Help can some pls give me the moral of this movie. There are soooo many things going on dr vs. devil, tony vs. anton, tony vs. girl, girl vs. dad, dad vs. everybody, everybody vs. everybody. And anyone thinks its horrible that Heaths character died in the film????
sharehey, don't know if you're still waiting or watching for an answer... there's no answer, I mean there's no "moral", it's a movie that's supposed to make you think, it's supposed to make you question your own morals. In an ideal world, the movie itself would be an imaginarium. It would be a magic mirror. Right?
Everything we come into, we bring some of ourselves. The good the bad and the ugly. None of us are all bad or all good. The choices we face, that's kind of more what defines who we are. Do we respond to a choice in a way that's comfortable and easy, or challenging and creative? Anybody who's really lived life, I think knows that sometimes it's really hard to know the difference between the brave choice and the cowardly choice. Sometimes you feel like you're doing something right, and then when you look back on it a few years later it seems crazy. lol. What's that old expression.... "presence of mind." Not such an easy thing to achieve.
As far as Heath's character, Tony, I think it's a really fascinating character. I walked out of the movie with my friend, and she was like, "oh that was sad, I like him." And I was like, "don't you remember when he did this and that?" She just had a positive impression of him. lol. It's a totally brilliant series of performances and a great character. I think the character is very similar to Jeff Bridge's character in "The Fisher King." In both cases, the film is about the possibility of redemption. But "Dr. Parnassus" is a more cynical movie, so Tony has to die at the end because he really just is a POS user. You don't need guys like that in your life. None of us do. I think Gilliam and McKeown probably drew on several famous film producers who I'd rather not name to get his personal characteristics.
Heath Ledger really nailed this role, it is awesome to watch his work in this film. 10/10 transcendent tony. The others are just OK. Jude Law almost ended up making the movie at one point actually, but his name wasn't worth as much to the banks as Ledger's.
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'
^ this . . . U stated that there is no moral to the story but then went on to write 3+ paragraphs. I like it though. But after reading what u typed and giving it a little more thought I find the moral quite simple. I agree with you that it is about choices. Hence the imagaquarim represents life in a nutshell. Make a bad choice go to hell. If u make good choices you succeed. Outside of the imagaquarium is the real world and the characters making choices in their real life. Heath made bad choices and died. Anton and daughter made good choices and they are WINNING. However Dr.Parnasuss gambled with his life and now he is stuck in purgatory everyone else he knows has moved on. All the extra crap in the movie such as the symbolism represents just how warped our perception of the world is today. People see what they want to see such as with Heaths character. Everybody knew he wasn't no good but yet continued to fool with him until he single handed turned their world upside down and affecting each one in a negative light. #ijs thanks n 4 your insight.
shareThanks. Now I wanna go watch the movie again. Haven't seen it in 2 or 3 years. But what you say makes about as much sense as whatever anybody else has said. I think there's a persuasive aspect of Tony's personality, that makes people want to put up with him, want to believe in him, because he seems to want to help others. Part of the theme of what Tony is about, is this idea of false charity that pops up really clearly at the end. If you watch the movie more closely the second time, keeping in mind that Tony is a sociopath, then the scenes like where he's essentially seducing all these old ladies from the department store into paying for the show, come off as a form of psychological manipulation whereas the first time you see it, you might want to interpret it as Tony being helpful. And then in his re-vamped mall-friendly version of the imaginarium, he has the sign that says "please TAKE generously." But when people come out of the mirror, they dump all their belongings into the box.
The best thief makes you believe that he's giving you something. And that can be applied on an emotional level as well. There's a narrative reason why Tony isn't revealed as a villain until fairly late in the film, but I think the most important function is to deceive the audience to whatever extent so that we end up buying into Tony and wanting to believe in his redemption (because most of us are smart enough to at least figure out that there's some bad stuff in his past). That makes us question, in the end, hopefully anyway, how quickly we make moral or character judgments, or our choices about who to trust.
I just recently read George Clinton's memoirs, and I mean here's a guy who has dealt with a lot of shady corporate lawyers and rip-off artists, and one thing he says sounds about the same, something like, "The person you should be most careful around, is the person who doesn't seem to be asking for anything." And then William Burroughs had a saying, too: "Beware of whores who say they don't want money. The hell they don't, what they mean is they want more money. Much more."
Did I not love him, Cooch? MY OWN FLESH I DIDN'T LOVE BETTER!!! But he had to say 'Nooooooooo'