Jesus' Son certainly brought up the question of what is reality and what is not. Where does reality begin and the illusion end? It is difficult to decipher what happened at what point in his life and if situations he remembers are fabricated in some way or altered because of the drugs. But, I'm taking the film for what it is and as it shows it to me. For example, in the scene were FH and Jack Black's character are in the hospital, they do ingest a lot of pills. He hallucinates as they walk through the empty drive-in parking lot where he believes they're in a graveyard but in reality it is just a drive in and those are stands where the cars are. That is his hallucination and as soon as he realizes it is his reality. The same with the tragic incident of the bunnies. It really happened. In his drug induced state he had completely forgotten about them and sat on top of them. I'm glad they didn't show any squashed bunnies!
As for the question of when he began his drug habit seemed to only become really defined when he met Samantha Morton's character. His involvement with her really brought his problem out and his use became more frequent. It seems he began with her and then the habit took off on a course all its own, even going to score alone from someone that he doesn't even know. He could have died buying those drugs unless she woke him up again. It is ironic that she was able to wake him up from his almost dead-state but he wasn't able to wake her up in the same way later on in the film. He did seek redemption in the form of rehab. Those religious themes are littered throughout the film in obvious forms and not so obvious forms.
Two times when this religious theme is apparent is when he sits in the diner and he places his face in the window. It looks as if there are a crown of thorns on his head as Jesus had when he was persecuted. Another example is when he follows a man that he believes to be lucky to the laundromat and the heart with the thorns around it, often used in religious images, is right against his chest. The film seems like it's ultimately about redemption. At his core, he really is a decent human being. I liked him from the start. He just seemed honest and that line at the beginning of the film really got to me. He just wanted to feel again after feeling numb for so long. I sympathized with him and I wanted to see him have a happy ending. In a way, he had the best ending that he could have. He no longer had to take comfort in someone from a distance (the Amish family). He's walking down his own road, his own path and hopefully he stays clean.
As for the question of when he began his drug habit seemed to only become really defined when he met Samantha Morton's character. His involvement with her really brought his problem out and his use became more frequent. It seems he began with her and then the habit took off on a course all its own, even going to score alone from someone that he doesn't even know. He could have died buying those drugs unless she woke him up again. It is ironic that she was able to wake him up from his almost dead-state but he wasn't able to wake her up in the same way later on in the film. He did seek redemption in the form of rehab. Those religious themes are littered throughout the film in obvious forms and not so obvious forms.
Two times when this religious theme is apparent is when he sits in the diner and he places his face in the window. It looks as if there are a crown of thorns on his head as Jesus had when he was persecuted. Another example is when he follows a man that he believes to be lucky to the laundromat and the heart with the thorns around it, often used in religious images, is right against his chest. The film seems like it's ultimately about redemption. At his core, he really is a decent human being. I liked him from the start. He just seemed honest and that line at the beginning of the film really got to me. He just wanted to feel again after feeling numb for so long. I sympathized with him and I wanted to see him have a happy ending. In a way, he had the best ending that he could have. He no longer had to take comfort in someone from a distance (the Amish family). He's walking down his own road, his own path and hopefully he stays clean.
1 comment:
I like how you found the silver lining in the movie. The ending, although not a perfect ending, was as good as one could expect. It was more realistic.
I am glad they didn't show the squashed bunnies too!
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