Posted on 09/15/2017 4:26:57 PM PDT by Haiku Guy
Ummm, I went to the movie spoiler site and read it. There is no way I will ever be watching this! It is dark, full of despair, pretentiousness, violence, you name it.I feel a little ill after reading the whole thing.
relax have dinner Disney will be right with you. I welcome these kind of movies, but that doesn’t mean I like every one of them. As I got older, i stopped seeking movies with car chases, explosions and teenagers in the shower, well 2 out of 3 anyway.
I don’t watch Disney, thank you.
I could not find anything in the movie that sounded interesting or surprising. It is derivative. Mix The Village with Rosemary’s Baby, a little of Devil’s Advocate and some other cliche movies. If that is what you enjoy, have at it.
I don’t see any value in it. But, I should have stated it was just my opinion.
Yeah and mental illness is a real thing too
It may be a real turkey, but I don’t dismiss a movie for being dark or tragic or psychological. As a thinking adult i welcome more of those and frequently watch foreign or indie films.
I agree about “Into the Night”. It is one of the few movies where it really takes you a while to figure out what is going. on. It has some great period shots of LA too.
***Black Swan was actually a good movie***
Yep! Good color too! Oh wait! I’m talking about the Pirate movie from 1942!
I hope you enjoy it. I mean it.
To me, it was a dark hodgepodge. Maybe I am not sophisticated enough to appreciate it.
Since you asked (I think), here my previously-written analysis of the life-affirming love story that is The Fountain.
*****Major Spoilers Below****
“Death is the Road to Awe.” — a statement bereft of meaning without subjective interpretation. We use “awesome” so much that we have dulled the impact and meaning of a word whose dictionary definition mixes emotions that are not normally combined, such as “dread” and “wonder.” ”Awe” only has the meaning that the surrounding context gives it.
The Fountain was purposefully left open for subjective interpretation. Darren Aronofsky has stated that he won’t answer questions about the narrative, or deny/confirm others’ interpretations. So we are left to make of it what we will, and extract the meaning for ourselves. And that’s...., well, Awesome!
There can be no doubt the movie is meant to deal with the subject of immortality, the nature of Life and Death, and the afterlife. It also resonates with me as a love story. No one can deny the love that Tommy Creo has for Izzy. He’s a brain surgeon desperately looking for a cure for her terminal brain tumor. She’s coming to grips with her imminent death, while writing the book that will lead Tommy to his own acceptance of death as a part of life.
I have read and watched most every analysis I can find on the internet, and most do an adequate job of explaining the alternate theories about the meaning of the movie, Most center around the 3 timelines, and whether “Astro Tom”, traveling with a tree in a spherical spaceship, is a real timeline, part of Izzy’s book, or Tommy’s mind dealing with grief. There are very reasonable arguments to be made for each of these. But all have left out a crucial plot point, that to me, is pivotal.
The movie keeps revisiting a moment in Tommy’s life — the “First Snow”. For me, that moment — the moment where he either chose to go with Izzy, or to perform the surgery on Donovan, is one of those life-defining moments that we all have — we look back and wonder “What if I had done this differently? How different would my life be?” And we always say, upon the death of a loved one, “What wouldn’t I give for just another minute with him/her?” For us, we can never know exactly how different our lives would be. But Arronofsky shows us Tommy’s two distinct paths, each one leading him to The Road to Awe.
Frazzled and despondent, it’s time to operate on yet another primate. Donovan, the monkey, is open and ready for surgery. But it is the “First Snow”, and Izzy comes to his office to invite him on their traditional walk in the first snow of the season. Tommy knows he is pressed for time if he has any hope for a cure, so he rebukes her, and as she leaves in disgust, he starts to chase after her, and this is where the “present” timeline fractures in two, and travels down parallel, but vastly different, paths. He could not have done both. At least, not without the alteration of space-time to make both events happen.
In one timeline, Tommy’s assistant meets him at the door to escort him to the O.R., and Tommy watches Izzy leave, then goes with the assistant to perform the surgery on Donovan. When the experimental drug lacks the suppression they need, there appears to be no option but to euthanize Donovan. Tommy literally looks to the Heavens (through the skylight in the lab) and receives the inspiration to use a compound found in the old growth tree from Guatemala, which yields amazing anti-aging, and, too late to save Izzy, tumor suppressing results. Having lost Izzy, Tommy exclaims “Death is a disease, just like any other. And there’s a cure...And I will find it.” Notice that now he’s not just looking to cure cancer. He wants to cure death itself. And as the conquistador traveled to the ends of the Earth, he would likewise willingly travel to the ends of the Universe in search of that cure. And he does just that. Using the anti-aging drug he becomes literally The Last Man (evidenced only from the song Title in Clint Mansell’s score), travelling to the dying star in the hopes of giving it new life - “Death as an act of creation.” And while on the journey, he keeps flashing back to that “what if” moment — That time when he could have chosen to spend even another second with Izzy.
In the second timeline, revealed only after the entire plot of the first timeline has run its course, Tommy foregoes the surgery on Donovan, instead rushing to join Izzy in the “First Snow”, leaving his assistant calling for him, wondering what to do about Donovan’s surgery. Here, he’s made the choice that we all say we would, but often don’t - spend the time in the Now, embracing the short time we have with those we love.
There is evidence for the parallel timelines. In one, Tom embraces the scientific, and stands opposed to the spiritual. Just as he gets his idea to use the experimental drug, there is a brief flash of white light, and a distinct LFE is heard. This frames the beginning of the timeline with the miracle cure. Tommy’s ring disappears — he has defied his covenant of marriage, “until death do us part”, and has now set forth on a path that would defy death. Once more he will eschew spending time with Izzy in favor of the pursuit of the cure, when the phone rings and she whispers “Don’t answer it.” He lies to her when she asks “Is everything allright?” with “Yes, everything’s allright”, only to breakdown crying with despair moments later. Later, he’s forced to face the guilt over his choice, just as Izzy is dying, when he witnesses the old man, panting for breath, near death, but who still has his own wedding ring, and Tommy looks down at his own hand where his ring should be.
The rest of the “present” in the movie exists in this timeline, and when he again insists on pursuing the experimental drug - “Stop dying, that’s our goal” - a blackout occurs in the lab, as Tommy is drawn to look to the heavens by a flash of light. This is the last scene of the “present” timeline in which Tommy chose not to go with Izzy to the First Snow, and it is framed once again by a LFE signal.
We’re only treated to two unique scenes of the second timeline, but they are both beautiful. In this timeline, Tommy and Izzy are together on the First Snow walk, and it’s on that walk that she presents him with the seed that he would later plant over her grave. More importantly, we see a scene in which Tommy has completely accepted Izzy’s death. He kneels at her grave and plants the seed over her grave, and with an anguished smile, says, “Bye Iz. I finished it.” And we look over his shoulder just as the nebula Xibalba explodes. Here, he has his ring — he never “lost” it, because he didn’t transgress from the vow he made with Izzy that the ring represents.
This is why The Fountain is a beautiful movie for me. Life is fleeting, and acceptance of death has to be part of life, lest you miss out on the reasons for living in the first place. Accepting the finality of her death, he hopes to give her the symbolic new life that Moses Morales told Izzy about. The seed becomes the tree, and her body feeds and grows into the tree. The birds eat the seeds and then she flies with the birds. Death is the road to Awe.
I think this is what happens in the movie - The defiant, angry Tommy discovers the cure for death, only to be left the last man alive, and traverses the heavens to deliver the tree of life (the old growth tree from Guatemala, not the Izzy seed) to Xibalba. As Izzy relates in the Mayan myth of creation, “He sacrificed himself to create the world.” Just as he reached Xibalba, he realizes he has to die for new life to emerge, He cries and laughs as he makes that realization, and says “I’m going to die”, happily. And Izzy smiles - Death as an act of Creation - He is First Father for a new galaxy. Death is the road to Awe.
I think Astro Tom, for delivering the Tree to Xibalba and spurring new life, is “rewarded” with the do-over. Going back to that critical, pivotal moment in his life, he takes the chance to spend that extra moment with Izzy at the First Snow, abandons the quest for immortality, and accepts death as part of life, as we all must. That’s why both timelines are depicted, but ends with Tommy in the second timeline, and the movie has the happy ending that we can all achieve.
Even at its very end, this movie is full of wonder. We once again hear Izzy ask “Is everything allright?” And the exact same response from Tommy, “Yes, everythings’s allright.” Except this time we can really believe that he means it. A primordial ether dissolves into blackness, and then as the final song, “Together We Shall Live Forever” plays, and as the credits roll, stars slowly blink into existence until the sky is full.
Rexy knows bad movies. He was in “Myra Breckinridge” after all. He might’ve been in Bunny Breckinridge, too. I can’t vouch for that.
I read two articles in the Calendar section of the times. I like the director and the cast, but I’ll wait till it comes to my cable system. Thanx.
That was like Roger Ebert who wrote the screenplay for “Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.”
I didn’t know that Rex Reed was still around.
.
I didn’t either!
Rex Reed.......ugh.
First, I completely believe that J. Lawrence said that (hope she didn't audition that way, though).Second, she is a complete moron who says things that alienate the people who made her rich. If I were her agent, I would have a serious talk with her.
First, I completely believe that J. Lawrence said that (hope she didn't audition that way, though).Second, she is a complete moron who says things that alienate the people who made her rich. If I were her agent, I would have a serious talk with her.
Well, i'd sit through just about anything with Jacqueline Bisset in it.
It’s getting a 71% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Of course, if you threw out all the God hating liberal reviews it would probably have a 0% rating.
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