I've been very......distressed by certain members believing that Mass Effect 3 benefits from having an incredibly dark ending and is somehow fresh,hip and cool for being so raw. I think this analysis is to glib and in the following topic I'll be presenting topical information on three films proving that what Mass Effect 3 contains is not even close to being hip or new and I will then add thoughts on what maturity in a narrative means to me using said content.
To paraphrase Sovreign "Rudimentary art world participants, you stumble around, fumbling in ignorance, blissfully unaware of narratives infinitely more distressing."
Cinema's Private Hell: A taste for the curious!
These are the jimmy ruslters, the ones that are spoken about in hushed tones, the ones that cause people to stop watching films for weeks and in one case got the director killed. These are all real films. They are not jokes coming from 4chan or SomethingAwful. They all exist and all have audiences in some capacity. Here we go.
The Original God Child: The Baby of Mâcon
This film by the legendary Peter Greenaway stars Julia Ormond and Ralph Fiennes (you may know him as Lord Voldemort now!) and has an incredibly simple plot, it's about a baby in the village of Macon.......
The village has some issues at the opening of the film, crops are not growing, disease is setting in and worst of all babies are not being born! In what can only be perceived as a miracle an elderly woman gives with to a beautiful baby boy, perfectly healthy. Julia Ormond sees this and takes the baby under her wing, claiming that it is indeed hers because an old hag couldn't possibly have given birth to such a monster. Furthermore she announces that it is a virgin birth (you can see the undertones here) and uses the baby to cull favor with the villagers and Ralph Fiennes. This eventually attracts the attention of the Catholic Church, who decided that they and they alone should have control of such power and attempt to wrestle control from Julia Ormond. Rather than let the Church take the baby away she smothers it and is subsequently punished. But the church decides that that isn't enough and that they can still make money off of this. Some of the last images of the film are of a dead baby being cut apart and sold for tokens of good luck. Charming isn't it?
Something is wroing with Miss Gainsbourg: Antichrist
This was a big jimmy rustler an Cannes a few years back. I remember the press conference after the film. I man stood up and asked the director how he could justify what we had just seen on screen. Lars said he didn't have to explain. It didn't go well. This film stars Willem Dafoe (you should know who he is!) and Charlotte Gainsbourg (daughter of Serge, a singer who was well before my time) as husband and wife. They are the only two real characters in the film, known simply as "He" and "She".
What is Antichrise about? It begins with the death of baby. This obviously has quite an effect on He and She. To recover, He decides to take She to their cabin in the woods. Something is wrong with She. Is she possessed? Is she crazy? We are never really given an answer but what I can tell you is that the final twenty minutes of this film are so violent (something happens with a wood block and a pair of scisscors that you will never forget
) that people actually got up and left the Cannes screening. People told me they didn't watch films for weeks because the ending was so grotesque, so violent and so repulsive it damaged them in some capacity. Sounds fun right?Gouge Away: Lessons from Pasonlini's Salo
This is the film that is still spoken of in hushed whispers where I come from. The film that still to this day terrifies people. It is still very popular where I come from and is supported by such illuminaries as Martin Scorsese and Alec Baldwin (THAT ALEC BALDWIN). This film got it's director killed. Murdered. Run over multiple times with his own car. I was no where close to being born when Pasolini was kill but I do have a friend who knew him, the film critic David Ehrenstein. Mr. Ehrenstein said plain and simple that Pasolini was murdered by Fascists and that the report that he was killed by someone else are patently false. Pasolini was hounded by Fascists for years and was evetually done in by them.
What kind of film would do that? What could be so awful that it would cause such a terrible act of violence? I'm not going to tell you in any detail as such direct discussion would get me banned. What I will tell you is that everything that happens in Salo is a direct indictment of Italian Fascism, symbolic of the debauchery, the hatred, the violence and the opression.
What has this got to do with anything?
The end as it stands right now is a paltry excuse at being deep and philosophical. I might have achieved the same level of depth in Middle School when depressed, I could have gone and locked myself in the bathroom stall and wrote grotesque stories about how angry I was with the world. All I see at the end of Mass Effect 3 at this time is death and destruction...........without any need for it. We have spent thirty plus hours attempting to save the galaxy from the Reapers and the best we are given is a schizoid bullrush to the end? The best case scenario for Shepard is to have him lying in a pile of rubble bleeding out? There is no reflection or consitency in the endings. There is no relection upon critical thematic material. The characters are put aside in favor of a failed Kubrickian attempt at philosophy. This is the part where I can truly shake my head in disgust. No light in a narrative that was always about hope. No reflection upon anything but destruction. No hope. Maturity in art comes from reflection upon key themes. The three above films are dark by nature and all have suitable reflections upon that in the end. Mass Effect 3 does not and I perceive it to be a failure because of it. I hope to see this rectified in the extended cut.
When I post these topics I usually get quite a bit of Private messages ( I was even asked to be interviewd for a blog). I really appreciate reading what you have to say about what I right and also about whatever critcisms you may have. If you feel so inclined please send me a message.
I'm also preparing notes on what my next topic should be........what do people want to see? Tales of hubris? A topic about the need for blue babies? How the ending insults the audience? The lingerie model? <- That's a funny story.
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