+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year
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| Vincent Gallo is likened to the image of a wolf on this poster for Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing |
Somewhere in the Middle East, an insurgent bombs some American soldiers and is taken as prisoner to somewhere in Europe, where his prisoner transport however crashes, allowing him flee into the wilderness.
Essential Killing is written by Ewa Piaskowska (Four Nights with Anna/Cztery Noce z Anna (2008)), James McManus (The Big Empty (1997)) and co-writer-director Jerzy Skolimowski (Walkover (1965)). The film doesn't work for me on a fundamental level because its unnamed protagonist played by Vincent Gallo (The Way It Is (1985)), - who ventures into this taxing role wholeheartedly, - is still not one of the precious few actors around, whom an audience will inadvertently like as by some mysterious pull or instinct and regardless of his character's flaws and misdeeds. I also have a basic issue with the fact that the hero here seems to kill men (and even a dog) not because it seems essential or necessary for his own survival, but simply whenever the chance presents itself. - How is that not going to build strong antipathy towards him from us?
American soldiers and Poles are all portrayed as unsympathetic (they are vulgar, barbaric, depraved, violent and drunk), but the increasingly foggy 'hero's' hallucinations don't tell us anything clear, and certainly nothing to make us forgive or remotely him, (he doesn't speak and so these hallucinations and his actions are our only way to probe his person and motivations.)
Essential Killing is an unusual film, and its footage of nature deserves praise, as there is beauty to behold here. Unfortunately, the film's pace is also very slow going, and despite its short running time, (as well as one hype-filled poster's claiming that its both 'frenzied' and 'pure action') Essential Killing commits a cardinal sin for cinema: It is boring.
Related post:
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Estimated 3.1 mil. €, equaling approximately 3.86 mil. $
Box office: Uncertainty - but seems to be somewhere in the range of 1 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[Essential Killing premiered 6 September (Venice International Film Festival) and runs 83 minutes. Skolimowski came up with the premise for the film while driving in an area of his native Poland where a secret CIA prison had been revealed and skidding off the road, realizing it could also easily happen to a prisoner transport. He intentionally made the locations in the film unspecified and also wanted to avoid being overtly political. No less than 14 production companies and support bodies were involved in the funding and making the film. Shooting took place in Norway, Israel and in Poland, including in Warsaw, from December 2009 - ?. Gallo went through especially painstaking trials for his performance, running barefoot in the snow in -30 degrees and insisting that the breastfeeding scene be shot with an actually lactating woman. The film had only festival releases in most of its markets, including the US, where it only played at the Polish Film Festival. It had its biggest market in its native Poland with 329k $, which accounts for 67.1 % of the just 490k $ it is listed as having made in 6 markets. This doesn't include almost 50k admissions in France, which should about double its take to around 1 mil. $, still hopelessly far from a profit. The film won two prizes in Venice, was nominated for a European Film Award and won 4 out of 6 nominations at the Polish Film Awards. Skolimowski returned with 11 Minutes/11 Minut (2015), and Gallo in Promises Written in Water (2010). Essential Killing is fresh at 83 % with a 6.2/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Essential Killing?
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