Sunday, December 30, 2007 - Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cinematically

In my catch-up blog yesterday from last weekend, I talked about my sprinting to get everything done so that I could meet my friends to go see Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the movies. The interesting thing that I realized after we saw the movie, that every movie that I popped in while I was baking all the way up to Sweeney was a movie that had revenge either as its main point or the motivation of the main character. I thought this was a rather odd coincidence, or I'm just a revenge focused nerd. Talk about your holiday cheer!

Here are the movies I watched (yes, there will be spoilers, so don't read on if you haven't seen the movies):

• Batman Begins - By far the best Batman movie made yet! It is not just because Christian Bale does shirtless push ups, either. Liam Neeson is just wonderful in his role(s), and with the supporting cast of Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and yes, even Katie Holmes just makes this movie seem much more like a movie than a chance for a villain to chew the scenery like the first 4 movies. Of course, we all know the basis for the creation of the Batman character is for Bruce Wayne to avenge the murder of his parents.
• Star Trek: First Contact - I am by no means a Trekker, though when The Next Generation was in repeats, I did catch it quite a bit, and I do like the franchise. I will also be in line to see what JJ Abrams does with the new movie. Anyway, First Contact is really the only good movie that The Next Generation cast ever made. Which is probably because it has the Borg as the main villains. The Borg are by far the best new characters introduced in the newer series. When you take into account that Captain Picard was assimilated by the Borg, you get the clear revenge storyline, which is astutely pointed out in the movie by Alfre Woodard, who points out Picard is hunting them like Capatin Ahab hunted Moby Dick. It is just a great movie, which I hadn't seen in a long time.
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - This is by far a movie about regrets more than anything else, but you have a central motivation of revenge for the character of Jade Fox, which really sets into motion the main plot points of the entire story. This is a movie that I prefer to watch completely because it is in Mandarin and because the visuals are so great. I'd rather focus on it than Chex Mix.
• Hero - Another movie in Mandarin. Hmmm...are the Chinese vengeful? This is a beautiful movie with a very interesting narrative structure, that I will not attempt to recreate here. If you have not seen it and like subtitled movies, I encourage you to watch this. Jet Li is the Hero of the title, but he is not exactly what he seems as he seeks revenge on the would be Emperor of China. The stories as they are told and retold from different perspectives are just visually stunning in the vein of Crouching Tiger, but the director, Xiang Yimou (one of my absolute faves), just takes the look of the movie up a notch.
• Sweeney Todd - Finally, the revenge movie to end all revenge movies. This is by far the darkest one of the bunch, and if you do not mind people singing about throat slittings, cannibalism, and yes, revenge then this is the movie for you. Now, I am not a big fan of musicals (gasp...am I gay?) nor slasher movies, but I do love this movie. Indeed, it is probably the best movie I have seen this year, and it is by far the best movie that Tim Burton has directed in a very long time. Yes, sure, not all the cast are Broadway caliber singers. Johnny Depp is good but not great, and Helena Bonham Carter, well, there just isn't enough producing in the world to make her a good singer. However, more importantly, these two carry off the characters very well. Especially when you consider just how horrifying their behavior is. The killings are quite graphic, but obviously, the blood letting is the only emotional release that Sweeney Todd has, and the blood flying everywhere, defying all laws of biology, just feels right in the story. In the end, it has a good message about how all consuming revenge can be, and that sometimes you miss the obvious standing right in front of you. There is truly not a happy ending, but it is certainly the just ending for all involved.
  

So there is my day of revenge movies. Do you have any that you love? Discuss