The Spin-Off blogathon Sati is hosting on her perfect site,
Cinematic Corner, is an ingenious idea: choose a minor film character you love,
and make them the lead of a movie you create. The moment I read Sati’s prompt,
my mind settled on one character that I’ve always longed to understand. The
repugnant, confounding, and utterly terrifying Mountain Man from John Boorman’s
Deliverance.
I’m fascinated by the cycle of violence. Are people
constructed into violent beings based on their circumstances (how they were
raised, the area of the world they grew up in), or are certain people just born
plain fuckin’ crazy? There are so many factors and variables that go into
someone’s psyche – chemical imbalance, circumstantial exposure, past
experiences, and so on. Sati’s exercise is about picking a character and
framing your ideal film around them, but I’m often more curious about where
characters have been, as opposed to where they’re going. In this regard, I
suppose I’d love to see a prequel shaped around the Mountain Man. I want to
know who this guy is and observe the world he came from. I want to try and
understand the psychology of someone who sets off to go hunting, comes across
some innocent tourists, and immediately decides to sexually assault them.
The way the Mountain Man and the Toothless Man silently choose
to commit the rape makes it appear as if they’ve done it before. But
how many opportunities could they really have had? How many tourists have
gotten lost canoeing on this river, near where these guys hunt? If it has happened before, under somewhat
similar circumstances, what did the criminals do with their victims? Were the
Mountain Man and his toothless partner going to kill Bobby (Ned Beatty) and Ed
(Jon Voight), or were they going to have their way with them and simply leave?
The basis of my desire to know more about the Mountain Man
is credited to a brief moment late in Deliverance.
Shortly after Ed, Bobby, and Lewis (Burt Reynolds) arrive in Aintry, they are stopped by the town sheriff, played by James Dickey, who
wrote the book on which Deliverance
is based. The sheriff, skeptical
about the men’s story, tells Ed that the
brother-in-law of one of his deputies has gone missing. He went off hunting a
few days ago, and hasn’t returned. That’s the moment. That’s the moment when the
Mountain Man (and the Toothless Man, for the matter) becomes human. He’s a real
man with a family who worries about him. This doesn’t justify what he did (nothing justifies what he did), but it
does humanize him in a way I find immensely disturbing. (Note: this is all
predicated on the assumption that the missing person the sheriff is talking
about is either the Mountain Man or the Toothless Man. There are many things left purposefully ambiguous
in the film.)
If I made a prequel about the Mountain Man, it would start
at the exact same time as Deliverance.
I’d shape the narrative so that the stories run concurrently. That gives us a
day to discover who this guy is. A day of him shuffling around his home, monitoring
the way he behaves around his wife and kids (if he has any), and listening to
him shoot the shit with his toothless friend about crimes past.
In that time, we could learn when and how the cycle of
violence began with the Mountain Man. If he does have children, we could see if
he is continuing the cycle with them. Make no mistake, death does not always
break the cycle of violence. Maybe the Mountain Man’s children will grow into
adults that remain enraged over the disappearance of their father. Dennis
Vinyard, the patriarch of American
History X, was a dinner table racist, quietly infecting his children with
bigotry and hate. When he was killed, his oldest son, Derek, didn’t grieve in
silence. He turned himself into a beacon of hate. A leader for the lost. A
killer for cause. If the Mountain Man’s reign of terror is forever buried under
a massive lake, then so be it, world’s a better place. But if his children grow
up behaving like daddy, then, well, I suppose that’d be cause for another
spin-off movie entirely.
That I would pay to see. Mountain Man was fucking scary. SQUEAL!!! SQUEAL!!!!!
ReplyDeleteScary old bastard, wasn't he? Seriously though... what in the hell makes a guy like that tick?
DeleteThe whole Spin-off minor character concept is so cool and what a pick, Alex! A truly fucked up character if there ever was one. I have to believe that people like that are some sort of screwed up recipe of biological and environmental error. It would be an interesting study to have a little window into a day in the life, but the whole thing is just wild. It's been over 40 years...maybe a remake is in order.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it a nifty idea? I loved that Sati came up with this.
DeleteI love what you said about biological and environmental error. That is spot on for this guy. I fear getting to witness that window of time, but I do think it'd be interesting.
That scene is so frightening, but this is a fascinating choice! I would definitely watch this.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Really glad you liked the post. A sick bastard, this guy.
DeleteI really need to see Deliverance again. Haven't watched that in years. I am curious though about your reasoning behind picking this man (and his toothless friend). I don't disagree, but I'm curious if perhaps you would have the same sort of interest in someone like the rapist from Irreversible as well?
ReplyDeleteGood question. And I actually did think about this one a bit while writing this piece. I personally think we know what drives Le Tenia, whereas with the Mountain Man, we have no idea. Le Tenia is motivated by any number of things: control, drugs, anger. Really, any guy who has a smile on his face while watching another man’s head being bashed in is a guy who is capable of anything. I also think what Le Tenia does to Alex is something he’s done many times, to both men and women. And while I respect the hell out of Irreversible (I called it one of the 10 best films of the 2000s), I suppose I don’t find Le Tenia as interesting and mysterious as the Mountain Man. Does that make sense?
DeleteI read you. I didn't doubt that you thought about it a lot, but that comparison just hit me as I read through this.
DeleteGotcha man. A fair comparison for sure.
DeleteSo glad to have you on board with my first blogahon!
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely the darkest contribution so far which I love because the entries are just so varied and rich.
I loved your point about children near the end - personally I don't think people are ever born evil, but evil can seep through, like in the way you mentioned in the last paragraph. I think even the entire movie about this man showing his true colors (rarely or often) in the household he tries to hide his real self would be an extremely interesting movie but I love your idea of just giving one day to explain the character's mind and motivations.
Awesome, so happy to hear that you're pleased with the piece! I loved participating in this blogathon and will happily contribute to any others you create.
DeleteI knew this guy was a dark character to go with, but it genuinely was my first thought. So happy that you like the narrative of my spin-off movie... one day would surely be enough with this guy. Ha.
Excellent choice here Alex. Man, that rape scene is one of the most disturbing things I've seen. It'd be hard to watch a film with this dude as the main character but intriguing nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark! I agree, it'd definitely be a tough film to stomach, but I would just love exploring this guy's psyche some more. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteGreat choice! Definitely the darkest contribution yet. Tough film to watch, but you present an excellent case in terms of his character.
ReplyDeleteThanks man! Really glad you like the dark pick.
DeleteWonderful idea! That's a movie I'd like to see, even if it was guaranteed to be disturbing.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I do like a good, disturbing movie every now and again!
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