Deserted in the Desert
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) when they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative.
“You see, you can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
(Sorry, Super-Pets, but I’m declining the adoption-option.)
Opening Chatter (no spoilers): Yeah, I’m still avoiding the local danger of the raging COVID variant in my San Francisco Bay area so no trips to the theaters just yet which leaves a cluster of recent releases on my “sometime, somehow” list—in order of how they pulled in ticket sales last weekend this group would be Nope (Jordan Peele), Thor: Love and Thunder (Taika Waititi), Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman), and Vengeance (B.J. Novak), but at least I also have a good excuse to miss the #1 champ, DC League of Super-Pets (Jared Stern), no matter the voice talents of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Keanu Reeves, etc. Of course, I explored streaming yet didn’t find much of intrigue this time around; I finally settled on The Forgiven (Apple TV+) for a cheap rental to see decadent honkies having a bacchanal in a mini-castle in the lonely sands of Morocco, although the mood’s not so frivolous for a drifting-apart-couple of Ralph Fiennes and Jessica Chastain (truly, the main reason I wanted to see this film, given how much I’ve appreciated any role I’ve seen either of them in) because on their way to this out-of-the-way-weekend-party he’s driving drunk at night, hits and kills a young man on the side of the road, then is required by the victim’s father to accompany him back to their village for the burial, never knowing for sure what his fate might be, alone and isolated from the rest of this celebratory troupe.
I wouldn’t exactly call this “must-see-TV” (in that you’d most likely have to see it on your probably-smaller-than-an-auditorium-size-screen, although it was released in U.S. theaters on July 1, 2022 so you might still be able to find it projected somewhere), but it’s an intriguing concept, marvelously well-acted especially by Fiennes, generally-well-presented in its conceptual-contrast between the haughty-haves and nearly-dismissed-have-nots in this bleak environment where the wealthy live it up in their comfortable oasis while local natives try to survive selling fossils to passerby-tourists. I’ll note, though, if you’re searching for it to watch don’t be confused by similar titles: The Forgiven (Roland Joffé, 2017), a post-Apartheid tale where Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Forest Whitaker) meets with a murderer (Eric Bana) seeking redemption; The Unforgiven (John Huston, 1960) with Burt Lancaster, Audrey Hepburn, Audie Murphy, Lillian Gish in a Whites vs. Native Americans Old West story; Unforgiven (Clint Eastwood, 1992) another western (Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Film Editing Oscar winners—the one to see of all noted here) with Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris deconstructing the genre’s myths; plus another Unforgiven (Lee Sang-il, 2013), a Japanese remake of Eastwood’s masterpiece in samurai mode, starring Ken Watanabe. Further considerations are contained in links for the schedule of cable network Turner Classic Movies, giving you a wide selection of older films with no commercial interruptions and the JustWatch site offering an equally-wide-selection of options for streaming rental or purchase. Then, if you'd like to know what reigned at the domestic (U.S.-Canada) box-office last weekend, go here.
(I’ve also made a few permanent additions to these postings: one’s a James Taylor song just after the reviews, the others are in the final cluster of songs at the very end of the Related Links listings.)
And … while I don’t review streaming series I'm watching several right now that are all working well for me: Only Murders in the Building, mystery/comedy (Hulu, season 2, 10 episodes, began on 6/28/22, new ones on Tuesdays); Black Bird, prison drama (Apple TV+, 6 episodes, final comes up on 8/5/22); The Last Movie Stars, Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward documentary (HBO Max, 6 episodes, all available); Surface, Hitchcockian mystery (Apple TV+, 8 episodes, #4 comes up on 8/5/22); Paper Girls, time travel sci-fi (Amazon Prime Video, 8 episodes, all available). Good stuff!
Here’s the trailer for The Forgiven:
(Use the full screen button in the image’s lower right to enlarge it; activate
that same button or use the “esc” keyboard key to return to normal size.)
If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: David Henninger (Ralph Fiennes) and his wife, Jo (Jessica Chastain), have traveled from London to Morocco to attend a weekend party far away from the confines of civilization at a compound in the desert owned by Richard Galloway (Matt Smith) and his lover, Dally Margolis (Caleb Landry Jones). Despite their 12 years of couplehood, we can easily tell there are tensions between doctor David and Jo (author of children’s books), especially as they sit in the lounge of a hotel where he polishes off a bottle of wine, somewhat to her disgust, but, then, he understands himself as a functioning alcoholic. Much of her distain’s based on the next leg of their journey where he has to drive 400 miles into the middle of nowhere to reach their destination—at night, with nothing but headlights to illuminate the road and countryside, no signs of any sort to help out, just an understanding that there’s only one road turning off from this highway to Azma (if I got the name of the place right; if so, it would appear to be fictional as I find no other mention of it beyond this film, although the location’s accurate in the High Atlas Mountains). Not surprisingly, the couple squabbles as he zooms along in the darkness, possibly causing the distraction that prevents him from seeing an Arab boy (later identified as Driss [Omar Ghazaoui]) selling fossils on the roadside with his friend (never caught a name, sorry, but based on photos [and my foggy memory] it might be Anas El Baz portraying Nawfal) staying behind, fully in the dark. While we don’t see what the loud bump’s about as the Henningers’ car hits something, when they finally arrive at the mini-palatial-site of the party with a bleeding dead body in the backseat it’s clear what happened on the road. Richard’s obliged to call the police who are able to identify the body, contact his father, Abdellah Taheri (Ismael Kanater), who shows up the next day with an interpreter, Anouar (Saïd Taghmaoui). David’s told to be contrite about the death but he’s not too sincere in such emotions, originally hoped to just buy his way out of further involvement with 1,000 Euros, claiming the death was simply a tragic accident, but instead Ismael insists that David accompany the body back to their village for burial, a custom in this region.
At first David resists, not knowing what might happen to him with these unknown, bereaved people but finally agrees to go (later, he finds he has no cellphone reception at the tribe’s location so Jo truly doesn’t know what’s happening with him). While he’s gone, though, the party continues with plentiful doses of alcohol, drugs, and sex, McDonagh's intention of showing hedonistic, blasé American and European Whites simply indulging First World decadence in a remote getaway with little concern for the feelings/needs of the locals (although one servant—a cook, I think—predicts a horrible fate for David). Jo doesn’t seem to miss David at all as she hobnobs with actor (I think: my notes are a bit scrawly; maybe I need to go back to drinking Dr. Pepper like I did in the theaters when jotting down reminders rather than my tasty Long Island Ice Teas at home while streaming because 3 days later I sure didn’t want to rent the damn thing again) Leila Tarki (Imane El Mechrafi) and photographer Isabelle Péret (Marie-Josée Croze) but more meaningfully easily spends the next night with suave Tom Day (Christopher Abbott), who seems to have even less interest in her marriage than she does.
Meanwhile, out in the truly brutal desert David finds Ismael can converse with him in English after all so they have edgy conversations about the demise of Driss, with the father explaining that one the few options these people have for income is selling fossils to rich tourists with the hope those attending this lush party would be willing to part with a good amount of cash, especially for a rare specimen (looks like a large spider to me) Driss stole from his father before wandering out to the highway hoping for a buyer. Some women are very upset (aunts and a cousin; Driss’ mother died years ago); David has to sleep in the boy’s room that night, then next day is confronted by the companion from that fateful night who saw David burying Driss’ I.D. in the sand, probably hoping to leave him unidentified; Abdellah tells David how selling the fossils for a hefty price can lead any of these young men, including Driss, to seek a new life in Casablanca, wishing now his son had been able to sell the stolen fossil so he’d be alive although gone from the family. ⇒David’s stoic façade’s beginning to crumble as he tells Anouar, who’s driving him back to Azma (?), that he’s responsible for Driss’ death due to his own negligence, that it wasn’t truly an accident. After getting back to the compound everyone packs up to leave with David and Jo the last ones out. As they drive back toward the coast at night, they’re stopped by Nawfal (?), who's in the middle of the road; when David gets out to see what the youngster wants, he’s shot dead as this story abruptly comes to an end.⇐
So What? This film begins with a reversal of contemporary-film-credits-conventions by putting all of them (starting with the background personnel) superimposed on opening shots of David and Jo on a small boat heading into a harbor city in Morocco, which later allows the shocking ending to quickly make its impact then cut to black leaving us no time to ponder what we’ve just experienced while a wealth of words roll by; moreover, as these credits come to us in bright red (standing out nicely against their background photography) they use the usual convention of the “less-important-people” being in a smaller font while the principal filmmakers and cast members are larger, more easily readable, a trope you’ll see in countless cinematic credits although here there’s an additional (unintentional?) connotation of how many of these characters see themselves as being more important while others are relegated to a society’s background where even death on the road (likely manslaughter, if any court truly cared to explore David's testimony) can attempted to be covered up by burying identifying documents, then paying off those bereaved to forget about the tragic situation.
The film in full gives us little to sympathize with regarding the actions and attitudes of these idle rich (although David does begin to sink into guilt, while no one else at the desert celebration seems to be all that bothered by what’s happened during or after the fatal incident). At one level this makes the film a bit difficult to watch because—as a regular filmgoing-companion of mine, prior to the darker days of the pandemic, always insists when he watching anything—it’s hard to care about most of the characters (except Abdellah and the Arab mourners, possibly David toward the end if we accept his evolving change of heart as sincere, not just disgust with his marriage, his acquaintances, his entire lifestyle), yet even if it’s easy to be dismayed in this serious drama toward the attitudes of the partygoers (although they’re more vapidly-self-absorbed than harmful in a long-established-First World-hegemonic-manner [most of the time, except when drunken-driving at night] than the frantic, near-homicidal-guests at a dinner party in the masterful, surreal, darkly-satirical The Avenging Angel [Luis Buñuel, 1962]), we (if of the First World, watching this story) have to face ourselves, see if/how we may be contributing to such dismissal of the more-unfortunate around us (including destitute or ignored citizens of our own countries as governments keep favoring demands of the corporate elite).
If nothing else, the film’s final shot (this word becoming a dark pun of its own, given the events) offers a visual warning echoing some musical warnings that come quickly to mind (not my official Musical Metaphors yet; those reside just below), one’s a snippet from "Talkin' New York" (on the 1962 Bob Dylan album), “Now, a very great man once said / That some people rob you with a fountain pen / It didn’t take too long to find out / Just what he was talkin’ about / A lot of people don’t have much food on their table / But they got a lot of forks ‘n’ knives / And they gotta cut somethin’.” The other’s the full "Marat/Sade" medley on Judy Collins’ 1966 album In my Life (songs from the powerful, disturbing 1964 Peter Weiss play The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade [also adapted to a chaotic, chilling 1967 film of that name—or just known as Marat/Sade—directed by Peter Brook]) about how even revolutionaries might fear their movements moving in on them when their previous followers are fed up while further dealing with starvation: “We’ve got nothing always had nothing / Nothing but holes and millions of them / Lying in holes / Dying in holes / Holes in our bellies and / Holes in our clothes.” These lyrics are specifically about the late 18th-century-French Revolution, but they still resonate in stories such as The Forgiven, so if you see a ragged person selling fossils by the roadside (or something of the equivalent)—no matter if day or night—slow down, buy something; it may be the least you can do in a world you'll barely understand.
Bottom Line Final Comments: While my 3½ stars of 5 equates numerically (70%) to a bit higher result than how the CCAL reacted to The Forgiven (whoever, if anyone, they might be in this story; there doesn’t seem to be much forgiveness emerging in this narrative), they’re marginally-supportive, with the folks at Rotten Tomatoes offering 65% positive reviews, the ones at Metacritic close by (as they surprisingly have been recently) with a 63% average score. However, in that I rarely go above 4 stars, my 3½ approaches my normal top whereas by their standards they could potentially go to 100% (although they rarely get close to that mark, especially the Metacriters [you can get more info on both of these critics’-accumulation-sites in the Related Links segment of this posting far below, a regular inclusion of all my reviews in this blog]), I was curious what limitations some of them found in something that for me was mostly intriguing (yet grim to watch). So, for example, here’s Christy Lemire of RogerEbert.com: “McDonagh’s film is well-crafted throughout but ultimately has nothing fresh or insightful to say about the ugliness of white privilege. It’s like attending a weekend bacchanal and forgetting what happened once Monday morning rolls around, or perhaps not wanting to remember.” I can somewhat see what she’s saying but, nevertheless, I’m more in league with James Berardinelli of ReelViews who says: “In many ways, The Forgiven feels like a CliffsNotes version of a longer, more complex narrative. But, even considering that numerous subplots might benefit from a mini-series approach to the material, the transformation of the central character is handled in a powerful, credible manner. John Michael McDonagh’s screenplay, which he based on a novel by Lawrence Osborne, is as much about atonement and forgiveness as it is a critique of Colonial attitudes of racism and white supremacy that are deeply entrenched in some of the richest, most elite factions of Western society.” It's a tragic reality, generally-well-explored here.
If you’d like to watch and see for yourself how The Forgiven strikes you that’s easy enough to do, though you do have to first subscribe to Apple TV+ for at least a month ($4.99), then (in a bit of an insult, but that's how capitalism works) pay an extra $6.99 to rent the film. Still, that total’s about what you’d pay to see a film in a theater (if your schedule allows you to come in for matinee prices) plus you get access to lots of other options in the Apple basket, including 2 of those streaming series I mentioned up front in this posting, so overall I recommend you give serious consideration to The Forgiven (I get no kickback if you do)—despite its rather didactic/repetitious approach to hammering home the main point—if for nothing else than another marvelous performance by Ralph Fiennes with solid supportive work from Jessica Chastain (recent Best Actress Oscar for The Eyes of Tammy Faye [Michael Showalter, 2021; review in our January 13, 2022 posting]) and others in this fine cast.
While you’re thinking that over, let me offer my official wrap-up-of-the-review-Musical Metaphor, Ten Years After’s “I’d Love to Change the World” (from their 1971 A Space in Time album) at https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSYFJB7o9ZQ, a song which I perceive speaks more from novelist Osborne, director/screenwriter McDonagh’s perspectives than from the First Worlders in this story but relevant to why it was written/filmed in the first place, still resonating today even though this tune's more about social divisions regarding the 1960s-‘70s Vietnam War: “Rich or poor / Them and us / Stop the war / I’d love to change the world / But I don’t know what to do / So I’ll leave it up to you.” Yet, rather than stop there, especially with such a marginal video of “… Change the World,” let me truly leave you with another Alvin Lee and Ten Years After hit, "I'm Going Home," shot at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, incorporated into the Woodstock doc (Michael Wadleigh, 1970). Here the original song’s about a joyful guy “goin’ home, to see my baby,” which I’m ironically juxtaposing with this film’s partygoers who are just casually going home after their disconnected-from-reality-weekend with the same attitude in this song but covering their butts with willful ignorance in the process. (Besides, the composition of these multi-images sorta makes up for the graininess of the other video, although the visual quality’s even better in the original documentary. Take a look; use JustWatch).
That’s all for my critical commentary this week, but whether you agree or not I’ll offer you one more opportunity to be in unity with an attitude that would benefit all of us, James Taylor’s "Shower the People" (on his 1976 In the Pocket album), because we should “Shower the people you love with love / Show them the way that you feel / Things are gonna be much better/ If you only will.” We’re now sailing through divisive times; it could be a smoother ride if we’d only help each other a bit more.
Other Cinema-Related Stuff: (1) Proposed legislation threatens California film, TV, and streaming jobs; (2) Netflix and SAG-AFTRA union reach tentative agreement on new contract; (3) WB cancels Batgirl movie; (4) What' new on Netflix in August 2022; (5) What's new on Amazon Prime Video in August 2022; (6) What's new on Hulu in August 2022; (7) What's new on Disney+ in August 2022; and (8) What's new on HBO/HBO Max in August 2022.
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
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Here’s more information about The Forgiven:
https://www.theforgivenmovie.com (click the 3 little lines in the upper left for more info)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0p0g6pLzko (6:49 interview with actors Jessica Chastain and Ralph Fiennes, except it’s not much of an interview as a good bit of the time’s taken up with running the trailer, which you've probably already seen by now)
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_forgiven_2021
https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-forgiven-2021
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Here’s more information about your “Concise? What’s that?” Two Guys critic, Ken Burke:
If you’d rather contact Ken directly rather than leaving a comment here please use my email address of kenburke409@gmail.com—type it directly if the link doesn’t work. (But if you truly have too much time on your hands you might want to explore some even-longer-and-more-obtuse-than-my-film-reviews-academic-articles about various cinematic topics at my website, https://kenburke.academia.edu, which could really give you something to talk to me about.)
If we did talk, though, you’d easily see how my early-70s-age informs my references, Musical Metaphors, etc. in these reviews because I’m clearly a guy of the later 20th century, not so much the contemporary world. I’ve come to accept my ongoing situation, though, realizing we all (if fate allows) keep getting older, we just have to embrace it, as Joni Mitchell did so well in "The Circle Game," offering sage advice even when she was quite young herself.
By the way, if you’re ever at The Hotel California knock on my door—but you know what the check-out policy is so be prepared to stay for awhile (quite an eternal while, in fact, but maybe while there you’ll get a chance to meet Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, RIP). Ken
P.S. Just to show that I haven’t fully flushed Texas out of my system here’s an alternative destination for you, Home in a Texas Bar, with Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker (although, as you know, with bar songs there are plenty about people broken down by various tragic circumstances, with maybe the best of the bunch—calls itself “perfect”—being "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" written by Steve Goodman, sung by David Allen Coe). But wherever the rest of my body may be my heart’s always with my longtime-companion/lover/
wife, Nina Kindblad, so here’s our favorite shared song—Neil Young’s "Harvest Moon"—from the performance we saw at the Desert Trip concerts in Indio, CA on October 15, 2016 (as a full moon was rising over the venue) because “I’m still in love with you,” my dearest, a never-changing-reality even as the moon waxes/wanes over the months/years to come. But, just as we can be raunchy at times (in private of course) Neil and his backing band, Promise of the Real, on that same night also did a lengthy, fantastic version of "Cowgirl in the Sand" (19:06) which I’d also like to commit to this blog’s always-ending-tunes; I never get tired of listening to it, then and now (one of my idle dreams is to play guitar even half this well). But, while I’m at it, I’ll also include another of my top favorites, from the night before at Desert Trip, the Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter" (Wow!), a song “just a shot away” in my memory (along with my memory of their great drummer, Charlie Watts, RIP). To finish this cluster of all-time-great-songs I’d like to have played at my wake (as far away from now as possible) here’s one Dylan didn’t play at Desert Trip but it’s great, much beloved by me and Nina: "Visions of Johanna." However, if the day does come when Nina has to recall these above thoughts (beginning with “If we did talk”) and this music after my demise I might as well make this into an arbitrary-Top 10 of songs that mattered to me by adding The Beatles’ "A Day in the Life,"
because that chaotic-orchestral-finale sounds like what the death experience may be like, and the Beach Boys’ "Fun Fun Fun," because these memories may have gotten morbid so I’d like to sign off with something more upbeat to remember me, the Galveston non-surfer-boy.
However, before I go (whether it’s just until next week or more permanently), let’s round these songs out to an even dozen with 2 more dedicated to Nina, the most wonderful woman ever for me. I’ll start with Dylan’s "Lay, Lady, Lay" (maybe a bit personal, but we had a strong connection right from the start) and finish with the most appropriate of all, The Beatles again, "In My Life," because whatever I encountered in my time on Earth, “I love you more.”
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