Saturday, October 15, 2016

SPOILERS! BE WARNED! SPOIL...never mind

In short, I noticed something while watching this film that no one in reviews or conversations online seems to have noticed.
I wanted to get it out of my system, but don't want to spoil it for those who haven't yet seen the movie.
I rarely use this website anymore, so here we are:
Holland March (Gosling) suffers more than just a fractured arm. His multiple brushes with death bring him at one point to say, "I think I'm immortal!"
Uh oh.
Towards the end of the film he captures the film reel which has the evidence winning the day for the nice guys.
Remember, he should have been dead at least a half dozen times. He sits down next to the car.
Here's the part that no one has mentioned:
Out of focus in the background you see a cop car pull up.
We hear: "He's not responsive." The assumption is that they are checking the killer laying in the street.
Actually we are experiencing the scene through March. His time sense doesn't match the cop car pulling up or the comment we hear because he is dying.
Holland March has already lost his wife, often failed his daughter; in his last few moments of life, he imagines a happier ending, where he and Jackson Healy go into business together. Healy, who has not imbibed throughout the movie is now drinking and smoking a big cigar.
Holland can't think of his daughter in the last moments as he feels that he has failed her for the final time; thought of her is so painful that he can't even face her-hence the scene in the bar with Healy. Ditto the scene with Judith Kuttner (Kim Basinger) where she gets her comeuppance.
So, there it is. I think that Shane Black has March die.
Speaking of dying, Amelia Kuttner (Margaret Qualley) seemed kind of invulnerable herself. Her yellow dress, the same yellow as Bruce Lee's outfit in "Game of Death" seemed to protect her, symbolizing Life...right up to the moment she approached that car.
A very good movie, and I expect that we will see Margaret Qualley and Angourie Rice quite often in the future.

1 comment:

Doug said...

http://imgur.com/gallery/aV9xe