"Tell me the truth, Frank, remember that? We used to live by it. And you know what's so good about the truth? Everyone knows what it is however long they've lived without it. No one forgets the truth, Frank, they just get better at lying."
This weekend, I had the chance to watch the movie "Revolutionary Road". The cast is award winning: Leonardo DiCaprio (who's going to marry me whether he likes it or not), Kate Winslet, Kathy Bates. The movie itself is a little bizarre, too much screaming for my taste, but the dialogue is killer.
The above quotation is said by Kate Winslet as April Wheeler. It is, by far, the most powerful line in the whole movie. The most powerful character, in my opinion, was John Givings (portrayed by Michael Shannon), the seemingly psychotic son of Mr. Howard and Mrs. Helen Givings (played by Richard Easton and Kathy Bates, respectively). John seemed to be the only character besides the Wheelers whose brain had the capacity to imagine life beyond Revolutionary Road. He was the only one that could see the reason that Frank (DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Winslet) wanted out of the conformity of the typical 1950's suburban town.
I can't seem to stop myself from thinking about this film. The dialogue presents the real issues with life today, life then. Couples lying to themselves, convincing themselves that they love their hum-drum job, convincing themselves that staying at home, taking care of the children is a lovely way to spend 20 years of your life. The way that one day was just like the next, with everyone within a five mile radius waking up and eating scrambled eggs prepared the same as they were the day before, the year before, the decade before. The way that no one strives to change anything.
"Hopeless emptiness. Now you've said it. Plenty of people are onto the emptiness, but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness."
Monday, July 6, 2009
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5 comments:
...we fear change. lol.
But good point.
I thought for a second you were going to talk about popularity and conforming with society in that way.
But this suprised me, which is good.
Keep it up. :D
dude, you should watch mad men. 50s conformity gives me the heebie jeebies but it's so incredibly moving.
i don't think that routine is wrong as long as you choose it. raising kids for 20 years is an admirable feat, as long as you're down with it.
i must agree with that. i'm incredibly biased, though, because i could never do that. i have absolutely zero patience and have the strongest will (besides Logan's) that I know of.
omg when i watched this movie...it was a little depressing..not gonna lie...found it very...ground breaking, to say the least.
I've never seen this movie before, we must change this. But I agree. Conforming is bleh!
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