![]() ![]() Nocturnal Animals actually juxtaposes the difference between revenge in fiction and revenge in reality. Those stories tap into not only the anger we’ve felt at some point in our life but also the powerlessness. We get to safely and vicariously experience someone else taking extreme retribution against people so evil they deserve it. I may hate them, but I’m not going to slash either of their tires or steal his dog or even fight him. That’s why revenge stories can make for such great cinema or literature. If my girlfriend cheats on me with some jerk, I’m going to write a mean text message, delete her from Facebook, be sad, drink a lot of milkshakes, and that’s that. In reality, most of us won’t, can’t, and don’t seek physical payback. Most of the narrative deals with the machinations of revenge, usually ending with the main character winning and moving on, or winning then dying, or winning and reuniting with whoever was kidnapped. The main character ends up being really sad then decides to get revenge. Essentially, in the first 20 minutes someone is killed or kidnapped or the main character gets attacked and left for dead or barely escapes a murder attempt. The Crow, I Spit On Your Grave, Kill Bill, Payback, Braveheart, Apocalypto, Mad Max, Edge of Darkness, The Lion King, Taken, John Wick. ![]() You’ve probably seen a revenge movie before. Let’s start with what might be the simpler of the two.Įdward’s novel was a classic revenge plot that the 90s and Mel Gibson would be proud of. There are two meanings to take away from this ending. We hear a hostess say, “This way, sir,” and Susan smiles, thinking it’s Edward, but the person goes to another table. Edward says some nice guy thing in the vein of, “Name the time and place and I’m there”. Susan has asked Edward to get dinner with her. With that said, let’s dive into that enigmatic final scene. The novel is an act of catharsis, as most art is. Ostensibly, Edward’s using the story of Tony to not only express and exorcise the pain he felt at losing Susan but also fantasize about the revenge he would take on her husband/his replacement, Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer). That is, to me, absolutely a sign of mastery-when you can make the real into the surreal and the surreal resonate with someone else’s reality. And has been done to death.Īt this point, two or more decades later, Edward has managed to write about himself in a way that would, to anyone who didn’t know him, seem completely fictional. Given her criticism, he probably had been writing about a struggling writer in NYC. Which could seem harsh but… Think about where he was and who he was at the time: a struggling writer in NYC. During one flashback, she reads a draft of a story and tells Edward that he needs to not write about himself. In the film’s middle, Susan has flashbacks to her time with Edward, when they were in their 20s. Content aside, our main clue is that Jake Gyllenhaal plays both Edward and Tony. ![]() The story of Tony Hastings represents how Edward felt about what happened between him and Susan (Amy Adams)-another man came and took Susan from him. ![]() A lot of viewers and critics have rightly pointed out the metaphor that is Edward Sheffield’s novel. ![]()
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