Well, old timer, what's in the noodle?

This is the first time in a while that while watching something, I put my phone down so I could see every second of it.

In modern times writing is a decision tree. You can choose to read Wikipedia pages to get more information. I have linked to Wikipedia, IMDb, NY Times, Poetry Foundation.

It's common nowadays to announce that there are spoilers. I always think about how Shakespeare tells us at the beginning of Romeo and Juliet, "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life". A story can't be spoiled if it's written well. But I have a relative I respect who doesn't like spoilers so "attention, spoilers ahead."

The Power of the Dog is an amazing movie. George Burbank is played by Jesse Plemons. I him saw most recently in I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, which was an amazing movie. Jane Campion is a towering figure in film. I recently watched Bright Star about Keats, the lovely originator of the idea of negative capability. There's a lovely interview of her in the Times written by a swell writer too, Jordan Kisner. I'd like to join these amazing people by writing about them, but I'm afraid I just see them on the big screen and in text.

An amazing movie brings all the elements together: Scenery, visual beauty, costumes, acting, writing, music. Themes of tenderness and brutality. Lots of silences. This movie is a rest from those action engorged current flavors. Instead of choppy cuts, you get to circle the characters. 

Benedict Cumberbatch has such a funny name. Perfect for a British flavor. He of course is excellent as a western hero. Plemons has a great name, it's almost like lemons, but the P has almost a flower connotation to it. I love it that the most attractive and Hollywood fit people are not in this movie, though there's some great nudity of Cumberbatch, and the muscular lads. The female gaze evens out our history of male gazes dominance. 

There's a line in the TV show Community, where Shirley asks if Annie hasn't seen even Harvey Keitel's penis, because she claims to have not seen one. It's a reference to the movie The Piano (1993) by Campion.

Kirsten Dunst's portrayal of Rose's unease, is quite palpable. When I think of her as an actress, I think of Melancholia (2011). My son likes Spiderman, and she kisses spiderman upside down too, that's a moment for her. I love reading Wikipedia, I would have never known she had two children with Plemons. Good for them, I hope they have a happy family.

"She's got you halter trained, right George, that's the main thing." Says the governor played by Keith Carradine. Wonderful casting.

Campion moves the castrating scene to the middle of the movie, instead of where the book starts out. There's a novel that came out in 1967 this movie was based on. 

Kodi Smit-McPhee is the actor who plays the son of Rose, Peter. You can feel Phil Burbank (Cumberbatch) building to a confrontation to him. Some sort of enforced masculinity trial for him? Peter doesn't want to be a rancher, he wants to be a doctor.

"Where would a man be if he always did what his mother told him?" Phil asks Peter.

Who is BH? Phil jerks to a silk scarf with that initial. Later Peter finds nudie books of male bodies that says Bronco Henry on the top. There are female nudes too. Peter comes upon Phil taking a river bath after his jerk, and he chases him off, "get out of here." Peter walks through the camp and gets called names. But Phil starts being nice to him. 

"Don't let your ma make a sissy out of you."

The confrontation might be with Rose and Phil. She's drinking, and she gives away the Phil's hides. But Peter saves her by giving the ones he's saved. Another showdown in this western doesn't materialize, things are left ambiguous. Was Bronco Henry Phil's first lover, or did he just save him by applying his naked body heat to him when the weather turned cold? Was Peter seducing Phil with smokes of his cigarette or was Phil delirious with illness. The brilliance of a masterful filmmaker is that she doesn't resolve questions. There's a real sensuality, a kind of mindfulness to the movie, and no easy maneuvers, cheap hollywood gratifications. 

The movie ends reading Psalm 22:20 "Deliver me from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs." (NIV)

The dogs are the gathering of our foes against us. What are these foes? Illness, old age and death are the three sights that the Buddha sees before he sees the religious mendicant and decides to go on a spiritual journey. Maybe I'm forcing a Buddhist interpretation. Because Campion is so tender, I don't want to do any interpretive violence to her movie. I think I would really like her. 

The movie ends with Peter watching his stepfather hug his mother. Indeed the whole movie people are watching others, as we are watching the movie. Phil watching Rose. George watching Rose. Everyone watches Peter. In a way, people don't want the attention they attract at times. Negative attention.