I watched last year's "Never Grow Old" the other night. First of all, what a great western. Second of all, it was awesome seeing John Cusack play such a convincing bad guy. And I was surprised to find myself conflicted by said bad guy's death. Dutch is a ghastly menace who deserves what he gets, but as he lies bleeding out from a blunderbuss blast to the gut I can't help but feel sorry for him. He's slumped against the wall, sort of melting into himself, breathing like a hypothermic. He looks up at the protagonist and makes a final quip that only just skirts hokiness, with an expression that bounces between amused concession and furious decree. Then, having urged Irish on, with the gun cocked and pressed to his head, he gives up the most inexplicably heartbreaking wince. He doesn't blink or pull away or beg for his life. But for a moment he looks pained and scared and almost childlike.
The character is not a tragic villain. What little we learn of him is all bad. Even the sort of code he at first appears to ascribe to is revealed as cruel mockery. There's no good reason to feel bad him. And yet, thanks to Cusack's performance, for a moment I did.
Another example: Walter the gas station attendant in Kalifornia. Much more sympathetic than a murderous bounty hunter, obviously. Walter's not a main character, though. He gets maybe 2 minutes of screen time, and I had to google the scene because I'd forgotten his name. But the mix of fear and anger and sadness on his face when he's told he might be killed, and the way he doesn't beg but asks if Earlie's sure he has to do it, the words sticking in his dried-up mouth--it's a movie death that's stuck with me for more than a decade despite being part of such a small plot point in a film I've only watched once. It's like seeing your kid brother killed.
So how about you guys? Colonel Kurtz, the dude at the end of the German's knife in Saving Private Ryan, Rorschach...everyone responds to these ones. What movie deaths maybe don't get to everyone, or at least weren't seemingly intended to be quite so affecting, but got to you?
Submitted June 07, 2020 at 05:00AM by howsthoughtworkingou https://ift.tt/3eV6TNZ
