OK, so I'm a Coen fan. These guys can take a genre and reduce it to its purest form in a single finely-crafted movie. "The Man Who Wasn't There" definitely follows the pattern, with its sense of foreboding, plodding pace, painstaking filming and editing, and more Noir "hooks" than you can shake a lit cigarette at. It's absolutely beautiful to watch, and a loving homage to a genre that is referenced more often than it is experienced these days. And while I'm not a big Billy Bob fan, his performance in this role was impeccable and riveting.
Yet for all the craftsmanship, its pace was slow and it seemed a little empty, like something was missing. The missing element is found in the answer to the movie's central question: "What kind of man are you?"
*** SPOILER FOLLOWS ***
So what kind of man is he? A gay man. Yes, I believe Billy Bob's character is a closeted homosexual. Think about it. He hasn't slept with his wife in years, and doesn't seem too bothered by her ongoing affair: his interest in it is primarily in how he can use it for blackmail. The salesman tries to make a move on him in his hotel room, and the situation is made all the more embarrassing by just how SURE the salesman was that he'd be into it. And of course most upstanding citizens would be distressed to have their friend's teenage daughter making sexual advances on them, but the way Billy Bob reacts to Birdy is different than you would expect out of most other men.
He lives the very safe, straight barber life because given his orientation, and the straightjacket of the times, it is very important that he appear that way. And why stick his neck out and be adventurous, when society won't allow him to be what he really wants to be anyway? As far as society's expectations were concerned, he truly Wasn't There.
One of the wonderful things about Noir is the way in which it provides a photo-negative mirror image of the times in which it was made. Paradoxically, its very darkness illuminates the unacknowledged anxieties and misfits overshadowed by happy, optimistic glow of the times. Yet despite Noir's insights into the postwar world's dark underbelly, some things were off-limits even to this genre. "The Man Who Wasn't There" hits on an issue that, while topical today, was too deep and dark even for Noir at the time. The Coen brothers have not only distilled this form down and perfected its essence, they have extended it. A great cinematic achievement.
Yet for all the craftsmanship, its pace was slow and it seemed a little empty, like something was missing. The missing element is found in the answer to the movie's central question: "What kind of man are you?"
*** SPOILER FOLLOWS ***
So what kind of man is he? A gay man. Yes, I believe Billy Bob's character is a closeted homosexual. Think about it. He hasn't slept with his wife in years, and doesn't seem too bothered by her ongoing affair: his interest in it is primarily in how he can use it for blackmail. The salesman tries to make a move on him in his hotel room, and the situation is made all the more embarrassing by just how SURE the salesman was that he'd be into it. And of course most upstanding citizens would be distressed to have their friend's teenage daughter making sexual advances on them, but the way Billy Bob reacts to Birdy is different than you would expect out of most other men.
He lives the very safe, straight barber life because given his orientation, and the straightjacket of the times, it is very important that he appear that way. And why stick his neck out and be adventurous, when society won't allow him to be what he really wants to be anyway? As far as society's expectations were concerned, he truly Wasn't There.
One of the wonderful things about Noir is the way in which it provides a photo-negative mirror image of the times in which it was made. Paradoxically, its very darkness illuminates the unacknowledged anxieties and misfits overshadowed by happy, optimistic glow of the times. Yet despite Noir's insights into the postwar world's dark underbelly, some things were off-limits even to this genre. "The Man Who Wasn't There" hits on an issue that, while topical today, was too deep and dark even for Noir at the time. The Coen brothers have not only distilled this form down and perfected its essence, they have extended it. A great cinematic achievement.