Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Battling Inner Demons

"He who makes a beast of himself, loses the pain of being a man."
~ Laurence Fishburne in Standoff

Well sorry kids, I've been out for a couple of weeks. I did write a blog post last week, but for personal reasons, I decided to keep it private. But alas, here we are, back at it. I was able to sit down last night and watch a new little gem called Standoff. An absolutely phenomenal character study about the battle with personal demons. It actually worked out very well that I just saw this movie, because I myself am dealing with some personal demons of my own right now, and this one made me think on a very deep level. See lately I have not been dealing with the move all that well. At first it was what I believe was homesickness, but then it turned into a little bit of self-sabotage. On some level, I feel that maybe I have been fighting myself on my attempts to settle in here. Jobs have fallen through, which also doesn't help. It gets discouraging, but in the end I know better.

So about the movie, Standoff. It stars Laurence Fishburne as an assassin with the same ole "all dressed in black" cliché, but this time there's another not so often used touch. He wears a black beanie over his head to keep his victims from seeing his face. If he chooses to, he removes the mask just so it guarantees that the mark is going down anyway, simply for the fact that they've seen his face and it can't be risked that they can identify him later. Anyway, the movie begins with this assassin doing a job which included shooting up a funeral. Never fun to watch, but that was how the director wanted it. So, as it turns out, a little girl just happens to roam into the cemetery with a camera and catches multiple pictures of the assassin, which he then notices and chases her to a nearby house. This is where the true nature of this story begins to unfold.

At this point we meet Carter Greene, a military veteran played by the amazing Thomas Jane, who is dealing the loss of a close family member and is slowly killing himself. It is called Standoff because once the killer gets into Greene's house looking for the child, it becomes a battle of wits, between the two men. For a while, the assassin either doesn't take his mask off, or hides behind a corner, making sure that Greene doesn't see his face. At this point you see that the assassin is battling inner demons, because he is not just "going in for the kill" as the saying goes. He is actually giving this man a chance to "do the right thing" and hand over the girl so that the assassin can tie up a loose end. This movie, remarkably enough, did not drag as I thought it would, despite the fact that the action started right up with very little character development in the beginning.

Over the course of the hour and twenty-two minute movie, the director brilliantly tells the story of two men and a child, all three alone in the world, and all three brought together to somehow find inner peace through an incredibly traumatic situation. Though the dialogue is incredibly profane, some of the best quotes that I have heard in a long time are found in this movie. As you have already noticed, the two best ones are at the beginning and end of this post. You actually get to see a wretched, cold-blooded and ruthless assassin, start to question his own existence, and it is just amazing to watch. I did not expect this movie to be what it was. I just thought, "Oh cool, Laurence Fishburne is going to be a villain! And this movie is going to have a lot of action!" But the director throws a brilliant curve ball, making this one of the best character studies I have ever seen.

I could so easily go on, but eventually I would end up telling the whole story, and if any of you decide to give the movie a try, then I don't want to spoil it for you. Let's just say that I truly believe that God purposefully pointed me to this movie last night, because He knew that its message would be pivotal in my growth as I push forward in this new endeavor. Whether you are a cold-blooded assassin, or just a normal everyday Joe Schmuckatella, the battle is real. Inner demons will tear at your heart strings, and they will destroy your sanity if you let them. If you lower your defenses, and you let the red guy with the horns down below see your inner most fears, you will find yourself fighting a battle that is very difficult to win. The best that anyone can do is to take life one day at a time, and don't let fear or anger rule.

"You don't see the Devil's face without taking the ride to the bottom."
~ Laurence Fishburne in Standoff


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