Discuss The Good Heart
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Antidote to the sappy redemption trope
posted by rooprectSTAFFMOD on March 20, 2024 at 8:59 PM
For the record, I love the sappy redemption trope. Who doesn’t want to believe that the most unredeemable sinner can be redeemed?
The setup of this movie seems to point us in that direction: a bitter old bar owner takes a kind-hearted kid under his wing with the intention of teaching the kid how to run the joint after he [the bar owner] dies. As these 2 opposing personalities meet, we start seeing the old guy soften up, and we assume he’ll eventually have an Ebenezer Scrooge wakeup in the final act, dancing with Tiny Tim on his shoulder…
But suddenly you realize that’s not the point. The point is to watch the kind-hearted kid slowly—almost imperceptibly—become meaner, more cynical and as bitter as the old guy. The point is that redemption can be a two way street.
The best part is that this movie is very subtle, and we don’t see any sudden rebirths like we’ve come to expect in morality tales. It’s a slow evolution or devolution of character which is the way it is in real life. Great acting by both leads make it believable and suspenseful at the same time. The question we ask ourselves up to the last scene, and even after the credits roll, is: what’s stronger, kindness or malice? Good or evil?
Great movie, gives you a lot to think about, and maybe explains a lot about the human race and what direction we’re going in, if any.
Reply by tmdb91967014
on March 21, 2024 at 11:19 AM
"Sinner" - lol.
Not every redemption story of recent-to-less-recent times can easily be described as sappy. Take the middle story in Pulp Fiction, titled "The Gold Watch." Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) & Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) are taken prisoner in two hillbillies' pawn shop after bursting in and fighting. Tied up and injured, it looks horrible for these guys. Zed and Maynard drag Wallace into a back room and slam a red door in Butch's face, then we hear noises going on behind it. Butch, of course, frees himself, stealing the key to a motorcycle, yet at the front door, he hesitates. To paraphrase Pulp Fiction's printed screenplay, Butch decides he cannot leave Marsellus in that situation. Butch searches behind the pawn shop's counter for a suitable weapon to confront the rednecks with, settles on a sword & creeps down a staircase to rescue his former foe.
You didn't find this particular turn to be a "sappy" one, or did you? Have you seen this one?
Reply by rooprect
on March 21, 2024 at 1:23 PM
Always makes things sound more epic doesn't it? ;)
It's been a while since I saw Pulp Fiction, I might give it a run this weekend. You're right, I suppose redemption is at the core of many great stories. In this case I used 'sappy' almost like a genre. 'Sentimental' or even 'feel-good' might've been a better way to put it. But gosh darn it, sometimes I love sap just as well.
I did enjoy this movie. Even if it were simply about a cranky old dude learning to be nice, I probably would've fallen for it due to the great acting by Brian Cox (the cranky old dude). But it's the sneaky reverse-effect that made me a fan: the old man's crankiness having an effect on the kind-hearted kid.
Most feel-good movies try to hit us with a perfect happy ending for everyone. But in this case there's the story of the kid that leaves you wondering if maybe his soul ended up damaged....?
Reply by tmdb91967014
on March 21, 2024 at 7:31 PM
Come on, you know you loved seeing Butch and Fabian take off on that stolen chopper, like most viewers.....