (I feel the urge to make something similar, using seitan.) The disturbing part for me was the coercion--either tricking a person into eating human flesh, or placing them in a position where they have no choice but to eat or die. There are circumstances where cannibalism isn't necessarily evil, e.g., if you're starving to death in extreme circumstances and you have access to a human body which you didn't personally murder. But one person coercing another to eat something vile... that makes me angry. Antonia Bird dug down to a deep nerve in my morality.
This time around, I noticed how fond I am of Colonel Hart. Of course I like him. He's a burned-out old guy who still tries to be a decent person and look after the poor jerks assigned to Fort Spencer; he retains a sense of humor even as he drinks and desponds. He's played by Jeffrey Jones, who looks like a big sad fox and does a good Dad Voice. The movie does well at giving you the sense that all the characters would turn out to be complex people if the story had a reason to find out about them, which it doesn't. Total, ruinous spoilers from here on in. I'm going to spoiler cut a post about a seventeen-year-old film because, if there's someone out there who hasn't watched it and wants to, trust me, it'll be more fun to go in without knowing the twists.We know just enough about Hart for me to watch his character development with a sense of tragedy and go oh shit no not the nice old dude don't do this to me, yet go on liking him even as he slaughtered his way through unoffending minor characters. Apparently cannibalism turns you into Wolverine, subtracts years from your age, and makes your strength as the strength of ten. It's hard to listen to Ives talking about how cannibalism cured his suicidal depression, and see Hart looking happy and healthy and at peace with the world for the first time ever as he dishes up person soup, and restrain yourself from a brief fantasy of finding someone to eat who wouldn't be missed.
Wendigo-ness fades, so you have to make the choice to kill new people constantly, and then keep making it as long as you want to keep your well-being. The powerful thing about Hart's downward slide is that he's initially coerced into being a monster, too--Ives brought him back from the brink of death by hand-feeding him pieces of George and Private Toffler. After that, he starts doing vile things on his own time.
I see that a lot in monster fiction--the human turncoat, who buys into monstrousness because "welp, this is my life now." This character is there to be a villain the good guys can manipulate, and whose second change of heart and tragic death in the home stretch will provide the heroes with a net gain. (An example of its being done badly would be Andy from the first season of Sleepy Hollow the series, who gets powered up by Team Evil near the end, and starts attacking the heroes Because Evil or something. Sleepy Hollow is down there with the Star Wars prequels in unconvincing villainy.)
Ravenous manages to sell me on this character arc, because cannibalism is so appealing it seduces the viewer, let alone the characters, and because Hart retains his free will. He goes from being coerced into eating people, to killing them himself, to bringing other people "into the fold," and what I love is the way he tries to justify this all to his conscience. An officer should be a father to his men, right? OK, so he's got to do the decent thing by Boyd, because otherwise it's curtains. Everybody does patronizing things to Boyd, but Hart is straight-up treating him like a child: crouching down to look him in the eye and unchain him, gently helping him to totter across the yard. It would be less uncomfortable and intimate if he weren't so damn kind about his villainy. The moment when he starts yelling at Boyd to man up and start killing is also visibly the moment when he, Hart, realizes that he's talking a load of crap and can't bear to take his own advice. He's still a decent authority figure, and he is full of regret and remorse, no matter how much he pretends otherwise. You can't hide from yourself. He's also not hot, like Robert Carlyle, or young and pretty, like Guy Pearce, so the end of his collaboration is the end of his life and he's not even gonna make it to the last scene. I choked up a little, I'll admit.
RIP
Colonel [Firstname] Hart
17something - 18fortysomething
~He Regretted Fucking Up~
Other, minor things I noticed this time around:
--No matter how much I scream at the characters, "NO! Fire at him NOW! Both barrels! My God, what the fuck are you waiting for, you've got a gun, use it! BASH HIM ON THE HEAD!" they don't listen to me.
--Ives takes off his clothes in a deliberate strip tease while staring Boyd down. I almost expected him to twirl his belt and fling it off camera.
--Ives and Hart dress for dinner--Hart in a new black jacket and fancy waistcoat, and Ives in a wine-colored frock coat with a black velvet collar. It's amazing how much this distances them from our first impressions.
--The Native siblings are George and Martha. What this says in a story where Uncle Sam is represented by a fancy cannibal, I'm not sure. *waves arms* SYMBOLISMMMMM
--Is Ives's forehead painted with a bloody cross because he's Charles Manson, because he's the Antichrist, or because he has an imperfect understanding of Ash Wednesday? We don't know and may never find out.
--I like this film enough I may seek out the director's commentary track--Antonia Bird isn't alive for me to fangirl at her, but I'd love to hear her talk about her work. And there's a commetary by Robert Carlyle which looks like a lot of self-indulgent fun for me. "There it is, the obligatory Robert Carlyle arse shot," he says over a screen image of his own pallid buttocks. "Why anybody would pay money to look at that I've no idea."
--I want to learn the merry tune that plays as Ives chases Toffler through the woods, and play it on the banjo everywhere I go.