Review: Essential Killing

Year: 2010 (UK Release 2011)
Director: Jerzy Skolimowski
Screenplay: Ewa Piaskowska, Jerzy Skolimowski
Starring: Vincent Gallo

The synopsis is here

Writer, Director, Painter, Musican and resident nutjob Vincent Gallo reminds me of Roman Polanski; in that despite some of his more bizarre actions (also includes hexing Roger Ebert and now no longer showing his films to a public audience), his talent is something I cannot ignore. As a writer/director his indie feature Buffalo 66 (1998) is one of the most alluring American independents of recent times. To me Gallo is that worst type of person in which his ego is only matched by his talent....and his ego is pretty huge.

Essential Killing has an extreme person like Gallo running through the wilds of an unnamed European country, trying desperately to escape his captors and survive the harsh terrain ahead of him. It's quite obvious with a little knowledge of the man and the way this film starts; with Gallo's character blowing three U.S soldiers sky high with a rocket launcher mounted on his shoulder, the man is clearly in his element.

Essential Killing is all about Gallos favourite subject, himself. This isn't a bad thing however because his prize winning performance is one of knife edge intensity. Gallo's sharp features and could-be-from-anywhere face only bolster his compelling (yet muted) display. I love watching acting like this as to me it truly becomes about the performance. The setting, the situation, the desperation and the unbridled need to continue on, is played out within the face and not with trite dialogue. It's great to cleanse the palate with a film like Essential Killing; as while the character is not complex in the slightest (the streamlined plot restricts this), the expressions speak volumes. It reminds me how often I'm trying to keep up with "lets do this to do that" strands of dialogue.

Jerzy Skolimowski complements Gallo's performance with crisp cinematography which highlights the unforgiving landscape as the bright blue skies of an unknown area of the middle east gave way to a vast blanketed winterland scenery of white. the only food appears to be bark and berries and almost any interaction with other people alludes to the films title, although the film isn't as gruesome as you would expect. Skolimowski's wisest decision is to keep the film as apolitical as he could. We merely observe an Arab insurgent trying to survive in alien surrounding and the lack of a agenda illustrates the fight or flee nature we are all hardwired into and yet take for granted.

The film does spill over into abstract weirdness at times, and we are given prolonged moose shots,  hallucinations of dogs (appearing almost like nightmarish echoes of Guantanamo) and at one point the lead character having to suckle a woman's breast at gunpoint for the milk that she was feeding her child. Despite this, the tale of extreme survival of this foreign "alien" in a no man's land (no real geography places us in the same disorientated state as the lead character) kept me at attention. The films foreshadowing brings forth a feel of doom (maybe) but at no point do we feel this man's tale is truly on tracks.

The films abrupt climax will madden some and attract others but in order to get the most out of it, and the film as a whole, one must remember the old cliché that it may not be about the destination but the journey. While I may revel in such commonplace writings, Essential Killing and Gallo's intense performance remind us that cliché is definitely not what the man's about.

Christain Bale is insane...and I LOVE IT!

More evidence that Christian Bale has lost his mind came up this week. After allegedly assaulting his mother last year, a four minute taped rant surfaced of Bales "antics" towards director of photography Shane Hurlbut during the filming of Terminator: Salvation. The rants has been said to have taken places a few days before his 2008 arrest. This says to me Bale was under a a shit load of stress. No excuse for chewing out the film crew...but hey....he's the goddamn Batman.

Anyway....

The reason why I love the fact that Bale is slowly going batshit insane is due to the fact that THE BEST ACTORS DO! From Brando to Kinski, all the great actors are mental, intense nutcases who are one coin flip away from killing someone. I expect that from actors, if your not...your not doing it right.

In fact in listening to the rant (until near the end where Christian is just fucking harsh) I understand what Bale is getting at. As angry as he is, the scene should have been finished before anything needs to be done. Also...alot of filming is waiting so long did the scene take to set up?How many takes were there before? How long were the actors waiting before the scene was ready? What time of day was it? While Bale and his rant was hilariously unprofessional, as an method actor who fully takes his role into himself (note he speaks in an American accent, he's welsh) so if he's in the zone and is hitting the right notes in the scene, I could see that being really annoying.

To add to this the reason I love it the most is.....Bale will more than likely deliver a kick ass performance because despite being mental he's that damn good. Also if he didn't go apeshit we wouldn't have been able to get this:




But as a counter point: Really? Leaving a film because a guy screwed up a couple of times? Get off your high horse you fucking diva, intense you may be but you ain't got no Oscars yet buddy, the guys just doing his job, i'm sure when you flubb a line people get pissed. Fucking prima donna.


Bet none of this shit happened on The Prestige:

Pictured above: A troubled man, happy with lights.