Movie Sleepers on DVD. All about revenge. For the worst kinds of violations, yes. Good movie--skip the torture parts if your stomach is weak.
Like when I was a kid and I learned not to lie--because when I got caught, the consequences weren't pretty. I didn't like what happened, so I got the message. Revenge, almost the same thing. I learned that I wasn't very effective at getting revenge--somehow I'd bungle things and end up getting screwed worse. The lesson was simple: find another way to look at it.
So revenge became for me the thing I rise above. The ritual I don't need to participate in. The millstone that I don't need to wear around my neck and let weigh me down. But sometimes... Well, sometimes you almost want--like in the vigilante movies where a guy takes justice into his own hands--to just look the other way at what the victims do to get even with their torturers...and nod your head in agreement when justice gets meted out by those victims.
The law. A tool of the brightest minds to do...what? You may find it as interesting as I did that after I'd asked my nurse-turned-lawyer aerobics instructor to copy a good tape for me, I'm playing the tape one day in my car all the way to the end and I find myself suddenly--after the music part finishes--listening to the voice of a man, clearly lecturing. "...and if you think...that the law has anything to do with fairness or justice, you are in the wrong place."
She'd copied the music over onto the tape that came with her bar exam prep class. I ask you, with odds like this, what IS the point of going for revenge? Even if they don't catch you, then you still gotta live with yourself anyway.
Article comments
1 - Eric Berlin
I wonder if anyone has written or has access to a comparison of Sleepers and Mystic River, two movies that have a striking similarities in content and theme.
2 - Barbara Payne
Don't know, but I seem to recall starting to watch Mystic River over at a friend's house and being pretty uninspired. So until I stumble on seeing it again, guess I'd say--without any specifics to back me up--don't bother with that one.
3 - D.B. Cooper
*sighs*
Sleepers was an unbearable piece of frigging shit. With the lone exception of a very good DeNiro performance (the long shot of his face while he is listening to Jason Patric confess the sexual torture he went through is extraordinary), it is fabricated, unbelievable and misguided.
Mystic River enthralled me and is one of the finest films of the last five years. Brilliantly acted, subtle, challenging and poetic. A beautiful work. Watch it or be square.....
4 - Barbara Payne
Oh, dear. Well, then I must be thinking of Cold Mountain. I'll have to give Mystic River another try.