Shattered and Already Dead.

Shattered and Already Dead.

Anger, Vengeance and the Dark Siide of Justice : Feeling Good about Being Bad.














I am a sucker for films that are not mainstream and yet have the distinction of being supported by the names of the some finest actors in the profession … The first of these, Already Dead has Christopher Plummer in it’s roster, The Second has Pierce Brosnan . These actors have had long and fruitful careers and continue to involve themselves in projects that are not of necessity Academy award material…and thank the Film God for that…
Both the above films are cinematic treatments of some of the darkest most powerful emotions of human life. Revenge, Anger, Jealousy , Envy …. And the need for Justice even as coloured by these.
In SHATTERED ( the title under which you will find this film in North American Video shops ) an angry, VERY angry man devises an artfully cruel and unusual plan to teach a life-lesson to a man whose perfect life hides some dark secrets . . Our angry Anti-Hero feels the executive who is the somehat unwilling target of his attentions must be punished for the excesses which his success has made possible. His ingenious plot to humiliate his rival ( which I will not reveal more of as I think you should watch the film ) is as insane as it is clever… and will leave the viewer wondering what is right and what is wrong. Ultimately , the finer virtues of self-restraint which are applauded by our better thinkers are called into question. The suspenseful thriller succeeds in keeping the viewers attention, even in this age of Suspense overdose. This is partly due to the quality of the acting , and also—to my eye, at least—because of the clean and sparing cinematography.
In ALREADY DEAD we find a similarly VERY angry man . Angry for slightly different reasons , he nonetheless pursues ,as does the Anti Hero of SHATTERED a path of "Justice on his own terms" . However , In this film, the denouement does not reveal entirely the machinations at work behind the events that throw our hero and an equally unusual anti-hero together in a fight for survival against a common enemy. In SHATTERED questions are answered that make the equations simpler to grapple with. In ALREADY DEAD there are some unanswered questions which make the film more plausible and realistic but less easy to rationalize.

The shady gray’s of Evil and Retribution are given a detailed examination in these films . The somewhat difficult problem of how the need for justice can easily be transformed into an intimate release of passion ; the equally thorny problem of the apparently erotic nature violence — [that is, of the pleasure which violence seems to give our protagonists who are so very much like all of us ]-- and the also unresolved problem of what the limits of individual freedom are or should be ; all these questions are developed in these two films.

Is Feeling Good the same as Being Good ? There is no easy answer.

In both films the issue is exposed in cinematic realism, without being entirely resolved.
The existential torment of life on earth as we know it , the Sartrean theme expressed in the philosopher Sartre’s words : " Hell is Other People" and the theme of how our illusions about freedom can create our ultimate aloneness … these issues are the underpinning of the two films, which at another level are simple Thrillers, cathartic and entertaining .

These are good yarns if you don’t want to think, but they are also good yarns if you DO want to think.

Both films are available for rent at : Movieland , 1972 Rue Ste. Catherine O.
The Book Fool can be reached at : fictionalworld@hotmail.com