更新时间:2012-09-17
laylalayla • 冷血霹雳火:short comments
- How does the film reveal the contradictions of Bertha's personality?
And why this complex figure decides to rob on the railroad?
The story is set during the Great Depression when Bertha is drifting around in America by the boxcars with her 'guts and luck'. She is pure like wild animal and ignorant like Eve before the serpent comes. When Bill taking her clothes off, Bertha becomes a little nervous but soon submissive and joyful. After then Bill leaves, Bertha finds money in her shoe. She looks at the money, pauses for one second, starts smiling. Her facial expression doesn't show a tiny bit of humiliation, embarrassment, disappointment or lost, but simply saying 'what a surprise. Sex is good, money is better!'
When Bertha is with her client at the whorehouse, she acts in an open, almost motherly way during the conversation. Then there's a shot from the back of the man touching her face. It is accurately framed that we can only see Bertha's one eye, and the expression in it looks like smoothy, creamy chocolate milk. Years after Bertha discovers that Bill has came out from jail, she again displays pure happiness, never worried about whether Bill's going to despise her for being a prostitute (and he truly won't). On the other hand, Bertha sometimes shows incredibly streetwise as oppose to an innocent animal-like country girl. Before Rake and Bertha go for gambling, Bertha sees Rake puts a gun into his pocket. She says something like 'you gotta watch out' in an intriguing way. Later when Rake is caught cheating in the game, she falls into his arms to cover him; then a close-up shows she takes out the money and the gun from his pocket; she quickly stands up like she's being pushed away, then 'accidentally' shoot the guy who is fighting with Rake and has just made lewd comments about her figure.
Another moment that shows Bertha's socialized side is when she arrived the whorehouse and realizes that it is a whorehouse, she turns around to the front door, looks like she's leaving. Then she turns back with a dull smile, decides to stay. To me this shot looks like she's compromising giving the current circumstances; she is making a very adult, rational choice rather than lead by Bill or her natural instinct.
Steve Baumgartner mentioned that Bertha join up with Bill because "...she saw injustice being done to the working class from the people that employ them and wanted to fight against it." While in my opinion this plot sets out just to give us a reason to feel empathy for her, thereby find the violence interesting and reasonable. It is the reason for the audience, not the reason of her robbing on railroads.
Why she's doing so? Before met with Bill, Bertha was Boxcar Bertha living the life of a transient. Then she sees Big Bill giving out a passionate socialist speech. She stands in the crowd, very exciting, laughs and claps, repeats his word and obviously without knowing its meaning. She puts a gun into the cop's mouth not because the police and authority represent capitalism that she wants to rebel against, but because she wants to rescue her lover. When Bill gets frustrated, she offers him to quit and go away, anything he wants. I agree with Adam's thought that 'there is a symbolic tie between the death of Bertha's father and her lover Bill.' After Bill dies, Bertha becomes a follower wanders around just like before.
- What's the Anagogical meaning of this film?
There is a very clear Catholic metaphor in Boxcar Bertha. Bill was made into a Jesus figure with three followers- a woman (Magdalene), a black man and a Jew. According to Vincent LoBrutto, 'the bible-quoting Sartoris becomes sort of a God-the-Father presence to Bill's God-the-Son persona, and these symbols are heightened, since the characters are played by actors who are actually father and son.'
It is also saying that during filming of Boxcar Bertha, Hershey gave Scorsese her copy of a book called The Last Temptation. More than a decade later he directed a film adaptation of the book, with Hershey as Mary Magdalene. While her role in Boxcar Bertha seems like a precursor for the character of Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ. But actually I didn't pay much attention on the Anagogical aspect during watching this film. It might tried too hard to imply religious metaphor thereby was less fun to me.
source: Google Books- The Passion of Martin Scorsese: A Critical Study of the Films By Annette Wernblad; Martin Scorsese: A Biography by Vincent LoBrutto
And why this complex figure decides to rob on the railroad?
The story is set during the Great Depression when Bertha is drifting around in America by the boxcars with her 'guts and luck'. She is pure like wild animal and ignorant like Eve before the serpent comes. When Bill taking her clothes off, Bertha becomes a little nervous but soon submissive and joyful. After then Bill leaves, Bertha finds money in her shoe. She looks at the money, pauses for one second, starts smiling. Her facial expression doesn't show a tiny bit of humiliation, embarrassment, disappointment or lost, but simply saying 'what a surprise. Sex is good, money is better!'
When Bertha is with her client at the whorehouse, she acts in an open, almost motherly way during the conversation. Then there's a shot from the back of the man touching her face. It is accurately framed that we can only see Bertha's one eye, and the expression in it looks like smoothy, creamy chocolate milk. Years after Bertha discovers that Bill has came out from jail, she again displays pure happiness, never worried about whether Bill's going to despise her for being a prostitute (and he truly won't). On the other hand, Bertha sometimes shows incredibly streetwise as oppose to an innocent animal-like country girl. Before Rake and Bertha go for gambling, Bertha sees Rake puts a gun into his pocket. She says something like 'you gotta watch out' in an intriguing way. Later when Rake is caught cheating in the game, she falls into his arms to cover him; then a close-up shows she takes out the money and the gun from his pocket; she quickly stands up like she's being pushed away, then 'accidentally' shoot the guy who is fighting with Rake and has just made lewd comments about her figure.
Another moment that shows Bertha's socialized side is when she arrived the whorehouse and realizes that it is a whorehouse, she turns around to the front door, looks like she's leaving. Then she turns back with a dull smile, decides to stay. To me this shot looks like she's compromising giving the current circumstances; she is making a very adult, rational choice rather than lead by Bill or her natural instinct.
Steve Baumgartner mentioned that Bertha join up with Bill because "...she saw injustice being done to the working class from the people that employ them and wanted to fight against it." While in my opinion this plot sets out just to give us a reason to feel empathy for her, thereby find the violence interesting and reasonable. It is the reason for the audience, not the reason of her robbing on railroads.
Why she's doing so? Before met with Bill, Bertha was Boxcar Bertha living the life of a transient. Then she sees Big Bill giving out a passionate socialist speech. She stands in the crowd, very exciting, laughs and claps, repeats his word and obviously without knowing its meaning. She puts a gun into the cop's mouth not because the police and authority represent capitalism that she wants to rebel against, but because she wants to rescue her lover. When Bill gets frustrated, she offers him to quit and go away, anything he wants. I agree with Adam's thought that 'there is a symbolic tie between the death of Bertha's father and her lover Bill.' After Bill dies, Bertha becomes a follower wanders around just like before.
- What's the Anagogical meaning of this film?
There is a very clear Catholic metaphor in Boxcar Bertha. Bill was made into a Jesus figure with three followers- a woman (Magdalene), a black man and a Jew. According to Vincent LoBrutto, 'the bible-quoting Sartoris becomes sort of a God-the-Father presence to Bill's God-the-Son persona, and these symbols are heightened, since the characters are played by actors who are actually father and son.'
It is also saying that during filming of Boxcar Bertha, Hershey gave Scorsese her copy of a book called The Last Temptation. More than a decade later he directed a film adaptation of the book, with Hershey as Mary Magdalene. While her role in Boxcar Bertha seems like a precursor for the character of Magdalene in The Last Temptation of Christ. But actually I didn't pay much attention on the Anagogical aspect during watching this film. It might tried too hard to imply religious metaphor thereby was less fun to me.
source: Google Books- The Passion of Martin Scorsese: A Critical Study of the Films By Annette Wernblad; Martin Scorsese: A Biography by Vincent LoBrutto
