A Walk Among The Tombstones
Oct. 10th, 2014 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3I went to see this last night:
Not without some trepidation, I have to say.
It's based on a book by Lawrence Block, featuring my favourite private eye, Matt Scudder.
The books are, generally, very downbeat. They begin with Scudder as an alcoholic ex-cop, doing favours for money in between black outs and waking up in hospital. His New York is a dark place, where Times Square is still full of porn theatres and drug dealers, before Disney and zero tolerance policing changed the city - at least on the surface.
As the series went on, and Scudder gets his life sorted out, the darkness remained but there was more background - he acquires a partner and an associate, he gets settled in sobriety, the supporting cast gets wider. But the fact remains that Scudder solves crimes by Getting Off His Ass and Knocking On Doors, and that this isn't a very cinematic activity.
He goes to the library and researches, he talks to people, he gets a feeling for when someone is lying to him, and he worries and pulls at tiny snags until something makes sense. I swear that the occasional killer actually confesses or kills himself just to stop Scudder coming round and talking to him again.
What he doesn't do is beat people up, indulge in wild fire fights, and drop through skylights with a gun in each hand.
And thus my trepidation.
Liam Neeson, once upon a time, was the perfect choice to play Scudder. He had a heavy, brooding presence, someone who carried guilt and experience, and a wry humour that matches Scudder to a "T".
And then came "Taken" and "Taken 2" and "Taken Under Another Title", and I was afraid that I would get Scudder kicking down doors and slaying by the dozen, because that's what people pay to see Liam do these days.
I was wrong to be afraid, and the movie will never make a lot of money because I was wrong.
It's a slow, very dark movie. There's strong violence, and there's also sexual menace - most of that implied, but not any less disturbing for that. In truth, it's not as dark as the book. The ending is a more conventional action resolution than the horror which sits at the end of the novel. I actually agree this was the way to go - the ending becomes about Scudder's redemption, which works in the context of a stand-alone movie, and wasn't necessary in one of a series of novels, which shows Scudder's growth over almost 40 years. To support that arc, some of the novel's elements get jettisoned - Matt has no romantic partner, the client's story is slimmed down, Matt's friends don't appear (apart from TJ, who is introduced in the movie, and, to be frank, is over-explained).
I was gripped by the atmosphere, by the menace, and by the remorseless working out of the plot. Problem is, the rest of the audience weren't - half a dozen or more people walked out before the end. I think they came to see Liam kick ass and they didn't get that. They got a flawed man stumbling his way back from the edge - pulling himself back up, actually, from haven fallen over the edge.
If you get a chance, see this in the cinema, but if not see it when it hits DVD. If at all possible, DON'T see the trailer - it's incredibly spoiler-ific.
Not without some trepidation, I have to say.
It's based on a book by Lawrence Block, featuring my favourite private eye, Matt Scudder.
The books are, generally, very downbeat. They begin with Scudder as an alcoholic ex-cop, doing favours for money in between black outs and waking up in hospital. His New York is a dark place, where Times Square is still full of porn theatres and drug dealers, before Disney and zero tolerance policing changed the city - at least on the surface.
As the series went on, and Scudder gets his life sorted out, the darkness remained but there was more background - he acquires a partner and an associate, he gets settled in sobriety, the supporting cast gets wider. But the fact remains that Scudder solves crimes by Getting Off His Ass and Knocking On Doors, and that this isn't a very cinematic activity.
He goes to the library and researches, he talks to people, he gets a feeling for when someone is lying to him, and he worries and pulls at tiny snags until something makes sense. I swear that the occasional killer actually confesses or kills himself just to stop Scudder coming round and talking to him again.
What he doesn't do is beat people up, indulge in wild fire fights, and drop through skylights with a gun in each hand.
And thus my trepidation.
Liam Neeson, once upon a time, was the perfect choice to play Scudder. He had a heavy, brooding presence, someone who carried guilt and experience, and a wry humour that matches Scudder to a "T".
And then came "Taken" and "Taken 2" and "Taken Under Another Title", and I was afraid that I would get Scudder kicking down doors and slaying by the dozen, because that's what people pay to see Liam do these days.
I was wrong to be afraid, and the movie will never make a lot of money because I was wrong.
It's a slow, very dark movie. There's strong violence, and there's also sexual menace - most of that implied, but not any less disturbing for that. In truth, it's not as dark as the book. The ending is a more conventional action resolution than the horror which sits at the end of the novel. I actually agree this was the way to go - the ending becomes about Scudder's redemption, which works in the context of a stand-alone movie, and wasn't necessary in one of a series of novels, which shows Scudder's growth over almost 40 years. To support that arc, some of the novel's elements get jettisoned - Matt has no romantic partner, the client's story is slimmed down, Matt's friends don't appear (apart from TJ, who is introduced in the movie, and, to be frank, is over-explained).
I was gripped by the atmosphere, by the menace, and by the remorseless working out of the plot. Problem is, the rest of the audience weren't - half a dozen or more people walked out before the end. I think they came to see Liam kick ass and they didn't get that. They got a flawed man stumbling his way back from the edge - pulling himself back up, actually, from haven fallen over the edge.
If you get a chance, see this in the cinema, but if not see it when it hits DVD. If at all possible, DON'T see the trailer - it's incredibly spoiler-ific.
