After “The Godfather” many following movies tried to venture upon the organized crime in styles of its own. Scorcese is the king in it. Still if one thing that I would like to be taken upon from that movie, it’s the code system, the men who in every kind of judgment of them declare that they are the most honorable one among others. And the cold and vicious crimes undergone unexpectedly in the most fearful fashion. I was not a big fan of David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence”. I have seen many movies in my native language with similar storyline and the style was not particularly impressive. Slick but not impressive. In “Eastern Promises” he has won over me right from the very beginning of the movie.
The film is visceral in the crime and bloody in nature. The film is the look on the organized Russian crime family vory v zakone and a plot running on Anna (Naomi Watts) who tries finding a home for the baby. A baby born to a fourteen year old girl and from her diary unravels the rape and torture done upon her in order to maintain the secrecy. I read from http://www.wikipedia.org/ and they have in detail given the codes and laws of the vory v zakone or thieves in law. I was astonished, surprised and stunned to see the codes in it and the details said on the movie in a subtle manner.
Viggo Mortenses as Nikolai Luzhin impresses as he dresses impeccably and the stature he maintains. He is calm and we know he can be deadly. He sees and understands a little more than you and how your next action is going to be. His loyalty to his boss Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and more than that to Semyon’s son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) is the way he crosses his arms and stands in front of the restaurant. “I am just a driver” he says to Anna when she questions about the girl. He is the man with a heart in the terrible world of heartless men. Men who translate women to whore and have a testosterone scale to measure their manliness. The control more than in life is that they need over sex. They judge and accept one who believes in it, literally.
Kirill is the mad son every crime family movie has. But he too believes in brotherhood. He follows the code and gets beaten by Semyon. Kirill loves Nikolai but proudly shows his tattoo of star over his chest to say he is the “Captain”. They have the King Semyon and the “Captains”, the “Slaves”. They have a Kingdom of their own and we afraid and may be even feel pathetic for these people who still believe in the system of power and control. Kirill is conditioned and raised by Semyon. Sadly enough he expects the love of his father openly. The scene where he expresses the jealousy over Nikolai to get attention from his father and trying to stay true to the affection of brotherhood is a moment to watch out for both for Mortensen and Cassel.
Semyon on the other hand is noble and understanding in appearance. It ends there, appearance. The face he quietly puts up to hide his acts but does not hesitate to use it as a threatening device to get things done in the manner he wants. He is in power and he is in control. He is the man for whom love even to his son is unspoken of and in a sense he does not understand it himself. He protects his son we do not know whether he does it for the code he follows or some slight traces of love? But it is not much of use either. The crime he commits does not have absolution and more importantly forgiveness. But the funny part is, he does not realize it as crime either. He hides from the law because they will not understand the “code”. Cronenberg never utters these because these men are taught things to dug deep inside and bury them in the heart. Follow it but bringing it out is as horrible is bringing out the ghost.
The fear Cronenberg manifests throughout the movie is nerve breaking experience. He uses the sharp objects to tear upon the skin and blood oozing out as to not shock us but to constantly intimidate us on when they are going to come up. We do not want to see those and that’s exactly how he plays with our fear. Every moment we see the wrong body language and the sense of fear elevates.
Among these cruel and shocking males are the miserable girls who from their small villages and towns of their country come with their dreams. May be not dream but some small life they try to make up for and miserably succumb to these men. We do not see those females but hear one of them confiding through their words. Nikolai is some one who has some evidence of that conscience to extend their life, a bit more and save them from themselves. We understand why later in the movie.
“Eastern Promises” is as gripping and enthralling as “The Godfather”. It tends to lose its track but it holds it fort strong in the end. Cronenberg got very good actors like Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl to give these men who live by their ruthless laws and unforgiving codes. This is a movie which can very well be called the new godfather, having every bit of those untold movements and hand gestures to really get these people.
The film is visceral in the crime and bloody in nature. The film is the look on the organized Russian crime family vory v zakone and a plot running on Anna (Naomi Watts) who tries finding a home for the baby. A baby born to a fourteen year old girl and from her diary unravels the rape and torture done upon her in order to maintain the secrecy. I read from http://www.wikipedia.org/ and they have in detail given the codes and laws of the vory v zakone or thieves in law. I was astonished, surprised and stunned to see the codes in it and the details said on the movie in a subtle manner.
Viggo Mortenses as Nikolai Luzhin impresses as he dresses impeccably and the stature he maintains. He is calm and we know he can be deadly. He sees and understands a little more than you and how your next action is going to be. His loyalty to his boss Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and more than that to Semyon’s son Kirill (Vincent Cassel) is the way he crosses his arms and stands in front of the restaurant. “I am just a driver” he says to Anna when she questions about the girl. He is the man with a heart in the terrible world of heartless men. Men who translate women to whore and have a testosterone scale to measure their manliness. The control more than in life is that they need over sex. They judge and accept one who believes in it, literally.
Kirill is the mad son every crime family movie has. But he too believes in brotherhood. He follows the code and gets beaten by Semyon. Kirill loves Nikolai but proudly shows his tattoo of star over his chest to say he is the “Captain”. They have the King Semyon and the “Captains”, the “Slaves”. They have a Kingdom of their own and we afraid and may be even feel pathetic for these people who still believe in the system of power and control. Kirill is conditioned and raised by Semyon. Sadly enough he expects the love of his father openly. The scene where he expresses the jealousy over Nikolai to get attention from his father and trying to stay true to the affection of brotherhood is a moment to watch out for both for Mortensen and Cassel.
Semyon on the other hand is noble and understanding in appearance. It ends there, appearance. The face he quietly puts up to hide his acts but does not hesitate to use it as a threatening device to get things done in the manner he wants. He is in power and he is in control. He is the man for whom love even to his son is unspoken of and in a sense he does not understand it himself. He protects his son we do not know whether he does it for the code he follows or some slight traces of love? But it is not much of use either. The crime he commits does not have absolution and more importantly forgiveness. But the funny part is, he does not realize it as crime either. He hides from the law because they will not understand the “code”. Cronenberg never utters these because these men are taught things to dug deep inside and bury them in the heart. Follow it but bringing it out is as horrible is bringing out the ghost.
The fear Cronenberg manifests throughout the movie is nerve breaking experience. He uses the sharp objects to tear upon the skin and blood oozing out as to not shock us but to constantly intimidate us on when they are going to come up. We do not want to see those and that’s exactly how he plays with our fear. Every moment we see the wrong body language and the sense of fear elevates.
Among these cruel and shocking males are the miserable girls who from their small villages and towns of their country come with their dreams. May be not dream but some small life they try to make up for and miserably succumb to these men. We do not see those females but hear one of them confiding through their words. Nikolai is some one who has some evidence of that conscience to extend their life, a bit more and save them from themselves. We understand why later in the movie.
“Eastern Promises” is as gripping and enthralling as “The Godfather”. It tends to lose its track but it holds it fort strong in the end. Cronenberg got very good actors like Viggo Mortensen, Vincent Cassel and Armin Mueller-Stahl to give these men who live by their ruthless laws and unforgiving codes. This is a movie which can very well be called the new godfather, having every bit of those untold movements and hand gestures to really get these people.
2 comments:
Even if I didn't like this quite as much as you, Ashok, I can definitely see the favorable comparison to "The Godfather" .. Though I didn't mention it in my review, that Trans-Siberia restaurant and the way it was used was as good as a scene-setter as the wedding at the opening of "The Godfather" or the Copa (at least that's what I think it was called) club where Ray Liotta first takes Lorraine Bracco out on a date
yeah, agree that I did not like "History Of violence". But this one maintains the thrill and excitement through out with cold blooded and brutal murders...blood spilling and splashing out :(
great piece of acting by Viggo, Vincent Cassel and the one who plays as Semyon.
Again good screenplay is always worth watching even with a known storyline and background!
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