Author Archives: tr103625

I actually liked In Bruges until the last half hour of the film. What was the point of the movie if the two main characters were going to end up dead? Not that we know 100% if Ray dies but most likely he does. I found the end kind of unrealistic especially in regards to their deaths. I was surprised at how long it took these characters to die. It took Ken getting shot and to fall from a building and he still was not dead until minutes after the fall. Also Ray, he got shot what 8 times? Yet he was still alive and moving, the dragging out of their deaths was annoying. And I didn’t see the point of Ray dying, especially since in most of the film we see Ken convincing him and helping him to not kill himself. He even sacrifices his own life to save Ray for absolutely no reason. Also it seemed like him and Chloe were going to have some type of future together where Ray can take Ken’s advice from all that happened. It was also just so predictable at times, like when Ray is on the boat and he says how it is too far of a distance for him to get shot, and of course he does. Also, when Harry shoots Ray and we see that Jimmy gets killed, I had a feeling that was going to happen, especially when Harry was telling Ken if he was in Ray’s position he would have killed himself on the spot and also with the amount of people that were there. I did like the film at first, I though it had a good plot and humor but I just thought the ending ruined it.

I think its interesting how many of the films we watch in class relate to previous ones. Twenty minutes into the first hour of This is England, right before Combo beats up Milky, the two discuss soul music and how it unites the black and white cultures. Combo’s description of soul music reminds me a lot about the major theme of The Commitments. Jimmy attempts to bring Soul to Dublin and compares the two cultures, “The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin.” Both films use soul music to unite two cultures and they even use the same song in both of the films, Dark End of the Street.

In mondays class we were discussing the many weird occurrences that go on in the film. Im not sure if we discussed this one but I noticed that after the scene where Tony and Billy’s ballet teacher fight there is another scene where billy is trying to climb and break through walls to escape from the situation. When he runs up the street he dances into a wall and he sits there for a little bit, then his friend Michael calls his name and there is snow on the ground that wasn’t there a few seconds before and Billy all of a sudden has a winter coat on. I found the sudden change of the weather interesting and can mean many things. This scene of him trying to escape and dancing was kind of long,  it can portray how far from reality dancing actually takes him, or how fast time goes when he is in his escape and doing what he loves?

So I know we are passed Trainspotting but I just wanted to make a few comments on the film  since I was not able to attend class the day we discussed it. One of my favorite parts of the film was his speech in the beginning and end. I liked how he listed the traditional things people choose in life such as jobs, children, and financial stability. He has no reason to choose any of those things because he has heroine, which to him, makes up for having a successful life. In the end of the film he says he is going to choose life as opposed to heroine, although we do not really know if he is going to go through with that since he has had set backs with heroine throughout the film. As much as I hated watching the scene where he goes into that disgusting bathroom I thought the scene was really important to the film. It showed the lengths Rent is willing to go to get a hit. I had a feeling throughout the film that the baby was going to die, they would walk by her and you would never see Allison feeding or holding her. Her death due to starvation, or what ever caused her death, was unfortunately bound to happen due to her mothers obsession with getting high. I think this scene is one of the strongest messages of the film. Overall, really enjoyed Trainspotting. I felt it was accurate in addressing problems of drug abuse and poverty.