WEEK 58
We’re still killing or not killing this week. Whether it’s nobler in the mind to suffer the truth of a brutal senseless destruction of human life or to just infer it.
That said, we took the wimpy way out and just left it unresolved. This week’s Part 6 of Number 38, the Blank spin off short story about the Soup Pot Killer, breezed right past any requirement to answer the kill or not kill question. Now we truly get only a temporary stay of execution… we will have to answer it next week in Part 7. So we continue our examination.
According to the website Movie Death By Off Screen Killing (Yeah, we get that it’s a bit hard to believe this site exists, but it does — just click!) there are 49 movies that include an off screen murder.
Chris Eggertsen thinks that David Fincher should have shown John Doe (Kevin Spacey) cut off the head of Tracy Mills (Gwyneth Paltrow) in Se7en. He tells us to “Forget what the media tells you; watching senseless, gory murder after senseless, gory murder is a relatively healthy way to get out your frustrations.” This I agree with. I don’t however agree with his thoughts about Se7en. I remember anxious doubt whirling in my soul in the moments before the head was revealed. I wasn’t that surprised… but I would have liked it less if I’d known… better to experience it with David and William.”
And we get that there really is no “great” answer to this question… only small ones related to specific instances.
Like with the Soup Pot Killer, facing the urinal, eyes glued to the mirror, knife open, poised to act… there are a number of choices:
1. Cut away and never answer the question. Not another word about it.
2. Luca presents a fake but believable badge and ends the situation without bloodshed.
3. Luca brutally murders Brenner.
4. Luca incapacitates Brenner so he can get away but does not kill him.
5. We enter the scene again with Luca exiting the bathroom cleaning blood off of the knife.
And we all know there are a million other ways this could go. SO. If you had to pick one (we do), which would you, pick? Or even better… what’s your idea? Please leave us a comment… we would really love to hear from you!
