Hi, sorry for the very late reply. I was pretty much occupied in the last few days.
Is being arrogant/nasty justify the act of robbery or retribution in this very below the belt way?
No, sir, it doesn't. I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my previous post. When I said "Virgil kind of deserved it", I didn't mean it's okay to rob him like that. I was just too lazy to explain that Virgil did somehow inflict it upon himself by the way he treats Billy (and further, by the way he tried to manipulate 'fake' Claire). However, his character or behavior does not, in any way, justifies robbery or other crime towards him. I was only trying to make a point that since most viewers don't find it cruel when it's the 'anti-hero' who experiences unpleasant things, therefore the film's overall score
should not be judged entirely according to the viewer's emotional feeling for a particular character. I'm not against basing one's opinion of a film on how much they can relate to the main character. But at least, take a careful look on the bigger picture first.
Billy and Lambert could have always left the condescending Virgil at any point, I do agree he was arrogant and belittled these people, however, we can see that he was generous with Billy for instance (when he tripled the amount of money he gave him for one of their scheme)
Good point. No argument on this one.
Lets think about it; here is a someone who for once in his life experienced love (and evidently for the first time been with a woman) to the point where he sacrifices his privacy and years of cold-distancing himself from others, here he is tricked and robbed from two of the most important (if not "the" important) things in his existence: his love and his only valuables.
Again, I agree with you that it is cruel indeed (but maybe not on the level of cruelty). I guess he could have inflicted that much of hatred in Billy from all the years of their relationship, or Billy's just a really daft arse, or a combination of both. In the film, we see on many occasions Billy was put down by Virgil, and Billy did express his feeling about Virgil's lack of faith on his works of art which could imply that that had a huge impact on his life or career. There's always two (or more) sides of a story. What if the film revolves around Billy's character, maybe starts from his early 20s where he was a young promising talent who had to suffer years of bad review from his own best friend, Virgil. You could say that what Virgil did to Billy might be as cruel. It's just a matter of perspective. Same thing with what you said about DiMaso and Jasmine. Everyone finds their own certain criteria in film characters that helps them decide whether or not those people 'deserve' their cruel fate. This criteria differs from one person to another. Therefore, some people might say different things about the ending. That's why I think how a viewer feels about the main character and/or their ending can not be a proper measure of how good or bad the film is.
The next paragraphs are not related to the main topic, however I'd like to give my opinion on DiMaso and Jasmine.
First, from what I gather, and I agree with you, Richie DiMaso was too self-absorbed and ambitious. But I don't think there's any intention on causing harm to anyone other than to arrest the bad guys. Or he could have ignored the possibility of inflicting harm because he was too ambitious. Still, there's that line between a murderer and a killer.
Second, Jasmine's ratting out her husband to the FBI can be viewed as a negative action, and a positive action as well. Try this perspective: She wasn't the one who scams people off their money. Telling the FBI about it can be viewed as a good thing. She was lied to and cheated on by her husband many times. I'm guessing she felt really stupid and mad to learn about how many times her husband had cheated on her from another woman. Then again, she could have been happy when she moved in to Ginger's. But she screwed that up by being a conceited jerk.
In comparison, Virgil's fate was somehow better than Jasmine. He can still afford tickets to Prague, he still has his huge 'empty' house, and a surviving reputation.
sorry for the long reply, and thanks for the excellent discussion
No problem at all. It's been a pleasant experience reading your writing.
reply
share