Why "the Vanishing" Is Not a Horror Movie

Reading that The Vanishing is considered a horror movie by many critics, I began watching the film with that description in mind. I expected loads of suspense, maybe some murder, I dunno - things that you find in horror movies. Instead, I found the film to be more of a drama, with possibly some psychological thriller tendencies thrown in there, particularly the ending, which just left me feeling pretty empty inside. Obviously, I did find a great amount of suspense within the film, especially in the events leading up to Saskia's kidnapping and immediately after. But the remainder of the film felt more like just a series of events where Rex attempted to find out what happened to her. Until the end, that is, where it brought those horror aspects back into the film. Although I would not say that the few moments of horror make this a horror film, per se.

The scene I want to focus on in proving my point that this is not really a horror film is the scene in which Rex gets in the kidnapper's car and the events that follow. The kidnapper gives Rex an ultimatum, stating that he can either have exactly what happened to Saskia happen to him as well, or that he can walk away without ever knowing her fate. The problem that I have with this scene and the film's being called a horror film is that the interactions between Rex and the kidnapper don't seem very dramatic or terrifying or any other adjective associated with horror at all. Instead, it just comes off as a series of interactions, during which Rex assures the kidnapper that he doesn't hate him and that he just wants to know what happened to Saskia, with the kidnapper telling his life story. It honestly just feels more like a more-dramatic-that-normal drama film to me. That's not to say that it wasn't great, because it was. I just didn't really get a horror vibe from it.

Killer of Sheep

I completely understand why there are an abundance of people who found, and still find, Killer of Sheep to be confusing upon first watching it. When watching a movie, one would obviously expect there to be some semblance of a plot to follow, with characters that are relatively easily remembered, some sort of conflict, maybe a heart-warming ending. Killer of Sheep, however, rids itself of these traditional parts of film completely. Until I read up on the film roughly half-way through watching it, I did not fully comprehend the hyper-realistic nature of the film. I must have glazed over that description and did not think much of it.

The first scene in the film, with the father yelling at his son and the mother slapping him, sets the movie up in a way that makes it seem like any questions the viewer might have (such as who are these characters/what are their goals, etc.) might be cleared up, but, for me, about 40 minutes in I realized that the film was more of a series of events in the character's lives. I had to change my viewing of the film and allow myself to just sort of live with the characters and follow what was happening, without expecting any sort of grand climax at any point. Although the film was not super difficult to understand or follow at all, it took me a little while to get the hyper-realistic nature of the film - or rather, to let myself forget about anything I had watched previously and to just enjoy it and try to follow what was happening. There was obviously some main plot points in the film, like Stan's work-life affecting his home life, his friends trying to get him involved in their lifestyle, etc., but overall, the film was different from most others, and I can totally see why some would find it difficult to follow.

The Myth of Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood's acting in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly really showcases his ability to pull of the silent and ruthless action hero without even having to reveal his name. His facial expressions, actions, his glare, and even his stance really, in addition to a ton of other things, work together to form the character that Clint Eastwood would continue to play until modern times. I mean, really, although his roles are relatively diverse between the westerns he is famous for, or the Dirty Harry films, or Gran Torino, he mostly sticks to the same general character type that originated with the Man with No Name.

Really, his whole character is shown in his relationship with Tuco - the way that he works together with Tuco to collect reward money over and over again, only to end up leaving him in the desert is a pretty good indication of his ruthlessness, especially considering his total lack of pity toward Tuco. Then there is the fact that Eastwood trudged through the desert and survived when Tuco tried to get back at him - he even managed to keep himself alive by finding out the name of the grave where the money they are after is buried. Another really important aspect of his characters are their pretty direct, cold dialogue. In this film, the viewer gets a pretty clear example of this when he leaves to find the grave with Angel Eyes and he says a line about having six bullets - which happens to be the amount of people in their group, excluding himself. It is Eastwood's portrayal of the silent, albeit ruthless, character that landed him his future roles that were relatively similar to his role as the Man with No Name.

Awara: Musical or Not

You know, when I was first looking over the questions for this week's blog post and I read the second question, I immediately jumped to the conclusion that no, Bollywood movies are not necessarily musicals. I am not exactly sure why I did that, but after discussing it with a couple people and watching Awara, I have changed my mind about Kapoor's film. There are a few instances of song and dance in the film, including the famous dream sequence, where the singing and dancing seem to be non-diegetic (well, the singing/dancing in the dream sequence could be diegetic - or I guess meta-diegetic, heh), leading me to believe that it has to be considered a musical.

The first glimpse (if I am remembering correctly) that the viewer gets of a song/dance number is when Raj's mother and father are in a boat and the others around them are singing and repeating things such as "beware," etc. that warn the two of bandits, but in reality, I am assuming that one of them/maybe multiple would just be warning the two without the out-of-place musical number. That is the keyword (or I guess hyphenated string of words): out-of-place. The reason I would consider this film a musical is because musical numbers are used at moments where there would definitely not be anyone singing/dancing in reality. I mean, I guess it is possible that while Raj and Rita are out on the boat together they could potentially be singing, but it is also not horribly likely. So I think I would now consider Awara a musical.