Does a crime, like murder, which bears down so heavily on ones moral fiber, really ever go unpunished? Those of us with a strong sense of morality and ethics wouldn't like to think so, but is this always the case? Probably not.Most everyone will do whatever it takes to succeed. With that desire, though, there is a line we draw. This is where our morals come into play. Unfortunately for some the line is either to far gone, or just simply does not exist. Fortunately for us we can turn to movies to analyze these two very different psychological reactions to a serious moral infraction.
For decades American Auteur Woody Allen has portrayed themes such as sex, relationships, religion, and the psychological response of a cold blooded murder in his films. Over his Large body of work he has explored this idea of murder and the psychological toll it takes many times. We'll look at two of his works that contrast characters in very different mental states after a murder, Cassandras Dream(2007) and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).
Cassandras Dream is the story of two brothers, Ian (Ewan McGregor) and Terry (Colin Farrell), living in London. When Ian decides to pursue his entrepreneurial dreams, and Terry amasses a large gambling debt, they turn to their rich Uncle, Howard (Tom Wilkinson), for help. Uncle Howard has been the family fail safe for years but what they don't realize is his money may be dirty. When Ian and Terry turn to him, he asks for the ultimate favor.
Through years of lies and deceit Howard has become a millionaire. With the territory comes enemies. When Ian and Terry approach Howard to ask their favor he agrees with one stipulation. They kill the one man who can bring him down, Martin Burns (Philip Davis). Burns is a former business partner of Howard and has the knowledge to put Howard in jail for a long time.
Driven by love, greed, and addiction the two reluctantly agree, commit the murder, and get off seemingly unpunished. That is until the moral impact of the situation hits Terry. Terry is so stricken by the incident that he begins having nightmares, he quits his job, and becomes suicidal. The mental anguish of acting against his morals are literally going to kill him.
As an attempt to cool him down and talk to Terry, Ian takes him out on their boat, Cassandras Dream. While on Cassandras Dream it becomes evident that Terry is going to turn himself in, ruining their master plan. When this happens Ian is prepared to kill again to protect himself. The only problem is it is his own brother. He can't bring himself to do it and they get in a fight on the boat. In a freak accident Terry kills Ian. Already distraught about the murder of Burns, he then kills himself.
Terry is our ideal real life situation. What we would like to think happens to one who slips in their morals and takes an others life. They eventually get so worn down, even after not being caught, that they turn them self in or kill them self because they cannot live with what they have done.
The trailer gives us a good sense of the character conflict:
Crimes and Misdemeanors on the other hand paints us a very different picture. Judah (Martin Landau) is a prominent ophthalmologist, but he is not without his faults. Judah has been having a long time affair with his mistress Dolores (Anjelica Huston).
After years of broken promises and delusions that Judah will leave his wife, Dolores decides to take matters into her own hands. She is going to tell Judah's wife. When Judah intercepts a letter Dolores has sent he will do anything to make it stop, and prevent his wife from finding out.
Judah decides to turn to his brother Jack (Jerry Orbach) for advice on the situation. Jack is the brother with connections in crime and suggests Dolores be "gotten rid of." After a long moral debate Judah decides the only way to get rid of the problem is to get rid of Dolores and has his brother hire her murder.
At first it eats away at Judah, but he rationalizes that he had no other choice and after time the pain fades. Judah is prepared and determined to live his life without shame or anguish of what he has done.
Towards the end of the film he meets Cliff (Woody Allen) a filmmaker. Judah tells Cliff he has the ultimate tragedy to put onto film. He proceeds to tell him his story. The clip is below:
The most important line here is "People carry awful deeds with them." And it's true. All of us have done things that maybe we weren't proud of or wished we hadn't done. Where do we draw the line though. Most of us regret things maybe we've done to a sibling or friend, or maybe how we treated our parents when we were younger. Murder doesn't really fit this same mold. In reality though we have desires to succeed and to survive. Ultimately our experience and past will determine our moral structure which in turn helps determine our threshold for what we put behind us and forget about. It can be amazing what the human mind will rationalize to survive.
I feel the narration at the end of Crimes and Misdemeanors is the best closing for this piece. The clip is below:
"We are in fact the sum total of our choices."
No comments:
Post a Comment