DVD Essential Killing

I just saw this while visiting Warsaw.

The plot is very simple. Two American contractors and an American soldier inadvertently corner Gallo's character – it's not clear if he's a local peasant, Taliban soldier, an American Taliban or something else altogether. He grabs a weapon from a dead body and hides. When the Americans investigate his hiding place, he let's loose, killing them and flees and is quickly captured, interrogated, waterboarded, processed and flown out to a 'black site' base in Eastern Europe. In a freak accident, he manages to escape and, from that point on, it is him against pretty much everyone and everything just trying to survive a few more minutes at a time.

It's an enigmatic movie and, in my experience, exceptional, powerful and poetic. A challenging film which plays strongly to subjectivity. It encompasses elements from other chase and wilderness movies but I am hard pressed to think of other films to directly compare it to. The closest I could come up with was Larisa Shepitko's "The Ascent" and perhaps elements of Jarmusch's "Dead Man". Still, it stands unique.

I'd note that opinions coming out of the theater were very divided and to the extremes. It is clearly not for everyone, some found it brilliant while others where quite disappointed. This may be due in part to the current poster which does the movie several injustices; it makes it appear a much more conventional movie than it is, does not reflected the artistic beauty of the film itself (outstanding cinematography – almost every frame as a still would not look out of place in an art gallery – something even those who didn't like the film tended to agree on), and it furthers expectations of a 'normal' action film – notwithstanding the spectacular opening, those expecting a Hollywood action film will be disappointed as will be horror fans – the movie has a brutal realism but is not nearly as graphically violent as I expected based on the trailer and reviews. It opens looking like a big budget Hollywood movie and moves progressively further into abstraction – reflecting the deteriorating physical, mental and spiritual state of the protagonist.

As to the protagonist, Vincent Gallo is amazing and I can see why he was awarded for this role at Venice. It's the strongest performance I've seen by any actor in recent memory. His commitment to the role being absolute, animalistic and very physical. The enigmatic quality is furthered by his never speaking which, along with his culturally androgynous look, leaves the question of his identity unresolved. When he kills it is with a desperate and almost pathetic quality which makes him come across as more human and less as a monster. The pathos he was able to communicate with his expressions was remarkable. I'm still stuck with the pained image of his face in a scene where he kills a dog.

Emmanuelle Seigner was good in her part though it was quite brief. Only a handful of characters left a clear impression as most were obscured in darkness, shadow or only seen fleetingly. I found the ending quite satisfying, though, again, I think some were expecting a more obvious, melodramatic climax. Don't expect a lot of explosions.

The point of view sticks with the protagonist (we are privy to very little beyond his perspective) but doesn't seem to judge or advocate. Much is seen through his eyes to the point to where we are taken into his head and hear the ringing in his ears. The shifting perspectives in the interrogation scene was very striking and effective – visually and audibly – sound design was very well done throughout.

It's not flattering to the Americans as depicted but I hardly saw it as anti-American or pro-Taliban (if he is a Taliban) or even bad west vs. good/more 'spiritual' east. It was more about the basic 'fight or flight' animal nature of man when forced to extremes than about religion or politics and the story could have easily functioned in other times or locations – though the contrast of the landscapes used was wonderful. It has tense and visceral moments but is quite contemplative while also benefiting by much tighter editing than is typical of art-house movies.

There are some continuity issues and those who are sticklers for linear detail will find elements frustrating. Strange to me how they showed prisoners having their heads shaved while Gallo manages to retain longish hair and a beard.

Overall, I loved the movie. It left lasting visual images and moral and human-nature questions to chew on. I will see it again – though I know it wont be at the local multiplex anytime soon – and it is a movie which deserves to be seen on the big screen. I would highly recommend this movie to some people, who's taste I know, but not to others. Gets points for being anything but formula and for Skolimowski treating the audience as adults and not needing to lead us narratively by the nose. It will probably be challenging for it to find its audience as it could be too meditative for those wanting a Bourne-type action thriller or war film and too thematically violent for those wanting a more obvious art film. I thought it had a great and unusual balance.

One culturally specific thing I would note, having seen this in Warsaw, is that many Poles complained of the depiction of Poles as drunks. Having spent much time in rural Eastern Europe, the presence of alcohol with hunters, fisherman, etc actually does appear fairly ubiquitous. Not a complete picture of the entire population, of course. This reminded me very much of seeing "Schindler's List" when it was first released in Poland and the general upset over the portrayal of Poles.

Why this movie was not Poland's entry for the Academy Awards is beyond me.

Essential Killing begins in a desert gorge in Afghanistan, with three off duty American soldiers on a dubious, unspecified outing, possibly in search of stashed loot. Also in the gorge is an Afghan man, listed in the credits as Mohammed (an initially unrecognisable Vincent Gallo). He spies the Americans and flees to a crevice concealing a dead Afghan holding a bazooka. Who killed this man is unclear. As the Americans approach and their suspicions are aroused, Muhammad fires the weapon and obliterates them, alerting an accompanying American chopper which swoops in and quickly apprehends him.

It's best to go into the film without knowing too many details beforehand, suffice it to say that a shell-shocked Mohammed is taken for interrogation before being transferred out of Afghanistan and managing, in a scenario that will be familiar to fans of a certain film about a fugitive, to escape and flee. While this might sound, and indeed does initially appear like standard action film fodder, what distinguishes Essential Killing is the boldness of the manner in which Mohammed's subsequent experience is conveyed. The audience is slyly forced to share in his disorientation at being jolted out of his homeland. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that an individual's perception of where they are or where the path lies can change quickly.

Questions of lazy or fanciful plot contrivances, such as why a crash scene is abandoned with a prisoner still missing, or why a domesticated Border Collie opportunely appears in the middle of nowhere, are subsumed by the increasingly evident hallucinatory nature of Mohammed's journey. These hallucinations are most effective when their verisimility is left open, occasionally though they err towards overstatement. What emerges is like a fusion of The Fugitive's pulsating action with the aesthetic sensibilities of Dog Star Man and Far North. The finished article is reminiscent of the impressionistic WW2 escape film Diamonds of the Night.

While it would be impossible to consider Mohammed an innocent victim of circumstance, his brutal actions are clearly motivated by fumbling, disoriented desperation rather than malice, his violence is that of a frightened animal lashing out and grabbing what it needs to survive. Likewise, the treatment of the interrogations is admirably matter of fact. There's no hint of the sensationalism displayed in films such as Rendition and Body of Lies. Neither Mohammed nor the soldiers are allowed to descend into caricature; instead their depiction is refreshingly economical.

Essential Killing is likely to receive criticism at several levels. It forgoes any excursions into glib didacticism while telling a story from the point of view of an Afghan prisoner of war, but it also binds this protagonist with the unfamiliar companions of chase thriller tropes and art house digressions. Similar treatment in recent films such as Vinyan and Antichrist has tended to divide viewers quite sharply. Essential Killing is arguably a more measured work, although still a bold and original one. Anyone willing to take it on its own terms may find an extremely absorbing film.