Last Days

[Gold Trumpet]

Ozu wasn't adverse to plot or character development the way Last Days is. Tokyo Story has as much detail as most American films. The focus is a meditation that aligns the drama to a common thread which may appear as nothing happening.

I was just listening to the Floating Weeds commentary not long ago and according to the Japanese film historian, Donald Richie who said "Most Ozu films are devoid of plot.  Ozu thought that plot uses people and to use them is to misuse them.  He believed characters create story and not the other way around."

That is true. Ozu never utilized formal plots. The progress of his story is character development. Character development does require detail in which to show it. Last Days has none.

[soixante]

There is character development in Last Days.  At many points, Blake could choose to come out of his fog and reconnect with his life and career.  But he chooses to drift further away, and in the end chooses to kill himself.  Blake is disillusioned and burned out at the beginning of the film, and in the end he dies -- he also ascends a ladder in a ghostly way, which implies that he has found peace or transcendence after struggling with drug addiction and mental illness.

[Gold Trumpet]

There is character development in Last Days.  At many points, Blake could choose to come out of his fog and reconnect with his life and career.  But he chooses to drift further away, and in the end chooses to kill himself.  Blake is disillusioned and burned out at the beginning of the film, and in the end he dies -- he also ascends a ladder in a ghostly way, which implies that he has found peace or transcendence after struggling with drug addiction and mental illness.

I'll need examples to debate that. I feel the idea of him finding peace when walking up the ladder is over-interpretation. The film never makes it clear what that means besides his death.

[soixante]

If Van Sant just wanted to show him dead, he would show a corpse, not a ghostly figure ascending a ladder (which has great spiritual symbolism). 

Compare that to the end of Bob Fosse's last three films -- Lenny, All That Jazz and Star 80, all of them biopics of self-destructive artists, all of which end with shots of dead bodies.

A truly minimal film would show a character who doesn't make any choices, who does nothing to change his fate or alter his character, who faces no obstacles.  Blake has obstacles (his own self-destructiveness, drug addiction, etc.) that he can't overcome. 

[Gold Trumpet]

OK, but what about character development?

[killafilm]

What character arc can there really be for Junkie in his uhh hmm LAST DAYS?

[soixante]

Going from life to death is quite a character arc.

It worked in All That Jazz -- Joe Gideon, a tortured genius and substance abuser like Blake, refuses all entreaties from friends, family, co-workers and everyone else to to pull himself out of his downward spiral.

[modage]

i thought a character arc had to be internal?  dying is something that happens to him, not something that happens inside him.

[JG]

i thought a character arc had to be internal?  dying is something that happens to him, not something that happens inside him.

I think what he's saying is that his death is apart of his internal change.  Normally death would not be apart of one's character arc, but this is not the case with Blake.  It is liberating, as indicated by him ascending into heaven. 

[Gold Trumpet]

Going from life to death is quite a character arc.

It worked in All That Jazz -- Joe Gideon, a tortured genius and substance abuser like Blake, refuses all entreaties from friends, family, co-workers and everyone else to to pull himself out of his downward spiral.

Here's the thing:

1.) Blake was already near death. He does nothing in the film that radically speeds up his process to death. The film is a morgue for his living corpse that just dies in the end.

2.) There were developments in All That Jazz. At the beginning, he is an abuser but still fully functioning as a capable theater director. By the end he's had the heart attack and made a complete transformation to an human being who can't function anymore except with his imagination.

[soixante]

Going from life to death is quite a character arc.

It worked in All That Jazz -- Joe Gideon, a tortured genius and substance abuser like Blake, refuses all entreaties from friends, family, co-workers and everyone else to to pull himself out of his downward spiral.

Here's the thing:

1.) Blake was already near death. He does nothing in the film that radically speeds up his process to death. The film is a morgue for his living corpse that just dies in the end.

2.) There were developments in All That Jazz. At the beginning, he is an abuser but still fully functioning as a capable theater director. By the end he's had the heart attack and made a complete transformation to an human being who can't function anymore except with his imagination.

Doesn't Blake blow his own brains out?  That speeds up the process to death considerably.

The Ancient Greek tragedians employed the concept of unity of place and unity of time.  They compressed all the dramatic issues into a short time frame, preferably less than 24 hours.  Last Days takes place in a very short time frame, in one location.  All of the important issues that Blake must deal with are present in a small time frame -- how will he continue his musical career?  Will he get back together with his wife?  Will he go to rehab?

You could claim that Blake's death was inevitable, hence there is no conflict.  But I think the conflict is with himself -- will he succumb to his inner demons, or snap out of it? 

In dramatic terms, what is Blake's problem that he must overcome?  His own self-destructiveness.  He doesn't overcome this problem, until he dies and ascends that ladder.

[Gold Trumpet]

Blake killing himself is the action of causing death. The turning point for him to decide has to have come much earlier in correlation with his abuse. The film doesn't chronicle where that turning point was. It is his meanderings through the haze of a life already gone and never to be found again. The greeks have no place with this story. Of all things, they believed in plot. A different form of drama compared to this film. It necessitates points and detail; elements lost here.

[Split Infinitive]

It seems to me that Blake was a dead man walking from the beginning of the film, he just hadn't accepted that yet.  He's much more of a non-presence than a living entity.  Nobody connects with him, and nobody cares to, beyond those that he wants to avoid.  The flashes of music and perhaps whatever inspiration he writes into his notebook are from his soul, the part that lives on after the body is wasted.  In a way, the suicide was a mercy killing, and the film is spent with Blake reconciling himself to this, and reconciling the audience to what is necessary.  It's no less tragic for it.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Once again I arrive at a thead after seeing a movie only to find that everything important and profound has already been said. I'll just say that I agree with soxiante, and that this is definitely one of Van Sant's best, and that I completely bought everything he was trying to do.

[Anonymous Joe]

I liked it but after 45 min, I began to do other things. Periodicaly stopping at the TV and watch for a few a little bit.