First off, I LOVED the Scottish accents! A wee bit thick at times, but that comes with territory ;)
Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this short film. The first thing I noticed right off the bat was that the film, even though having only been made about 15 years ago, is shot in B&W. And I'm not certain, but I'm guessing that it was shot on 16mm as well just give it more of that "grit" that is so enjoyable throughout the film. I also enjoyed how they set up the key players at the beginning of the film. The vagrant. The troublemakers. The deadbeat. Ladies and gentlemen these are the scum of the earth. All are shown in a way that make us draw back from them in disgust when we first see them. But things are not as ugly as they appear. Though messed up, and despised by the people around them, they are the only ones who arise to the call of helping save a boy's life. Not the men who's duty it was to protect and serve. Not the so-called socially "sound" people living in the apartments surrounding. It is the deadbeat drunkards and the misfit troublemaker that become the good Samaritans. But indeed, nothing good could come from such people. They are so beneath us...
The only character I am still wrestling with is the character of the vagrant. I am struggling to find his purpose for driving the story along. What are your thoughts?
The vagrant was the ex machina of the story, but instead of being a device that makes everything better he's used to make sure the other characters adhere to the rule, "No good deed goes unpunished." Some would say this was made by "glass half empty" type of people, I like to call them "realists."
ReplyDeleteDoing something because it's the right thing to do only alienates you further from society. It's so out of the ordinary that people will stare at you and think, "What's wrong with him?" So it shouldn't be done for any reason other than you just can't stand the thought of seeing the consequences of putting on that honey crusted apathy. In the end doing the good deed, at many times after the deed is done, feels like some hobo beat you in the face with a pipe.