Raising Ire-izona
I've always been a big fan of the film Raising Arizona and have seen it umpteen times. Yesterday, however, was the first time I had watched a significant portion of it since becoming a father. Viewing it from this newfound prism, I must say that I found myself enjoying it much less and finding the main character, H.I. McDonnough (played by a young Nicholas Cage), to be rather despicable instead of humorous.
For those of you unfamiliar with the film, its protagonists are a young married couple who decide to kidnap a baby once they find that they're unable to have children themselves. It's a black comedy and I've always found the performances to be hilarious and the dialogue pure gold. Previously, the characters endeared themselves to me, especially Cage's McDonnough. But yesterday, while watching him crawl through Nathan Arizona's nursery window to snatch one of his quintuplets, I found little humor in Cage's mock horror slapstick routine with mayhem-causing crawling babies. This time, rather than laughing at his predicament and almost rooting for him not to get caught, I wanted Nathan Arizona to come up the stairs, find him sneaking about with his children, and blow his slimy-ass away.
Go figure.
For those of you unfamiliar with the film, its protagonists are a young married couple who decide to kidnap a baby once they find that they're unable to have children themselves. It's a black comedy and I've always found the performances to be hilarious and the dialogue pure gold. Previously, the characters endeared themselves to me, especially Cage's McDonnough. But yesterday, while watching him crawl through Nathan Arizona's nursery window to snatch one of his quintuplets, I found little humor in Cage's mock horror slapstick routine with mayhem-causing crawling babies. This time, rather than laughing at his predicament and almost rooting for him not to get caught, I wanted Nathan Arizona to come up the stairs, find him sneaking about with his children, and blow his slimy-ass away.
Go figure.
posted by Wonderdog | 12:40 AM | Permalink
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4 comments
4 Comments:
Ah, yes, the stages of life.
When you are single, you hang out with single people. Then you find a steady mate and marry and hang out with other couples. Then you have children and only hang out with people who have children. . and your perspective on life changes everything.
I remember watching Matchstick Men and being angry with Cage that he had involved his daughter in a dangerous scam. I've gone to figure.
Stewdog, are you trying to tell me that I'm...growing up?
"Now, what's it gonna be young feller? You want I should freeze or get down on the ground? 'Cause if'n I freeze, I can't rightly drop. And if'n I drop, I'm gonna be in motion."
Okay, Wonderdog, I agree that the whole premise of the movie should make viewers, especially parents, uneasy. But I think that's intentional. And while McDonough is a sympathetic and funny character, the movie certainly doesn't endorse his actions. In fact, sometimes it seems like a very funny morality play (if there's such a thing). I mean, it ends happily, sort of. And I find H.I.'s final vision such a weird combination of sincerity and irony.
But then again, maybe it's just kitsch in quoatation marks -- as Roger Scruton put it in an essay about kitsch in modern art that I found recently. I've been rethinking my response to these kinds of movies lately -- more particularly to Moulin Rouge. Maybe I'll do a post about it.
Sorry. Rambling, as usual ...
KM, perhaps I overstated it. I haven't abandoned the film entirely. Yes I still enjoy the humor and the brilliant dialogue but being a father has changed it for me forever. I kept having the horrific vision of one of my own blonde-haired, blue-eyed boys being at the mercy of these trailer trash characters and it kinda soured it for me.
"What's he need, his DIP/TET?"
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