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Hobo With A Shotgun
or How I Learned
To Stop Worrying and Love Film
"You
won't think twice about killing someone's wife,
because you won't even know it's
wrong in the first place."
(21 Jan 2011) Director: Jason
Eisener
A LOT LIKE LOVE
I love that film expands horizons! For me, the biggest case in
point was at
Actionfest
2011. Actionfest's second year
brought many more career film people, and that seemed to elevate the entire festival. It didn't essentially change anything about it, rather,
it gave more importance to the Genre (it's billed as the first and only film
festival that's strictly "Action"1)),
and if you were there, it created an excitement that was palpable in every
showing. It really is a very special experience to be with
like-minded people when you all truly appreciate something. It feels a lot like love.
'ENJOYING' VIOLENCE
The trailer for
Hobo With a Shotgun
was extremely violent. It may seem strange to talk of
love if you've only seen the trailer and haven't seen the movie. When people object to
the violence in Action Movies, I often wonder what their reasons are. They often stop short and
object before they see a film, based solely on the trailer
(I've been guilty of that), or they object to the Genre. Is it for the same reasons I
object to the degrading vs. debasing (thanks to
Ric
Meyers for making that distinction) of women in Action (or any) films?
Degradation and violence is often necessary in Action Movies to create empathy or a thirst for
vengeance with an audience (best case:
13 Assassins, also shown at ActionFest), and while it may be uncomfortable to watch, your
forbearance is paid off with 'message' when they turn it around at the end.
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EXPANDING HORIZONS
Debasing however, is never okay. With debasing,
when you watch you feel slimed, like you were a part of something awful—watching feels like contributing.
But if you stay and don't walk out, it will at least give you the opportunity to
write about how you felt, which will help fight it, and chances are your
horizons will be expanded.
"Enlighten me!" [The Rundown]
After watching the trailer for Hobo With A Shotgun, I
knew I would either love or hate it. When I first saw it, I didn't hate it, but it
took watching it a second time (June 10, 2011) to love it. Hobo made me realize that the difference between me and the
career film people at ActionFest is that their horizons are that
much more expanded; that they are in love with film. And that
realization took me back to when I fell in love with
Action Movies.
IN LOVE WITH FILM
My
intial thoughts on Hobo With A Shotgun
had
everything I needed to get to this point, why I didn't at the time is a mystery,
but better late than never. Film is like that. When it's really good,
it stays with you. Many times films become a part of who you are, a part of
who "we" are. The shared experience of such a collaborative and visually
impactful art form is a tremendous gift. Leave
it to Jane Austen to know about love. From Fanny Price, Edward says
"There are as many forms of love as there are moments in time." Austen, in
her way, was also saying there is only one "in
love".
When people say "I don't go
to the movies that much" I wonder how they stay away. Up until I
decided not to see
Cyclone2, I saw
every movie that came out, and found something worthwhile even if it
was just pushing the envelope on special effects, or, the show-stealing
performance of a minor character by an unknown that launches their career. I
thought, then, that Cyclone was the movie that taught me to be more selective. Now, the only reason I don't see every movie is time and money. Given the opportunity and resources, I
would see EVERY movie, and come away with something worthwhile. I just happen to
enjoy Action Movies the most. That an incredibly violent movie like Hobo could speak so
about love is one of the great miracles of film.
COMING UP SNAKE EYES
The town and violence in Hobo reminded me of
Paul Verhoeven's
Robocop 2
(1990), and the colors and camera angles reminded me of
Brian De
Palma's
Snake Eyes (1998). Visually, it's creative
in every aspect, especially the violence. It took me until after ActionFest, as
I watched the movie the second time, to realize that the Hobo's speech to the babies in the hospital
maternity room could be about himself (and not the town, as the clips being shown
suggest). He has "regrets" and it seems like he realized too late what he
did, but seeing the violence in this town made him realize. He was so far gone,
it took something super shocking to wake him up. (The same could be true for
you, or me.) He
was the one who took drugs, sold drugs, and he was the one who killed someone's
wife. It could all be about him, his delusions. How he sees things.
When I saw
Hobo at ActionFest
2011
and
wrote about it,
I compared it to
Stanley
Kubrick's
A Clockwork Orange and that
comparison stands up, not only visually, but with message.
If you object to violence
and won't see a film like Hobo, you come up snake eyes because you don't get
the attendant horizon expansion. Get a little out of your comfort zone,
don't make a judgment call immediately after, wait a little while and see if it
grows on you. You will get something out of Hobo With A Shogun, but if you never
see it, how will you know?
THE LOVE SONG OF
AARON NORRIS
I went to ActionFest 2011 in love with Action Movies, and came away in love with
Film. Promoting the message that the Festival is about the unsung heroes of the
Action genre, 2011's Actionfest included movies that seemed to be made to please
movie people, not just movies that the movie makers think will please
everyone.
In the hallway the
critics come and go
Talking of George Romero . . .
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action movie freak
