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Changeling
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Reassessment time.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
Changeling
Drama / English / 2008
WHY'D I WATCH IT?
Originally Posted by Omnizoa
Honestly, for me, a movie that shows me the how monstrous humans can be are movies that focus not on their actions, but on their mindset. How they sickly justify it to themselves. Some movies are really good at that.
WHAT'D I THINK? *SPOILERS*
I suppose it's commendable to some extent for a movie to broach big topics, but it's unfortunate when the movie itself is both figuratively and literally subsumed by reality.
The movie's okay. The story works, scenes are appropriately emotional, the acting's solid with the possible exception of Jeffrey Donovan who's southern accent suddenly takes on an Irish quality. Regardless he manages a pretty despicable bad guy, so that works.
There are a couple leaps in logic such as how Angelina Jolie's character Christine Collins somehow, if at least temporarily, apparently buys being told she's too distraught to recognize her own son.
I don't care if the kid's malnourished and the rest of her family was shot in front of her eyes, she's known her son his entire life, that's not a plausible mistake to make, let alone handwave (are you SURE it's not your son?).
The movie starts off pretty solid and manages that for I dunno, about half it's length before we get into the final stretch where we start playing that old game of Spot The Ending.
Is this the last scene of the movie? Okay.
Is this the last scene of the movie? Okay.
Is this the last scene of the movie? Okay.
To be honest there are some great scenes in the movie, particularly one which is the whole reason I rewatched it because it presents the resident doctor at a mental hospital (*ding!) as one of the most LOVEABLE TO HATE VILE SCUMBAGS IN THE PLANET YOU JUST WANT TO PUNCH HIS FALLACIOUS ****ING TEETH OUT.
Word-twistin' mother****er. That's some grandmaster chess levels of dickery and in fact this is what I was referring to in the post about Schindler's List. It doesn't bother me to see an image of one person callously killing another person as much as it bothers me to see someone contort and pervert logic so as to justify anything, particularly from a indisputable position of authority.
I'm honestly not entirely sure why it bothers me so much. Perhaps it's because this is the source of the atrocities we see in things like World War II. This is corruption, pure and simple, and it plagues their mind, unbidden by empathy or beholden to dissenters. It's mercilessly cruel chaos and it's unstoppable from it's perch, CRUSHING any hope of justice or retribution.
I wanna claw his eyes out, punch him in the throat, and cave his skull in with something ironic. **** that guy.
And **** mental hospitals. Those places suck. I-I mean... heh, I assume... ( o_o)
Favorite scene of the movie though.
ANYWAY, other than the movie lacking a certain punch to it that comes from what I believe is a slightly off-focus attention to it's various elements, there's KIND OF A PROBLEM when it comes to Real Life Stories like this. In that it's very blatantly misrepresented.
On one hand, there were two killers, not one, the guy's mom was involved. Also, that happy ending? Where the two main police dudes were fined and lost their jobs? And the whole courtroom applauded and cheered? Smiles all around? Yeah.
They never paid that fine.
They got their jobs back.
And Christine's son is still dead.
~And They Lived Happily Ever After!~
Yes, it seems police corruption is alive and well.
What is it with California anyway?
First, Changeling's protagonist is committed by corrupt cops in 2008, cops get away with it,
then L.A. Noire's protagonist dies investigating corrupt cops in 2011, cops get away with it,
then this very real man is repeatedly stabbed to death by corrupt cops just 5 months ago, cops get away with it.
It's almost as if the police don't answer to anybody, have no accountability, possess a disproportionate amount of resources despite that, and are free to exploit, abuse, and murder people through the control of information and the fundamentally flawed justice system which enables them.
And guess who pays their salary?
You got it.
You wanna know what else you pay for? For the serial killer in this movie, and in reality, to sit on his ass in prison for 2 ****ING YEARS, turning perfectly good food into anal waste while the bureaucratic CLUSTER**** OF A LEGAL SYSTEM struggles not to cough up a lung and deliver on it's promise to KILL THE WORTHLESS WASTE OF SKIN WITH A PIECE OF ROPE YOU COULD BUY FROM A DEPARTMENT STORE FOR 20 ****~ING DOLLARS!
And people wonder why I don't VOTE.
Oh yeah, the MOVIE. Idunno, Iduncare, just fuggin' leave me alone.
Final Verdict: [Meh...]
The movie's okay. The story works, scenes are appropriately emotional, the acting's solid with the possible exception of Jeffrey Donovan who's southern accent suddenly takes on an Irish quality. Regardless he manages a pretty despicable bad guy, so that works.
There are a couple leaps in logic such as how Angelina Jolie's character Christine Collins somehow, if at least temporarily, apparently buys being told she's too distraught to recognize her own son.
I don't care if the kid's malnourished and the rest of her family was shot in front of her eyes, she's known her son his entire life, that's not a plausible mistake to make, let alone handwave (are you SURE it's not your son?).
The movie starts off pretty solid and manages that for I dunno, about half it's length before we get into the final stretch where we start playing that old game of Spot The Ending.
Is this the last scene of the movie? Okay.
Is this the last scene of the movie? Okay.
Is this the last scene of the movie? Okay.
To be honest there are some great scenes in the movie, particularly one which is the whole reason I rewatched it because it presents the resident doctor at a mental hospital (*ding!) as one of the most LOVEABLE TO HATE VILE SCUMBAGS IN THE PLANET YOU JUST WANT TO PUNCH HIS FALLACIOUS ****ING TEETH OUT.
Word-twistin' mother****er. That's some grandmaster chess levels of dickery and in fact this is what I was referring to in the post about Schindler's List. It doesn't bother me to see an image of one person callously killing another person as much as it bothers me to see someone contort and pervert logic so as to justify anything, particularly from a indisputable position of authority.
I'm honestly not entirely sure why it bothers me so much. Perhaps it's because this is the source of the atrocities we see in things like World War II. This is corruption, pure and simple, and it plagues their mind, unbidden by empathy or beholden to dissenters. It's mercilessly cruel chaos and it's unstoppable from it's perch, CRUSHING any hope of justice or retribution.
I wanna claw his eyes out, punch him in the throat, and cave his skull in with something ironic. **** that guy.
And **** mental hospitals. Those places suck. I-I mean... heh, I assume... ( o_o)
Favorite scene of the movie though.
ANYWAY, other than the movie lacking a certain punch to it that comes from what I believe is a slightly off-focus attention to it's various elements, there's KIND OF A PROBLEM when it comes to Real Life Stories like this. In that it's very blatantly misrepresented.
On one hand, there were two killers, not one, the guy's mom was involved. Also, that happy ending? Where the two main police dudes were fined and lost their jobs? And the whole courtroom applauded and cheered? Smiles all around? Yeah.
They never paid that fine.
They got their jobs back.
And Christine's son is still dead.
~And They Lived Happily Ever After!~
Yes, it seems police corruption is alive and well.
What is it with California anyway?
First, Changeling's protagonist is committed by corrupt cops in 2008, cops get away with it,
then L.A. Noire's protagonist dies investigating corrupt cops in 2011, cops get away with it,
then this very real man is repeatedly stabbed to death by corrupt cops just 5 months ago, cops get away with it.
It's almost as if the police don't answer to anybody, have no accountability, possess a disproportionate amount of resources despite that, and are free to exploit, abuse, and murder people through the control of information and the fundamentally flawed justice system which enables them.
And guess who pays their salary?
You got it.
You wanna know what else you pay for? For the serial killer in this movie, and in reality, to sit on his ass in prison for 2 ****ING YEARS, turning perfectly good food into anal waste while the bureaucratic CLUSTER**** OF A LEGAL SYSTEM struggles not to cough up a lung and deliver on it's promise to KILL THE WORTHLESS WASTE OF SKIN WITH A PIECE OF ROPE YOU COULD BUY FROM A DEPARTMENT STORE FOR 20 ****~ING DOLLARS!
And people wonder why I don't VOTE.
Oh yeah, the MOVIE. Idunno, Iduncare, just fuggin' leave me alone.
Final Verdict: [Meh...]