We'll just have to disagree about Monsters Ball. I thought the excecution sequence was overly onesided in that it didn't even mention what crime he had committed, nor pay any attention at all to the victim's family. One can paint a sympathetic portrait of anybody if one wants to, but that's not truth. It would have made a much better movie if they had focussed on both families, his and the victim's. That could have been fascinating if well done. As it was, I watched the sequence with only half my mind, the other half wondering what he had done to deserve death (or not deserve it), what if any role his wife has played (was she aware before, or after, or was she one of the rare completely innocent spouses?), etc.
I also thought the graphicness of the sex was gratitutious, particularly that with the prostitute. Unnecessary to the plot, distasteful, demeaning, distracting.
Finally, for me the plot elements didn't hold together. His being on the scene when the boy was hit was unlikely and artificial. Also, I don't believe that any son would condemn his father to a nursing home on the grounds he did. And if he was a prison guard, looking for work through the newspapers, living with a sick father, where did he get the money to buy a garage?
I suppose in real life there are people whose husbands have just been executed who shortly thereafter engage in sex with a stranger of another race, but if there are, I don't know them and don't particularly want to know them.
There was more I objected to, but that will do for starters. Basically, there were too many elements that just didn't make sense for me to find any useful meaning in the movie.
As to your reading, you read much more current stuff than I do. I read a bit of current literature, but in general spend my time with stuff written from Homer up to about WWI or maybe II. Books that I know are worth reading. When I get through all those books I want to read -- which will take me at least another 60 years -- then I can focus more on current writing.
Not to say that I don't read modern writing occasionally, when I have reason to believe it's worth reading. But I don't just go and pick books off the new book shelves the way some people I know do hoping they'll be worth reading. (Not implying that you do. I'm thinking of a few people here I know who automatically try to read every new fiction that comes into the library.) |
