Insta-rec.

[the_grynne]

A Name and a Country by ninhursag (Salt, Evelyn/Mike)
I'd written a bit of meta - here and here - on the Philip Noyce-directed action movie, Salt, starring Angelina Jolie, when I saw it in 2010. Yesterday, when I read this story, I was reminded of how much I liked and was moved by it. Needless to say, I believe in this ship, and I agree completely

Comments

[grimorie]

Thank you for the fic rec, I truly enjoyed the movie and found the lack of discussion for it puzzling.

Your thoughts about Mike being the country she chose is a powerful one especially the long beat where he dies and you can *see* how much Mike dying affected her.

[the_grynne]

In the 2009 draft script that's online, it's even more excrutiating, the death scene. In fact, I think it's a deleted scene on the DVD. There, Mike is drowned in front of her, not shot. Yet she can't do anything without getting herself killed and hence failing in her mission to sabotage the greater plot to destroy the US.

I rewatched the film yesterday, and it's actually all there, in the script, except that we're so unused to the logic behind Evelyn's actions, the obvious escapes us.

What's Evelyn's first action when she realises that her cover is blown? She goes to her apartment, which she knows is the first place the CIA would look for her, because Mike is in danger. What are Evelyn's flashbacks all about? They're to establish the back-story behind her marriage, and to clue us in to the fact that, even though her actions are on the surface those of a traitor (eluding capture, the assassination attempt), her motivations are very personal. The film doesn't give her any speeches, any chances to explain herself, but I think we can

[grimorie]

I have to read the script (i downloaded it but never got around to reading) and see the things that changed but I did watch it again today and knowing what I know now there is a logic to everything she does after she leaves Orlov in the interrogation room.

Her very first thoughts are of Mike and then the tender care she does giving away her pet is another clue. It's another string she knows she will be leaving behind.

I hope you don't mind if I quote this: 'He is her homeland, the one she serves and protects, more than any symbolic nation. Country is personal, not ideological.'

In a reaction post I'm going to put in tumblr? That line just really really sums it up for me.

[the_grynne]

Of course, go ahead. :)