BSA 204 W9 : Constantine

I watched the movie Constantine (2005) by Francis Lawrence, with screenplay by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Capello, based on the comic book Hellblazer created by Alan Moore, Stephen R. Bissette and John Ridgway.

The film was recommended to me by Glenn because it shares some similarities to my own script writing idea for this year (the I Saw Hell thing).

The movie follows John Constantine (woodenly and lovingly played by Keanu Reeves) a supernatural detective who is trying to buy his way into heaven by sending demon and angel half-breeds back to their respective dimensions and keeping them out of ours (or something along those lines).

The inciting incident in the film is when a Mexican man finds an evil dagger that is somehow connected to the son of the devil (an evil equivalent to Jesus) wrapped inside of a Nazi flag. This sets of a series of events, including the suicide of a police officer's twin sister who was devoutly catholic and her act of suicide places her in hell, one of Constantine's key goals is to rescue her from this unfair fate.

Important scene: Tilda Swinton tells Keanu he's fucked:
https://youtu.be/O-sFPLGwwYg?t=168

The movie was a mess, but a very entertaining one so I quite enjoyed it, watching it with other people definitely adds to the experience. Best scenes were those that were just completely out there and ridiculous, the dialogue and some stilted acting from ye boi Keanu definitely adds to the experience.

Constantine floats off to heaven, flipping off the devil - best scene in the film.

The things most relevant to my own script is that he wants in to heaven after going to hell, I like the line where the main female protagonist says that he's "trying to buy his way into heaven". This is very similar to my own idea and I like this set-up for a character a lot. In this one he feels an obligation to the right thing, it's not of his own desire, but it's the only way he'll survive. He says he put most of the demons there, he doesn't want to go back and spend eternity with them. It's a character who is in an interesting gray area, not really belonging to either world.

He is selfish and a bit of a dick, but its at this point in the film (although it came a little late - bordering on the third act) that I started really liking and rooting for the guy. He is doing the right thing, with a big chance that he'll still end up where all those he exiled are. Like being sent to the same prison as a lot of people you arrested. There is a nobility to this idea that one can respect, and it's something I'm probably stealing for mine as well - it's a good revelation for the character to come to. There can be a point where he realizes that nothing he does anymore will get him into heaven, but he continues to do the right thing anyway. Potentially this could be his arc, maybe there is a big revelation that the way heaven and hell works is much more restricting than he thought and it's much more old testament and strict.

There is much more to say about the film, and I could go into the actual writing of it but I don't think I have the patience haha. The beginning was intriguing, building the mystery with the dagger, Contsantine's first scene is a good introduction with him performing an exorcism straight off the bat. There was a big moment of audience disengagement when it switched from this to the secondary lead and her dream sequence (which is jarring because it feels like the story halts and the audience can't immediately make sense of what they are seeing). The film also goes on for too long, with there being some unnecessary twists and extra fluff. Things I found hard grasping because the world's rules are never all that well explained and there are a plethora of supporting characters who come and go at seemingly random intervals. It would have helped a lot to have a villain to root against because the mystery isn't very well executed, it never feels like there is a clear antagonist and again they seem to switch out at random. A more concrete goal for the character from the beginning and fleshing him out a bit more from the get-go would have benefited the movie a lot. We find out too little too late and by the time we get there we're disengaged.

It wasn't a good movie, but kinda funny and there were some technical elements that were very well done (costume, production design and some of the imagery). It did surprisingly help with my own project though, something I didn't really expect going in - so thanks Glenn!