The Pawnbroker
This moviei enjoys the very notable distinction of having broken the code, something that's worth about a truckload of Ooscars.
It's the story of a man. Like the other one. Or that other one. Like all of them, really.
This man happens to be Jewish, like that other one, or that other one. But that's simply because Man is Jewish, is all. (Do not despair, for there's some sectarian Jewishness [which you probably know as "Christianity"] affixed with spittle towards the end of the production - undying testament to the inferiority complexes of the local yokels.)
This man encounters the usual problem of man, which is to say, that women are pliableii but meaningless, men outright and irredeemably evil while the world (also known as "pain and suffering") is and will forever remain utterly endless. Make of this what you will, while Nazerman makes an inside-out Freudian absurdityiii wherein the organised forced rape of Jewish girls by nazi camp guards is no longer the chief redeeming feature of that entire pile of broken, but some sort of a bad thing. Because sex is bad mmkay.
While all this happens, or more properly speaking goes on, an innocent, mentally limited sheep (that's why they used a Latino - that hair!) kills itself on the unseen, invisible to it, irons of reality. To quote
Or it could mean you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is, you're the weak, and I am the tyranny of evil men.
New York looks absolutely gorgeous in its unbridled, enthusiastic youth. The sound is atrocious, but very good - never has screeching ever before or ever again lived such a full life of the cinema. There's something of Visconti in this, that certain "sound and commotion come and go - once they go, the characters are left behind".
You should probably see this thing with a dog.
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