Welcome to Commentary Commentary, the place we sit and take heed to filmmakers discuss their work, then share essentially the most attention-grabbing components. In this version, Rob Hunter revisits a lesser seen William Friedkin movie along with his commentary for 2006’s Bug.
The late, nice William Friedkin isn’t any stranger to our little Commentary Commentary column with previous visits overlaying The French Connection (1971), The Exorcist (1973), Cruising (1980), and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). He even did a fan commentary for 1943’s The Leopard Man. He might narrate at occasions, however his ideas on the movie, filmmaking, and the intentions of the filmmaker are not often lower than participating.
While identified for some actually influential and unforgettable classics, Friedkin additionally directed motion pictures that garner far much less admiration and dialog. His penultimate theatrical function, 2006’s Bug, is one such movie thanks largely to its restricted locales and darkly somber tone. The movie nonetheless isn’t accessible on Blu-ray in North America, however Australian label Imprint launched it final yr with some worthwhile particular options together with a brand new commentary monitor by a pair of movie historians. For this entry, although, we went straight to the supply and listened to Friedkin’s personal commentary for the movie.
Keep studying to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Bug (2006)
Commentator: William Friedkin (director)
1. “With Bug, I tried to deal with the subject of the mask of sanity.” He needed to make a movie about somebody who appears regular truly containing the seeds of evil. He says that is like all of his movies in coping with “the good and evil which is inside each of us, the constant struggle for our better angles to prevail over our demons.”
2. The opening sequence with Agnes (Ashley Judd) might sound random, however the introduction of her air conditioner, the fan, and the espresso pot “will later play a significant part in unraveling the mysteries of Bug.” I’d argue that they don’t? (But I wouldn’t argue it with Friedkin himself.)
3. The motel within the movie is an precise motel. They didn’t gown it up — down? — in any respect, and there have been individuals residing there who didn’t really feel misplaced towards Agnes and her bleak paranoia.
4. “Are these shots from the air merely a kind of angel’s view, or do they belong to, let’s say, a surveillance helicopter?” He suggests an unknown, however I’m curious what number of viewers have been questioning the identical factor.
5. He factors out that Peter (Michael Shannon) is a drifter who goes from one place to the following, however the huge query is “where does he come from?” It’s clear that Friedkin sees the movie’s first act as establishing not simply story, however thriller, as to its characters, their pasts, and their futures.
6. Friedkin first noticed Shannon performing in a stage play, and he got here to really feel that the actor “could bring something to this film that no star, no young actor established or with a bigger name, could bring.” He provides that typically an actor who inhabit a job so strongly that they grow to be inseparable from it, and that’s how he feels about Shannon as Peter. “It’s not an actor playing a part, it’s someone living through this part.”
7. He first met Harry Connick Jr. at a celebration in Las Vegas just some months earlier than Bug started filming. “I spoke to him briefly, and I realized there was another and deeper side to Harry Connick than most people had ever seen and that you never see in his music performances.” Friedkin felt that the performer understood the prison thoughts and the darkish facet of human nature. He in all probability ought to have simply watched 1995’s glorious serial killer thriller Copycat to get that specific 411.
8. “One of the ideas behind Bug is that people are not, in any way, precisely as they seem to be at first meeting.” He provides that every one of us carry a number of layers, secrets and techniques, and mysteries, however I’d add that almost all of them aren’t as attention-grabbing as those explored in motion pictures. Similarly, he suggests that every one of us carry a loneliness, and that typically it’s sturdy sufficient to permit one other individual’s affect, world views, and paranoia to grow to be our personal.
9. He sees the preliminary intercourse seen between Agnes and Peter because the second of an infection. “It is as though Peter has infected her, and infested her, with his own deep-seated paranoia, and they begin to connect not only on a physical level, but on an emotional level as well, as the two merge into one.” It’s adopted instantly by Peter discovering a bug within the mattress that neither we, nor Agnes, truly sees. Soon each Agnes and viewer alike will begin to imagine.
10. A stranger arrives at 1:11:50, and Friedkin it isn’t clear even to him at that time, if this man is an actual individual or a figment of their collective creativeness. Dr. Sweet is performed by Brian F. O’Byrne who’s “one of the very best actors working today.” Friedkin’s uncertainty as to Sweet’s existence by no means wavers. “All great writing, certainly is me as a viewer and I hope you, the question of what is real? What is reality?”
11. He lastly mentions author Tracy Letts ninety-four minutes in, saying that Letts’ screenplay “portrays this other side, this other world, that we all inhabit to one degree or another, a world that sets us apart from everyone else, but that sometimes brings us together with someone else who’s able to share this vision, and it can lead very often to a deep and abiding love — or to violence, destruction, and death.”
12. “The smoke detector’s gone, remember that,” he says because the motel room is engulfed in flames and the movie ends. Hey, I laughed.
13. The movie’s finish credit embrace two transient scenes/photographs, however Friedkin is lengthy passed by then which means he has nothing to say. Sticking with the movie’s and filmmaker’s strategy to the fact of the entire movie — ie, the occasions we witnessed within the room might or might not have occurred — these two bits may imply completely nothing on their face. The greatest idea I’ve discovered is over on StackExchange the place somebody means that the photographs are supposed to remind viewers of the 2 issues that despatched these characters down their respective, after which shared, lethal spiral. For Agnes, it was the disappearance of her son, so we see his toys, his bike, and listen to an unanswered cellphone. For Peter, it’s the psychological sickness that was created, or at the very least exacerbated, by his time within the navy.
Best in Context-Free Commentary
“That’s a very nice logo. Makes more sense than a girl standing there like a statue or something.”
“The mask is now removed.”
“Each of us creates a world that is contained within us.”
“One of the questions of the film, is ‘are there any bugs?’”
“Under ordinary circumstances you or I might be put off by someone who becomes obsessed with bugs on the second date.”
“There are many meanings to this title, and none that will be completely right or wrong.”
“Frankly, as the maker of this film, I have no idea if Peter’s story is true or not.”
“What Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon have done in creating these characters, is to open a portal into the mind’s eye of the completely, criminally insane.”
Final Thoughts
As he has performed every so often, however by no means to this diploma, Friedkin spends a big chunk of this Bug commentary basically narrating what’s taking place on the display. He does use it typically as kick-off factors for observations on character and intention, so it serves a goal… typically. Unfortunately, that is simply the worst case instance because the filmmaker simply can’t cease himself from telling us what we’re seeing. Not why we’re seeing it, not what it took as a movie manufacturing to carry it to life, not what the larger themes may be — simply what we’re seeing. So yeah, the Bug commentary ain’t an awesome hear!
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Related Topics: Commentary Commentary, William Friedkin
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