![]() But it didn't come as a complete surprise to her. Not Robert." "And not from something as trivial as a car bomb." That you're alive … is a big relief. You know, when they told Susan you were dead, she couldn't comprehend it. You had a nice funeral, in case you were wondering.You asked me what I saw when I looked at you. But for you, I'm going to make an exception. I promised someone I love very much that I would never go back to being that person. I've done some bad things in my life, Nicolai.I'm giving you the opportunity to make yours. The men I killed, your men, I gave them a chance, they made their decision.One day somebody does something unspeakable to someone else to. Why what they did to her, that mattered to me so much. I couldn't tell you why - it mattered.You're supposed to stand for something, punk.I am offering you a chance to do the right thing.When you pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too.Yours is gonna end right here, on this funky floor… over ninety-eight hundred dollars. Alina, the girl you beat half to death, her life’s gonna go on. In about 30 seconds, your body’s gonna shut down, and you’ll suffocate. It’s because you’re losing so muct blood. Your heart is beating at three times the normal rate.Advice to a co-worker in a hardware store, training to be a security guard.Now, if Denzel just used more Akido, Judo and ninjutsu (or To-Shin Do), we’d also see why age isn’t as important in neutralizing threats as many people may think. We need a working class hero, with working class methods, a haunting and exotic past, and the maturity of someone who has seen and reflected on the world. I think I see a new, distinctly American franchise in the future. Thus, “ The Equalizer” is a rare example of a film that allowed me to think about my own approach to interweaving character development with plot can enrich the story and keep the pace moving quickly. Audiences are brought into the story through character and then the plot is paced well enough to keep us involved. In the end, the producers and director recognized how the visually oriented medium of film could be used to convey character development. This isn’t just a revenge flick, a familiar trope for these types of movies.Īt the end of the movie, I found myself wanting to go back to Boston, one of my favorite cities, despite the blood and mayhem. We see how McCall’s own past changes the way he relates to the people he must eventually dispatch in pursuit of a higher good. The deaths of the bad guys have meaning, even if the gore seems gratuitous as times. ![]() While I still believe the gore was a bit too much, the bloody mayhem is important to understand McCall’s evolution as a character and how, in the end, he retains his humanity. They also made sure they didn’t waste the talents of Mr. They didn’t let the genre or familiar cinematic tropes swamp character development and story structure to create suspense. Given the graphic gore level in the film, this is critical for keeping a good story flowing we (as viewers) cannot be overwhelmed with the blood and mayhem or we lose site of the story. Even though we know how the movie will end, the character evolves at key points, and empathy is established early. A lesser actor would have made the lead character–Robert McCall–two dimensional and predictable. In fact, the opening sequence of shots itself does a fine job of providing important initial backstory to the lead character as an unassuming loner. Time was spent to frame shots creatively and in ways that help tell the story. This wasn’t all computer animated action. Sweeping vistas of Boston (one of my favorite cities), artistic camera work focused on characters and action, and the attention to the human aesthetic of the plot were top notch. (This is good because the plot–hero avenges injustice–is a bit tired.) But, for me, this film stood out for three reasons: This movie, unlike other blockbusters, folds character development into the plot and at least tries to strike a balance between the two. This is not the case with “The Equalizer.” Indeed, I saw just the opposite on the silver screen. Nic, Inc.–but I’ve become somewhat jaded by recent superhero (e.g., Superman, Wolverine, Lucy), super monster (e.g., Godzilla), and martial-arts action films (e.g., Ninja Assassin, 47 Ronin), that showcase special effects and gore over storytelling and character development. I’m a fan of the action/adventure genre anyway– all four of my novels fall into this genre, most recently St. The Equalizer, the action film starring Denzel Washington, provided a welcome and unexpected opportunity to explore this. I often gauge a movie’s value by whether it stimulates my thinking as a writer and storyteller.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |