I really didn’t like Burn After Reading. And I’m gonna go out of my way to state why…

Quite plainly, I thought it was borderline irresponsible to make and effectively killed any desire I’ll have to see another Coen brothers film in the near future. On a basic human level, I found no redeeming quality to it anywhere. It was as though the psycho killer from No Country was asked to make a comedy, and this is what he came up with.

All that’s offered up for the viewer is cynicism and nastiness; a buffet of bad people doing bad things, with nothing more to say beyond that. Are we to be enlightened by this? Is violence supposed to be cool or funny or something? A fashion you can put on and off? If violence is used ironically, does that make it ok?

For awhile I thought I was in the minority about this film. Thankfully The Contrarian tells me I’m not alone:

Maybe I got old too fast, but I say for Black Comedy go back to Dr. Strangelove. Burn After Reading is ironic enough. I suppose one could describe it as dark, though that seems to me to be giving it rather too much credit. But comedy it is not. Is it hilarious when the boastful Harry shoots hapless Chad in the head, then freaks out about it, because he’s never shot anyone before? Did you laugh and laugh when Osbourne Cox was hacking away at gym manager Ted in his shorts, slippers and bathrobe? Then the two CIA agents recount all the violence so matter-of-factly. People are dead everywhere and they couldn’t care less. Hilarious! What a goddamn hoot! Or is it biting social commentary that isn’t meant to be funny at all, but make me think?

Another common defense for films like this is that it’s all just entertainment, nothing to get too worked up over. I find that attitude an egregious cop-out as well, especially when it comes from people who strike me as politically and socially savvy. The Contrarian makes another good point:

Don’t liberals abhor violence? Why then are so many of them interested almost exclusively in Scorsese, Coppola, Spike Lee, Cronenberg, the Coens, David Lynch, David Fincher, Quentin Tarentino? Are there no interesting filmmakers that make movies about things other than murder and violence? Is it murder and violence that makes a movie important? Is there no other serious subject matter? Is it because they would argue that all these movies are not so much celebrations of violence, but rather critiques of violence? My guess would be that they think ironic celebrations of violence function as artistic statements against violence. But they are fooling themselves.

We just finished an 8 year span marred by the real violence of war, of greed, of lies. I’m done with films which exult at the alters of tragedy, if even satirically. It’s just fucking boring to be honest.

As people we know that we are petty, vicious, violent and horrible. I want a film to tell me something I don’t already know, so I can learn something new about how to be in this world. Great films provide a road map through complex emotional and intellectual terrains. If we are nimble enough, we move through the experience of film the way we move through life at our best.

Now more than ever we need films to represent the assertion of a human spirit which seeks to lift, not suppress.