I had a nearly profound thought the other day. It was something along the lines of how everything needs to be explored. How all the shit movies you've ever seen needed to be made. Sorta like how we had to journey to Antarctica to know that it was shit for living. Ok maybe we coulda guessed, but we still had to go there. Or more importantly, we did go there. But you know, we can't really ever take something on faith can we?
So really it's less about 'needing' to go somewhere than the simple reality; we will go there. And when you have this mindset it becomes difficult to hate movies and if you extrapolate, it becomes difficult to hate people maybe or something sweet like that.
This is by no means a bad movie. But I'm watching it now and I am reminded of my own little profundity.
Fassbender plays a hitman, David Fincher directs. This is my second time watching in as many weeks. It stayed with me after the first viewing. It nagged at me a little. The mood that's created, the resolution. At times I figured it was Fincher laughing at himself. The anal precision of the hitman still all for nought as he bungles a cinch of a hit. The hubris of this cold calculated killer that realizes maybe he ain't all he thought he was. Maybe he's just like everybody else. And those thoughts are fun to entertain but I think I should be honest with myself and you. What did I like most about this film?
I think it was the bundles of cash and passports, tucked neatly into matte plastic bags, alongside carefully arranged handguns, stashed wherever they needed to be. I think it was the incognito travel to exotic locales. The calm, the tranquil, dare I say artful, cinematography and pacing. Fassbender's handsome face. The outfits. There is something so damned attractive about the genteel assassin. There is a lot of killing in our movies. It is surely something to do with our own fear of death.
I also liked that I could just experience it all unfold. I got to ride the ride and I just plain liked it.
Spoilers
"I'm curious. I break into your home, middle of the night, with a silenced pistol. And you have no idea why I might be here?"
Ok, so the writing on the wall is what? That the billionaire, Clayborne, has truly done nothing to deserve potential blowback? I don't think so. Is it that Clayborne has done so many foul things it could be any number of reasons why Fassbender is there? Possibly. But I see it this way. I think the character of Clayborne ultimately sees nothing 'wrong' with any of his actions. He doesn't think he is 'wrong' to order a hit on someone else. Because if you start to accept the world as a cruel and lawless place then you start to believe there is no right or wrong. You know that suffering is real, but you don't think you're perpetrating the suffering, you're just not being one of the sufferers.
Clayborne wouldn't trace his decision to pay money for murder to the predicament of the cab driver Leo. Leo has to either accept money from the two hitmen that beat up Fassbender's girl, or raise the alarm. [Of course he didn't know they were hitmen when he picked them up, but he saw the bloodied leg on their return from the house. Is he gonna squeal and endanger himself? What does he gain by saying anything? He gains nothing. He's a cab driver, he's poor. He has no protection.]
Clayborne also wouldn't see himself being at fault for Fassbender's girl getting beaten. Because he didn't beat her up, because he didn't pay them specifically to beat her up, because he didn't create hitmen, because he didn't create the system, because he didn't create the universe. I think that is Clayborne's mentality. What evidence do we have that anyone ought to be a 'good' person.
The only problem I have with this moral judgement is that you end up judging the billionaire by the exact criteria you are condemning him for. Why do we allow ourselves to think that the billionaire is making all his decisions outside of any influence? If he really believes himself beyond reproach for attempted murder, isn't he? At least to himself. And us disagreeing doesn't make him feel any different.
Think of it this way. All billionaires think everyone who is poor is lazy. All poor people think that every billionaire is exploitative and evil. But are they lazy because they are poor or are they poor because they are lazy. And Are they exploitative and evil because they are billionaires or are they billionaires because they are exploitative and evil. OR. Is it like what I wrote above? That this is just where we go. Just like we had to make Sex Pot [which is a piece of shit movie, real fucking garbage] we also have to make billionaires. And maybe one day we will never make another Sex Pot. But really, maybe we are like water and gravity. We make waves.
Ok ok. Of course this is all just madness. As that one guy on reddit said, film is a terrible medium for making a thought out argument or point. I agree but also disagree. Yes it's bad for like logical, reasoned, details. But it's good for that feeling you get. For truth! I'll leave my lunatic diatribe because maybe it's interesting.