Periodically
people will ask about favorite or best or most underrated horror movies. I
always say Gotham, 1988, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Virginia Madsen,
written and directed by Lloyd Fonvielle.
Part of the
problem is that I am not a huge horror fan. I don't seek it out, and what I do
see is probably not something I like that much, so I don't really have other
answers to give.
That could
be an excellent reason not to respond, and leave the discussion to the people
who know what they are talking about, but I still feel compelled to give my
vote, because I love Gotham so much.
Not that
many people know about the movie in the first place, so it truly is overlooked.
It might not count as a horror film; though there is a supernatural element. Despite
only seeing it once, on late night television, it has stayed with me. A ghost
story should be haunting.
When the
question gets asked, and I give my unimpressive answer, I will often go check
out the IMDB page, and see what other people have said. There are some who love
it, and got what I got, or wonder over things that I didn't, but at least they
are thinking about it. One poster wrote at length on how it's all about the
Jungian constructs, but he didn't have enough room to really get into it.
There are
also posters who completely miss the point, and that just makes me want to talk
about it more. Well, if you don't use it to expound on things that no one is
interested in listening to you go on and on about, what's the point in even
having a blog?
Spoilers
will follow.
Tommy Lee
Jones is a down-on-his-luck private eye. He is named "Eddie Mallard",
which is exactly right, but I will stick to actor names for the most part. The
movie is full of characters who we recognize from classic gumshoe films, but
the movie is not set in the past; it's just about the past.
Colin Bruce
hires Jones to get his ex-wife to quit bothering him. The tricky part is that
the "ex" is through expiration, not divorce. Bruce points out
Virginia Madsen, young and beautiful and tangible. Jones assumes Bruce is
delusional, but that makes the job easy money; he can get paid to chat up a
beautiful woman who obviously can't be the dead wife. She is the dead wife.
It takes
Jones a while to believe it. The coroner photos strike the first serious blow. He
may have been suspecting a con up to that point, but not this.
Jones'
reaction in the scene is visceral, but there's a little detail I like in there.
The photos are found by his friend Tim, played by Kevin Jarre. Every PI should
have friends who are good at getting information, and Jones is no exception. He
was going to pay Tim for the help, but Tim at that point says he doesn't want
pay. He's Irish and superstitious and there is something bad here.
Superstition
seems very reasonable at that point. You are in a modern city where no one is
supposed to believe in ghosts, but the doorman knows that sleeping with a ghost
is bad for your health, and the priest Jones visits later takes him seriously
too.
There are
little details that I could think about forever. Jones is told that the dead
don't lie, but the priest tells him that the dead always lie. Both seem
plausible. Both seem true.
Jones
starts going downhill fast. Even though she is destroying him, you can still
feel pity for Madsen. A trophy wife for Bruce, she drowned during a boat party
(I wonder if Natalie Wood's death was an influence). You can question whether
the other guests were as callous as she remembers, but the raw pain that she
felt when she was dying and no one cared is real.
Her one
request was that she be buried naked in her jewels. She haunts her husband
because he took the jewels back.
If this was
Sam Spade, Tim would probably end up dead, and Jones would end up sadder,
wiser, and alone, though Debbie, the former girlfriend who was getting involved
with Tim would still be around. This is where things get different.
Jones gives
Madsen a choice: she can have the jewels or she can let them go and he will
follow her anywhere, including death. She wants the jewels more.
And it was
a false choice. They have been placed on a chalice in the church, blessed and
protected on holy ground, because there have been some bad forces at work
around them. The last we see of Madsen is her telling Bruce that he still owes
her the jewels. The increased difficulty in getting them is his problem.
The
grasping desires that led her into a loveless marriage and pitiless friends
will not let her rest. We saw better sentiments in her more than once, but she
ultimately turned them down.
He will
remain haunted, and you feel the dread in that, but he could have stopped it at
any point by just giving up the jewels when he still had them. He doesn't want
to be haunted, but he still cared about the jewels more.
Jones is
free. Maybe the jewels are cursed, but not for him. He can let go.
Jones goes
away with Tim and Debbie. Symbolically they head off for tropical sunshine,
leaving the gloom of Gotham behind. Their flaws were not fatal. It was a film noir, but
they escaped it.
It's not a
jubilant happy ending. Even the ending music, if I recall correctly, had a subdued
and eerie tone while it played over pictures of the three in paradise. I was in
a dark family room with the volume low so I wouldn't disturb anyone, so it
could be that. Maybe it couldn't be too jubilant because you see that not
everyone does make it. Some people would rather stay bound by hate.
But for the
darkness that out there, and for the things that could have happened, the
resolution was pretty good. You can choose friendship. You can be helped.
That's what
has stayed with me about Gotham. That's what I keep wanting other people to have seen.
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