Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives

[redhawk23]

Its also a matter of the difference between swift and brutal justice vs haphazard personal revenge plots.

 

[weezerspider]

So it's basically

Spoiler

Old Testament style absolute justice conquering evil

?

I could definitely get into that.

Yeah. exactly. That's why its called 'Only God Forgives' IMO.

 

[redhawk23]

Whoa, well this makes sense. This film shares a cinematographer, Larry Smith, with Eyes Wide Shut and Barry Lyndon.

 

[Rez]

Old testament absolute justice hits the nail on the head. The entire film feels like a tone poem or parable that might as well be a loose adaptation of any number of myths or biblical passages.


Read the second draft script today now that I've seen the movie, and wow. Somewhere between completely gutted and massively different, but that comes as no surprise. Wish they had kept in about another 10% of the dialogue, because as it stands only maybe 5% of the dialogue in the script is actually in the film.

 

[redhawk23]

Side note: While its possible Wes Anderson himself was also referencing some earlier film unknown to me, there is a shot in Only God Forgives that is almost exactly the same as one of the most famous moments from the Royal Tenanbaums.

Namely a shot of bleeding hands over a sink basin. In the Anderson film its when Richie is committing suicide,

here its a vision Julian has after meeting with the prostitute that ties him to a chair.

Minus the hair in the earlier shot, they are almost exactly the same, the blood coming out of the tap in the case of Refns film. Even the lighting is the same.

Is there an even earlier film both are paying tribute to? Is it coincidence? Anderson just seems like an unlikely influence for Refn.

 

[redhawk23]

http://badassdigest.com/2013/07/19/only-god-forgives-is-uncannily-freudian/

On the overt Freudian aspects of the film.

 

[Drz]

Is there an even earlier film both are paying tribute to? Is it coincidence? Anderson just seems like an unlikely influence for Refn.

To me it was about how dirty Julian's hands are, because he is a sinful man who has committed atrocitious with his hands, hence why he seeks forgiveness at the end.

Script talk:

Spoiler

In the script, he does survive after getting his hands cut off, whetever he survives here is left for the viewer's belief, but i do think Julian finds personal redemption and can finally live the way he wants, with his Mother and Brother out of the picture.

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

I saw this two nights ago.

To be honest, I'm disappointed by it. I knew what they were going for, but I feel as though the characters are too thin, and there was too little going on to care. I feel like Refn took most of the weaker aspects of Drive (which I loved), and amplified them. I feel like unlike the quieter scenes in Drive, much less was revealed about the character, and it didn't forward the plot. A lot of the art house-ness of the movie did very little. Those scenes could have been replaced by exploring Julian. Unlike the Driver, I think Julian's should have been explored. They tried to imply many things, like possible incest and the emotional damage his mother had on him, but I think it needed more development to work.

 

[Drz]

What more would you need to know regarding the story?

 

[Mrs. Sawyer]

Exploring Julian's character. What makes him and Billy the way they were? I don't think they were compelling, relatable, nor did I find following his story for the most part interesting enough. I think the story had a lot more potential than it should have.

 

[DaRkVeNgeanCe]

6/10
I was really looking forward to this and felt confused after viewing it. I loved how beautifully the film was shot, the acting and cinematography was great. There were scenes I liked but overall the film was so drab and dark without one tad bit of any positive vibe that it made it overall a disturbing dark place to go, with no light to shine through or anyone to root for.

I love dark films, I also love crazy violent films, but something about this one just didn't work for me.

 

[dark_b]

What more would you need to know regarding the story?

if the mother liked to have sex with younger boys or just with their younger sons. t:

 

[antsman41]

Well, that was pretty neat... will need more viewings to sit better with me. Yes, there isn't much dialogue or deeper plot but that didn't hurt it at all. It was at time's too artistic but luckily I knew that going in.

The brutality, the honesty behind the cop guy and Julian's missions were wonderful.

This was shot so beautifully. I normally hate anything that is filmed in the East but wow. Everything was so haunting, those long, drawn out scenes might hurt people seeing this but I wish more people would let their cast use their surroundings. My favorite of the year did this also in a whole different way; Drinking Buddies. Doing things like this were so great during the late 60's and into the 70's. The minimal use of music and dialogue was wonderful...

This film felt like a Kubrick gangster-horror film scripted by Frank Miller.

Yes, they could have dug deeper into the characters' history and such but it wasn't necessary. I could see that this mother sure messed up her sons, very much.

 

[Tequilla]

Still the greatest thing i've seen this year. Nothing really comes close. Maybe the Wind Rises dethrones it.

Mesmerizing from start to finish. Even the ending credits song kicked ass.

Larry Smith....stunning work. Dat Kubrick influence !

 

[Ajendo]

6/10
I was really looking forward to this and felt confused after viewing it. I loved how beautifully the film was shot, the acting and cinematography was great. There were scenes I liked but overall the film was so drab and dark without one tad bit of any positive vibe that it made it overall a disturbing dark place to go, with no light to shine through or anyone to root for.

I love dark films, I also love crazy violent films, but something about this one just didn't work for me.

This, pretty much. I was also expecting Julian to be more combative and not get his ass beat so unceremoniously so quickly. Honestly, the highlight if the film was KST.

 

[Tequilla]

Expecting , as the movie progressed ? Nothing in the film really gives that idea . Quite the contrary.

Or are you talking about the marketing ?

 

[Tequilla]

Exploring Julian's character. What makes him and Billy the way they were? I don't think they were compelling, relatable, nor did I find following his story for the most part interesting enough. I think the story had a lot more potential than it should have.

I think the film portrays well enough the domination his mother has over him , so much he is completely subjugated to her.

 

[StarLord]

If anything, I got the impression from the trailers that Chang was unstoppable and nobody stood a chance against him.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

I think the main reason why this film wasn't as welcome as Drive was is because there is no tenderness in the former as there is in the latter. All the characters are very much "**** you." There are no redeeming qualities in the family of three, but that's why Chang dishes out Biblical justice to each one. The Driver of Drive had something genuine to fight for. Julian challenges Chang to a fight for his brother's honor, but there was no honor to defend, so Julian gets humiliated.

This is a pure Refn film and maybe the best of his four films I've seen (Valhalla Rising, Bronson, Drive). He continued to show his spectacular direction style with the kind of story and characters I expect from him. Only God Forgives is, as I see it, a home run for Refn.

 

[Drz]

I ordered this beautiful edition of the movie:

 

[StarLord]

I ordered this beautiful edition of the movie:

Enjoy

I got mine last week. It's stunning.

 

[The Englishman]

That's beautiful..

 

[Drz]

You can get it from Zavvi.co.uk, Englishman!

 

[The Englishman]

I'll be getting that then....

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

6/10
I was really looking forward to this and felt confused after viewing it. I loved how beautifully the film was shot, the acting and cinematography was great. There were scenes I liked but overall the film was so drab and dark without one tad bit of any positive vibe that it made it overall a disturbing dark place to go, with no light to shine through or anyone to root for.

I love dark films, I also love crazy violent films, but something about this one just didn't work for me.

Other than the fact I would give the movie 7/10, this pretty sums up my feelings on the movie. I love dark and violent movies as well, but this one just didnt work.

What worked in Drive didnt really work here (i.e, the lack of dialogue, long moments of characters just staring at each other, etc) and here hurt the narrative. Take the slo-mo out and this movie could have been 30 mins long! I liked it, but it was a big step down from the superb Drive.