THE CRYING GAME [Spoilers] A film review by Michael Stoneheel Copyright 1993 Michael Stoneheel [This reviews contains spoilers. You have been warned. -Moderator]
Usually, when evaluating a film I try to isolate the formalist elements and to analyze how they form aesthetics components which relate to the theme and sometimes to a certain meaning. This time it seems irrelevant to proceed in such a manner because the film is based on one and only one thing, namely the secret.
It is very easy to notice that the revelation of the secret shutters the expectations of the spectators. The cinema is the perfect media for such a turning point. No sentence could have such a sudden effect as the harsh visual exposure. Obviously, the exposure effects everyone, but how?
For a male spectator, it is the culmination of an erotic scene. Normally, he would identify himself with the hero, considering his love actions his own. When the true nature of the heroine is exposed so suddenly, the spectator is forced to react emotionally and to sympathize with the hero. The general feeling seems to be of a shock. What about the female spectator?
Even tough I am not a woman, I think that the mechanism of identification works for women in a symmetric way. Naturally, after the exposure the woman spectator has no one to be sexually identified with. The reaction of a woman spectator could be: "what?", "no!", "yes!", "at last!?", "Disgusting!", but the most reasonable one would be - "Definitely, it isn't I". From this point, the man spectator may succeed to put the feeling of astonishment behind (and this is not a simple task) and to reconnect to the hero, but the woman spectator seems to lost her contact with the main characters.
One may argue at this stage that I am missing the whole point, and that this film is not about sex, nor about love, but about our nature and about learning to accept each person as himself. After all how could we forget the frog and the scorpion?
It seems that such an argument makes sense. The terrorist is destructive in nature, the blond woman is cruel in nature, the hero is good in his nature, and the heroine is a woman by her (or should we say his) nature. We could extend this principle even further. A murderer hurts people in his nature, war is horrible in its nature, and this film is far from being perfect in its nature. If this film is about love, than love is one-sided or possible only in a detached way. If it is about morality, the ideas are superficial. The only valid interpretation seems to be that this film is about accepting the different as a beloved human being. Now, can the usage of the secret be justified?
It might be correct that in order to understand the different one has to believe that he is normal. Should we treat the heroine in a different way before the secret is exposed and at the end of the film? In fact, the heroine hasn't been changed. The only persons changed are us. It is not difficult to sympathize with the heroine because she is the only pure character in the film. Most of the men characters are terrorists, the two good men accept the heroine as she is, and the only woman character is detestable. The only problem is that it is very difficult to transcend beyond our expectations and beyond the shock.
Personally, I would prefer that such an important subject would be handled in a more directed fashion that could effect a larger audience. I might be totally wrong, but is seems to me that this film is another "womenless" film, directed by a man, intended mainly for men, and has no women main characters. The heroine itself is a substitute for a woman. I would rather see a film directed by a woman with balanced roles for both sexes. Why?
It is in my nature. Ladies and Gentlemen, what about yours?
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