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<blockquote data-quote="Mel O&amp;#039;Drama" data-source="post: 435993" data-attributes="member: 23">Affliction (1997)

<img src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BY2JlNDI0MTAtYWUyYy00ODgwLThlMTItY2NmOTMzMGE2OGQ3XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg&amp;f=1&amp;nofb=1&amp;ipt=23c2e34ae7f7a5c6ac058f0f423067907ed414411a52668711d1e998ab6e3039" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 644px" />Before watching, I hadn&#039;t realised who Paul Schrader was. Even if I had, I&#039;ve seen little-to-nothing of his work so it may not have meant that much anyway (I am, of course, aware of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo, The Mosquito Coast and The Last Temptation Of Christ, but have yet to watch any of them). I was drawn into this by the strong cast, the mention of an Oscar win, the fact it&#039;s free on Prime and the intriguing title.The darkness in this film is both figurative and literal. Exterior scenes feature snowy locations, and this should brighten it up. Instead it captures a gloom so effectively that I found myself repeatedly trying to refocus my vision to make out more detail. Woodland scenes, it has to be said, look amazingly dreamlike, with crisp white snow and spindly bare trees through which characters move.The story is one that&#039;s felt rather than followed. My concentration wasn&#039;t the sharpest yesterday (this was watched as a Sunday matinée) and for a good deal of the time I didn&#039;t fully understand what was going on. There&#039;s a sense of joining an ongoing rural soap opera with a sense of history, and relationships that become clear as things go along.Last month I watched Winter&#039;s Bone, which depicted a harsh and brutal small town America. This film is similar in tone and theme. Along with the sense of isolation comes a set of values that feels very dog eat dog (or perhaps &quot;dog shoot, skin and eat dog&quot;). There&#039;s an undercurrent of violence which explodes to the surface every once in a while. And yet each character, in their own way, is as broken and vulnerable as they are ugly and bitter.There&#039;s nothing here that&#039;s cheerful and little that&#039;s hopeful, and this redeems the film. A saccharine Hollywood ending would have made it feel entirely pointless (as it does most films). To say more about that ending would be to give too much away, but it might just&nbsp; be reason enough to rewatch the film, even though once was probably enough. I&#039;d rather spend the time watching another PS -directed film.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mel O'Drama, post: 435993, member: 23"] [CENTER][B][SIZE=6]Affliction[/SIZE][/B] (1997) [IMG width="644px"]https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fm.media-amazon.com%2Fimages%2FM%2FMV5BY2JlNDI0MTAtYWUyYy00ODgwLThlMTItY2NmOTMzMGE2OGQ3XkEyXkFqcGc%40._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=23c2e34ae7f7a5c6ac058f0f423067907ed414411a52668711d1e998ab6e3039[/IMG][/CENTER] Before watching, I hadn't realised who Paul Schrader was. Even if I had, I've seen little-to-nothing of his work so it may not have meant that much anyway (I am, of course, aware of [I]Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, American Gigolo, The Mosquito Coast [/I]and[I] The Last Temptation Of Christ[/I], but have yet to watch any of them). I was drawn into this by the strong cast, the mention of an Oscar win, the fact it's free on Prime and the intriguing title. The darkness in this film is both figurative and literal. Exterior scenes feature snowy locations, and this should brighten it up. Instead it captures a gloom so effectively that I found myself repeatedly trying to refocus my vision to make out more detail. Woodland scenes, it has to be said, look amazingly dreamlike, with crisp white snow and spindly bare trees through which characters move. The story is one that's felt rather than followed. My concentration wasn't the sharpest yesterday (this was watched as a Sunday matinée) and for a good deal of the time I didn't fully understand what was going on. There's a sense of joining an ongoing rural soap opera with a sense of history, and relationships that become clear as things go along. Last month I watched [I]Winter's Bone[/I], which depicted a harsh and brutal small town America. This film is similar in tone and theme. Along with the sense of isolation comes a set of values that feels very dog eat dog (or perhaps "dog shoot, skin and eat dog"). There's an undercurrent of violence which explodes to the surface every once in a while. And yet each character, in their own way, is as broken and vulnerable as they are ugly and bitter. There's nothing here that's cheerful and little that's hopeful, and this redeems the film. A saccharine Hollywood ending would have made it feel entirely pointless (as it does most films). To say more about that ending would be to give too much away, but it might just be reason enough to rewatch the film, even though once was probably enough. I'd rather spend the time watching another PS -directed film. [/QUOTE]

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