107. The Winner Takes It All & ...

'















Lyrics

I don't wanna talk
About things we've gone through
Though it's hurting me, now it's history
I've played all my cards
And that's what you've done too
Nothing more to say, no more ace to play

The winner takes it all
The loser's standing small
Beside the victory, that's her destiny

I was in your arms
Thinking I belonged there
I figured it made sense building me a fence
Building me a home
Thinking I'd be strong there
But I was a fool playing by the rules

The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear

The winner takes it all (takes it all)
The loser has to fall (has to fall)
It's simple and it's plain
Why should I complain

But tell me does she kiss
Like I used to kiss you
Does it feel the same
When she calls your name
Somewhere deep inside
You must know I miss you
But what can I say, rules must be obeyed

The judges will decide (will decide)
The likes of me abide (me abide)
Spectators of the show, always staying low
The game is on again (on again)
A lover or a friend (or a friend)
A big thing or a small (big or small)
The winner takes it all (takes it all)

I don't wanna talk if it makes you feel sad
And I understand
You've come to shake my hand
I apologize if it makes you feel bad
Seeing me so tense, no self-confidence
But you see

The winner takes it all
The winner takes it all

So the winner takes it all
And the the loser has to fall
Throw a dice, cold as ice
Way down here, someone dear
Takes it all, has to fall....

We have made it through two posts without an ABBA song, but here they are again. Look, you can make a fair argument that ABBA is underrated, and that because they made breezy songs they aren't as taken as seriously as they perhaps should have been. But the love ABBA gets in Radio's 2 top 2000 is astonishing. We are only at 107 at they have already placed 4 times (they'll place once more before we get to 200). This is obviously not a breezy song, as evidenced by the fact that the video for it was directed by Lasse Hallstrom. I did not link the song to one of his movies though. 

The Movie: The War of the Roses (Danny DeVito, 1989)

The War of The Roses is certainly one of the most famous movies about a divorced couple fighting, but it's not completely right to connect it to the ABBA song. The entire point of the movie is that in a divorce 'battle' there is no winner. And it trows everything, including the kitchen sink to make that point. Especially in its second half it concocts the most bizarre ways in which Oliver and Barbara Rose can make life miserable for each other. In doing so, it is quite funny. Few lines will make one chuckle as much as "A family tiff seems to be developing. I don't know if we should leave, but I definitely advise skipping the fish course". There is also a downright bizarre battle between a jeep and a cabrio. The movie saves the dog, but is less merciful to the cat. 

Much of what I've described here happens in the second half of the movie. While it's quite wonderful, I was a bit disappointed by it. Because the first half of the movie is really something else. It's a remorseless depiction of how a family's American dream can turn into an American nightmare, without anyone being really able to put a finger on how and why that happened. Danny DeVito is relentless in showing the marching of time, and the lack of agency the Roses seem to have over their own life. This is of course also communicated through the narrative framework of the film. Their story is told by DeVito's character, a divorce lawyer, to a client of his. They meet in Nantucket, rather romantically, and have sex. Cut to the next scene, when they are suddenly much older and have kids. Cut to the next scene, their kids are even older and are now spoiled brats. Before you know it 17 years have passed since their first meeting in Nantucket. Their children are about to go to college, and the Roses are going to be alone in their comically large house. They never had a chance to find their purpose in life or their identity. Oliver is a self-admitted phony who plays the role of a cultured man in order to become a big shot lawyer. Barbara plays the role of the satisfied housewife, until one day she sells her self-made pâté and earns her own money for the first time in years.       

What makes all of this so powerful, is that Oliver and Rose are presented here as fundamentally decent, rather ordinary people. When they meet Oliver is a law student, and Rose is a gymnast, realizing there is no future for her in gymnastics. They have no particularly ambitious dreams, and mostly just want to live happily as a family. As the good American citizens they are, they believe that the pursuit of the American Dream will lead them to happiness. They don't know any other way.  They simply follow the rules/conventions of the society they are shaped by. Yet it's those same conventions that lead them to a life of misery. They don't seem to understand how that is possible. Even worse, they don't even know how they could try to understand. This is a more chilling movie than something like American Beauty. There Kevin Spacey is miserable because he isn't living the life he wants. Here, Oliver and Barbara are miserable, despite living the life they want. And once that life falls apart, it's not just anger that fuels their 'war', but frustration too.

    

     

106. Desperado &...

Lyrics

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh, you're a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow

Don' you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of heats is always your best bet

Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get

Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no youger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're loosin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late

Hotel California and The Last Resort are absolute classics, but The Eagles have never made another song that even comes close to those two. Desperado isn't bad though, and it allowed me to see/write about a (sort of) western again.

The Movie: The Misfits (John Huston, 1961)

I''ve previously written a post here on John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, which I absolutely loved. The Misfits could not be any more different than it. The Maltese Falcon had an incredibly tight screenplay, with a very precisely developed plot. Every scene, and every line helped build up the characters and move the story forward. The movie invited us to think and strategise with the characters, by making expertly clear how each development affected each character. The Misfits, on the other hand, hardly has any plot to speak off. Not much happens here. Very often the characters are quite confusingly written. 

While the characters may be a bit inconsistently written though, here, like in The Maltese Falcon, it is exactly clear what the characters desire: Marilyn Monroe. She has to some extent the same function as the falcon, with one major difference. In the Maltese Falcon, the falcon was the McGuffin. Here, everyone else is the McGuffin. Everybody in this film exists to illuminate Marilyn Monroe. Thus, while the film may not be entirely successful, it is very interesting as a historical document. I have rarely seen a movie so obsessed with a film star. We all know the discussions about how Hollywood attracts audiences to their movies. They glorify their stars and build an aura of perfection around them. The Misfits seems to be a rare example of Hollywood falling for its own illusion. It's basically an exploration of all the ways in which Marilyn Monroe is perfect. Watching The Misfits, one can easily understand why Monroe was so messed up and confused. Especially if we consider that the film was written by Monroe's partner Arthur Miller, and that their relationship ended before the film was finished. In this context, Monroe's performance here is quite impressive, especially because it seems to be so unselfconscious. While the movie is constantly glorifying, she is playing, or at least trying to play, Roslyn as a woman grounded in reality. This is especially clear in the scenes between her and Isabelle (Thelma Ritter). The relationship between the two woman feels like a very naturalistic portrayal of a friendship between two women, with the older woman being something of a mentor figure. 

Monroe is basically presented here as the mother of all living creatures, a well of empathy that never dries up. She basically serves to give meaning to the lives of the three main male characters, who are all in their own ways desperate men. Gay Langland (Clark Gable) is as IMDB rightly puts it an 'over the hill cowboy', whose children have abandoned him. Guido (Eli Wallach) is Gay's friend, whose wife died a long time ago. Lastly, Perce (Montgomery Clift) is the most tragic of them all. He's a cowboy who lost the family farm and now has to earn a living at dangerous rodeos. Roslyn's incredible kindness and care (and her butt; the movie has quite a lot of close ups of Monroe's behind shaking around) are nearly magical. Around her, all their problems seem to disappear. Monroe is damn near literally presented as a source of joy and comfort. As if that's not everything Monroe is incredibly athletic too. In one scene at a bar the customers are playing with one of those small, wooden tennis rackets that have a string with a small ball attached to them. Whomever can hit the ball 10 times in a row will get money. Most customers hardly get to five. Monroe gets to 10 and keeps going. She hits the ball about 50 times, maybe more. The sole function of that scene seems to be to show that Monroe is extraordinarily better at this small, insignificant game than nearly any other person in the world. And of course she doesn't want to keep the money she earns for herself. She gives to the poor, and to Perce.

Monroe's care and empathy is also reserved for animals. At the beginning of the film she doesn't let Gay kill a rabbit destroying her garden. This early scene foreshadows the climax of the film, when the three men and Monroe go mustanging (hunting wild horses in the Nevada mountains). When Monroe learns that these horses will be killed she throws a fit, threatening to leaves. Much drama ensues, but in the end the horses are let go. Monroe now becomes more than just the mother of all living creatures, she is the symbol of modernity and progress.