Inspired in part by the recent Best Movie thread, and in part by the recent Shawshank Redemption thread, I’d like to ask: what is it about the movie Magnolia?
I’ve seen it twice and find it fascinating, but I can’t quite pinpoint why. I found Aimee Mann’s music exquisite, for one thing, and I enjoy seeing how all the characters are connected in some way, and how poignantly they are all portrayed, but I would like to know, what do other people see in this movie? Maybe I can learn to appreciate it even more.
Conversely, I’m sure there are those who didn’t like it, and it would be interesting to know the reasons for that as well.
I agree its fascinating and kinda difficult to point out why. The acting is brilliant as is the casting. John C Reilly should have had an Oscar for that performance. Moore and Cruise were also great. That film just simmers the themes of loneliness and the desperate actions it sometimes makes people do. And that beginning. Oh that beginning.
I very much agree with the two of you. I loved the soundtrack and the theme of the movie! I think the movie’s ability to truthfully display weakness was amazing. I loved the part when the cop was frantically searching for his gun after he had dropped it outside! It’s seems like such a nonsense scene…but I think it captured frustration and panic so well. I also liked Moore’s character and how she was so frank with all her feelings she had and even those for which she had developed for her husband. I think overall the movie displayed how our extreme swarm of diverse emotions can lead us all to be a little insane sometimes. I liked it alot.
One question I do have is I would like to hear other people’s take on the “raining frogs” scene…I myself wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it. I love to hear what others thought!
I think it’s a Biblical allusion. I’m hardly the expert on the Bible but I think somewhere in Genesis or Exodus, Moses (I think) threatened Pharoh with a bunch of plagues if he did not free the Israelites from slavery. The rain of frogs was one of the plagues.
I guess it implies the characters were enslaved somehow?
If it’s a biblical allusion, it’s a ridiculously subtle one. I think it’s just supposed to be another Urban Legend, but unlike the three listed at the beginning of the movie, it’s true. Cecil reports on the question, “Is it possible to rain frogs, cats, dogs, etc.?” A driving theme of the movie (IMO) is that sometimes, really weird things happen. But the biggest problem I had with the film was this particular scene, because they try to drive the theme home way too strongly. Remember the boy in the library saying something like, “This really happens. I’m seriously not making it up. Sometimes it rains frogs. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME, VIEWING AUDIENCE?! THIS REALLY HAPPENS!!!”
Personally, I think Magnolia is a new American classic. It’s one of my favorite movies.
I think for me, a lot of the pleasure I get out of it is the way Anderson keeps the bizzare flow going - whether it’s in a single shot or across several shots and scenes. Not only is everything connected to everything else and happening virutally at the same time, but I just feel the connectedness of everything throughout the movie.
Bill Macy’s whole bar scene with Henry Gibson is a riot - and his strange and pitiful longing after Brad the Bartender is all too familiar to some.
The soundtrack’s cool too.
As for the frogs? Haven’t you ever experienced frog rain?
It bored the shit out of me, too. I thought it was a good movie, but too long and drawn out. It could have been edited down into a much tighter piece, IMO. The ending was cheesy, and I’m not talking about the frogs.
I personally thought the film was disappointing. It had countless great moments, but was wrapped up in P.T. Anderson’s cinematic masturbating.
The performances were terrific, and the overall concept was intelligent, but there was just too much filler.
A good cold-blooded editor could have gone to work on the film, cut out 30 mins. of utter garbage (like the montage of the characters singing…what the hell is that? it’s not art, it’s not poetry, and doesn’t carry the story at all…it’s just P.T. Anderson showing how utterly hip he is) and produced a pretty good film.
I enjoyed the movie, but it was really quirky. I think it was a movie about breaking the rules of movie making and getting away with it. The deux ex machina ending, the lack of a strong narative thread, the whole musical number in the middle. Not for everyone but I thought it was worthwhile watching it.
There is huge number of subtle references in the film to 8:2. For example, (going from memory here) the prisoner hanged at the start of the film bears the number 82 on his chest. When the guy jumps off the building (to be shot by his mother as he plummets to the ground), there is a roll of wire in the shape of “82” near the edge of the roof. Later in the movie, a prisoner is photographed holding one of those ID placards; her number is 82882, or something similar.
There’s a whole heap more of such instances, but it’s been a while since I saw the movie.
Oh yeah, 8:2 reads “And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs (!)”
So I imagine PT Anderson is saying something about forgiveness (of yourself and of others) and putting the past to rest.
Okay, I’m operating on little sleep, so forgive me in advance. How does that passage bear on forgiveness at all, or the past for that matter? Considering this Exodus thing (which I never did before, truth be told- thanks for the heads up), the inference that is most obvious to me is “give up control or silly things will happen to you.”
You’re absolutely right. It’s a bit of the stretch going from “let the slaves go!” to “let your past go!” Not only that, the frogs in the Bible emerged from the river; they didn’t fall from the sky.
I still believe, however, that the director intended to link the frog scene and its attendant biblical allusions to the theme of the movie, which is more about forgiveness and redemption than “giving up control”.
Perhaps someone with a better understanding of the movie than me could explain a better connection between this dominating thought and the climactic scene along with its references. I’m terribly bad at “reading” films.
Or perhaps, Paul Thomas Anderson simply made a hamfisted attempt at using a bible verse to link his cute gimmick of frog-rain and the journey undertaken by his characters in the film.
I enjoyed the movie, but I agree that it dragged. I wouldn’t have cut any particular scene out–I just would have trimmed the ones that ran too long. This would have cut 30-45 minutes from the movie. The people I saw it with (who would normally enjoy this sort of movie) hated it for this reason; I enjoyed it in spite of it.
I liked the singing bit. I thought it was a nice way to mark that moment.
I’ve never quite known what to think of the frogs. I like the idea of “refusing to let go”; I need to see the movie again with that in mind. What struck me at the time was that the frogs didn’t seem to be such a big deal to these characters; they were so far inside their own heads that they barely noticed the rain of frogs.
This movie contained a lot of good ideas, and offered a lot to think about, but I still think “Boogie Nights” was a better movie.
Thanks. I never inteneded to questioned your premise, I just didn’t understand the inference. I can see how this movie is about forgiveness. I can also see how it is about control issues, though. I’d actually never made that last connection until this discussion, so thanks to all for the brain fodder. I’ll have to see it again.
I always thought the deluge of amphibians was in there, at least in part, because, well, something had to be.
The movie reminded me of one of my favorites authors, David Foster Wallace. A couple of his novels have a similar structure, lots of people, connected to each other in various ways, doing things that are normal to them but strange to us. And years of watching movies and reading books have taught us that all these people will come together by the end and figure out that, gosh, my boyfriend’s sister’s plumber is the same guy who broke my uncle’s wrist on the lacrosse team in college, or whatever.
Except that never happens. There is no climax; the tension never gets resolved. In fact, one of DFW’s books ends in the middle of a word. Without the frogs, Magnolia is all buildup with no payoff. Which is an interesting way to make a movie, really; but I imagine it would piss people off to no end. Think about it, how much actually gets resolved in that movie? The frogs just give it a place to stop.
Narrad: Okay, next time I watch it, I’ll look closely for 82’s. But really, is there any connection between Exodus 8:2 and Magnolia aside from 82’s appearing in the movie, and both of them having frogs?
