Date: Sat, 22 Jul 95 08:54:51 EDT
From: ma-AT-dsd.camb.inmet.com (Malgosia Askanas)
Subject: Re: moral wholes?


> But I think the jazz thread 
> (including the songs, which I think I mentioned, were potential titles 
> for the film(s)), along with other connecting devices are central 
> to Altman's moral universe.  It is not a "moral whole"--singular--but 
> rather a universe of plural, blind, dark, moral "holes."  Holes in 
> information, holes in how events link up or fail to connect, holes in 
> understanding, needs, ideologies, relationships, and justice.  The reality 
> of "Short Cuts" is, in more ways than one, "lacunary."  

Since I am trying to make a case for the "moral wholeness" of the
film, let me try to articulate some of the signposts.  There are very
deep commonalities between the various threads, that go beyond just
connecting devices.  For example, the already-mentioned recurring
pretense, on the part of the characters, to not see, or to live
"around", things that are "in image": the phone sex, the drowned woman, 
Zoe's unhappiness, Earl's incorrigibility, mutual lies, barely
suppressed violence.  Another commonality is the violence itself, and
its suppression; also the obsession with sex, coupled with an almost complete
absence of "straightforward" sex (by which I don't mean "straight"). 

Then there is the overall organization of the film.  The stories are 
intercut so as to create an effect of slowly-accumulating violence,
which then boils over simultaneously on a number of levels.  
There is a progressive escalation of "visible disturbances":

   - Earl leaves coffe shop without eating sandwich
   - Gene leaves home, dognapping Susie
   - Casey gets hit by car
   - Earl and Noreen quarrel in trailer
   - Stormy baits Betty with birthday cake 
   - Gene dumps Susie
   - Gene harasses Claire
     (I have a 2-page hole in my notes here)
   - Fishermen find body
   - Stormy makes scene about Gene
   - Zoe breaks glass
   - Stormy picks up Gene's call to Betty
   - Baker harasses Howard and Ann 
   
   Here there is a period of stasis/gathering of forces

   (The sexual energy has its own trajectory, connected to the violence, and 
   around this point several couples, in parallel, have variously violent sex.) 
   (Also, some of the "reconciliation" threads begin to kick in.) 
   (Sex itself is a joining of "reconciliation" and violence.)  

   - Stormy arrives at Betty's and begins destruction
   - Casey dies.  
   - Ralph and Marion fight.
   - Zoe commits suicide
   - Bety comes home. 
   - Jerry kills biker 
   - 

> I don't sense that Altman has any love 
> for his characters.  As I said earlier, I'm not even sure Altman has 
> characters, so much as caricatures--puppets with which to tell his tales.  

Yes, but he does have a great love for his puppets -- as all good puppeteers do.  

- malgosia 


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