*** Official MONSTER'S BALL Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[jeff lam]

Rented this movie this past weekend. Well, the acting was superb. I felt the story was a "done before" story. I thought the plot was dull and not very exciting. It just seemed like not a lot happened in this movie. Didn't really capture me at all. I was awaiting the end hoping that some special twist would come about but nothing happened. I guess this is just not my type of movie. I was very bored during this movie.

 

[Damin J Toell]

I thought the plot was dull and not very exciting.

I'm not sure that "exciting plot" was on the filmmakers' checklist of things to do.

DJ

 

[Paul_D]

Take a look at Michael Winterbottom's Jude some time.

I've read the Thomas Hardy novel, so I know exactly what you're talking about.

 

[Michael Napier]

I just rented this and watched it the other night.

Did anyone else love the "Behind the Scenes" special feature where they showed

"Karl as Hank", where Billy Bob acted the scene as Karl from Sling Blade? I was laughing so hard.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath remains the most depressing movie for me. Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief is another. Both are great films.

 

[Michael Reuben]

I thought the plot was dull and not very exciting.

To each their own. Monster's Ball includes three violent deaths and two lead characters who completely change their lives against staggering odds. I found that more exciting than anything else I saw in theaters last year (and yes, that includes Lord of the Rings).

M.

 

[JohnRice]

I sure agree with you there, Michael. While I enjoy surprise endings and other tactics, I keep reading negative reactions to films simply because they don't have twist endings. I found this film completely involving, and while the end wasn't a twist, I was literally on the edge of my seat when Laetitia came out of the house and sat down on the front step in the final scene. The sight of the headstones by the house was also a powerful element. It also had the first scene I remember in quite some time that actually made me jump, but not just because of a loud noise and/or something jumping out.

The pure drama and avoidance of "movie" conventions was quite refreshing.

 

[Mike Broadman]

I have seen the same complaint against a lot of my favorite movies: I can predict the ending. Well, yes, but that's not the point. A movie isn't a guessing game, a chance to play Ms Cleo. If only the ending is important, why not just skip ahead to the last 5 minutes of every movie we watch? Just think- you could watch 20 movies in one night!

Some movies bank their success on the Big Twist Ending. Unbreakable was dissappointing because I guessed the ending half-way through the movie. But most films aren't like that. I have not yet seen Minority Report but I'm confident in guessing that Tom Cruise will survive and live happily ever after in the end. I still might see the film.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I thought it was sort of interesting to read in the newspaper that Angela Bassett turned down the role of Leticia because she felt it was a stereotypical black prostitute role, and she wanted to do roles which she'd be proud of 20 years after the fact. Just food for thought (I did mention the economic imbalance in their relationship earlier in this thread that sort of didn't set well with me).

(I would not have characterized the role as a "prostitute" role).

 

[Damin J Toell]

I thought it was sort of interesting to read in the newspaper that Angela Bassett turned down the role of Leticia because she felt it was a stereotypical black prostitute role, and she wanted to do roles which she'd be proud of 20 years after the fact.

I saw that article, too, and I'm left wondering what script she read. Unless the draft of the screenplay she received was drastically different than what was finally filmed (and, indeed, she never saw the final film), I think her comments are completely off the mark.

DJ

 

[Michael Reuben]

I hadn't read that comment by Bassett, but it's an interesting illustration of the distance that has to be traveled from the page to the screen. There's no question that there's an economic imbalance between Hank and Leticia; it's one of the many barriers that should make this an impossible relationship. But in the finished film, Leticia is hardly a prostitute.

I'm not surprised the role didn't appeal to Bassett. If you look at the roles she typically chooses, they're all proactive characters, whether for good or ill (I saw her do a Lady Macbeth on stage that was pretty chilling). Leticia is a reactive character; by the time she first appears on screen, she's been beaten down by life so badly that it's hard to imagine things could get worse (and then, of course, they do). I mean, look at her first major scene in the prison; every word, every gesture bespeaks how furious Letitia is that eleven years of her life have been sacrificed to a no-account husband on death row. But she never expresses it directly; it's all held in (until it explodes later in the film -- at the wrong target).

It's interesting how different actors see the same role. You get a better view of it in theater with interpretations of classic roles that have gone stale from being done over and over -- and then someone new comes along who reinvents the character. I think a similar phenomenon happens with scripts; everyone passes on a character, and then along comes an actor who takes the role in a different direction (Benicio del Toro famously did it with Fenster in The Usual Suspects, which is a role no one wanted).

M.

 

[jeff lam]

Maybe it was just the setting and mood I was in when I watched it that I thought this movie was slow and not a lot happened. Maybe I'll give it another shot sometime.

 

[JohnRice]

Jeff,

From the standpoint of action, not much does happen. From a standpoint of theme and character change and growth, a great deal happens.

For me, Billy Bob putting his father in a home, apparantly with no intention of ever seeing him again, was worth a dozen explosions and emotional outbreaks.

 

[Kevin Coleman]

I guess I don't get the whole economic imbalance thing, certainly as to why it would make the relationship impossible?
Especially since Billy Bobs character didn't look all that wealthy anyway.
Kevin C.

 

[Michael Reuben]

Especially since Billy Bobs character didn't look all that wealthy anyway.

He has a house, land and enough savings to buy a gas station and pay for a nursing home. That's a lot more than she has!

M.

 

[JohnRice]

I agree, Kevin. In one way, I think it is making a controversy that doesn't really exist. The economic imbalance isn't that great. Hank is hardly wealthy, and there is no reason for it to make a relationship impossible. What is the issue is him overcoming the unbelievable degree of hatred he has been bred with.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'll admit, I did LMAO when Billy Bob sent his dad packing. The roommate his dad got was great, and the look on his face was priceless, Peter Boyle did a lot with those short scenes of his.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

I just knew that the sex scenes in this film would be an issue to some people as I had originally noted in my comments. Anyway, here is another view of Angela Bassett's comments from last week from USA Today. While I don't totally agree with it, it is nonetheless, an interesting perspective.

. Hollywood must find a way to tell such passionate stories without succumbing to the sexual stereotypes that were forged during slavery.

~Edwin

 

[Brian J Dupuis]

Guess I'll chime in here as well. My wife and I completely loved Monster's Ball. I think it meant different things to each of us, but overall the feeling we ended with was one of redemption. There were so many good performances that I hesitate to single anyone out.

I think what most strongly influenced my views of this film is the fact that I was raised in the south by a father from the most backwards area of Louisiana, and who truly could be called bigoted (how I ended up "normal", I'll never figure out). This colored my entire viewing, and had me very anxious throughout the movie expecting Hank to regress and wind up hurting Leticia. There was one scene especially where I was on the edge of my seat after she moved in where I was certain that things were heading wrong (in the bedroom, he looked almost vulpine to me). Immediately after that scene though, I rethought the rest of his actions from the movie and realized there was no hidden malice, that this was the real character. Then it became even more profound for me. My wife called it best by saying that he was never really under the sway of his father, but just went through the motions to please him.

That scene when Leticia walks through the doorway after Hank comes home with the ice cream was a cinematic masterpiece to me... such expection, such uncertainty. I don't think Leticia said a single line, but man, what undercurrents. And then the final scene on the porch when Leticia takes the bite of ice cream, and the movie ends with the crane shot (I think?) panning up toward the stars... sort of an allusion to the bird in a cage to my wife and I: the bird was finally heading for freedom.


Yeah, best movie we've seen in quite some time. Several of our friends hated it, called it the most depressing thing ever. Sure, there's tragedy... more than two people should be cursed with, probably. But like I said, we left the movie with a genuine feeling of redemption and new beginnings.

 

[LaMarcus]

The movie was cool but I don't place it on my wow list. Maybe because I watched it after a Beautiful Mind, so it seemed too slow. I mean the most memorable thing about it was the sex scene and the sonshooting himself
now that was a wow. Halle's performance in Losing Isaiah was more powerful to me.
Me being a black man, I didn't see any racial undertone to the sex scene with Halle, the heat of the moment seemed like she had been without for a long time. It's not the first time there's been a strong sex scene in a movie. But since it's a mixed couple it has to be tied back to the slavery days and some deep rooted thing white men have for black women?....Give me a break, I just saw to people fu+#ing to be frank.

The only problem with that is when a film has a strong sex scene like that it takes away from the film, that scene becomes the focus people lose sight of the performance (out of bed).
And Angela. she's trippen the only prostitutes was the white girl at the beginning, did she get offered that role or something?
Angela just didn't wanna get naked, that's what I think.