jobloffski
Posts: 1837
Joined: 30/9/2005
From: elsewhere
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ORIGINAL: Emyr Thy King
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ORIGINAL: jobloffski
American Dad, trained in kicking ass, shunned by wifey for being a man who kicks ass, proves his ass kicking ways are best by being proved right to fear for his daughter and running to the rescue, kicking ass all the way, daddy was right all along, everyone should have listened to him because he kicks ass, and best of all, never has to face any consequences to his actions
Famke Jensen plays his ex-wife rather than "wifey" and she divorced Bryan Mills (cracking name, completely innocuous) because he was away so much during his tenure in the C.I.A. While he seemingly wasn't reprimanded by the French authorities after his tour de force trip around Paris. He received no aid from the internal security service because they were either corrupt or couldn't be bothered to help therefore he had no choice. Furthermore, it does show consequences for the antagonists. I think the film plays with the idea of natural justice
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it's okay to kick and kill ass, if you need to prove you are, in fact, a manly man.
I think the film touched a raw nerve here. 
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There's nothing wrong with a film of this type in principle, but it got a bad review because it is lunkheaded in execution and as hamfisted as a prizefighting pig, and totally flattered by the presence of an actor who should have said at the outset: good first draft, when do I get to see the version we shoot that will meatify the ass kicking with basic action movie structure of increasing danger for the lead until the odds are apparently insurmountable? Because as it stands it looks like my characters' special forces training is being used as the sole justification for him just kicking the shit out of everyone with no variety of tone or sense he is ever being truly opposed in his goal."
There was no need to "meatify" the proceedings in the film. This film was meant to tap into a very primal instinct that ought to be in every man who has a family for whom they care. I like the fact we're not given much about Bryan Mills, I like how he doesn't reveal much about his past in the C.I.A. to his daughter. Who knows what he did and wintessed? Furthermore, he seeks to protect her and whilst he may seem overbearing, he turns out to be right. He's been around the world, he's seen things most people in the west would find abhorrent and through this experience, he knows the world and all its dangers. To me, the "meat" or more accurately the substance within the film which engaged me was the emotional rage displayed by Bryan Mills. The indomitable will to protect your loved ones at whatever cost. If someone ever did that to my partner or child then I'd damn sure find the prig and slot him (slowly).
In a sense, I see the film as a reaction to all the brutality we see in the world. Particularly, the savagery inflicted upon women or children about which we only hear in the news or read in a newspaper. Cases such as that of Josef Fritzl in Austria for instance. The fact that Bryan Mills in the film isn't physically challenged (except the final fight) is inconsequential to me. I also think you're missing the point of the film if you're concerned with how hard his enemies were, as if we're in some computer game and at each stage, the enemies should become progressively harder. We're dealing with a very primal response here. We seem Bryan Mills kill so many of them because in effect, it's gives the middle finger to all the scum who perpetrate this sort of thing. I think it's catharsis not only for Bryan Mills but for the audience too.
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That's why Bourne is better than this: Neeson was up against people who had no chance against him whereas in a decent fist fest the hero has to be in absolute danger of getting killed if he doesn't kick ass. Knocking everyone over like skittles aint enough. Not for me.
No Jason Bourne is simply different. There's more character development to Jason Bourne but the story necessitates it. Here, we have a man beyond incensed and desperately seeking to find his daughter. He receives no help in Paris and is forced to take matters into his own hands (yes a pun). The intensity, brutality and visceral display of violence for me is more than enough. Because the power and angst of the story is told through his dispatching of foes in very creative ways. I think this films speak to the male who is reviled by seeing scenes of rape on film and one who values women in their lives where they'd do anything to defend them.
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Cheesy start, and daddy's not only great cos he kicks ass, he also gets to make his daughters dreams come true re singing, so cheesy end. Even a cheese sandwich needs to be between bread, wherea this film is almost invisibly thin bread between humungous chunks of cheese.
The scenes at the beginning and end of the film may seem clichéd or saccharine but that's the point. They were suppose to show the innocence of the girl. Perhaps also show how Bryan Mills had successfully shielded his daughter from the horrors of the world. While the daughter seems to look fine by the end of the film, due to the experience she had we know deep down she has forever changed. The caveat and perhaps irony is that Bryan Mills fought desperately to save her life so he wouldn't lose her. Now, the revelation that he used to operate within the world of violence coupled with the trauma she's bound to have received. Means at a later stage he may well 'lose her'.
As someone, who without money, without training, without back up and without being given an ounce of respect, once basically fronted up to a very large company and said via my actions I'm not taking this bullshit just because you think you can treat me like nothing doesn't mean I have to take it, metaphorically I'm Bond, dude. Taking out the lower level minions despatched to fend me off, rising up the levels of the organisation by not bending to the attitude I should respect more senior people in the organisation (pointing out I wasn't part of the hierarchy so their seniority meant nothing to me) and eventually causing the solicitor who had been screwing with me to resign within 24 hrs of finally meeting me in the flesh, to escape what he saw in my eyes and felt in my handshake: you fucked with the wrong dude, and I WILL keep drawing attention to the legal, but dishonest things you have done to stop me.
Potential contempt of court and therefore potential imprisonment precludes me elaborating on the kind of shenanigans legally indulged in by the people concerned, save to say a judge allowed me to list them, in great detail, for two hours, in front of legal representatives who were continually asked by the judge 'how do you respond to what he is saying' and the legal reps took their only option: legally free in the particular civil court proceedings to not respond in any way, because they could not talk their way out of the matter after spending almost two years trying to evade my pursuit of the matter in question so brazenly that when my complete record of these attempts was laid out in front of them they looked and felt like the kind of twats they assume the 'little people' to be.
So I'm pretty secure in my 'manliness'. And I am very well personally acquainted with a primal response to events driving actions. Additionally, in the matter referred to above, I became more 'bulletproof' as it went on, after the experience expose the charade/facade of my 'opponents' and revealed that compared to me, they had nothing manly about them, only the confidence provided by their job descriptions that faded rapidly in the face of someone who didn't get intimidated by such things. Just by persevering, I became more of a 'threat' to them than if they had just treated fairly in the first place. And I fought them mainly with words, my own versus theirs, mine remaining consistent, theirs offering a new excuse every time their words were challenged until they had contradicted themselves so many times they basically begged me to stop and gave ground in the way I wanted.
"Famke Jensen plays his ex-wife rather than "wifey"" I know she's his ex wife, and the film presents her as his ex wife BECAUSE he is what he is. Ie, wifey shunned him.
"I also think you're missing the point of the film if you're concerned with how hard his enemies were, as if we're in some computer game and at each stage, the enemies should become progressively harder"
Just referring to basic narrative structure via which the obstacles faced by the hero increase in their magnitude over the course of a story until they threaten to totally overwhelm the hero until he finds a way to finish the job. These obstacles don't have to be all in the form of whoever he has to beat up to get the info to lead him to the next stage. Anyway, if Taken resembles anything, it DOES resemble a game, with the perfunctory storyline existing to justify the arse kicking, and not portrayal of character.
And fair enough, you like the film, so you can find a way way to rationalise that just as I can find a way to rationalise my response to it. And my response to it is that it total bullshit massively over flattered by the presence of a Star (TM) playing what is barely a Statham level character. If the film is fun to someone (eg a mate of mine who loves it cos it's 'Liam Neeson Beats Up Paris') fair enough. But due to my own personality and life experience and, indeed experience of cat and mouse psychology (having it applied to me, and then via the experience toughening up to do it to them better than they did it to me) in a real world matter, I want more from the potential of a story like that in Taken than others, I guess. Then again, Neeson did the whole 'If you make yourself more than just a man in the mind of your opponent, if they can't stop you' stuff in Batman Begins, and so I can get what rings true for me elsewhere, anyway.
< Message edited by jobloffski -- 25/8/2011 8:42:32 AM >
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Yes, dreamers dream and doers do. But if dreamers DON'T dream, doers don't have anything TO do. Everything that is only here because people exist, only exists because someone thought of it., or in other words, dreamed it.
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