Michael Clayton

[Exsubmariner]

Hi Dom,
I saw this movie tonight on your recommendation. I saw a lot in it, on many different levels.

Warning ******* Possible Spoilers beyond this point *******

What I watched was a couple of characters grappling with the age old problem of man vs. machine.

By machine, I mean the apparatus, the system, that has been set up to govern human interaction. Both the players, Clayton, and Edens (wonder about the symbology of that name?) are willful participants in all the injustice that a cold and calculated legal system can dish out. They've made careers of it. They thrive on it. Edens suffers some kind of mental break (well, we think it's a mental break, but I don't think it is) that gives him a vision of the world that he has not been able to see in some time.

You see, I think that both men have lost their humanity along the way. It was somewhere back in a calculated decision they made some time ago. Edens just rediscovers his and decides that regardless of the rules of the system and the mechanations of the machine, he is going to take an unpredictable human action and to hell with the consequences. To me, he is the most vivid character in the whole film.

Clayton, on the other hand must die, figuratively, to figure out what Edens truly saw. The opening sequence is literally the moment of Claytons death. All his paradigms are gone after that point. Boundaries shifted, expanded. The ending of the movie is his human action. That is, payback against the machine. The whole machine, even the part that nutured him into what he became. From that moment on, he will have to define himself by standards that the rest of the world doesn't understand.

I identify with Clayton. This has been a year where many of my paradigms have fallen away.

[Rick Nebiolo]

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This is a very adult movie, one that takes concentration to understand what's going on, as Gilroy does not spoon feed plot points, character flwas and motivations to us;

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So what you are telling us is that this will fail miserably at the box office?

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I caught the last show tonight (Tuesday) at the big 26-plex across the freeway from Hawaiian Gardens. Five minutes into the movie I'm the only one in the theater! For me this is perfect.

After the aforementioned five minutes some teenage couple comes in and sits down about midway back. A few minutes later I see them pause as they walk out looking at their tickets under the glow of the exit light. Guess they got the wrong screen. I watched the movie in total silence [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Loved it but one thing I think they got wrong is described below in white:

<font color="white">After they loop back to the scene where Clooney's car gets bombed he rushes back down to the car and throws his cell, ring and watch into the flaming wreckage. This supposedly is proof he died in the crash. Wouldn't there at least be bones left?</font>

~ Rick

[andyfox]

"both men have lost their humanity along the way."

Absolutely. My wife caught this in the fact that Clooney never wore a coat in the cold weather. Not until the last scene when he leaves the building. It was the first time he could feel anything.

A lot of posts in this thread, and not one person who didn't care for the movie. Not that we're the be-all-end-all of movie mavens here, but significiant, I think, that we're unanimous in liking it.

[andyfox]

Rick:

Possible explanation in white:
<font color="white">I think he felt the bad guys would just go up to the car to see what's what and might see his stuff and assume he was in the car. </font>

We got to the theater just about at starting time, in Century City mid-day on Sunday, where I thought it would be crowded. But it was only about 1/3 full. Still, I think this movie might have legs from good word-of-mouth.

[sethypooh21]

Honestly, my only problem with the movie was how "trixy" the fixers were.

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Possible explanation in white:
<font color="white">I think he felt the bad guys would just go up to the car to see what's what and might see his stuff and assume he was in the car. </font>

[/ QUOTE ]
Not really a spoiler so I'll say "Too bad he didn't have an order or half eaten ribs or chicken wings with him" [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]


[ QUOTE ]
We got to the theater just about at starting time, in Century City mid-day on Sunday, where I thought it would be crowded. But it was only about 1/3 full. Still, I think this movie might have legs from good word-of-mouth.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hopefully. Sometimes just the name doesn't help generate a good start. Michael Clayton sounds like some English gentleman affair to the average moviegoer. OTOH, I'll bet The Departed got a lot of people thinking they might be seeing a horror movie!

~ Rick

[Belok]

[ QUOTE ]
Rick:

Possible explanation in white:
<font color="white">I think he felt the bad guys would just go up to the car to see what's what and might see his stuff and assume he was in the car. </font>


[/ QUOTE ]

Another possible explanation in white:
<font color="white">Clayton could have (and rightly so) suspected that they had put some sort of tracking device on him, and he decided to get rid of all of the prime suspects for a bug (phone/watch/etc) </font>

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi Dom,
I saw this movie tonight on your recommendation. I saw a lot in it, on many different levels.

Warning ******* Possible Spoilers beyond this point *******

What I watched was a couple of characters grappling with the age old problem of man vs. machine.

By machine, I mean the apparatus, the system, that has been set up to govern human interaction. Both the players, Clayton, and Edens (wonder about the symbology of that name?) are willful participants in all the injustice that a cold and calculated legal system can dish out. They've made careers of it. They thrive on it. Edens suffers some kind of mental break (well, we think it's a mental break, but I don't think it is) that gives him a vision of the world that he has not been able to see in some time.

You see, I think that both men have lost their humanity along the way. It was somewhere back in a calculated decision they made some time ago. Edens just rediscovers his and decides that regardless of the rules of the system and the mechanations of the machine, he is going to take an unpredictable human action and to hell with the consequences. To me, he is the most vivid character in the whole film.

Clayton, on the other hand must die, figuratively, to figure out what Edens truly saw. The opening sequence is literally the moment of Claytons death. All his paradigms are gone after that point. Boundaries shifted, expanded. The ending of the movie is his human action. That is, payback against the machine. The whole machine, even the part that nutured him into what he became. From that moment on, he will have to define himself by standards that the rest of the world doesn't understand.

I identify with Clayton. This has been a year where many of my paradigms have fallen away.

[/ QUOTE ]

nice take, Sub...

[fraserbrown]

4.5/5 stars. Awesome movie, I actually left the theatre feeling a bit depressed and sorry for some of the characters.

[andyfox]

Three days later, we were still talking about it. A truly memorable movie.