Triptych
I have seen three movies with some pretty fucked up themes in the past three weeks. Here is part one of three, a spoiler-filler rundown of In The Valley of Elah.
Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield, a retired Army detective and father of two well-respected army officers, goes on the trail when he youngest son is reported AWOL. It's about the horror of war, the dehumanization of soldiers, etc. Problems really start to arise after the introduction of Charlize Theron's character, Detective Emily Sanders. Sanders is the only female detective in a squad of cartoonish good old boys. She's routinely assigned cases where animals are involved, and we first see her talking to a distraught woman who has just watched her husband drown their dog in front of her and their child in the bathtub. The male detectives are snickering in the background and barking. Sanders is trying her best to help the woman, but in the end both women are SOL as the rest of the department doesn't care to take action.
So Sanders is a victim of institutionalized sexism. I buy that, though I have to confess it's a little hard to swallow that the police would do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the woman who just watched her husband drown her dog. I feel like there's much greater awareness now about how animal abuse is often a precursor to violence against humans, but then I'll also be the first to admit that I come from and still live in a pretty sheltered world.
Anyway, Sanders ends up being the only person on the force who will talk to Deerfield about his son. Deerfield's attempts to investigate his son's disappearance have been almost completely thwarted by the army police. Deerfield hopes that by getting someone on the police force on his side, he'll have someone with actual power to run tests, make calls, get shit done, etc. Here, go ahead and check out their charming first meeting for yourself.
This is where the movie becomes MAN DETECTIVE vs. LADY DETECTIVE. Sanders, as LADY DETECTIVE, is nowhere near as brilliant or capable as MAN DETECTIVE, who can assess crime scenes instantly and follow hunches to develop great leads. It's worth noting that none of the rest of Sander's department seems to be great shakes either, but the movie doesn't really care about them as anything more than cartoonish villains. It's Sanders who doesn't know the right things to do, but that almost barely matters because the sexism in the police force makes it almost impossible for her to get anything done anyway. Sanders is also the only actual female character in this movie -- Susan Sarandon has an extended cameo as Deerfield's long suffering wife, and the other women are waitresses, secretaries, etc.
As the investigation continues, it becomes clear that Deerfield's son wasn't really an upstanding citizen. Deerfield finds video of his son torturing a prisoner and it's an understatement to say that the language Deerfield Jr. and the other soldiers use to talk about Iraqis is unkind and inappropriate. The military continues to stymie both MAN and LADY DETECTIVE's efforts, but the sheer brilliance of MAN DETECTIVE's reasoning keeps propelling the case forward. Also, they find out that Deerfield the younger isn't missing but dead -- they find his chopped up body at the very edge of base property.
This movie doesn't beat around the bush: War is bad. And I can get behind that, but for this viewer it's baffling that they wouldn't at least take a fucking peek behind the patriarchal culture that helps perpetuate a lot of what happens in the movie. Patriarchy Hurts Men Too, etc.
Here's where (for me) the shit really hits the fan: the woman who watched her husband strangle her dog in the bathtub? Her husband strangles her. In the bathtub. The movie handles this so clumsily, so patronizingly it's hard for me to even describe. First, the music in this scene (as it is throughout the movie) is about as subtle as a farting dog. Seriously, it's a wonder the characters aren't all greviously injured from the overbearing, self-imporant nail-spiked club of a score. But way, way, way more importantly, this scene seems shoehorned into the movie -- while I appreciate seeing that the inaction on the department's part has consequences, up until this point the movie has completely forgotten about this woman. This scene is far more about guilt than responsibility, "HEY GUYS, THIS IS SAD, ALRIGHT" and not "Institutionalized sexism is FUCKED UP." And the movie never, ever takes a moment to even acknowledge that if Deerfield, or even just a young guy were the detective instead of Sanderson this movie would be about 45 minutes long because it wouldn't have sexism as a plot device.
Of course, does the movie has to comment on this? No. But it seems to me that the anti-war argument is made a whole lot weaker.
In way less ranting news, greengypsy is awesome and sent me a digital camera! Woohoo! It's more than I deserve! I'll go get some batteries today. Hey, this means Harpo can have be on facebook! And I can post pictures of him and see if y'all think he has a big head!
In case you can't tell, I'm excited about this camera! And I might get to see Clara soon! Woohoo!
Tommy Lee Jones plays Hank Deerfield, a retired Army detective and father of two well-respected army officers, goes on the trail when he youngest son is reported AWOL. It's about the horror of war, the dehumanization of soldiers, etc. Problems really start to arise after the introduction of Charlize Theron's character, Detective Emily Sanders. Sanders is the only female detective in a squad of cartoonish good old boys. She's routinely assigned cases where animals are involved, and we first see her talking to a distraught woman who has just watched her husband drown their dog in front of her and their child in the bathtub. The male detectives are snickering in the background and barking. Sanders is trying her best to help the woman, but in the end both women are SOL as the rest of the department doesn't care to take action.
So Sanders is a victim of institutionalized sexism. I buy that, though I have to confess it's a little hard to swallow that the police would do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the woman who just watched her husband drown her dog. I feel like there's much greater awareness now about how animal abuse is often a precursor to violence against humans, but then I'll also be the first to admit that I come from and still live in a pretty sheltered world.
Anyway, Sanders ends up being the only person on the force who will talk to Deerfield about his son. Deerfield's attempts to investigate his son's disappearance have been almost completely thwarted by the army police. Deerfield hopes that by getting someone on the police force on his side, he'll have someone with actual power to run tests, make calls, get shit done, etc. Here, go ahead and check out their charming first meeting for yourself.
This is where the movie becomes MAN DETECTIVE vs. LADY DETECTIVE. Sanders, as LADY DETECTIVE, is nowhere near as brilliant or capable as MAN DETECTIVE, who can assess crime scenes instantly and follow hunches to develop great leads. It's worth noting that none of the rest of Sander's department seems to be great shakes either, but the movie doesn't really care about them as anything more than cartoonish villains. It's Sanders who doesn't know the right things to do, but that almost barely matters because the sexism in the police force makes it almost impossible for her to get anything done anyway. Sanders is also the only actual female character in this movie -- Susan Sarandon has an extended cameo as Deerfield's long suffering wife, and the other women are waitresses, secretaries, etc.
As the investigation continues, it becomes clear that Deerfield's son wasn't really an upstanding citizen. Deerfield finds video of his son torturing a prisoner and it's an understatement to say that the language Deerfield Jr. and the other soldiers use to talk about Iraqis is unkind and inappropriate. The military continues to stymie both MAN and LADY DETECTIVE's efforts, but the sheer brilliance of MAN DETECTIVE's reasoning keeps propelling the case forward. Also, they find out that Deerfield the younger isn't missing but dead -- they find his chopped up body at the very edge of base property.
This movie doesn't beat around the bush: War is bad. And I can get behind that, but for this viewer it's baffling that they wouldn't at least take a fucking peek behind the patriarchal culture that helps perpetuate a lot of what happens in the movie. Patriarchy Hurts Men Too, etc.
Here's where (for me) the shit really hits the fan: the woman who watched her husband strangle her dog in the bathtub? Her husband strangles her. In the bathtub. The movie handles this so clumsily, so patronizingly it's hard for me to even describe. First, the music in this scene (as it is throughout the movie) is about as subtle as a farting dog. Seriously, it's a wonder the characters aren't all greviously injured from the overbearing, self-imporant nail-spiked club of a score. But way, way, way more importantly, this scene seems shoehorned into the movie -- while I appreciate seeing that the inaction on the department's part has consequences, up until this point the movie has completely forgotten about this woman. This scene is far more about guilt than responsibility, "HEY GUYS, THIS IS SAD, ALRIGHT" and not "Institutionalized sexism is FUCKED UP." And the movie never, ever takes a moment to even acknowledge that if Deerfield, or even just a young guy were the detective instead of Sanderson this movie would be about 45 minutes long because it wouldn't have sexism as a plot device.
Of course, does the movie has to comment on this? No. But it seems to me that the anti-war argument is made a whole lot weaker.
In way less ranting news, greengypsy is awesome and sent me a digital camera! Woohoo! It's more than I deserve! I'll go get some batteries today. Hey, this means Harpo can have be on facebook! And I can post pictures of him and see if y'all think he has a big head!
In case you can't tell, I'm excited about this camera! And I might get to see Clara soon! Woohoo!