Instinct

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Instinct (1999) is not an impartial film. It is an indictment of how humans are dangers to the Earth. It stresses how people are so self-centered that they fool themselves into thinking they should be the masters of their world.

The opening shows gorillas in the wild, where the land stretches out far into the distance. It then shifts to a man, Dr. Ethan Powell (Anthony Hopkins in a terrific performance), the last name implying a physical punch, who is a famous anthropologist. He was missing for two years and now looks animal-like with scruffy long hair and beard. He is wearing chains in a cage in Africa. We are used to seeing animals held captive for no reason except for our amusement, but not humans, unless they have committed crimes. Ethan has broken human laws. Guards transport him in a truck with growling guard dogs. By the time they arrive at their destination, the dogs are docile and Ethan is petting them. The man has connected to the animal in himself and thus to other non-human creatures.

People from the U. S. State Department arrive and say they have Ethan now. Even though they remove the chains, he still has no freedom. The shift to Dr. Theo Caulder (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) treating a psychiatric patient under the approving eyes of his teacher, Professor Ben Hillard (Donald Sutherland), tells us that Ethan will be examined as a psychiatric patient. We discover that Ethan used to work at the same university as the psychiatrists and he killed two people and injured three others which explains his imprisonment. For two years he has not said a word, which emphasizes his detachment from human society. Theo exhibits pride when he says he can handle the research on Ethan’s case in a very short time.

When alarms go off at the facility where his captors have brought the now primitive Ethan, he becomes agitated and attacks all those trying to restrain his freedom. He has reverted to instinct, not contemplative intelligence, and is in a flight or fight mode. When he sees his daughter, Lynn (Maura Tierney), he stops his resistance and is overcome by guards. Her appearance summons up his connection to family, which, we later discover, was the reason for his violence in the jungle.

Theo (the name suggests “theocratic,” that is, a god-centered governance, ironic, as we discover) is only a resident but wants Ben to give him Ethan’s evaluation. He is ambitious and sees Ethan as a way of becoming famous by writing a bestselling book about the case.

Ethan is at an institution for the criminally insane called Harmony Bay, an ironic title since there is no “harmony” there. Theo must compromise his lofty ambition to treat the other inmates.

                                    

Theo’s first encounter with Ethan shows how the prison overmedicates him and uses a Taser on the man if he does not comply with rules. There is a literal line across the table that he is not allowed to cross. There is only an attempt to control, not understand him. Theo meets Lynn who says that her father was distant, obsessed with his work with little concern for his family before he went to Africa. Theo borrows pictures that she took when she visited Africa. When he shows them to Ethan, he smashes the picture of her. When Theo acknowledges that Ethan would rather be an animal, he adds that his daughter wants him back. He finally speaks and says “Goodbye” to his daughter’s photo. He now shows that he is not a psychotic divorced from reality by saying, “Have I made your fucking day?” Theo sees the picture of the jungle as his home, not his house in America. Theo promises to cut his medication if Ethan will tell him about Africa. Why does he allow Theo to gain access? The story shows he sees in him the potential to understand Ethan’s viewpoint.

The two meet in privacy now. Ethan describes his time in Africa, and the film visualizes his experiences there. It is vast, beautiful, and removed from human civilization. By increments he became closer to the silverback leader of the gorilla family. He says the clicking sound of his camera disturbed the gorilla. Once he abandoned the piece of technology, he says he “really” saw animals as Ethan became more one with nature. He felt he was getting in touch with something lost long ago and was now remembering. It became harder to leave them and eventually did not go back to his camp. He was able to touch them. He says to Theo that there was more danger in a city than in those forests.

After Ethan has spoken, he tells Ethan that the use of the cards to determine which inmate goes outside is the facility’s way of controlling the patients. He calls the institution’s operatives “takers,” because they remove the freedom of others. When Theo tries to say the session isn’t over, Ethan calls him a “taker.” Theo says he’s “free to go.” Ethan’s response is “Am I? Are you free?” Ethan is just going from one cell to another and implies that although not incarcerated, Theo is imprisoned by the expectations of society.

Ethan is right about the cards. The guards allow the survival of the fittest in an animal-like controlled environment by permitting the strongest, Bluto (Paul Bates), to get the Ace of Diamonds from others to get the privilege to go outside. The supposed civilized are not acting like their name when they allow people to be most primal. When Ethan gets the ace and Bluto attacks him, Ethan overpowers the man and the others back him up so that democratic humanity finds a way into this prison. Dr. John Murray (George Dzundza) says to Theo that even though every inmate is supposed to have a daily period outside they do not have the manpower to supervise many at once, so they let the cards act as a random way of allowing outside privileges. Theo says that the strongest have the advantage and Murray says that it causes the patients to focus their aggression on each other and not the guards. This system shows the awful way the civilized world treats its outsiders.

Murray says that it was worse before he got there although one would not want to think about how that could be. When the inmates fight each other, Dacks (John Ashton) lets them go at each other saying they work it out among themselves. The film suggests that gorillas in the jungle treat each other better than humans behave with their own kind. There is a self-destructive patient who likes to bang his head against the wall. Instead of trying to help him they gave the man a football helmet instead. That doesn’t stop the man from hurting himself. Theo isn’t prepared to deal with this type of chaos. We see Ethan perched high above near a window edge, like an animal in a tree observing all this craziness of the people below and is probably feeling justified in abandoning the human community for the gorilla one,

Ethan corrects Theo, saying that he did not live as an animal but as a human among animals, the way it was long ago before people became “takers,” trying to control everything, destroying the harmony (that word again) in the environment. The gorillas reached over that “line,” a metaphorical one unlike the one on the table before, to accept a human into their family, something humans can’t seem to do with their own kind.

Ethan will not talk about his wife and daughter, knowing that he left them behind and doesn’t want to be reminded of that. He knew humans were there even in the jungle because he saw trapped animals, because snaring is what people do, limiting the freedom of other life forms. He left behind his machete, his binoculars, things that connected him to modern times. He wants Theo to tell his story, to share what he learned, which he can’t do because he is no longer part of the current world inhabited by people. Theo is supposed to direct the flow of the treatment. He keeps pushing for Ethan to deal with his daughter, saying he is in control here. Ethan manhandles him and takes tape from his armrest and gags Theo. He threatens to kill him unless he learns the lesson that Ethan is teaching. After two failed attempts Theo gives the right answer, that Ethan has taken away Theo’s illusions that the psychiatrist has control over his life when he is really adhering to the routines prescribed for him.

When he sees Ethan again, he has drawn a map of the world on his cell walls as it was, he says, millions of years ago. Hunters and gatherers then only killed what they needed, only planted what they required. They were “part of the world” and “they shared” what they had. Theo asks are people supposed to give up the cities and go back to the jungle? Ethan says, “We have only one thing to give up. Our dominion. We don't own the world. We're not kings yet. Not gods. Can we give that up? Too precious, all that control? Too tempting, being a god?” Ethan is asking for a different way of looking at the Earth, and the part people play in it.

Theo brings a box with every patient’s name in it into the gymnasium where they gather. He says there will be no more cards, no ace, no fights. Each day a different name will be drawn so each man can have a chance of going outside. It is a random selection that is fair to all and denies Dacks control over the fates of others. When Dacks tries to intimidate Ethan, he rips his card and all the others do the same. Theo has learned Ethan’s lesson about giving up “dominion.”

Warden Keefer (John Ayleward) is not happy with Theo changing the rules. He says that Theo doesn’t have the authority to alter the program. It doesn’t matter that the rules were harmful and unfair, and That Theo used a better system to decide outside privileges. Dacks said that Ethan was threatening, but he wasn’t. To Dr. Murray’s credit, he backs up Theo by saying that Ethan was not violent. Murray is generous enough to see that Theo made a breakthrough. But all Keefer wants is to keep his “dominion, his “control.” (The name Keefer has the sound “key” at the beginning, which suggests he likes to determine who gets freedom and who he locks up).

Keefer exerts his power to limit how long Theo can stay at his institution. Theo has a week, and Hillard says he must find out why Ethan used violence, and if possible, why he no longer will be violent. A tall order. Ethan admitted to Theo that he murdered the men, but adds that there were many murders, which is what Theo must investigate.

Theo decides to reach Ethan by taking him to a zoo to visit the gorillas. In the past, Theo brought back a silverback, and he considers that action a betrayal on his part. Ethan says that the animals are “shadows of gorillas, born in cages.” They do not know their true selves because, like the slaves brought to America, the owners cut them off from their true identities. The silverback is named Goliath, a name suggesting power, but Theo says the animal has been broken and is now insane. He admits his part in that atrocity.

Ethan says that there was a female gorilla who took good care of her child. She allowed Ethan to hold the baby. This flashback stresses how Ethan did not show much affection toward his daughter. The silverback in the wild took care of them all, him included. The silverback showed “tolerance, acceptance,” attributes we admire when people show them.

We finally view through Ethan’s retelling the “many murders” that took place. Men came and shot the gorillas. Ethan hid the baby and then tried to defend the others by using a wooden club, killing and harming the men. There were too many “takers,” and they wounded him in the leg and overpowered him. When the silverback charged, trying to help Ethan, they shot the gorilla in his tracks. The men had Ethan’s machete and binoculars. They tracked him. Ethan feels profound guilt for his part in what happened. Theo correctly says that Ethan was only protecting his new “family.” He takes a pen from Theo and opens the cage, but Goliath will not try to escape. He says that the gorilla could get freedom over the fence, but the idea of escaping is now only something he dreamed of, something not real. That statement is a foreshadowing of what is to come.

Theo believes he can have a hearing and get Ethan free. Lynn is there and Theo says he will not tell her “Goodbye” for Ethan; he must do it himself. Theo keeps pushing Ethan to show the same attention to his true child as he did for the baby gorilla. He meets Lynn and tells her if he had the chance now and she was a baby he would keep her close and never leave her. The only possession he kept with him was a photo of her when she was a child. They move that photo back and forth over the line on the table, showing defiance of the overly restrictive controls.

Those in authority can’t let go of their power, however. Dacks brings Ethan back to his cell that has been wiped clean of his drawing of the ancient world, metaphorically removing the cooperation of the ancient world species. The guard starts to hit him with the nightstick when Ethan hesitates to go back into the cell. The other inmates apologize to Ethan about his cell and Dacks starts to attack another inmate. Ethan has a new family among these misfits. So, he attacks Dacks. Even Bluto helps hold the guard against his cell.

The problem now is that Ethan has shown violence again and has now reverted to his anti-social ways by reverting to his mute state. To show how much Ethan has affected Theo, the psychiatrist, in response to Hillard’s comment how Theo may be losing control, says, “Wouldn’t that be nice.”

In the gymnasium, up near the window where he stares out at freedom, Ethan sways like a restless animal. Theo talks to him, and it appears that Ethan is closed off, not paying attention to him. Theo says he was good at playing the “game,” of playing by the rules. But he wasn’t close to anybody. He says that Ethan showed him how to live outside the game, to truly live. But, because of the way things are, he will go back to the “game,” but wishes he didn’t have to say goodbye to the one who showed him a different way to be.

As Theo leaves, Ethan turns sideways, showing he paid attention to Theo. In his hand is the pen he took to open Goliath’s cage. He has been using it to scrape away at the hinge that holds the window. One may think of The Shawshank Redemption, and Andy’s small hammer.

The next scene has the guards, Dr. Murray and the patients watching a baseball game. Pete (Thoams Q. Morris) pulls the electric plug so they can’t watch the TV. Murray uses gentle persuasion, that he learned from Theo, to get the electric cord back, saying it’s a guard’s birthday, and Pete should give him the cord as a present. It’s all a diversion. In the commotion, Ethan escapes.

Ethan left a message for Theo. It says that he thanks Theo for going on the journey with him and getting him his daughter back. He says, “You were right. Freedom is not just a dream. It's there, on the other side of those fences we build all by ourselves.” He’s saying we imprison ourselves if we allow it. Later in the rain, Theo stops covering himself, just as Ethan did earlier in the wilderness. Theo spreads his arms and looks up at the sky, another similarity to Andy gaining freedom from the prison in Shawshank.

The last shot is Ethan heading back to the jungle. Another one flew over the cuckoo’s nest.

Far From the Madding Crowd

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

In Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), based on the Thomas Hardy novel, we have one of the themes that Hardy explored in other works, and that is the role of fate. While some see this concept as romantic, Hardy shows how destructive it can be as well as how it upends the notion of free will. “Madding” can mean maddening or frenzied. Since this story takes place in a pastoral area, the word in the title may indicate irony, because the idealistic connotation of the rural area conflicts with the tumultuous happenings in the tale.

The opening shots are of the countryside, and they depict the seaside and unspoiled land. Some of the names in the story reflect the rural area and the personality of the characters. Alan Bates plays Gabriel Oak, which points to a sturdy fellow who has an angelic first name, the one which refers to a heavenly heralder. He raises sheep and we first see him call one of his sheep herding dogs, Boxey, “mad,” which is a foreshadowing. (Sheep may also be a religious reference to the “Lamb of God,” a sacrificial symbol).

Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie) lives close to Gabriel. Her name is also a reference to a Biblical person. Bathsheba in the holy text was involved in an adulterous relationship with King David, later married him, gave birth to Solomon and was a powerful person herself. The implication is that she is passionate and strong. Her last name could signify a person who is rooted in nature and is an earth mother character capable of resilience.

Gabriel brings a lamb to Bathsheba’s home as a gift, but his true purpose is to ask to marry her. Bathsheba was staying with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst (Alison Legatt). He pleads his case in the pragmatic way of a working man. She says she does not belong to any man, which indicates her independence. Later she shows her pride by saying he wasn’t good enough for her. She tells him she can’t marry him because she doesn’t love him despite his declaration of love for her.

We get a shot of Gabriel and his sheep from high above which suggests how small his life is compared to the viewpoint of the cosmos. At night, Boxey goes wild and drives all of Gabriel’s sheep out of their pen and over a cliff to their deaths. There is no explanation for the dog’s irrational behavior. The act ties in with Hardy’s view of unfathomable fate where anything can happen, and people are powerless to stop what is beyond their control. Garbriel shoots his dog who represents the whims of predetermination. However, Gabriel finds solace when he thanks God that he’s “not married.” He promised Bathsheba that he would be a man of means, and now he can’t deliver on that claim.

Gabriel walks past a group of soldiers and this image hints at how the universe throws people together even though they don’t realize the connection at the time. Sergeant Frank Troy (Terence Stamp) encounters Fanny (Prunella Ransome), his lover, on the road with his fellow soldiers. He promised to marry her and says she’ll come when he calls for her. His military position and attitude present him as a man who wants to be in control, which is difficult to do from Hardy’s perspective.

Gabriel goes to the town to look for employment as a bailiff, a person who manages large farms. He meets William Boldwood (Peter Finch), another character with a meaningful name implying strength and a connection to the land. He owns a large property and says he’s looking for a shepherd instead. When Gabriel meets another man Gabriel says he is a shepherd. The man says he wants a bailiff. Poor Gabriel can’t seem to win so far. Others view him as a failure because he owned his own farm and now must work for someone else.

Gabriel gets a ride in a wagon with a couple of men, one of whom is named Poorgrass (John Barrett). We have another name of significance, here suggesting that in the farmland, he is low on the social ladder. The conversation reveals that Bathsheba inherited a property from her uncle. The men comment on Bathsheba’s vanity and the foolishness of leaving a farm to a female. Is she self-absorbed, or are men not capable of accepting a willful woman in charge?

Gabriel jumps off the wagon when he hears people in distress. There is a fire (another force that warps human plans) and Gabriel helps them fight the blaze. He saves the hay ricks, showing he defies life’s obstacles. It turns out to be Bathsheba’s farm, and she hires him. Has fate driven him off his own land so that he can reunite with Bathsheba?

Bathsheba shows how to take command when she fires the bailiff for stealing barley. Like Gabriel, she tries to meet the challenges life throws at her. She decides to take on the job of bailiff to ensure honesty in handling the farm’s affairs. Men try to take advantage of her because of her gender and complain that she isn’t assuming the traditional role of the submissive female.

She has just taken over control of the farm and reviews those men who worked the land for her uncle. One is named Cain, who they call Cainy (Freddie Jones), because his mother was confused as to whether the brother killer in the Bible was Cain or Abel. It’s another small example of the whims of the universe as he is a person judged on his name just because of a misunderstanding. To add to the cruelty attributed to existence is Andrew Randle (Andrew Robertson) who stutters and is thought to be cursed. Other names are Temperance (Harriet Harper) and Soberness (Denise Coffey), assumed by Bathsheba to be women since the film implies these are attributes that men do not adhere to. One of the workers says those two females are “yielding” women, implying they are promiscuous. Bathsheba has feminist attributes and dismisses that slander and the man who uttered it. She concludes her staff interviews by saying, “Don’t anyone suppose because I’m a woman, I don’t know the difference between bad goings-on and good. I’ll be up before you’re awake, I shall be afield before you’re up, and I shall have breakfasted before you’re afield. In short, I shall astonish you.” Quite a boast, bordering on hubris, which the Greeks condemned for being presumptuous as a mere mortal.

Boldwood visits Bathsheba’s farm. He is rather abrupt, lacking social attributes, banging on her door without even getting off his horse, and is curt in his speech. He tells a servant he is there to offer aid to the new owner of the farm. Is he being courteous or assuming a woman needs help? Bathsheba is intrigues by the man. Liddy (Fiona Walker) says he “is married to his farm.” Temperance says, “There’s no woman can touch him, miss. ‘Tis said he has no passionate parts.” Liddy says Boldwood was courted by “sixes and sevens,” which means in a confusing way. (So much for the youth acting like saying 6 - 7 is a modern notion. I remember people using it when I was young). They say many women have tried to win his affections but failed. Perhaps Bathsheba sees the man as a challenge. She finds a Valentine’s Day card at the farm and sends it to Boldwood.

It turns out that Fanny works at the Everdene farm, which shows how the universe intertwines destinies. Troy and Fanny are to be married but when the day arrives, Fanny mistakenly shows up at the wrong church. Fanny learns of her mistake but is too late. Troy is enraged for being made a “fool” of, which shows he is prideful, too. The whims of fate again torture individuals.

Bathsheba comments to Gabriel that the sheep herd is doing well. He says they have been lucky, an ironic statement given the theme of the story. She corrects him by saying, “I’ve been lucky.” Her words show her ego and remind Gabriel that she is in charge. It is a selfish statement which does not allow for Gabriel’s hard work and points to how she does not wish to share her luck.

After Bathsheba impresses Boldwood at the marketplace by avoiding a swindle by opportunistic businessmen, we later get a glimpse of Boldwood’s sterile existence. He eats in his home alone, except for his dogs. He stares at the clocks over his fireplace as they tick away his emotionally empty life. He throws the valentine into the fireplace fire. But passion has gripped him now. He visits Bathsheba and proposes marriage. However, his idea of marriage is old-fashioned as he says he will take care of everything when they merge the farms. She is sorry for her carelessness in sending the card and tells him she doesn’t love him. He is obsessed with her now. Here a simple whimsical act wreaks havoc on another person.

Bathsheba confronts a jealous Gabriel about her going off with Boldwood. The two verbally spar as she reminds him of his place below hers. He criticizes her for playing with Boldwood’s affections to satisfy her own “vanity.” She fires him, the penalty for his accurate honesty.

Then the sheep become ill. Bathsheba summons Gabriel who says he will not be ordered to do a favor. Bathsheba reluctantly sends a message asking him not to abandon her. He arrives and releases toxic gas from each sheep, showing his worth. She is grateful now and asks if he will stay. After being treated decently now, Gabreil remains on the farm.

At an outside feast for the farm workers Poorgrass sings the song “Seeds of Love.” Its lyrics talk of being unlucky in love and being beaten down, but then experiencing rebirth, like seeds growing into flowers. The song shows the need for resilience in a challenging world. The words could apply to the lives of Bathsheba and Gabriel. Boldwood shows up at the gathering. Bathsheba asks Gabriel to relinquish his seat at the table so that Boldwood can sit down. The action could suggest that Boldwood is displacing Gabriel for Bathsheba’s attention. In private she tells Boldwood that she will give him an answer by harvest time about his marriage proposal. Gabriel warned her about toying with the man’s feelings, but she is still keeping him hanging on.

Bathsheba encounters Troy at night in the fields. Her skirt gets caught on his boot spur, a suggestion of an animal getting caught in a trap. It is another accident involuntarily drawing people into each other’s lives. He is flirtatious and praises her beauty. Afterwards she stares into a mirror and smiles, enjoying seeing her image and the compliments she received. It is a narcissistic image.

We switch to an interesting scene that contains a beehive. It produces sweet honey, but the sting of the bees must be avoided. It could be a metaphor for the joys and torments of life. Bathsheba is tending to the hive when Troy appears. He says that beneath Bathsheba’s beauty there can be pain, which is true in this story. He, like Gabriel and Boldwood, declares his love for her immediately. She dismisses the notion of love at first sight in a sort of defiance of how emotion can best reason.

Living up to her last name, Everdene, Bathsheba runs in the countryside as if she belongs to nature. Troy shows up and demonstrates how a sword is used. Interestingly, he labels the moves after farming harvesting methods, meshing his background to hers. The sword is a longstanding phallic symbol. He wants to use her as a model for the enemy. She seems frightened and he says if she is afraid, he can’t “perform,” which has a sexual connotation. She is aroused by his swordsmanship which is exciting in its technique and its danger. He concludes his exhibition by kissing her and she submits willingly.

The tables are turned now as it is Bathsheba who yearns for the man. At first, she’s at 6’s and 7’s about Troy, saying to the female servants she hates him but doesn’t want to hear anything negative about him. She tells Liddy that she has fallen for Troy and doesn’t want to believe the negative stories about him. His reputation with the ladies precedes him. He’s the attractive bad boy who creates excitement.

He is absent for a few days which makes her want him more. She finds him on the beach where a man is selling provocative paintings of exotic nudes and violent rituals. The veneer of respectability starts to fall away when passion stirs. As they talk, we only hear the roar of the ocean which implies crashing primal urges in her. We don’t need words since she shows animated pleading with him along with crying. He is in charge and he exhibits distant amusement at the conquering effect the soldier, in his uniform, has on her. Before them appear older men and a woman in formal attire, their restrained appearance contrasting with the younger passionate couple.

Boldwood feels tortured as Bathsheba rides her wagon back and forth before his farm as she was supposed to inform him of her decision about his marriage proposal. Boldwood confronts Troy with a deal. He wants the soldier to marry Fanny and Boldwood will enrich him. Troy is sadistic as he tells Boldwood to watch how he kisses Bathsheba so he can learn about women. Boldwood’s only unselfish concern is that Bathsheba is happy and is willing to make the same deal if Troy will marry her. Troy adds a final blow by announcing he and she are already married.

Not only Boldwood suffers from watching these two being married. Gabriel must also endure her joined to a disreputable person. Troy parties irresponsibly as he spreads his carelessness by getting the other male workers drunk. It falls to the sturdy Gabriel Oak with the help of the strong Bathsheba to save the farm’s haystacks from a destructive storm. Nature is always a contrary force that can wreck the plans of people.

Boldwood says to Gabriel after the storm that damage to his own farm was due to being distracted by his preoccupation with Bathsheba. He says he will “not give up” his will to continue working despite how much Bathsheba has hurt him. He seems to be trying to convince himself of his endurance and to recapture his pride.

The same flamboyance that made Troy seem attractive carries with it a self-indulgence that is disreputable as he gambles away Bathsheba’s money. Troy finds a pregnant Fanny hiding in the farm stable. He still has feelings for her and promises to help her. When he goes inside the house there is a shot from Troy’s point of view, and he sees the elaborate clock device he bought for Bathsheba. There is also another clock chiming. The references to clocks in the film are a reminder of life passing by inexorably. There is no turning the back the clock to change the past and there is no slowing it down to avoid future events that may be unfortunate.

Troy wants money from Bathsheba to help Fanny, but he says it’s for gambling. Bathsheba is hurting from the disappointment in their marriage. He says romance ends when marriage occurs. Her idealism leads to disenchantment, but she still yearns for the excitement she felt initially.

Fanny dies in childbirth, but there is no mention of the death of her baby. As a former worker on the farm, Bathsheba has the coffin stay temporarily at the house. She begins to suspect the relationship between Fanny and Troy. She opens the coffin and sees the dead infant. She knows now that Troy was intimately involved with Fanny. Troy shows up and, despite everything. Bathsheba believes that through her own will she can get Troy to forsake feelings for Fanny. But the film shows that personal wishes are often stunted by the universe’s plans. Troy is devastated by the loss of Fanny and his child. He is harsh when he tells Bathsheba that Fanny means more to him dead than Bathsheba ever did or does now.

Those crushing words send Bathsheba into retreat to the woods for sanctuary, where her last name implies is her true home. She hears a child reciting a prayer that implores God to save all from works of “darkness.” It is the plight of humans to look for salvation when all seems lost. Troy prepares a lovely gravesite for Fanny only to have it washed away by a storm. The water pours out of the mouth of a demon gargoyle, which implies that the young boy’s prayer may be in vain.

Troy strips off his clothes near the beach and dives into the sea. It appears he has committed suicide by drowning, but it is a deception so that he can escape the confines of his marriage. When Bathsheba hears of the drowning she faints at the marketplace. Boldwood carries her and the image is like the Pieta, as if Boldwood is a parental person, not a possible mate.

Throughout Bathsheba’s grief, Gabriel continues to be the sturdy support his last name of Oak implies. A year passes and Boldwood’s infatuation with Bathsheba continues, pressing her for a promise that in six years when Troy is presumed dead, she will marry him. He continues to try to forge his own destiny despite the odds against him. She says for him to wait until Christmas before she can make the promise. It is what she did before, keeping him hanging on, and he doesn’t wish to learn from his past disappointments.

There is a faire with an image of a young woman balancing herself on a wire. It’s another image of trying to navigate the precariousness of existence. Troy is there in disguise as a comic performer, pretending to be a thief, which in reality he was, stealing Bathsheba’s money and her heart. Boldwood is there with Bathsheba, who seems to recognize Troy’s swordsmanship for a moment. Troy sees his wife and seems to be interested in her again.

At a fancy Christmas party that Boldwood throws for Bathsheba, Gabriel and Bathsheba talk about the promise made earlier to Boldwood. Gabriel tells Bathsheba that marrying someone she doesn’t love is wrong. She now sees marriage as old-fashioned, something her experience has tarnished.

On this night when Bathsheba agrees to marry Boldwood in six years, when he should be at his happiest, when he believes he has control over his destiny, Troy appears demanding the return of his wife. As he drags her away Boldwood shoots and kills Troy in defiance of his fate. Bathsheba also has her hopes dashed as she still loves the man who, despite his faults, still rouses her passion.

Boldwood is in prison and waits for the gallows to end his life. After eight months have passed, Gabriel tells Bathsheba he is leaving for America. He feels that now, when Bathsheba is most “helpless,” he must leave or he will never have freedom from her unrequited hold on him. She later goes to him and urges him to stay. He says he will stay only if when each looks up, they will see the other for the rest of their lives. They get married and seem happy. Perhaps by standing by patiently Gabriel has been able to have the destiny he wanted. However, the ending is not promising. The camera focuses on the elaborate clock that Troy gave to Bathsheba, and there is the figure of a soldier that is part of the instrument. The device suggests that Troy’s memory could spell trouble for the couple as time goes by.

Heat

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

The title, Heat (1995), written and directed by Michael Mann, takes on different meanings in this film. It refers to the police. It also can represent the pressure the characters feel in the pursuit of their jobs. It may also suggest the adrenalin-driven high one gets performing a dangerous act.

The first shot is of a train station at night with steam rising from the earth, a rather hellish look. Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) passes a reproduction of Michelangelo’s Pieta, which suggests sacrifice, but here there is little redemption felt here for the characters, and the feeling here is not spiritual. Neil is in disguise as a paramedic who steals an ambulance. His appearance is a deception as he is not here to ease anyone’s pain. We see patients who reflect the meaning of the statue by being in various stages of suffering, reflecting the agony of the world at large.

Police Lt. Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is with his wife, Justine (Diane Verona) and his stepdaughter, Lauren (Natalie Portman), who worries about making a good appearance for her father who is picking her up. How Vince’s job conflicts with home life becomes evident later.

Neil and his gang literally knock over an armored car with a truck. One of the crew, Waingro (Kevin Gage), is a loose cannon and shoots one of the guards which sets off a gunfight and the killing of all the guards. The scene shows how plans can go sideways when you are dealing with outlaws, the very definition of the word meaning they function outside society’s rules. Once restraint is lost, a domino effect of chaos can occur.

Neil meets Nate (Jon Voight) who hired Neil for the robbery of bearer bonds that belonged to a crooked businessman, Roger Van Zant (William Fichtner). Nate confirms that the big shot was insured for the theft of the bonds, will get full reimbursement, and then can buy back his own merchandise for at a large discount. The scene shows that men died as collateral damage so that crooks could help a supposed legitimate businessman scam the system.

Vincent shows up at the crime scene and realizes that except for the killings he is dealing with a professional group who knew they had limited time to pull off the robbery and only went for the bearer bonds, which they knew about. They also chose a location that was easy to exit. The exploding of the bomb used to enter the armored car was executed efficiently. All he has to go on is to check fences, that someone heard a robber call someone “Slick,” and maybe trace where the explosives were bought. Vincent also realizes that these robbers will not hesitate to eliminate witnesses once violence is in play. We have the start of professionals on both sides of the law working to defeat their opponents.

Neil shows his impatience and brutality because one of his men escalated the crime. He batters Waingro against the wall and table of a diner where he meets with his men and says Waingro won’t get a share of the heist. Neil is ready to kill the man outside, but Michael Cherrito (Tom Sizemore) stops him because police are nearby, not because it’s wrong to kill the man, which shows the lack of accepted morality. While they are distracted, Waingro escapes. We have another loose end in the process of committing a crime.

Chris (Val Kilmer), one of the crooks, brings home less cash than expected from the robbery and his wife, Charlene (Ashley Judd), gets into an argument with him because he needed cash to pay off gambling debts. She calls him, “a child growing older.” Chris explodes, breaking things. There is arrested development here which shows more cracks in the chain holding these robbers together, and there is the emphasis on the inability to balance home life with activity outside of the family.

That problem is also evident in Vincent’s home. Lauren’s father never showed up. Vincent is very critical of the missing dad, but he himself was scheduled to have dinner with his wife four hours prior. Vincent is sarcastic when he says he’s sorry that he didn’t share that he dealt with dead guys on the street. His words suggest his family’s details aren’t as important as his job.

Family continues to be the topic as Neil meets a woman, Eady (Amy Brennemen) in a restaurant. He is suspicious of her at first, trusting nobody, which shows how his line of illegal work causes him to be cautious. After she says she works at the bookstore he frequents they strike up a conversation. He learns that she has “a tight family,” while he admits that his mother died many years ago and he doesn’t know where his father and brother are. The dialogue shows how he is a loner which contributes to his feeling less vulnerable in his work. He has comes to terms with his isolated situation, telling her he is “alone,” but he is not “lonely.” She admits to being lonely and the two kiss and then have sex. But Neil cannot have a relationship in his mind and leaves early the next day.

Vincent’s intimidating ferocity is on show in the scene with Albert Torena (Ricky Harris), an informant, at the man’s chop shop for stolen vehicles. Vincent is loud, sarcastic, and threatening, and Albert promises to have his brother provide information for Vincent.

Chris crashes at Neil’s house which has no furniture. Neil isn’t even emotionally invested in his home. When Chris asks when he’s going to get furniture and a wife, Neil’s answer to both questions is, “When I get around to it,” which basically means never. He stresses the importance of not getting involved in the life they have chosen when he tells Chris, “Have no attachments. Allow nothing to be in your life that you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner.” For Neil, the heat is the police, but in this movie it can mean anything that threatens to anchor you to anything else, leaving you as an easy target.

An example of how the social system discourages going straight is in the character of Breedan (Dennis Haysbert). He is on parole and shows up for a job at a diner to be a grill man. Instead, the manager makes him clean toilets and mop floors. He also says he will state that Breedan stole or did other violations unless he plays ball, which includes giving the boss twenty-five percent of his pay. The implication is that it’s easy to see why convicts revert to criminal activity when they are not given a fair chance at rehabilitation.

Neil finds out that Charlene is cheating on Chris with Alan Marciano (Hank Azaria). Since Chris says that Charlene is his world, which is the opposite of what Neil preaches, Neil concludes he must keep his partner happy. He tells Charlene that she must give Chris one more chance. If Chris screws up again, Neil promises to help Charlene get situated on her own.

Vincent meets Albert’s brother, Richard (Tone Loc), who just wants to work the system, like others, to get Vincent to arrest his competitors who steal cars. He mentions that an ex-convict he knows calls people “Slick.” Vincent discovers that Richard was talking about Michael Cherrito, so Vincent now knows Cherrito was involved in the armored car robbery. He learns what the guy looks like, including tattoos. He gets Cherrito’s criminal record and orders full surveillance.

Van Zant was supposed to pay Neil to buy back the stolen bearer bonds. However, the crooked businessman Van Zant wants to kill who stole from him even though he is making out on the deal. His attitude shows how revenge many times blinds a person to the consequences of getting even. He sends two men to fake the payment and kill Neil. However, since nobody trusts anybody in the underbelly world of crime, Neil has his men there and they kill Van Zant’s men. Neil calls Van Zandt and says there is a dead man on the other end of the phone line. There are attempts at doing business here but since there are no social rules in effect, it becomes open season on others quite easily.

We get two views of the opposing teams at dinner with their respective families. Neil is alone, of course, and he must feel the need for temporary companionship because he calls Eady. He wants to connect with her and asks her to go with him to New Zealand to start a life together. But the destination is far away, divorced from the rest of her current world. To be with him she must meld with his separateness.

 As Neil, Cherrito, and Chris and their families exit the restaurant, Vincent and his men observe them from the roof, since they tailed Cherrito. They recognize Chris, but not Neil, because he secured his anonymity.

We have symmetry now as the police and their families go out to dinner. But the comradery is broken when Vincent gets a call about the homicide of a young call girl. We know that Waingro is the killer, and we learn that there have been other hookers that suffered the same deaths by crushed skulls. The film shows us different layers of ferocity on both sides of the law, but there are some criminals that are more depraved and dangerous than others who harm those outside of the battle between cops and robbers.

The scene between Vincent and his wife Justine at this point is very good at showing the divide between the job of a homicide detective and his home life. Vincent doesn’t want to share the grotesque details of what he sees with his spouse because he doesn’t want to contaminate his family with the evil he confronts every day. However, by keeping Justine in the dark (and this scene is shot in shadows to stress that fact) means, as Justine says, “You don’t live with me, you live among the remains of dead people. You sift through the detritus, you read the terrain, you search for signs of passing, for the scent of your prey, and then you hunt them down. That's the only thing you're committed to. The rest is the mess you leave as you pass through.” Vincent lives for the heat of the hunt, and he admits that he doesn’t want to vent because he needs the “angst” to fuel his predatory drive. She eventually has an affair because it’s a way of getting free from Neil emotionally.

Vincent and his team observe Neil and his gang at a supposed robbery of a precious metals repository. However, one of Vincet’s men bangs his rifle against a truck. Neil, on guard duty, hears it. In the infrared camera it looks like Neil can see Vincent, almost in an extrasensory way, and he pulls out of the heist so that Vincent feels forced to let them go since all he has them on is a misdemeanor.

Neil feels that the robbery is compromised, but he sees it as his last job because he wants out with Eady. Chris has a precarious financial situation with his gambling. But Neil tells Cherrito that it’s better for him not to participate. Cherrito says, “for me, the action is the juice.” It’s that adrenalin heat that these guys desire, and in that sense they are the same as Vincent.

Because he has Chris under surveillance, Vincent also has the man’s wife observed. Which means he knows she has been seeing Marciano. Vincent is able to pressure him based on prior illegal activities to give up information on Chris. Here the film shows how the police put the heat on others by threatening them to get what they want.

Vincent’s team observes Neil, Chris, and Cherrito at a refinery next to a scrap yard. It appears that they are scoping out the area. Vincent later goes to the same location and realizes there is nothing there to steal. He now understands that they have been outwitted and they have been “made.” Neil is high up taking pictures of them, so he knows who he is dealing with. Vincent gets a kick out of it because, in a perverse way, he enjoys a worthy adversary. He is getting off on that “juice” Cherrito mentioned. Neil gets information about Vincent from Nate who also gives him schematics and other information for their bank heist. Despite learning that Vincent was in the Marines, is smart, and was on his third marriage which shows his dedication to bringing hoods down, Neil says the job is worth it. Is it the “juice,” the money, or both?

Vincent follows Neil in his car, pulls him over, and strangely invites him for a cup of coffee. Their conversation is like two noir combatants sizing each other up, finding things in common, showing some mutual respect, and throwing down their gauntlets. Neither of them leads a “regular” life consisting of “barbecues and ballgames.” Neil admits he has a woman in his life but will leave her in that thirty second time slot if he has to because that is the “discipline” he has pledged himself to. Each admits they don’t know how to live any other way and don’t want to. Neil says he will not go back to prison he will put Vincent down if he gets in his way. Vincent says he will do the same if Neil turns the wife of an innocent man into a widow.

Neil is smart enough to shake the tails on him and his crew. But there are loose cannons in the world of the unlawful to foul up the best laid plans. In this case, it is Waingro. He’s the monkey in the wrench, as John McClain would say. Waingro is the serial killing psycho who wants revenge for the roughing up Neil gave him. So, he goes to Van Zant for help.

Neil has his wheel man, Trejo (played by the appropriately named Danny Trejo) lead the police in another direction. Here we have a contrived plot device as Neil just happens to be in the diner where he recognizes the unhappy Breedan and offers him the getaway job because, sadly, it is better than being abused in a legitimate job. He tosses his crappy boss to the ground, and the audience sympathizes with this harsh action because people understand the unfairness of Breedan not getting a fair chance at being legit.

The police get a tip from an informant about where Neil’s team is robbing the targeted bank. What follows is a prolonged modern version of a shootout at the not O.K Coral as Vincent and the police exchange automatic gunfire with Neil’s gang on the streets of LA. The scene shows the upheaval of the safe, civilized life that can be wiped away in a moment. Breedan is killed and Chris is wounded while several policemen are shot. Cheritto, in a cowardly and horrifying act, uses a child as a shield. But Vincent gets an opening and shoots him in the head.

Neil gets Chris to a doctor who he pays to cover up the treatment for a fractured clavicle. Neil wants to follow his discipline, which means getting out, but Chris loves Charlene and doesn’t want to leave without his wife. His attitude shows how the world of crime doesn’t allow for love and marriage. He does go along with Nate with the plan to escape at first, but then leaves to find his wife.

Neil knows that the tip came from Trejo. He looks for the man, but he finds him near death. His naked wife is also dead, and we can assume the rapist/killer Waingro was at the bottom of all that happened, forcing Trejo to reveal Neil’s plans to the cops. Trejo says that Van Zant was involved. Trejo asks for a mercy killing and Neil obliges him. And the hits keep on coming.

Vincent tracks down the snitch who took the information from Trejo and tipped them off because he wants to follow the trail that leads him back to Neil. Meanwhile, Neil wants revenge and finds out from Nate where Van Zant lives and shoots him. He is on the trail to get Waingro. Both Vincent and Neil are hunters despite being on different sides of the law.

The police acquire Marlene and her son. Sergeant Drucker (Mykelti Williamson) uses manipulation to convince Marlene to give up her husband or else she will be considered an accessory, and her young son will go into the system. She gives in to the request. The scene shows again how the police leverage people, here giving Marlene a bad or worse choice. Marlene is able to get around her situation by giving her husband a signal to stay away as he approaches. Of course, even though Chris escapes, husband and wife can’t be together, and that’s the tradeoff.

Meanwhile, Vincent has used a beating to get information out of the tipster, Hugh Benny (Henry Rollins), to find out about the hotel where Waingro is hiding. Here there is more coercion, as the ends justify the means for Vincent here. Vincent leaks the location so that Neil will learn where Waingro is and Vincent can intercept him there.

Eady was living in a naïve romantic dream world about Neil, not really wanting to know how they can go off to New Zealand easily. Now she knows he is on the run and she tries to escape. She is both somebody Neil cares about and is also a loose end. So, he wants her to leave with him. He allows her the choice, however. Now he has come to realize he can’t be alone anymore, and he only wants the rest of his life to be with her. His sincerity wins her over. Nate has provided Neil with a plane and documents to leave the country. Neil looks like he’s ready to take off, but abruptly turns off the road and heads to get Waingro.

Vincent thinks Neil has escaped and heads out, throwing his TV out of the car, busting it up in the process. The shattering of the TV, which he said his wife’s lover was not allowed to watch, represents the breakup of his marriage. He then gets another jolt when he finds his stepdaughter, Lauren, in the bathtub after an attempted suicide attempt by self-inflicted wounds. He wraps towels as torniquets and saves her. Lauren is collateral damage resulting from her father’s neglect and the actions of both her mother and Vincent in their relationship. As Neil has come to a realization about himself, Vincent seems reconciled to who he is. When he asks Justine if there is any hope for the two of them, he is doubtful, He says to her, “all I am is what I’m going after.” Justine realizes that’s true and gives him permission to go to the hotel where Waingro is.

Neil sets off a fire alarm, steals a jacket so he can pretend to be with hotel security, goes to Waingro’s room, and shoots him dead. The police have the room under surveillance, so Vincent knows Neil is there and gives chase. He spots Neil as he approaches the car next to Eady, who is there, waiting for Neil. The crook does what he said earlier, which is to leave behind any possibility of a connection to another when he is at risk. But, he already should have left and then he would have escaped. He pursued his own view of vengeful justice. Now, he pays for it. Vincent follows him and just as Neil is about to shoot Vincent, the policeman sees Neil’s shadow (representing Neil’s dark side?), turns, and shoots his prey.

In the end the two men live up to who they are. Neil repeats what he said earlier about not going back to jail, remaining an outlaw until the end. Vincent remains the hunter. Neil holds out his hand just before he dies and Vincent grabs it, a last handshake representing understanding between the two.