Post
by LadySekhmet » Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:06 pm
Well. That was...erm...interesting. I just received my copy today. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Jason must have had a blast doing that character (Ed Harris must have enjoyed himself, too). I have to admit that I laughed a lot while watching it, and 1. I'm not sure what that says about me (yikes!) and 2. I don't know if I was supposed to do that (double yikes). I did feel better about laughing when I watched the "making of" and Jason said that it was a mix of humor and horror. (More humor than horror?) It's not my favorite movie ever, but it entertained me. It certainly was not as dark as A Single Shot. I was really disappointed with the end. It just stopped. I guess I was expecting something a little bit more dramatic in a Clint Eastwood kind of way.
I hate to say this, but I couldn't connect with January Jones' character, even though I appreciated some of her...mmm...tactics.
I think that Josiah is Irish but had emigrated to the US and made his way to Santa Fe via Utah.
Himself did the Prophet well, and like thunder says, he was limited by the strength of his script, which could have been stronger and more vibrant. There was the sense of the silver tongued, charisma-filled charmer in there, which is required for prophets who want a following, but his charm seemed to fail for the people that he needed it to work for the most, but you'd think that they would have wanted to demonstrate how he could get his followers (give some true resistance to his charm). And who could resist the pick up line of: "We're made for each other. You killed my wives, I killed your husband"? (Or whatever it was that he said.) What woman could resist those lines? Match made in Heaven. Clearly. *rolls eyes*
Well, all prophets have an essence of madness within them. None of us really know how to separate the false prophets from the real prophets - unless - they demonstrate their connection the divine via public moments/acts (like resurrecting people, curing people, speaking in tongues, other miracles, etc.). Jo-jo is a self-proclaimed prophet (aren't "real" prophets generally proclaimed to be prophets by others?) and, thus, either madness or divinity is present - most likely madness. He does not like other people humiliating him in public, because that is the loss of face and prestige, so, of course, he becomes angry with God. God is supposed to be on his side. He loses it because God has allowed him to be shamed and God is not talking to him anymore. (hmm...God probably was vaguely annoyed with Josiah - because Jo-jo apparently forgot some Commandments: Thou shalt not kill and, even more importantly, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house (and the adultery thing is a sticky wicket, too). Now if he was truly in touch with the divine spirit, he would have turned to the Book of Job.
Now, if I dare to throw some gasoline on the fire, when he has the "fit," he could be having an epileptic seizure. In ancient times, people who had seizures were sometimes considered to be touched by the gods. They could "see" (lights, hallucinations) or "hear" things, and they would be interpreted as the divine talking to them or through them. The skull of a child buried in a temple complex at Tarquinia had indications of a medical conditions that could have caused seizures & he was buried in a honored spot. Caesar was thought to have the "falling sickness," yet was honored. So... was that him staging a fit, having a fit, or "talking" with God? I think that seizure is how he was supposed to have conversed with God.
The two characters I connected with the most were Himself and Ed Harris. Why didn't they just make the movie about those two? It would have been tighter and stronger. I also felt like there were some lost opportunities. Why was there this random antagonism that they simply tried to gloss over with words? It seemed like there was some missing backstory. Obviously, Jo-Jo is just a pervie bigot (a hottie, but still a perv), but is that why he left Utah? Or did he lose his cool in Utah,too? Were there dead bodies in his wake stretching all the way from Salt Lake City to Santa Fe? Inquiring minds want to know!
Well, at least he didn't make anyone drink the Kool-aid.
(Jo-jo? Josie? Seriously, Ed Harris, you had to go there, didn't you? And...I have to admit... the wig totally grew on me. Yeah, I wound up liking the wig.)