There's not enough words that can sum up the sheer power of tonight's marathon. This one is not like the others nor does it try to. It separates itself from every other line up and breaks the trend of the occasional happy ending. In the case of tonight's marathon, it ends exactly as the title suggests with the antagonists winning in each film making this one come off as being deeply cynical. Sometimes in films, the heroes have to make sacrifices in order to stop their enemies from winning. Many times they succeed in stopping evil from running rampant and sometimes they aren't as successful. This marathon focuses on the times where preventing evil is not successful and comes with a cost. For tonight's outstanding and extremely dark thriller, we have on the following menu:
No Country For Old Men 2007, The Usual Suspects 1995, Silence Of The Lambs 1991, Seven 1995 and The Dark Knight 2008
This is a perfect marathon for the reasons that it brings out the best in cinematic filmmaking such as great storytelling, outstanding performances, great screenwriting, wonderful direction, unforgettable scenery and music. In order to make a film where the antagonists come out as the winners over the heroes, the filmmakers behind them have to be extroadinary storytellers. In the case of tonight's marathon, we have Fargo and The Big Lebowski's The Coen Brothers helming No Country For Old Men, X1,X2, and Days Of The Future Pasts director Bryan Singer behind The Usual Suspects, Philadelpia's Jonathan Demme behind Silence Of The Lambs, Fight Club's David Fincher behind Seven, and Memento's Christopher Nolan behind each of these great psychological thrillers. The saying is true that a film is as great as the the geniuses behind the camera making it. The first movie of the marathon is the 2007 Oscar Winner for Best Picture titled No Country For Old Men starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, and Javier Bardem in an Oscar winning role. Nominated for eight academy awards and winner of four, this dark and suspenseful tale shows the increase in violence and mayhem after an unsuccessful drug deal takes place in which a hunter gains possession of a black bag containing a total of two million dollars in cash down by the Rio Grande. The film is an offbeat thriller that shows a series of random and violent events being unfolded when the films lead antagonist Anton Chigurh escapes from jail after killing a police officer and pursues the hunter holding the money in his possession. Chigurh is a force to be reckond with in the film because he leaves behind a trail of bodies in pursuit of the hunter, yet he ultimately gets away in the end after an act of fate leaves him barely alive. Javier Bardems chilling performance as a cold blooded and unphased killer got him a well deserved academy award for his brilliant work on this film. While certainly not a film for everyone because of the level of violence depicted in the film and the artistic style of it, the film thrives due to stellar performances by it's lead actors and the dark and stylistic direction from the Coen Brothers.
The second movie of the marathon is Bryan Singer's outstanding directorial debut titled The Usual Suspects starring Gabriel Bryne, Kevin Spacey, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollack, and Chazz Palminteri. The films story is unfolded through the character Verbal played by Kevin Spacey whose the sole survivor of a horrific gun battle on a boat that resulted in over 27 deaths and leaves five criminals at a random police lineup being labeled as "The Usual Suspects." The events that unfold throughout the film leaves alot of twists and turns with the films revelation at the climax being one of movie histories greatest plot twists. The cops interrogate the usual suspects in hopes of finding out the mass murderer behind the slaughter known as Keyser Soze. The identity of Keyser Soze is a puzzle that the film takes its time unfolding to the audience with each suspect being the potential fugitive. Bryan Singers film works perfectly as a part of this marathon because it delivers a basic plot that begins to become more complicated as lies, deceit and misinformation begin to unfold before the final twist changes everything you thought about the film up until that point. It remains Bryan Singers best film up until now and one that probably isn't going to be beaten for a long time in his career.
The third movie of the lineup is Jonathan Demme's 1991 blockbuster and five time Oscar winning drama titled Silence Of The Lambs. Picking up shortly after the events of Red Dragon, the second chapter in the thrilling Hannibal Lecter saga places a young female FBI cadet who is forced to seek assistance from an incarcerated cannibal named Hannibal Lecter who can pinpoint her in the direction of catching an active serial killer named Buffalo Bill who skins his victims. While seeking assistance from Lecter on solving the case, Hannibal uses the opportunity to dive into Clarice's personal life regarding her fathers death and reasons behind wanting to become a cop. Hannibal chooses to help Clarice upon seeing that not only is she determined to become a great FBI agent but can put the pain of her fathers death behind her and make "the lambs stop screaming" by catching Buffalo Bill and saving the young girl he kidnapped. Silence of the Lambs ends its story with Buffalo Bill being dead and Hannibal escaping from captivity making him go into hiding while Clarice becomes an official FBI agent. The film still qualifies as the villain winning because as one is caught and killed, the other escapes until the time he meets Clarice again.
The fourth movie of the marathon is David Finchers epic murder mystery and police thriller titled Seven starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Kevin Spacey. The film centers around two cops with one being a veteran and the other a rookie teaming up unwillingly at first to capture a serial killer who kills his victims in the forms of the seven deadly sins. The film received a well deserved Oscar nomination for Best Film Editing as well as unanimous critical acclaim and raves upon its release. Seven and The Usual Suspects made 1995 a terrific year for thrillers with both being fantastic murder mysteries done in two very different slick styles of filmmaking but also co star Kevin Spacey in critical supporting roles. The ending of Seven is one that moviegoers to this day have not forgotten since the day it was released and serves as one of cinemas most terrifying movie endings.
The fifth and final movie of the night is perhaps the most iconic film of them all and one that not only became one of the biggest box office hits of all time, but also one of the biggest pop culture phenomenon's in movie history. Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight forever changed the way comic book movies were made at the time, and cemented its place as a legendary film in movie history due to the phenomenal performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker whose now become one of the most iconic villains in movie history. The Dark Knight centers around Batman teaming up with Commissionar Gordon and Gotham City's District Attorney Harvey Dent in order to bring down the mob in Gotham as well as the new evil that's taken over the streets of Gotham named The Joker. The Joker is perhaps the most dangerous antagonist of them all with no true motive behind his actions and is just explained to audiences as someone who has no reasoning other than to see the world burn. The Dark Knight ends its tale with Batman taking the fall for the deaths of five people including Harvey Dent's and having to flee from the cops in order to preserve the legacy of Dent who turned into a vengeful killer named Two Face. The Dark Knights ending can be read either two ways with the first being The Joker wins because he predicted that people would cast out Batman when they no longer need him which happens, and the other is Batman takes the fall for Dents actions, places the blame on himself, and lets society hate him while Dent inspires Gotham to rise above corruption and make The Joker lose ultimately. The problem with logic number two is in order for that to happen, The Dark Knight Rises is needed to show how Batman's actions made a difference but since the marathon ends with The Dark Knight, Joker wins this round. HA
So what is the ultimate message behind all of these movies and the theme of the bad guys winning? The message is that sometimes when heroes try to prevail, they will lose a good fight or a round. Not every villain can get caught right off the bat and sometimes, we have to wait a long time for justice to prevail. Sometimes the ultimate sacrifice has to be made in the pursuit of righteousness and keeping peoples faith in the system alive. Batman taking the fall for Dents murders is that ultimate sacrifice that while the villain may have won in the end, there is still a glimmer of hope for the future
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