dogville
I rented this movie because I like Nicole Kidman and because this movie is a part of Lars von Trier's trilogy of Life in America. I really liked the movie. On a stage set, the entire movie is pictured as a theatrical play and so unique I thought.
town of dogville
Grace comes to the town of Dogville run away and in hiding. She reveals her secret to the townspeople to gain their trust so that they will let her stay in hiding in the town. They methodically put her to work as a way to earn their trust, and exploit her and humiliate her. Even the one she loves, Tom, betrays her when she tries to escape the town. The ending was very well written. I liked the ending so much that I wrote down the entire closed captions of the final act. Here it is ...
Dogville - Final Act
Grace and her father
(Grace enters the car)
"You need to justify your actions before you shoot us? That's new. That could be interpreted as weakness, Daddy. I'm disappointed in you."
"I didn't come to shoot anybody."
"You shot at me before."
"Yes. And so I, I regret that ... you ran away. But shooting at you certainly didn't help matters. Of course not, you're far, far too stubborn."
"If you don't want to kill me then why did you come?"
"Our last conversation, the one in which you told me what it was you didn't like about me, never really concluded, as you ran away. I should be allowed to tell you what I don't like about you. That I believe, would be a rule of polite conversation, no?"
"That's why you showed up? And you call me stubborn? - You're sure you're not here to force me to go back and become like you?"
"If I thought there was a chance of forcing you ... but of course, that would never happen. You're more - more than welcome to return home, become my daughter again anytime, and I would even begin to share my power and responsibility with you if you did. Not that you care -"
"So what is it? What is it, the thing, the thing that you don't like about me?"
"It was a word you used that provoked me. You called me arrogant."
"To plunder, as it were, a God-given right. I'd call that arrogant, daddy."
"But that is exactly what I don't like about you. It's you that is arrogant."
"That's what you came here to say? ... I'm not the one passing judgement, daddy, you are."
"No, you do not pass judgement because you sympathize with them. A deprived childhood, and a homicide really isn't necessarily a homicide, right? The only thing you can blame is circumstances - rapists and murderers may be the victims, according to you, but I, I call them dogs. And if they're lapping up their own vomit, the only way to stop them is with the lash."
"But dogs only obey their own nature, so why shouldn't we forgive them?"
"Dogs can be taught many useful things, but not if we forgive them every time they obey their own nature."
"So I'm arrogant? I'm arrogant because I forgive people."
"My God, can't you see how condescending you are when you say that? I mean you have - you have this preconceived notion that nobody, listen - that nobody can possibly attain the same high ethical standards as you, so you exonerate them. I cannot - I cannot think of anything more arrogant than that. You, my child, my dear child, you forgive others with excuses that you would never in the world permit for yourself."
"Why shouldn't I be merciful? Why?"
"No, no, no, you should, you should be merciful, when there's time to be merciful. But, you must maintain your own standards. You owe them that, you owe them that. The penalty you deserve for your transgressions, they deserve for their transgressions."
"They're human beings, Dad."
"No, no, no, of course - but does every human being need to be accountable for their actions? Of course they do, but you don't even give them that chance. And that is extremely arrogant. I love you, I love you, I love you to death, but you are the most arrogant person I have ever met. And you call me arrogant. I ... I have no more to say."
"You're arrogant, I'm arrogant, you've said it, now you can leave."
"And without my daughter, I suppose."
"Hmm?"
"I said without my daugther."
"Mm, yes."
"Well?"
"Yes!"
"You decide, you decide. Grace, they - they say you're having some trouble here."
"No. No more trouble than back home."
"I'm gonna give you a little time to think about this, perhaps you'll change your mind."
"I won't."
"Listen, my love, power is not so bad. I am sure that you can find a way to make use of it in your own fashion. Take a walk and think about it."
"People who live here ... are doing their best under very hard circumstances."
"If you say so, Grace. But is their best ... really good enough? - I do love you."
(Grace exits the car and starts to think)
(Narrator: Grace had already thought for a long time. She has known that if she were not shot when the gangsters arrived, she would be faced with her father's suggestion that she return to become a conspirator with him and his gang of thugs and felons. And she did not need any walk to reconsider her response to that ... even though the difference between the people she knew back home and the people she'd met in Dogville had proven somewhat slighter than she'd expected.
Grace looked at the gooseberry bushes, so fragile in the smooth darkness. It was good to know that if you did not treat them ill, they would be there come spring as always, and come summer they'd again be bursting with the quite incomprehensible quantity of berries that were so good in pies, especially with cinnamon. Grace looked around at the frightened faces behind the window panes that were following her every step and felt ashamed of being part of inflicting that fear. How could she ever hate them for what was at bottom merely their weakness? She would probably have done things like those that have befallen her if she had lived in one of these houses. To measure them by her own yardstick, as her father put it, would she not, in all honesty, have done the same as Chuck? And Vera and Ben? And Mrs. Henson? And Tom? And all these people in their houses?
Grace paused. And while she did, the clouds scattered and let the moonlight through. And Dogville underwent another of those little changes of light. It was as if the light previously so merciful and faint, finally refused to cover up for the town any longer. Suddenly you could no longer imagine a berry that would appear one day on a gooseberry bush, but only see the thorn that was there right now. The light now penetrated every unevenness and flaw in the buildings, and in the people.
And all of a sudden, she knew the answer to her question all too well. If she had acted like them, she could not have condemned them harshly enough. It was as if her sorrow and pain finally assumed their rightful place. No, what they had done was not good enough. And if one had the power to put it to rights, it was one's duty to do so, for the sake of other towns, for the sake of humanity and not least, for the sake of the human being that was Grace herself.)
(Grace enters the car again)
"If I went back and ... became your daughter again, when would I be given the power you're talking about?"
"Now."
"At once?"
"Why not?"
"So that would mean that I would also take on the immediate responsibility, at once. And I'd be a part of the problem solving... like the problem of Dogville."
"We could start by shooting the dog and nailing it to a wall over there, beneath that lamp for example. Well, it might help, it sometimes does, no?"
"It would only make the town more frightened, it would hardly make it a better place. And it could happen again. Somebody, somebody happening by, revealing ... their frailty. That's what I want to use the power for, if you don't mind. I want to make this world a little better."
(Knocks)
"Yeah?"
Thug: "The damn kid won't shut up. Says he wants to talk to you, miss. Can we just shoot him now?"
"No, let me talk to him."
(Grace exits the car.)
"What? What is it?"
Tom: "A man can't really be blamed for being scared now, can he?"
"No..."
Tom: "No... I'm scared Grace. I used you and I am sorry. I am stupid. I am. I'm may be even arrogant sometimes."
"You are, Tom."
Tom: "Although using people is not very charming, I think you have to agree that this specific illustration has surpassed all expectations. It says so much about being human. It's been painful, but I think you'll also have to agree, - it's been edifying, wouldn't you say?"
"Not now, Tom. Not now."
(Grace enters the car.)
"If there's any town this world would be better without, this is it."
Thug: "Yes?"
"Shoot them, burn down the town."
"Oh?"
"What? Something else, honey?"
"There's a family with kids. Do the kids first and make the mother watch. Tell her you'll stop if she can hold back her tears. I owe her that. I'm afraid she cries a little too easily."
"We'd better get you out of here. I'm afraid you've learned far too much already."
