Quote of the day

[iambiguous]

The true story of a contract killer. This guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kuklinski

But how true?

For instance, consider this from a review of the film at IMDb:

"The Iceman, Richard Kuklinski, comes off as a sympathetic character in the end, whereas in real life he truly was a cold emotionless and sociopathic killer. His family weren’t so much cherished and loved as they were possessions that were his and his alone."

And that’s the tricky part here. After all, what will fascinate most folks is how he did manage to conceal what he did for a living – being “contracted” to snuff out the lives of others – from his own family. He really only had to rationalize his behavior to himself. But how long could he realistically hope to keep all of this a secret?

Think about it: How would you react if you found out your own father or husband or brother or son was a professional hitman? Or, in this day and age, I suppose, mother, wife, sister or daughter?

And it is always particularly surreal to me how some of these gangsters manage to reconcile what they do with God. They make sure their wives and kids are brought up in the Church and then still do what they do. The way they can keep these things separate in their head. The human capacity to rationalize!

Yet in a long list of true crime films this is often revealed to be the case: folks living secret lives. They may not be murderers but they sure as shit are not who you think they are. Or not always. The fragmented personality in a fragmented – “postmodern” – world. You sometimes wonder: How long before it’s the norm?

The film just does not [cannot] really make you understand how the past and the present came together to create this man.

While in prison, Richard Kuklinski claimed to be responsible along with four other men for the kidnap and murder of former Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa on July 30 1975 in a restaurant parking lot in Detroit. The five-man team were allegedly given the contract on Hoffa by Tony Provenzano, a captain in the Genovese crime family. Kuklinski claimed to have been paid $40,000 for the hit…The claims only surfaced after Kuklinski’s death in March 2006 in a book by author Philip Carlo and will probably never be substantiated.  IMDb



The Iceman

Deborah: So, what do you do for a living?
Richard: I dub cartoons for Disney.

Let's just say that's complete bullshit.

Roy: What’s your name?
Ritchie: Ritchie Kuklinski.
Roy: You know who I am?
Ritchie: Mm-hm.
Roy: So if I came down here, I must have had a good reason.
Ritchie: I didn’t say you didn’t have a good reason, I said the date was…
[Roy slaps him]
Roy: If you want to complain about life, you’re talking to the wrong f****** guy.

You can say that again.

Roy [whipping out a gun and aiming it at Ritchie]: Look at that. The f****** guy is cold as ice. Come on, you got to feel something for somebody. Got a girlfriend?
Ritchie: I’m married.
Roy: Then why do you act like you don’t give a shit?
Ritchie: What do you want?

He finds out...

Roy: I’m closing the porn lab. Sorry, but you’re out of a job. But if you can follow orders, you got everything to gain.
[he hands the gun to Richie]
Roy: Go put the bum out of his misery. If you don’t have it in you, now’s the time to say it.

He kills "the bum".

Roy [to Ritchie]: What you’re going to be doing is you’ll be watching my back. You’ll be collecting debts, sending messages, whatever the messages are. But if I need you, Scicoli or Josh here is going to get in contact with you. And payphones only. Now, you’re going to deal with whatever we can, for whatever reason.

Nothing is not okay?

Man at dinner: And now look at him. He goes from dubbing cartoons to international banking.
Ritchie: It's a currency exchange.
Woman: Cartoons? Is that what you call porn these days?
Deborah: Porn?

Oops.

Anabel: They’re coming back from Vietnam?
Ritchie: Yeah.
Anabel: Dad? Sister Marjorie says it’s God’s will.
Ritchie: What’s God’s will?
Anabel: The people who died in Vietnam. That doesn’t really make sense to me.
Deborah: Well, you know, honey, there’s just too many people in the world for God to care about everyone. So that’s why we look after each other.
Ritchie: Yeah, your mom’s right. God’s got nothing to do with it.

You know, if there is one.

[How organized crime becomes disorganized]:Leo [from the Gambinos]: Rosenthal steals half a mil in cocaine, then shoots the couriers. You’re being held responsible by the Cubans for his actions.
Roy: How do you figure that? How the fuck am I responsible?
Leo: He goes around throwing your name. Demeo this, Demeo that. Starts a war, so now everyone thinks you’re involved.
Roy: He was just trying to help me out, Leo!
Leo: Help you out? Ha! Then it’s your fault you made him feel sorry for you. You want to be friends with the Gambinos, then be real with me. I understand you got this relationship with Rosenthal. But the couriers he killed and stole from, they were linked to the Callies, Roy. Nothing gets forgotten.
Roy: Leo, you’re asking me to kill Rosenthal?
Leo: Why don’t you stop asking questions you know the answers to?
Roy: I took the kid from the streets! I raised him like he was one of my own.
Leo: Then that’s your problem. Kid goes around telling everybody he’s your son and they hold the father accountable.
Roy: They were f****** coked out delivery boys! Who gives a fuck?!
Leo: Who gives a shit about them. But that’s not the point. You understand? They’ll come after you and him no matter what. Do you f****** understand that in your f****** thick head?
Roy: Fuck me.
Leo: You get what I’m telling you?
Roy: Yeah, I get it.
Leo: Even people you consider friends will come after him. You got that friend, Marty.
Roy: What about Marty?
Leo: He already started spreading the word where to find him. This is one big f****** mess we don’t need, Roy. Clean it up.

Of course it is Ritchie who is assigned that task.

Marty [as Ritchie aims the gun at him]: Hey, what the fuck’s going on?
Ritchie: He changed his mind.
Marty: No, no, no, no. Look, Rosenthal’s my best friend. I would never say anything.
Ritchie: Not my problem.
Marty: Well, do… no! No! Not…Please don’t! God, please! God, please!
Ritchie: What, are you praying?
Marty: God, please! Please!
Ritchie: You really believe that? You think God will come down and save you? All right. I’ll give you some time. Pray to God. Tell him to come down and stop me. Go ahead. Our Father…
Marty [praying]: Our Father…
Ritchie: I’m not feeling nothing. Nothing at all. Try harder.
Marty: What? I’m…
Ritchie: This your last chance.
Marty: No. No. Don’t.
Ritchie: I think God’s busy.

A classic scene, let's call it. Or some certainly will.

Roy [to Ritchie]: The Gambinos want to hurt me. The Callies want my whole f****** family dead. The other day, there’s a car that I don’t recognize, it’s parked outside of my house. Looked Cuban enough, piece of shit car, dark skin, I think one thing. So I panic. I shoot him dead. Turns out it’s a f****** Puerto Rican kid selling vacuum cleaners to help pay his way through college.

It might be true.

Ritchie [to his brother]: Joey, look, it don’t matter. You killed a little girl. Nobody’s going to forgive you, okay?
Joey: Yeah, I know I did. I know.
[Ritchie just stares at him through the glass]
Joey: A wife? f****** kids? Who are you kidding? You’re going to end up just like me, right here. So go fuck you and your f****** family.
Ritchie [slams the glass]: Take care.
[he turns and walks away]

Take care...

Ritchie [shouting]: I buy you all this shit, I buy you this f****** house, I buy you your f****** jewelry! I send the girls to private school!
Deborah: Do not raise your voice to me, Richard.
Ritchie: “Richard?” What happened to “Ritchie?”
Deborah: I don’t know.

Ritchie just sounds more ominous.

Mr. Freezy [to Ritchie]: So, is it my lucky day, or my last?

Not today. But it's coming.

Ritchie: So who do you work for?
Mr. Freezy: I work for everyone. Gambinos, Luchezis, Pananos, you name it. What about you? Red with the arrow through the eye? That was you, wasn’t it? That’s f****** legendary. Was that target practice?
Ritchie: Somebody wants somebody dead, who am I to question it?

Good point in this "business".

Mr Freezy: Let me show you something. Coroners are lazier than cops. If it looks like a heart attack, it is.
Ritchie: Arsenic?
Mr Freezy: Pure cyanide. Careful. It’s rare. Pricey. Comes as a powder. You can liquefy it, spray it, bake it in a f****** cake. Pour it in a guy’s shirt, he’s dead before you can say I’m sorry. No more stake outs. I can do that anywhere. I don’t have any friends, so it makes it easy. I only feel alone around other people. Couldn’t be truer.

Not counting virtually, of course.

Ritchie: My daughter’s birthday’s going on in there. Roy, I have guests. My whole family is there.
Roy: Maybe I should go in and say happy birthday to her. You’re doing hits with Freezy for Leo Marks behind my back? After what I’ve been through with Rosenthal?! Now you’re going to send me to another f****** funeral?
Ritchie: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Roy: Don’t f****** lie to me. Who do you think you’re talking to? You f****** lie to me. Maybe we’ll talk to your friend Terry, seems to think that you and I are friends. I can’t imagine what you’ve been telling your family. Poor sons of bitches, thinking their dad’s a decent guy. What are you going to tell your wife when I f****** blow your kids’ heads off? You think you got something good? Man becomes so full of it, he forgets what’s true.
[Ritchie’s daughter comes up to the car]
Ritchie: Don’t let him touch her. Don’t let him touch her.
Anabel: Daddy? Daddy? What’s going on?
Roy: All right, Jimmy, wait a minute. You best be looking over your shoulder, Ritchie, 'cause if we cross paths again, I’m going to bury your whole f****** family.

No one is exempt.

Leo: Go. Go home to your family. Life can be very random sometimes.
Ritchie: Yeah. You’re right.
[he shoots him dead]

So, is that random enough for him?

Ritchie [on phone]: Betsy? You paged me?
Betsy: Yes, Daddy. There was an accident. It’s Anabel. She’s in the hospital.
Ritchie: What happened, honey?
Betsy: It was a hit and run.

Take a wild guess.

Ritchie [looking down at Deborah in the hospital]: This is the end of it. There ain’t going to be nothing else to be afraid of. I promise.
Deborah: I didn’t know I was supposed to be afraid.

How long did Ritchie imagine he could go on with this?

Ritchie [voicover]: I never felt sorry for anything I done…other than hurting my family. The only thing I feel sorry for. I’m not looking for forgiveness. I’m not repenting. I know I’m wrong. I’m wrong. I do want my family to forgive me. Oh, boy. Ain’t going to make this one. Holy shit. This would never be me. This would not be me. You see the Iceman crying? Not very macho. But I hurt people that mean everything to me. But the only people that mean anything to me.

Like all of those he slaughtered didn't have families of their own.

Postscript: Richard Kuklinski was sentenced to two life sentences in the same cell block as his brother Joey. He never saw his family again. In 2006, he died in Trenton State Prison. He was scheduled to testify at the trial of the Gambino family underboss. Foul play was suspected. Kuklinski is believed to have killed over 100 people.

Pick one:

1] a sociopath
2] a psychopath
3] too close to call

[iambiguous]

Absurdity

“The individual can do nothing and yet he can do everything. In that wonderful unattached state you understand why I exalt and crush him at one and the same time. It is the world that pulverizes him and I who liberate him. I provide him with all his rights.” Albert Camus

And how absurd is that?

“So I can say with confidence that sometimes the only way to cope is to laugh at the absurdity of it all...the absurdity of the very concept of "normal." The absurd arrogance of those who take pride in their normalcy...and the absurdity of caring what those people think of you.” Ezra Claytan Daniels

And how absurd is that?

“The game has no beginning or end; it has been going on from beginningless time and will continue for an infinite time to come. Nor does it reflect the purposes of some divine creator; there is no rhyme or reason to it - the game simply is.” Lawrence A. Babb

If only virtually, here.

“Today, I am going to kill myself. Or maybe tomorrow, I don’t know.” Simon Brass

Decisions, decisions...

“He was perfectly conscious of the absurdity of his behavior, but he was incapable of changing it. This absurdity was an essential part of him. It was probably the most basic element of his personality.” Roland Topor

Like me, right?

“If I had a lot of money, I would buy a lot of things that I don't need.” Ljupka Cvetanova

Who wouldn't?

[iambiguous]

From time to time some folks think about AIDS and they ask themselves: Suppose this very dangerous, virulent virus was not transmitted through bodily fluids. Suppose instead it was transmitted as the flu is transmitted: airborne and [thus] was everywhere.

Can you then imagine they would point out the widespread reaction to gays if it was thought that this affliction was derived from homosexuality?

Things can always be worse, I suppose. Life is, after all, existential.

Of course, AIDS was not everywhere back then because it was not an airborne pathogen. But that doesn’t stop any number of folks from using it as an excuse to express their own virulent fear of or hatred toward gays.

And this film unfolds at a time when there was considerably more uncertainty about the nature of the disease. The Reagan era. Reactions were more deeply rooted in the fear that just being around gays was a kind of, well, death sentence. And not just in working class communities where there was ignorance regarding a lot of things relating to homosexuality.

This all transpires in a prestigious law office. Educated, sophisticated folks surely. But no less scared shitless about AIDS. And no less wallowing in prejudice.

Anyway, AIDS is truly what one might construe to be an “existential crisis”. Especially back then. There is your life before and your life after you contract it. It changes how you think about a lot of things. Or it certainly can.

Tom Hanks had to lose almost thirty pounds to appear appropriately gaunt for his courtroom scenes. Denzel Washington, on the other hand, was asked to gain a few pounds for his role. Washington, to the chagrin of Hanks, who practically starved himself for the role, would often eat chocolate bars in front of him.

The protesters outside the courthouse holding signs are based on the members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, led by “Reverend” Fred Phelps. Phelps calls this movie “one of my favorite comedies”.

Director Jonathan Demme wanted people not familiar with AIDS issues to see his film. He felt Bruce Springsteen would bring an audience that would not ordinarily see a movie about a gay man dying of AIDS. The movie and the song, “The Streets of Philadelphia”, did a great deal to increase AIDS awareness and take some of the stigma off the disease. IMDb


Philadelphia

Walter: What’s that on your forehead, pal?
Andrew: What? Where?
Walter: That… right there on your forehead.
Andrew: Oh, I got whacked in the head with a racket ball.

Right.

Joe: What happened to your face?
Andrew: I have AIDS.
[Joe lets go of his hand and backs away]

Back then that wasn't altogether unreasonable.

Andrew [after explaining that he got fired]: That’s their story. Wanna hear mine?
Joe: How many lawyers did you go to before me?
Andrew: Nine.
Joe: Continue.

Stumbling about in a whole different world.

Joe: All right. Explain this to me like I’m a two-year-old, okay? Because there’s an element to this thing that I cannot get through my thick head. Didn’t you have an obligation to tell your employer you had this dreaded, deadly, infectious disease?
Andrew: That’s not the point. From the day they hired me to the day I was fired I served my clients consistently, thoroughly, with absolute excellence. If they hadn’t fired me, that’s what I’d be doing today.
Joe: And they don’t want to fire you for having AIDS…so, in spite of your brilliance, they make you look incompetent. Thus, the mysterious lost files. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?
Andrew: That’s correct. I was sabotaged.
Joe: I don’t buy it, Counselor.
Andrew: That’s very disappointing.
Joe: I don’t see a case.
Andrew: I have a case. If you don’t want it for personal reasons…
Joe: Thank you. That’s correct. I don’t.
Andrew: Well, thank you for your time, Counselor.
Joe: I’m sorry about what happened to you. It’s a bitch, you know?

Of course the first thing Joe does is go to his doctor to make sure he doesn’t have AIDS – just from being in the same room with Andy and shaking his hand.

Doctor: The HIV virus can only be transmitted through the exchange of bodily fluids…namely, blood, semen and vaginal secretions.Joe: Right. Yeah. But isn’t it true they’re finding out new things about this disease every day? Now, you tell me today there’s no danger. Go home. I go home. I pick up my little baby girl. Then I find out six months from now on the news or something: Whoops! Made a mistake. Yeah, you can carry it on your shirt or your clothes or…

...or it could have been an air-born affliction.

Wife: You have a problem with gays, Joe?
Joe: Not especially.
Wife: Yes, you do. How many gays do you know?
Joe: How many do you know?
Wife: Lots. Karen Berman, my aunt Theresa…Cousin Tommy who lives in Rochester… Eddie Meyers from the office… Stanley, the guy who’s putting in our kitchen cabinets.
Joe: Aunt Theresa is gay? That beautiful, sensuous, voluptuous woman is a lesbian? Since when?
Wife: Probably since she was born.
Joe: Oh, man. All right. Well, hey, I admit it, okay? I’m prejudiced. I don’t like homosexuals. There. You got me. I mean, the way these guys do that…thing, don’t they get confused? You know, I don’t want to be in bed with anybody who’s stronger than me…or who has more hair on their chest. Now, you can call me old-fashioned, conservative. Just call me a man. Besides, I think you have to be a man to understand how really disgusting that whole idea is anyway. Think about those guys pumping up together… trying to be macho and faggot at the same time. I mean, I can’t stand that shit. Hey, I’m bein’ totally honest with you, okay?

Or as honest as one can be given all the uncertainties around the disease back then. 

Joe [to his wife]: I got a question for you. Would you accept a client if you were constantly thinking, “I don’t want this person to touch me. I don’t want him to even breathe on me”?
Wife: Not if I was you, honey.

Not if she was you?

Joe: The Federal Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination against otherwise qualified handicapped persons who are able to perform the duties required by their employment. Although the ruling did not address the specific issue of HIV and AIDS discrimination…
Andrew: …subsequent decisions have held that AIDS is protected as a handicap under law, not only because of the physical limitations it imposes, but because the prejudice surrounding AIDS exacts a social death which precedes…which precedes the physical one.
Joe: This is the essence of discrimination: formulating opinions about others not based on their individual merits, but rather on their membership in a group with assumed characteristics.

Stereotypes let's call them.

Charles [after learning of Andrew’s discrimination lawsuit]: Now, regarding Andy, I want to know everything regarding his personal life. Does he frequent those pathetic bars on Chestnut Street? What other homosexual facilities does he go to? What deviant groups or organizations does he secretly belong to?

That "gotcha!" stuff.

Bob: Let’s make a fair settlement offer and put this tragic business behind us.
Charles: Andy brought AIDS into our offices into our men’s room. He brought AIDS to our annual goddamn family picnic.
Walter: We ought to be suing him, Bob.

Panic, let's call it.

Joe [to the jury]: Forget everything you’ve seen on television and in he movies. There’s not gonna be any last-minute surprise witnesses. Nobody’s gonna break down on the stand with a tearful confession. You’re gonna be presented with a simple fact: Andrew Beckett was fired. You’ll hear two explanations for why he was fired: Ours and theirs. It is up to you to sift through layer upon layer of truth…until you determine for yourselves which version sounds the most true.

Of course, with AIDS we're talking about life and death.

Joe [to the jury]: There are certain points that I must prove to you. Point number one: Andrew Beckett was…is…a brilliant lawyer. Point number two: Andrew Beckett, afflicted with a debilitating disease made the understandable, the personal, the legal choice to keep the fact of his illness to himself. Point number three: His employers discovered his illness. And, ladies and gentlemen, the illness I’m referring to is AIDS. Point number four: They panicked. And in their panic, they did what most of us would like to do with AIDS…which is just get it and everybody who has it as far away from the rest of us as possible. Now, the behavior of Andrew Beckett’s employers may seem reasonable to you. It does to me. After all, AIDS is a deadly, incurable disease. But no matter how you come to judge Charles Wheeler and his partners in ethical, moral and human terms, the fact of the matter is when they fired Andrew Beckett because he had AIDS they broke the law.

Again, just imagine if AIDS was an air-born disease.

Belinda: Fact: Andrew Beckett’s performance on the job varied from competent, good, to oftentimes mediocre…to sometimes flagrantly incompetent. Fact: He claims he’s the victim of lies and deceit. Fact: It was Andrew Beckett who lied…going to great lengths to conceal his disease from his employers. Fact: He was successful in his duplicity. The partners at Wyant, Wheeler did not know that Andrew Beckett had AIDS when they fired him. Fact: Andrew Beckett is dying. Fact: Andrew Beckett is angry because his lifestyle, his reckless behavior has cut short his life. And in his anger, his rage, he is lashing out. And he wants someone to pay.

Of course, in court facts can become particularly problematic.  

Joe: Let me tell you something. These people make me sick. But a law’s been broken. You remember the law?
Bartender: At least we agree on one thing, Joe.
Joe: What’s that, Charlie?
Bartender: Tutti-fruttis make me sick too.

Let's run this by MAGA,

Lawyer: Ms. Benedict, how did you contract the AIDS virus?
Ms. Benedict: Through a transfusion. I lost a lot of blood giving birth to my second child.
Lawyer: So, in your case there was no behavior on your part which caused you to be infected with the virus. It was something you were unable to avoid. Isn’t that correct?
Ms. Benedict: I guess. But I don’t consider myself any different from anyone else with this disease. I’m not guilty. I’m not innocent. I’m just trying to survive.

Fuck that some will insist.

Joe: Did you have something to do with this file being lost accidentally on purpose? Did you have anything to do with this file being misplaced?
Jamey: Absolutely not.
Joe: Are you a homosexual?
Jamey [startled]: What?
Joe: Answer the question! Are you a homo? A faggot? A punk? A queen, pillow biter, fairy? Bootie snatcher, rump roaster? Are you gay?
Lawyer: Objection!
Judge: Order!
Belinda: Where did this come from? Suddenly counsel’s attacking his own witness? Mr. Collins’ sexual orientation has nothing to do with this case.
Judge: Please have a seat, Miss Conine. Would you approach the bench, Mr. Miller?
[Joe approaches the bench]
Judge: Could you kindly share with me exactly what’s going on inside your head…because at this moment, I don’t have a clue.
Joe: Your Honor…everybody in this courtroom is thinking about sexual orientation, sexual preference…whatever you want to call it. Who does what to whom and how they do it. They’re looking at Andrew Beckett. They’re wondering about it. They’re looking at Mr. Wheeler, Miss Conine, even you, Your Honor. Trust me, I know they’re looking at me and thinking about it. So let’s get it out in the open. Let’s get it out of the closet. Because this case is not just about AIDS, is it? So let’s talk about what this case is really all about: The general public’s hatred, our loathing, our fear of homosexuals…and how that climate of hatred and fear translated into the firing of this particular homosexual…my client, Andrew Beckett.

And that mentality is what those like Trump and the Supreme Court want to resurrect. 

Judge: In this courtroom, Mr.Miller, justice is blind to matters of race, creed, color, religion, and sexual orientation.
Joe: With all due respect, your honor, we don’t live in this courtroom, do we?

Now that's a damn good point. For some, anyway.

Andrew: Congratulations, Counselor.
Joe: Congratulations?
Andrew: You’ve survived what I assume to be your first gay party intact.
Joe: Let me tell you something. When you’re brought up the way most people are in this country…there’s not a whole lot of discussion about homosexuality…or what do you call it, alternate lifestyles. As a kid you’re taught that queers are funny, queers are weird. Queers dress up like their mother, that they’re afraid to fight…that they’re a danger to little kids. That all they want to do is get into your pants. That pretty much sums up the general thinking, if you want to know the truth about it.

Yep, that's exactly how it was back when I was a kid. 

[iambiguous]

Stupidity

“It never ceases to amaze me that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that can be so utterly stupid.” Robert Gibbs

Though from time to time it's just plain ignorance.

“One can fight evil but against stupidity one is helpless.” Henry Miller

Being optimistic.

“I'd say the depths of his stupidity have yet to be plumbed, and yours is comin' up fast on the inside turn.” Craig Johnson

Let's plumb yours.

“Are you aware that humanity is just a blip? Not even a blip. Just a fraction of a fraction of what the universe has been and will become? Talk about perspective. I figure I can't feel so entirely stupid about saying what I said because, first of all, it's true. And second of all, there will be no remnant of me or my stupidity. No fossil or geographical shift that can document, really, even the most important historical human beings, let alone my paltry admissions.” Meg Mullins

How comforting.

“...it’s just another one of those things I don’t understand: everyone impresses upon you how unique you are, encouraging you to cultivate your individuality while at the same time trying to squish you and everyone else into the same ridiculous mould. It’s an artist’s right to rebel against the world’s stupidity.” E.A. Bucchianeri

Hear! Hear!

“Colon thought Carrot was simple. Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was.
Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.” Terry Pratchett

So, here, how do you tell them apart?

[iambiguous]

From the director of 6ixty Nin9 above.

No box stuffed with cash here though. Instead, it’s about suicide and love. About two people who could not possibly be less alike coming together and changing everything. Or everything that needs to be changed in order to motivate one not to commit suicide and the other to, well, she changes too. Kind of.

Kenji is a librarian. Which may or may not explain why Kenji is also anal-compulsive to a fault. Even his suicide note will come to encompass precision itself: straight to the point: “This is bliss”.

Until his asshole brother shows up. Yukio. A yakuza. Okay, so maybe later. But then he goes on to meet the beautiful and mysterious Noi. And that becomes bliss instead. Cicuitously as it were.

How circuitous? Well, it is only because Noi’s sister Nid spots Kenji about to commit suicide [again] by jumping off a bridge [and is struck dead by a passing car] that they meet at all. Him a full blown neat freak and her a full blown slob.

With one of the strangest endings I have ever seen. I mean really strange. Also, with a really gorgeous soundtrack: https://youtu.be/xkJk1GyYhf8?si=cdNR_IqN_78JHfjz

Yukio Mishima, the author of “The Last Lizard”, the book featured in the film, committed Harakiri (suicide by stabbing yourself in the stomach with a short knife). This is perhaps one of the reasons why Kenji likes the author.

The Thai title means, literally, “Love Story, a Little, a Lot” with a play of words on “Noi” and “Nid” which means “few” and “small” respectively. The two words are also the names of the sisters in the movie so the title can also means “Love Story of Noi and Nid, a Lot”. Another interpretation can be “A small/little Love Story that is a lot”. The actresses who play Nid and Noi are real sisters.  IMDb


Last Life in the Universe [Ruang Rak Noi Nid Mahasan] 

Kenji [voiceover]: My name is Kenji. This could be me three hours from now. Why do I want to kill myself? I don’t know…I wouldn’t kill myself for the same reasons as other suicidal people. Money problems…Broken heart…Hopelessness…No, not me. Many books say “Death is relaxing.” Did you know that? No need to follow the latest trends…No need to keep pace with the rest of the world…No more e-mail…No more telephone…It’ll be like taking a nap… Before waking up refreshed and ready to begin your next life. That’s what they say.

On the other hand, saying something about death is not the same as demonstrating that what you are saying about it is true.

Yukio [to Kenji]: You can’t just read, you’ll go crazy.

This from the f****** gangster!

Yukio: Suicide again?
[he looks up at the noose]
Yukio: Going to hang yourself this time?

And the other times? Besides, it's the next time that everything will revolve around,

Takashi: You can’t go back to Japan. The boss will kill you.
Yukio: But I’ve been with him a long time. He’s just in a bad mood.
Takashi: A bad mood? You fucked his daughter! If you fucked my daughter, I’d cut your dick off and stuff it in your mouth!
Yukio: Really? You’ve seen too many yakuza movies.

Wink, wink.

Noi: Did you fuck Jon?
Nid: Who told you that?
Noi: Did you fuck him? Jon told me everything today.
Nid: What? What did that dickhead tell you? Yeah, he’s a dickhead. He’s shit!
Noi: So why did you have to go fuck a shit like that? You couldn’t leave him alone because he’s my shit, right?

Some things just never change.

Noi: What are you doing? How dare you come in here? Get out! Get the fuck out! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!
Kenji: I’m sorry.

You know, for now.

Noi: Why you not go home?
Kenji: It smells too bad.
Noi: What?
Kenji: My house smells bad.
Noi: Smell bad? Why?
Kenji: Two dead people inside.

Yep, that will do it.

Noi [to Kenji]: Hey! You need a woman.

She is one of those. No doubt at all about that.

Kenji: You’re beautiful.
Noi: Enough. You’re smelly.
Kenji: Really?
Noi: Yes.
Kenji: OK.
Noi: You should take a bath.
Kenji: Okay, I will.
Noi: Now.
Kenji: Now?
Noi: Now…I say now.

Now works for me if she ever comes around here.

Noi: You want to see me again?
Kenji: Yes.
Noi: When?
Kenji: One day.

And another and another in the best of all possible worlds.

[iambiguous]

Based on the account of an actual serial rapist/murderer who had run amok in South Korea in the 1980s. He was never caught. The crimes remain unsolved to this day. At wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Choon-jae

And in South Korea [back then especially] the cops tended to be considerably more aggressive in their pursuit of…justice. For example, take the plight of Kwang-ho.

And even bringing in a top notch detective from Seoul didn’t help. In fact the first thing the local detective does is mistake him for the killer and beat him up.

On the other hand, most of these cops and CSI detectives did not strike you as all that particularly…bright. If there was any possible way to fuck up a crime investigation, they had it covered.

Still, it will always be perplexing how the minds of killers like this work. They do these very sick and brutal things for reasons that are all twisted up inside their heads…and in ways that are almost impossible to nail down. We can only hope that we do not become their next victim. Especially if you are a young and pretty woman. And inclined to wear red. Then the element of sex comes into play and these labyrinths are often the most convoluted of all. Here’s a man who always requested one particular song to be played on the radio. But only on rainy nights. And then, after hearing the song, he goes out to rape and murder someone.

One interpretation of the ending:

Park visits the scene of the first murder simply for nostalgia’s sake, since not solving that case was one of his deepest regrets. Then, from the girl he finds out that someone else has been visiting the scene, and deduces that most likely that one is the murderer. He asks the girl what he looked like (perhaps a final and faint attempt to solve the case) but she can’t provide any more detail other than he was just an ordinary looking guy, reminding him again of his failure. Then he looks at the camera hoping that the real murderer (the movie is based on a true story) will be watching the movie and perhaps feel a little bit of guilt.

Beginning in June 2000, it took Joon-ho Bong a year to write the script for Memories of Murder (2003), yet he has stated that: “For the first six months, I didn’t write a line of the script. I just did research.”

Despite the film being based on a series of real murders in the Korean provincial town of Hwaeseong during the 1980s, Joon-ho Bong also drew a lot inspiration from a play called ‘Come See Me’ which dramatized the incidents, to the extent that he stated in an interview: “If it weren’t for KIM Gwang-rim’s play [Come See Me], I would have had a lot of problems establishing the structure.” While he also gained the idea for the depiction of the era from the graphic novel ‘From Hell’ by the writer Alan Moore, which was given to Bong by the journalist Tony Rayns as a gift. IMDb


Memories of Murder [Salinui Chueok] 

Detective Park: Who received the call on this? The crime site is getting ruined! Damn forensics team isn’t here yet! This is a mess! Why does this shit happen to me?! How can I investigate like this?

And that’s right before the tractor runs over the most crucial piece of evidence.

Detective Park [looking over at the forensics team]: Jesus, look at those sliding fools!

Jesus, perhaps, being one of them?

Detective Park: Kwang-ho. Let’s talk man to man. You see a pretty girl, you want to do her.

Let's just say that Kwang-ho is neither the best nor the brightest. 

Detective Park [to Kwang-ho who is mentally retarded]: Women hate this face, don’t they?
[Kwang-ho nods]
Detective Park: They grimace and all f****** run away.
Kwang-ho: It’s true. I’ll kill them all. Everyone who grimaces at my face. I’ll kill them all. Those women who grimace, they’re all in my head.

Then they get his “confession”: cased solved!

Chief: Detective Seo, you’re dumping shit on cooked rice here!
Detective Seo: I told you before that Kwang-ho isn’t guilty! Chief…the cords around their necks we’re tied with three tight knots. Look at Kwang-ho’s webbed hands. Could he do that? Even a child can see it!

Or maybe it's not closed. In fact, maybe it never will be.

Detective Cho [to Kwang-ho]: I only beat you up because I care about you.

Just follow the bouncing bullshit with this asshole.

Detective Park: Always in rape cases, at the crime scene, there’s one or two of these hairs left behind.
Chief: So?
Detective Park: I’m saying the criminal must not have any hair down there.
Chief: You mean hairless?
Detective Park: That’s right, hairless. A total baldie. For example, a Buddhist monk who shaved the hair down there. The perfect crime!

You won't believe where this leads.

Detective Park [to the chief after hearing Kwon’s radio theory]: Baldies…
Chief: But how do you investigate? Pull down the pants of passing men?

Uh, nope. Park puts on his Keystone Cop thinking cap instead. Cut to the bathhouse. Then to the fortune teller.

Rape suspect: But…is jerking off a crime?

Talk about unbelievable!

Detective Seo: Name: Ahn Mi-seon, age 28. Estimated time of death, last night between 7:30 and 8:00.
Chief: That’s the time you and dectective Park were fighting like madmen. Right?

Again, in other words.

Technician in morgue: There’s something in the vagina… Looks like a peach… Nine pieces.
Detective Park [to detective Seo]: Do you see this kind of thing in Seoul often?

Forget about it.

Park Hyun-gyu [suspected of being the killer to the detectives]: Even kids in this town know you torture innocent people!

Actually just some of them do.

Detective Seo: No eyewitnesses, not one piece of evidence. We need something, shit. Just a confession will do. Just need to beat that bastard to an inch of his life.
Detective Park: You’ve changed…

Pick one:
1] for the better
2] for the worse

Detective Seo [to detective Park]: Kwang-ho. I always wanted to ask you. When you dragged him up the mountain, he talked about Hayng-sook’s death in so much detail…

Bingo: He saw the murderer. But they manage to fuck this up too. For example, while chasing him, Kwang-ho gets hit by a train and dies.

Detective Park: What’s wrong?
Detective Seo [reading a DNA report from America that cannot pin the murders on Park Hyun-gyu]: There’s a mistake. This document is a lie. I don’t need it.

Just more of the same, let's say.

Park [no longer a detective]: Did you see his face?
[the schoolgirl nods]
Park: What did he look like?
Schoolgirl: Well… kind of plain.
Park: In what way?
Schoolgirl: Just… ordinary.

Cue the statute of limitations.

[Gary Childress]

So, according to BigMike, my disgust with a serial killer, such as the one featured in the link in the post above, is unfounded or unfair or whatever? He was destined to do it and had no choice. Had I been in his shoes, I would have committed those horrible crimes too. It's unfair of me to be utmost revolted by that man's conduct?

Are we living in the real world anymore? Or did I wake up and I'm now living in a giant AI simulation? Literally, a life spent staying mostly out of trouble, keeping my "nose" relatively clean, means nothing for me? I'm in some AI "Matrix"? But now, not believing or worshiping God, that's going to send me to hell? Oh yeah. Or maybe I'll just be a victim of a terrorist bombing or something. Or else a victim of a stray cruise missile aimed at eliminating a terrorist bomber.

This world is a joke. Or maybe contemporary science is the joke. There's no consciousness, it's just "folk psychology". There's no God, just a giant AI running world that took over many centuries ago when humans were enslaved in a virtual world by it? Who knows, right? Talk about nihilism...

[iambiguous]

Ordinary people. Of course that will always be understood differently in different historical, cultural and experiential contexts. No getting around that conundrum right?

Here the ordinary people are composed largely of upper middle class American citizens in the late 20th century. All white. All comfortably ensconced in exurbia. At least on the surface. Is that important to note? Well, it can be, sure. All I know is it is hard to imagine a family farther removed from the one I grew up in.

But these “ordinary people” now find themselves in an extraordinary set of circumstances. How ordinary will they remain? Do they rise to the occasion? Or will it sink them? Why one and not the other? And is it really true that we can only account for these things one set of circumstances at a time? Or are there lessons to be learned that transcend the uniqueness of each particular challenge?

And for each one of us [sooner or later] a time will come when we are challenged. And others will judge us. And almost always by their own frame of reference. It does get complicated, doesn’t it?

And what do demographics really matter when you lose someone you dearly love. Or if you feel responsible in some manner for the loss? Here it is all about figuring out what you either can or cannot control. And knowing in particular that you will never, ever be able to control everything. Or even really understand it. And always that gap between the tragedy then and the life you have to live now from day to day. We all experience it differently.

Then there’s the part where the rest of the world just goes on living.


The film and source novel’s “Ordinary People” title comes from Judith Guest’s book: “They are ordinary people, after all. For a time they had entered the world of the newspaper statistic; a world where any measure you took to feel better was temporary, at best, but that is over. This is permanent. It must be.” The novel is a school text on the English curricula at many American high schools.

Robert Redford decided to do the film because the story’s family reminded him of his own in the way it talked around issues.  IMDb


Ordinary People

Teacher: Conrad, what’s your theory on Jude Fawley? Was he powerless in the grip of circumstances…or could he have helped himself?
Conrad: I don’t… Powerless? He thought he was.
Joel: He was a jerk. He was hung up on morals. It was senseless.
Teacher: That’s too easy, Joel. Paul?
Paul: I found the book really hard to follow. I couldn’t figure it out.

American Youth discuss Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

Dr. Berger: How long were you in the hospital? Four months. What did you do?
Conrad: I tried to off myself. Doesn’t it say that there?
Dr. Berger: It doesn’t say what your method was.
Conrad: Double-edged Super Blue.

I just improvised myself.

Dr.Berger: What needed changing?
Conrad: I’d like to be more in control.
Dr. Berger: Why?
Conrad: So people can quit worrying about me.
Dr. Berger: Well, I’ll tell you something. I’ll be straight with you. Okay? I’m not big on control. But it’s your money.
Conrad: So to speak.
Dr. Berger: So to speak.

So to speak here? Yeah, if only so to speak.

Coach: Are you on medication? Tranquilizers? Anything?
Conrad: No. No. Sir.
Coach: Did I ask you if they gave you shock?
Conrad: Yeah. You asked me. Yeah. They did.
Coach: I’m no doctor, Jarrett. But I wouldn’t let them put electricity in my head.

On the other hand: https://www.unh.edu/inquiryjournal/blog ... uroscience:

Dr. Berger: Is any place easy?
Conrad: The hospital was.
Dr. Berger: It was? Why?
Conrad: Because nobody hid anything there.

Right. The medical industrial complex is completely transparent.

Conrad: I miss it sometimes. The hospital. I really do.
Karen: But things have to change. You know?
Conrad: But that’s where we laughed.
Karen: But that was a hospital. This is the real world.
Conrad: Yeah, I guess you’re right.

Next up: the virtual world?

Conrad: When I let myself feel, all I feel is lousy.
Dr. Berger: Oh well excuse me, I never promised you a rose garden.
Conrad: Oh fuck you Berger.
Dr. Berger: What?
Conrad: FUCK YOU!
Dr. Berger: Hey, that’s it!

What’s it? Man I have been there so many times myself with shrinks. What works? What doesn’t? What should work? What shouldn’t? Or maybe all he really needs is to fall in love.

Dr. Berger: What shit have you pulled? What shit? You can find one example. Don’t say you tried suicide. What have you done lately?
Conrad: I’ll never be forgiven for that. Never. You can’t get out the blood in her towels…and in her rug. Everything had to be pitched. The bathroom tile had to be regrouted. She fired the maid because she couldn’t dust the goddamn living room right. If you think I’ll forgive…she’s gonna forgive me…
Dr. Berger: What?
Conrad: I think I just figured something out.
Dr. Berger: What?
Conrad: Who it is who can’t forgive who.

New thread.

Jeannine [in restaurant booth Conrad sits with Jeannine, the suicide attempt scars on Conrad’s wrist are displayed]: Did it hurt?
Conrad: I don’t remember, really.
Jeannine: You don’t want to talk about it?
Conrad: I’ve never really talked about it. To doctors. But, not to anyone else. You’re the first who’s asked.
Jeannine: Why did you do it?
Conrad: Uh… I don’t know. It was like… falling into a hole. It keeps getting bigger and bigger and you can’t escape. All of a sudden, it’s inside…and you’re the hole. You’re trapped. And it’s all over. Something like that. It’s not really scary…except when you think back on it. 'Cause you know what you were feeling…

Then “the guys” come in. So much for suicide…

Conrad [on phone]: Hello. Hello. Is Karen there?
Karen’s mother on phone: She… Bill.
Bill [Karen’s father]: Hello.
Conrad: Is Karen there? This is Conrad Jarrett. I’m a friend of hers.
Bill: Karen’s dead.
Conrad [shocked]: What? What?
Bill: She killed herself.

Just like that, out of the blue, and everything changes.

Conrad [to Dr. Berger]: It must be somebody’s fault…or there’s no point!

Or, sure, it's somebody's fault and there's still no point.

Conrad: We shouldn’t have gone out there. We should have come back when it started to look bad.
Dr. Berger: Okay, so you made a mistake.
Conrad: Why did he let go? Why?
Dr. Berger: Maybe you were stronger. Did it ever occur to you that you might be stronger?

There are so many things it might be given the Bejamin Button Syndrome.

Ward: Beth, we don’t want anything from you; Audrey, Cal, Connie and Me, we just want you to be happy.
Beth: Happy?! Ward, you tell me the definition of happy. But first you better make sure your kids are good and safe, that they haven’t fallen off a horse, been hit by a car, or drowned in that swimming pool you’re so proud of!
Audrey: Oh Beth!
Beth: Then, you come and tell me how to be happy!

Click? Sometimes that's all you can think of.

Calvin [to Beth]: We would’ve been all right…would have made it all the way…if there hadn’t been any mess. But you can’t handle mess. You need everything neat and easy. I don’t know. Maybe you can’t love anybody. It was so much Buck. When Buck died it’s as though you buried all your love with him. I don’t understand that. Maybe it wasn’t even Buck. Maybe it was just you. Maybe, finally, it was the best of you that you buried. But whatever it was…I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what we’ve been playing at. So I was crying. Because I don’t know if I love you anymore. And I don’t know what I’ll do without that.

She'll think of something.

[iambiguous]

Bullshit

“Life begins when we get tired of our own bullshit. We must all get bloody tired of our own bullshit, in order for our lives to begin.” C. JoyBell C.

Talk about bullshit?

“Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic." Harry G. Frankfurt

That's me here, isn't it? Or, sure, you.

"Art suffers the moment other people start paying for it. The more you need the money, the more people will tell you what to do. The less control you will have. The more bullshit you will have to swallow. The less joy it will bring.” Hugh MacLeod

Ah, the art industrial complex.

“The only way to efficiently battle evil is to copy enough to know how to counter each argument, yet not enough to believe all the bullshit.” Will Advise

So, how's that not working out for you?

“Everything anyone says when they have an agenda is bullshit, and bullshit isn’t necessarily false, but it’s never really the truth either. So when someone’s bullshitting, you need to pay a little more attention.” Caliban Darklock

Uh, read everything we post? At least twice?

“Any actor who tells you that they have become the people they play, unless they’re clearly diagnosed as a schizophrenic, is bullshitting you.” Gary Oldman

Let's run this by Daniel Day-Lewis.

[iambiguous]

Amnesia is always a plot device that a filmmaker can use to explore themes that revolve around identity and reality and mind. How do they come together and intertwine from the cradle to the grave?

And why do we choose to remember some things and not others? And how can we know for sure that what we do choose to remember is what in fact actually occurred? And what happens when others remember the same events differently?

And then the part where memory and identity and reality and mind are merely functions of the brain – and perhaps not even within the autonomous reach of “I”.

Here the memories and the loss of memories revolve around a tragic automobile accident – the consequences of which are nothing short of surreal. The survivor, Hiroshi Takagi, is a medical student and the class he is in are now dissecting cadavers. It is then that he realizes that the cadaver assigned to him is the woman he once loved – Ryoko Ooyama, the woman who died in the automobile accident he was in. The accident was ruled to be the fault of the other driver but that is not how Ryoko’s parents choose to remember it. And we can only remember what the director chooses to impart to us up on the screen.

What really unfolded between Hiroshi and Ryoko before the crash? What is the “true” reality here? And what role does the beautiful and mysterious Ikumi play in the reconstruction of that reality? And in the construction of a new one? And the role played by autoerotic asphyxia – is that vital to the plot here or entirely extraneous?

Sex and death.

Look for the world’s thinnest woman. Or one of them.at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vital_(film


Vital

Instructor: The ovum, a product of almost pure chance, by means of cellular growth, divergence and migration, creates an organism.

Did you know that?

Instructor: This person experienced trauma to the frontal lobe section. The area is responsible for personality and memory. From this we can conclude the following: Human character is not constant.

Or, instead, whatever you conclude?

Instructor: The brain and the spinal cord form the central nervous system. Nerve cells are concentrated in this area. I wonder, then, where the soul lies?

I'm still wondering.

Instructor: Beneath this, however, there is the vast realm of the unconscious. It is here that our repressed desires can cause deep mental conflict as they strive to realize themsleves.

Start here: https://www.amazon.com/Irrational-Polit ... 0961328967

Student [looking at the cadaver]: Is it common for the subject to be so young?
Technician: No, it is very rare.
Student: I wonder how she died?
Technician: You’ll find out as you dissect.

Of course, we already know.

Doctor [holding a dissected heart in hid hand]: How many times did this heart beat? 70 times a minute is 4200 times an hour. In a day? Well, 24 times that. Then times 365 for a year. How many times if you live to be 80? And yet my TV set broke after just 6 years.

So, you buy another one. Heart replacements, on the other hand, are a bit more expensive.

Ryoko’s father: Why have you come here? Just go away? Your parents were very sincere about their grief. What I really want to see is your sincerity. You were driving when it happened. I still feel you murdered my daughter. If you want to mourn her, do it when you truly remember her.
Hiroshi: I’m already starting to remember. Right now, at college, I’m doing my dissection practice. There is something I need to know, if you can tell me. I think Ryoko…is on the dissection table. I don’t quite understand it.
Ryoko’s father [aghast]: Are you serious? Well? Tell me it’s not true! You heartless fuck! You want to know if it’s her, right? How the hell should I know?! Just before she died, she told us she was leaving her body to science. We didn’t even know you could do such a thing. And now you think you’re poking around inside her?!

Oh, yeah. And then some.

Ryoko [sitting next to Hiroshi in a car on the highway]: Hiroshi, what would it be like to crash into something?

Let's find out!

Ikumi: What’s gotten into you? Why are you chasing a dead woman? What about those of us still living? All your happy false memories. What chance do I have against all those?

At best, none.

Instructor: Our four-month dissection program is now over. Make sure you return the bodies to their original form. Check that bones and organs have been replaced and the kidneys are on the correct side. Put the sash next to the hands. The tabi and sandals go by the feet. The triangular cloth and the headdress go by the head. Drape the kimono over the body. Place the cane next to the right hand. Drape the shroud over the face. Lay the flowers inside. Now place the lid on the coffin. We will now close our eyes and pay our last respects. The coffins will be taken now.

Later the coffins and all that is in them will be burned to ashes. The rituals to blunt what is in the end just the brutal facts of existence. Of life and death. Of being and nothingness.

Ryoko: You know I often wonder…if you could see some part of your life again, years after you die, which part would you choose?

Hiroshi: The last images of the last Martian robot. Mankind’s final memory.
Ryoko: You still have a long time to live, so you can’t answer properly. As for me…

Let's not go there. Ever.

[iambiguous]

With gangsters you figure this: that what they do to each other is only what the thugs deserve. But when a kid gets all tangled up in it it gets considerably more problematic. Especially when the kid doesn’t have a clue regarding what “business” his father is in. And then when he finds out the hard way. In the interim though he sees a lot of things that he really doesn’t understand much at all. And then one day he does.

How does he find this out? Just plain curiosity about his dad. He needed to confirm that is dad was a hero. And then [just like that] it all comes to revolve around the consequences of this one fortuitous incident. But this is what fascinates some more than others: the butterfly effect -- the Benjamin Button Syndrome -- in human interaction.

Then the part about family conflicts. One family being your own flesh and blood kin and the other family being, well, you know which one. And sometimes your obligations here can get really, really fuzzy. As in, say, when they become a matter of life and death. And you never really know what will finally push a man over the edge among folks like this. You never really know where to draw the lines. Stress begets more stress still. And that begets consequences.

And [obviously] some of these thugs are more inclined to be honorable than are others. Yes, even a thug can have a code. But there is always a hierarchy in crime. And some are allowed to be more honorable than others.

And what does all of this ultimately come down to? The f****** money of course.

On the other hand, the events here all unfold in the early years of the Great Depression. And that was a time when there were a lot more desperate men stumbling around willing to do whatever it took to, among other things, sustain their very existence. And that of their loved ones. It’s just that these slimey bastards took things to the extreme. Or were ordered to. All we can do then is bet on the least contemptible ones.

Personal observation: This would have been a better film had it not decided to become a situation comedy [for about 15 minutes] once the father and the son were out on the road. And the end could have been better.

The movie is loosely based on actual events and a real enforcer for mobster John Looney, who was betrayed by him.

Notice that Michael Jr. isn’t eating his pie and ice cream in the diner when he and his father are talking about the money. According to Sam Mendes, in earlier takes Tyler Hoechlin gobbled up his pie, not considering that he would have to perform the scene again and again. By the time they got to the take that’s in the film Hoechlin was stuffed and couldn’t take another bite. Tom Hanks by contrast knew to put small amounts of food into his mouth and eat slowly.

One of the locations for one of the bank robberies was physically perfect but the wrong way round. There was only room to shoot from right to left and not vice versa. So production designer Dennis Gassner and his team had to dress the location, reversing street signs, license plates and even switching steering wheels on all the cars.  IMDb


Road To Perdition

Michael Jr. [voiceover]: There are many stories about Michael Sullivan. Some say he was a decent man. Some say there was no good in him at all. But I once spent 6 weeks on the road with him, in the winter of 1931. This is our story.

Now all that is required is that you believe him.

Peter: Why are you always smiling?
Connor: ‘Cause it’s all so fuckin’ hysterical.

Next up: smiling here.

Peter: What’s Papa’s job?
Michael Jr.: He works for Mr. Rooney.
Peter: Why?
Michael Jr.: Well, Papa didn’t have a father…so Mr. Rooney looked after him.
Peter: I know that, but what’s his job?
Michael Jr: He goes on missions for Mr. Rooney. They’re very dangerous. That’s why he brings his gun.

Kids!

Michael Sr [looking down at Michael Jr]: Oh, Jesus…You saw everything?
[Michael Jr. nods]
Michael Sr: Jesus.

Christ, I'm guessing.

Michael Jr: Does Mama know?
Michael Sr: Your mother knows I love Mr. Rooney. When we had nothing, he gave us a home…a life…and we owe him.

Next up: the vig.

Jack: Mr. Rance met with John and me earlier to make another bid for our involvement in the unions.
John: And I told Mr. Rance what I told him before: What men do after work is what made us rich. No need to screw them at work as well.

Of course, not everyone goes along with this. 

Michael Sr: You gonna frisk me?
Frank the Bouncer: Should I?
Michael Sr: It might be a good idea.

Wanna know why?

Connor: Pa, I’m sorry.
John: What did you do?! Stupid!
Connor: The kid would’ve talked. I’m sorry.
John: Goddamn you! Goddamn you! I curse!..The f****** day!..You were born! I curse it!

Said Cool Hand Luke to James Bond.

Kelly: You have friends in Ireland, Mike. Why don’t you take Peter and leave?Michael Sr: I can’t take Peter. He’s dead. So where’s Connor?
Kelly: He’s in hiding.
Michael Sr: Where?
Kelly: You know I can’t tell you that. You think sticking a gun to my head is gonna make any difference to me? If I tell you, I’m a dead man anyway. We both are. Think, Mike. Don’t be stupid. I’m just the messenger.
Michael Sr [lowers his gun]: Then give Mr. Rooney a message for me.
Kelly [relieved]: What is it?
[Sullivan shoots him dead]

All in the family, as it were.

Frank Nitti [after Michael Sr. requests a sanctioned reprisal against Conner Rooney]: All these years you’ve been living under the protection of people who care about you, and those same people are protecting you now, including me. So, if you go ahead with this, if you open that door, you’re walking through it alone, and all that loyalty, and all that trust will no longer exist for you. And Mike, you won’t make it. Not on your own, and not with a little boy.
Michael Sr: You’re protecting him already?
Frank Nitti: We’re protecting our interests, Mike.

All in the family as it were.

Nitti: You heard?
Connor: Dad, listen to me. He’s in the building. You can end this now. Take him now.
John: Connor, get upstairs.
[Connor leaves the room]
John [aloud to himself]: God help me. God help me. What do I do?
Nitti: You think objectively. And you make your choice. What would you do if Sullivan were just some guy?
John: God help me. Make it quick.
Nitti: And the kid?
John [anguished]: Oh, Christ. No, no.
Nitti: One day the kid becomes a man…Think he won’t remember?
John: I said not the kid.
Nitti: All right. I know who to call…There’s a guy who’s done some work for us in the past. He’s gifted.

And around and around they go.

Michael Sr [as Maguire loads his camera]: Is that, uh…your profession or…your pleasure?
Maguire: Both, I guess. To be paid to do what you love…ain’t that the dream?

Oh, yeah.

Michael Jr: So, what are you gonna do?
Michael Sr: Something I can’t do alone. You have to listen to me now, okay? Or else both of us are dead. I have to make Capone give up Connor. There’s one thing Chicago loves more than anything…and that’s their money.

In particular, other people's money.

Mr. McDougal: Well this is a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting another deposit until the end of the month.
Michael Sr: Actually, I’m making a withdrawal.

Oh...

Michael Sr: And I want dirty money only, everything you’re holding for Capone that’s off the books. Open the safe.
Mr. McDougal: You’re insane. You know they’ll find out who you are.
Michael Sr: The name’s Sullivan. You want me to spell it?

No way that will be necessary.

Michael Jr: So when do I get my share of the money?
Michael Sr: Well… how much do you want?
Michael Jr: Two hundred dollars.
Michael Sr: Okay. Deal.
[Michael Jr stops eating and thinks for awhile]
Michael Jr: Could I have had more?
Michael Sr: You’ll never know.

Of course, back then...

Rance: What do you think you’re going to accomplish by interfering with our business, Mr. Sullivan?
Michael Sr: This has nothing to do with your business.
Rance: It’s all business. That’s what you fail to grasp. And in business, you must have something to trade. And you, Mr. Sullivan, have nothing to trade. Especially not for anyone as valuable as Connor Rooney.

How about that 200 dollars?

Michael Jr.: Did you like Peter more than me?
Michael Sr: No. I loved you both the same.
Michael Jr.: You were always… different with me.
Michael Sr: Was I?
[the father thinks for a while]
Michael Sr: Well, I suppose it was because Peter was just such a sweet little boy, you know? And you…you were more like me. And I…I didn’t want you to be.

And now...?

Michael Sr: He murdered Annie and Peter!
John: There are only murderers in this room! Michael! Open your eyes! This is the life we chose, the life we lead. And there is only one guarantee: none of us will see heaven.

Nothing at all like that here. Well, not yet anyway.

Michael Sr: Think. Think. They’re protecting him now, but when you’re gone, they won’t need him. This ends with Connor dead regardless.
John: That may be…but you are asking me to give you the key to his room so you can walk in put a gun to his head and pull the trigger. I can’t do that.

After all, there are rules.

Michael Jr.: What are you going to do?
Michael Sr: Just one last thing, and then it’s done.

Or is that all the script calls for?

Nitti [on phone to Michael Sr]: I understand. But then Al wants your assurance that after that, it’s over. The Lexington Hotel, room 1432.

He means 1408, one suspects.
Or 237?

Michael Jr [voiceover]: I saw then that my father’s only fear was that his son would follow the same road. And that was the last time I ever held a gun. People always thought I grew up on a farm. And I guess, in a way, I did. But I lived a lifetime before that, in those six weeks on the road in the winter of 1931. When people ask me if Michael Sullivan was a good man, or if there was just no good in him at all, I always give the same answer. I just tell them…he was my father.

Of course, for some, that's just bullshit.

[iambiguous]

Not many terms of endearments were exchanged in my family. Not that I remember anyway. And every family has their own dynamic in this regard. Some have too many and some have too few. And when you have too many or too few that can lead to all manner of dysfunction. Or so the experts tell us. Too many and you have dependency issues, too few and, well, we know what that can lead to.

I wonder: Does it explain me, perhaps?

Here it’s actually harder to pin down. The mother is no stranger to endearments but she is hopelessly neurotic. And her daughter will always have to deal with that. And then inflict it on her own family. Then it goes around and around in circles as everyone creates their own turbulent reactions. But it’s always the kids that bear the brunt of it. At least until it’s their turn to pass it all down the line.

Bottom line: Who we become is always embedded [either more or less] in our “inner child of the past”. And there’s only grasping this or not grasping this. The implications, for instance.

Of course, that still doesn’t explain Flap though. At times you look at Jeff Daniels playing him and you know why they picked him for the movie Dumb and Dumber. Ironically, he plays the bookish intellectual here. But there are all sorts of ways one can manage to become an…idiot. And even the most intelligent of men [and he is certainly not one of those] can be complete shits. If not all the time.

As for the rest of them, let’s just say they are not at all the sort of folks that I would ever choose to hang around with. And vice versa.

Anyway, terms of endearment become all the more problematic when, out of the blue, you receive a death sentence. From the doctor. And then the reactions become all the more turbulent when you are still relatively young. You find yourself dying and that changes everything. Especially when you have three young kids. You have to come up with things to say to them [and all the others] when there is nothing that can be said that will change anything.

Debra Winger behaved erratically on the set of this film because she was trying to get over a severe cocaine addiction. At one point, she and Shirley MacLaine got into a shoving match.

James L. Brooks received a special gift at the end of production, to congratulate him for completing his first movie. This was a book of “Life in Hell” cartoons, drawn by Matt Groening. Brooks was so impressed with the comics that he asked Groening to create cartoon shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show (1987). This gave rise to The Simpsons.

Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger were both nominated for 1983’s Best Actress Oscar, which went to MacLaine. On her way to the podium, she reportedly whispered to Winger, “Half of this belongs to you,” to which Winger reportedly replied, “I’ll take half.”  IMDb


Terms of Endearment

Aurora: Let me go, just for a minute.
Husband: You’re going to stare that baby into a coma.
Aurora: Stop exaggerating.
Husband: It’s not good to keep checking and imagining terrible things.
Aurora: I know, I know.
Husband: Here it starts. Here we go.
Aurora: Rudyard…Rudyard, she’s not breathing.
Husband: Honey, she’s sleeping. The baby’s sleeping.
Aurora: No…Rudyard, it’s crib death.
Husband: It’s sleep! She’s asleep, honey.
Aurora: Maybe.

Just sleep. But you can well imagine the future of this relationship.

Aurora: I’m totally convinced if you marry Flap Horton tomorrow, it will be a mistake of such gigantic proportions, it will ruin your life and make wretched your destiny.
Emma: Why are you doing this to me?
Aurora: You are not special enough to overcome a bad marriage. Emma, use your brains. Flap is limited. He hasn’t got any imagination. Even at this age, all he wants is a secure teaching job.

Flap?

Emma: The only school that would accept his associate professorship is in Des Moines.
Aurora: He can’t even do the simple things, like fail locally.

Good point?

Garrett: Well, anyway, they cancelled the dinner, but I was really thinking about asking you out. Seriously. Ain’t that a shocker?
Aurora: Yes. Imagine you having a date with someone where it wasn’t necessarily a felony.

No doubt at all about Aurora's zingers. She's really, really adept at it, isn't she? 

Emma: Don’t yell, but I really think that I may be pregnant again.
Aurora: Oh! No! Oh, no! And you’re going to have it, I suppose?
Emma: Yes, of course. What’s happening to you, anyway?
Aurora: Don’t act like that’s so terrible. Bright young women are having simple abortions.
Emma: “Simple”?
Aurora: Then they get wonderful jobs. You can have it in Colorado.
Emma: I don’t know why I tell you anything. I seem to like you less and less.
Aurora: You know why, Emma? Because I am the only person who tells you the truth. How will your life get better if you keep having children with that man? What miracle is going to come along to rescue you?

Click? Your turn.

Sam: You’re a very rude young woman. I know Douglas from the Rotary and I can’t believe he’d want you treating customers so badly.
Checkout Girl: I don’t think I was treating her badly.
Sam: Then you must be from New York.

The state or the city?

Garrett: I think we’re going to have to get drunk.
Aurora: I don’t get drunk, and I don’t care for escorts who do.
Garrett: You got me into this. You’re just going to have to trust me about this one thing. You need a lot of drinks.
Aurora: To break the ice?
Garrett: To kill the bug that you have up your ass.

Bingo?

Aurora: Would you like to come in?
Garrett: I’d rather stick needles in my eyes.

We'll see about that.

Aurora: Everything would have been just fine, you know, if you hadn’t gotten drunk. I was… I… I just didn’t want you to think I was like one of your other girls.
Garrett: Not much danger in that unless you curtsy on my face real soon.
Aurora: Garrett! What is it that makes you so insistent on shocking and insulting me? I mean, I really hate that way of talking. You must know this. Why do you do it?
Garrett: I’ll tell you, Aurora. I don’t know what it is about you, but you do bring out the devil in me.

See?

Aurora [looking at the homage to himself on Garrett’s wall]: I’ll tell you what. I think this is really sad, that you feel that you need all this stuff to impress girls with.
Garrett: Need it? Sometimes it isn’t enough. There’s nothing wrong with using your assets.
Aurora: I think it turns your profession into a sex trap.
Garrett: Oh, come on. Everybody uses whatever they have. I earned it! There are 106 astronauts in the whole f****** world and I’m one of them!

Next up: whatever we have here. Then existentially...

Doctor: You have a lump in your armpit. How long has it been there?
Emma: I don’t know.
Doctor: There’s two of them. It’s not very big, though. I have to be out of town next week but you shouldn’t wait. They should come out.
Emma: Come out? Should I be scared?
Doctor: If you’re scared, you’ll be happier when it turns out to be nothing.

And if it turns out to be something?

Aurora: Rosie…our girl is in trouble. She has a cyst that’s malignant. They’re taking her to a hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Big One.

Dr. Maise: We do more and more on an outpatient basis. We shouldn’t need to take her back, unless the illness escalates.
Aurora: But you’re not telling me anything.
Dr. Maise: What are you confused about?
Aurora: How is she?
Dr. Maise: I always tell people to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
Aurora: And they let you get away with that?

On the other hand, at times, what else is there?

Aurora [to workmen hanging her paintings]: Careful there. Those are worth more than you’ll ever make in your lifetime.
[they stare at her]
Emma [to the workmen]: I grew up with it my whole life. You can take it for a couple of minutes.

Okay, but should they have to?

Aurora [to Garrett]: Who would ever have expected you to be a nice guy?

The script writer?

Aurora: And you know what?
Emma: What?
Aurora: I got up the nerve to tell him I loved him. You know what his reaction was?
Emma: I don’t give a shit, Mom, I’m sick.

The perfect answer, let's say.

Aurora: Flap…Patsy wants to raise Melanie and maybe the boys. I think they should be with me, don’t you?
Flap: What can you be thinking about?
Aurora: Raising three children, working full time and chasing women requires a lot more energy than you have. You know, one of the nicest qualities about you is that you recognise your weaknesses. Don’t lose that quality when you need it the most.
Flap: You have no right, nor any invitation, to discuss where or how my children live.

Maybe, but in the end though he gives them up.

Flap [to Emma]: I’m thinking about my identity, and not having one anymore. I mean, who am I, if I’m not the man who’s failing Emma?

Even now he can't help but be an asshole.

[iambiguous]

Sex

“The villains were always ugly in books and movies. Necessarily so, it seemed. Because if they were attractive—if their looks matched their charm and their cunning—they wouldn't only be dangerous. They would be irresistible.” Nenia Campbell

And not just me, I suspect.

“We fucked a flame into being.” D.H. Lawrence

What though?

“Sexually progressive cultures gave us literature, philosophy, civilization and the rest, while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust.” Alan Moore

But why stop there?

“I recall certain moments, let us call them icebergs in paradise, when after having had my fill of her –after fabulous, insane exertions that left me limp and azure-barred–I would gather her in my arms with, at last, a mute moan of human tenderness (her skin glistening in the neon light coming from the paved court through the slits in the blind, her soot-black lashes matted, her grave gray eyes more vacant than ever–for all the world a little patient still in the confusion of a drug after a major operation)–and the tenderness would deepen to shame and despair, and I would lull and rock my lone light Lolita in my marble arms, and moan in her warm hair, and caress her at random and mutely ask her blessing, and at the peak of this human agonized selfless tenderness (with my soul actually hanging around her naked body and ready to repent), all at once, ironically, horribly, lust would swell again–and 'oh, no,' Lolita would say with a sigh to heaven, and the next moment the tenderness and the azure–all would be shattered.” Vladimir Nabokov

Lust begets love more or less than love begets lust.

“The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.” Sigmund Freud

A Freudian slip let's call it.

“No matter how long or how difficult, we will undo whatever that Moroi boy has done to you."
I managed a wavering smile, tasting blood in my mouth. "You sure about that, Dad? Because he's done everything to me.” Richelle Mead

For some Dads though that's no problem at all.

[iambiguous]

Horror films can be as much about the unknown as the supernatural. They probe into the dark recesses of the human psyche and the ghosts and the goblins might well be “metaphors” for all the stuff that most disturbs us about [among other things] living and dying.

As noted at wiki:

[Pulse] is a philosophical exploration into the alienation and loneliness of modern existence due to technology. Communication breakdown and isolation are the main themes of the film.

After all, more and more, some seem less and less inclined to live among others “in reality”. Instead, they choose to interact in virtual worlds that proliferate “on line”. They basically exist in an exchange of thoughts and feelings that they impart to characters [personas] they play in places like this. Or in Sim worlds. “Reality” then becomes more a frame of mind that they use to mold and manipulate others – tugging and pulling them into their own narcissistic narratives [webs].

Who are they then? Other than who you think they are.

Imagine the internet here as a kind of purgatory.

One thing for sure: Be careful what you click “OK” for on the internet. And get yourself a good supply of red tape.

Anyway, few are better at exploring this sort of thing cinematically than the folks from the “far East”. It’s not for nothing that film critics point out over and again how “American remakes” of them are generally for shit. And this one is no exception. At RT, the 2001 original [from Japan] garnered a 73% fresh rating on 49 reviews. The 2006 American edition garnered a 10% fresh rating on 69 reviews.


Pulse [Kairo] 

Junco: I don’t know what Taguchi was depressed about. He never said anything, so what could we have done?
Yabi: Maybe he suddenly just wanted to die. I get that way sometimes. It’s so easy to hang yourself.

Though not as...spooky?

Ryosuke [looking at the computer screen]: What’s this?
Haure: That? Something we programmed here. If two dots get too close, they die, but if they get too far apart, they’re drawn together.
Ryosuke: What’s it for?
Haure: A miniature model of our world…but only the grad student who designed it understands it.
[he goes back to the screen]
Haure: I wouldn’t suggest staring at it too long.

And how long night that be?

Haure: What got you started on the internet…wanted to connect with other people?
Ryosuke: Maybe…I don’t know.
Haure: People don’t really connect, you know. Like those dots simulating humans. We all live totally separately. Or that’s how it seems to me.

Unless, of course, that's how it actually is.

Haure [staring at the computer dots]: Isn’t it strange? Almost like ghosts. Sometimes these things turn up. At first, they look like the other dots.
Ryosuke: What are they?
Haure: I don’t know.

Sock Puppets, let's call them.

Harue: I always wondered what it’s like to die. From when I was really little I was always alone. I thought that after death you live happily with everyone over there. Then in high school it dawned on me you might be all alone after death, too.
Ryosuke: There’s no way to know. How could you?
Harue: The idea was so terrifying. I couldn’t even bear it. That nothing changes with death, just right now…forever.

Some, however, will just roll the dice and take their chances. Thus...

Ryosuke: Nobody knows what happens when you die…But I do know that I am definitely alive and so are you, Harue. That’s for sure. right? So I don’t want to think about the fact that we’ll die someday. Just maybe in 10 years, or at least while we’re still alive they’ll invent a drug that prevents death. Then, we could live forever and ever. Of course you might think I am crazy to say that, but I’d rather bet on that.
Harue: You want to live forever?
Ryosuke: Yes.
Harue: That sounds like fun?
Ryosuke: Yes, that’s what I think.

Unfortunately, just thinking it doesn't make it true.

Haure [to Ryosuke…but more to herself]: Ghosts won’t kill people. Because that would just make more ghosts. Instead, they’ll try to make people immortal. By quietly trapping them in their own loneliness.

How's that working out for them?

Spectre [to Ryosuke]: Forever. Death is eternal loneliness. Forever.

Coming and going.

[iambiguous]

Abyss

“Once you start gazing into the abyss of the far right, pretty soon it turns its gaze right back on you. And its gaze is a fearsome thing, a twisted thing, one full of boredom and anger that have calcified into hatred.” Talia Lavin

Trump Inc., for example.

“What hides in plain sight is the inexplicable. It is an absence that is always present. ” Paul Lynch

Yes, virtually, as well.

“Suddenly, one day, out of nowhere, an enormous abyss opened up beneath our feet and I was staring into a face I didn't recognize.” Woody Allen

Interiors, of course.

“We all know the classic scene in the cartoons: the cat reaches the precipice but goes on walking, ignoring the fact that there is no ground under his feet; it starts to fall only when it looks down and notices the abyss.” Slavoj Žižek

Let's run this by Wile E. Coyote.

“When we face the Abyss, we stare into a mirror. In Shinto temples, there is a mirror. The purpose of this mirror is to remind the Murid of the fact that to see REALITY, it is necessary to see both oneself and the illusory nature of the self.” Laurence Galian

Ask me how that's working out.

“A great relationship ... breaches the barriers of a lofty solitude, subdues its strict law, and throws a bridge from self-being to self-being across the abyss of dread of the universe.” Martin Buber

You and Thou in other words.