Just came out of the film about an hour ago. Sat with it for a bit, perplexed.
*Spoilers follow*
I was confused by the American flag-clad frat-boy-looking poker player and his entourage.
Who are these guys who continually yell, "USA! USA! USA!"
It all came together when I realized that Oscar Isaac's character left the table in the end, and walked away from the poker game he was playing with the "USA" guy, and went straight to the home of the guy responsible for being, yet never punished or publicly called out as, the source of the greatest immoral acts of America since the Vietnam war.
It became clear, just now, sitting in this bar drinking Crown Royal and an IPA, about an hour after the film, that the film is a metaphor for getting to the source of suffering, and for forgetting the worthless fighting and competition going on with most of us as we argue online with supposed "Patriots" with American flags in their profiles who are simply propagandized tools of the power structure. They are often known as "MAGAs."
Willem Defoe's character is symbolic of a heartless American war machine, a greedy immoral character who speaks at a seminar in a casino, of all places, an establishment that is all about the greed. And Defoe's role in the film is literally "Guy who teaches people how to torture human beings."
The more I think about it, after watching the film an hour ago, this film is freaking amazing.
What a powerful message.
Oscar Isaac's character was the guy who enacted the very training he was told to use against the "enemy" only to be punished with prison time. Yet, he was never done with his sentence, even when released. He sought out redemption by working to gain the funds to help guide and set right Tye Sheridan's character, by veering him away from the same path Isaac's character had been on: a side of murder, torture, disregard for life and humanity.
In the end, the poker player (the fighter/warrior) sits at the table, and as the MAGA (tool of propaganda) looks across at him and is ready to bet/fight, Oscar gets up, leaves the table, and heads straight to Defoe's house to take out the system itself.
It doesn't get much better than this.
I'd say this film, The Card Counter, and mother! By Darren Aronofsky would be a great set of films to show in order to deprogram an America under the spell of propaganda and idealism so resolutely that reality in general is unobtainable; a very dangerous and sorry prospect for a world when the nation these people inhabit has the most nukes.
*Spoilers follow*
I was confused by the American flag-clad frat-boy-looking poker player and his entourage.
Who are these guys who continually yell, "USA! USA! USA!"
It all came together when I realized that Oscar Isaac's character left the table in the end, and walked away from the poker game he was playing with the "USA" guy, and went straight to the home of the guy responsible for being, yet never punished or publicly called out as, the source of the greatest immoral acts of America since the Vietnam war.
It became clear, just now, sitting in this bar drinking Crown Royal and an IPA, about an hour after the film, that the film is a metaphor for getting to the source of suffering, and for forgetting the worthless fighting and competition going on with most of us as we argue online with supposed "Patriots" with American flags in their profiles who are simply propagandized tools of the power structure. They are often known as "MAGAs."
Willem Defoe's character is symbolic of a heartless American war machine, a greedy immoral character who speaks at a seminar in a casino, of all places, an establishment that is all about the greed. And Defoe's role in the film is literally "Guy who teaches people how to torture human beings."
The more I think about it, after watching the film an hour ago, this film is freaking amazing.
What a powerful message.
Oscar Isaac's character was the guy who enacted the very training he was told to use against the "enemy" only to be punished with prison time. Yet, he was never done with his sentence, even when released. He sought out redemption by working to gain the funds to help guide and set right Tye Sheridan's character, by veering him away from the same path Isaac's character had been on: a side of murder, torture, disregard for life and humanity.
In the end, the poker player (the fighter/warrior) sits at the table, and as the MAGA (tool of propaganda) looks across at him and is ready to bet/fight, Oscar gets up, leaves the table, and heads straight to Defoe's house to take out the system itself.
It doesn't get much better than this.
I'd say this film, The Card Counter, and mother! By Darren Aronofsky would be a great set of films to show in order to deprogram an America under the spell of propaganda and idealism so resolutely that reality in general is unobtainable; a very dangerous and sorry prospect for a world when the nation these people inhabit has the most nukes.
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