This movie had way too many sub-plots that were not needed
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Kroyall1962 — 15 years ago(January 01, 2011 08:32 PM)
I agree the movie has too many sub-plots. I find Sayle's films interesting but he has a tendency to throw in characters and plot lines that interrupt the flow of the story. He did the same thing in "Limbo". Numerous characters and sub-plots are introduced and then are abruptly dropped with no explanation or resolution. Why elicit an emotional investment within the viewer in a particular storyline and then have the entire narrative disappear?
I don't buy Ebert's explanation, this film lacked focus. Of course a left winger like him would enjoy sub-plots having to do with America's supposedly racist past, that doesn't make the movie any better. Just when you are getting into the main storyline, you are taken out of it again with a propaganda break featuring 1 inch deep characters and wooden performances. I knew what these idiots were going to say before they said it. The Sheriff Wade character couldn't have been more cliched if they tried. -
Kroyall1962 — 15 years ago(January 02, 2011 08:55 AM)
The main storyline was the body in the desert and his father's involvement in it. The romance with his sister sort of ties in because it reveals his father is not quite the man he was told he was. The rest of it was extraneous nonsense that detracts from the story.
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chester-copperpot-1 — 15 years ago(January 02, 2011 12:24 PM)
No, that's where you are wrong. The body in the desert is the mere "in" into this story, it's not the main storyline, only the beginning of a much larger drama. It's only a skeleton, both literally and figuratively, to hang the stories on to.
Try to imagine this film in your way, where the body in the desert
is
the main storyline, and the rest is just "extranous nonsense". What movie would you have then? And what would that film tell? How much would be left? Enough for a fifty minute episode of Agatha Christies "Poirot"? A whodunnit, English cottage style? -
denham — 12 years ago(January 21, 2014 09:26 AM)
Did they need a new jail? Well, it's a complicated issue
Of course the many strands entwining through this film are not least why it's a good film. However, I agree with the OP on the narrower point that it would have benefitted from a little more tightness in the scripting - the Bunny scene and the excursus on Black Seminoles being two examples.
"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." -
aGuiltySoul — 15 years ago(January 02, 2011 07:02 PM)
I believe you might have mistaken this film for a typical whodunit. But what this film actually is, is a psychological study of Sam (Chris Cooper) as well as his community, the people and circumstances that have led up to this moment and the type of man he has become. As the sheriff we first meet him trying to solve a crime committed a long time ago, and it is indeed the vehicle that pushes the plot along, but it is how the investigation wraps around his life, and what we learn of it, that is the true story.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul." -
Kroyall1962 — 15 years ago(January 02, 2011 08:23 PM)
I understand what the director was trying to do. The result was a whodunit with a twist about a brother and sister being lovers. That plot alone was more than enough to drive the film. The other characters were not compelling and detracted from the story.
Had they been compelling, it would have been equally annoying because you would end up wanting to know more about them. You don't throw the kitchen sink into a film for no good reason. The goal of the film is one thing, the actual result is another. There is a reason that most directors don't make films like this. They understand it doesn't work. Some people liked it and accept the explanation from the director, I don't. -
aGuiltySoul — 15 years ago(January 02, 2011 08:49 PM)
WHOA! Besides being a person who gives a major spoiler away, I feel sorry for anyone who thinks that is the point of the story.
It's a climaxing moment, the final piece of a large, complex puzzle. This is, in part, the story of two interdependent communities and the parallel existence they have lived over time. Primarly, this is Sam's story and he is firmly rooted into those communities. We watch and listen as he traces his life through all of the surrounding characters. All of whom I found very compelling.
"I'd never ask you to trust me. It's the cry of a guilty soul." -
jimking-2 — 14 years ago(March 23, 2012 08:13 PM)
A person ought to be able to fix a snack, walk the dog, take a bathroom break and a few phone calls without losing track of the plot.
Too much going on in this movie!
Seriously, I consider this a classic, in my top 10. -
ProfessorFate — 12 years ago(November 12, 2013 05:48 AM)
"Of course a left winger like him would enjoy sub-plots having to do with America's supposedly racist past . . ."
"Supposedly"? Are you saying the racism shown in the movie isn't consistent with racism in America during the time periods depicted?
I don't think it was the subplots that bothered you. I think the film simply presented a messy reality that you are uncomfortable dealing with.
"Push the button, Max!" -
Kroyall1962 — 12 years ago(November 12, 2013 07:55 AM)
There has always been racism present on every corner of the earth within every culture throughout history. That will always be the case to a certain extent. My point was that it was an unneeded, distracting element to this particular story.
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MuchToBeGratefulFor — 12 years ago(November 22, 2013 08:39 PM)
The interaction between blacks, whites, and Hispanics, past and present, IS the story. The murder mystery was just a vehicle to explore those themes.
You must be the change you seek in the world. Gandhi