White (Tommy Lee Jones), a college professor at the end of his rope... Black (Samuel L. Jackson), a redeemed ex-convict... are thrown into a desperate debate, after White attempts to throw himself in front of a train (The Sunset Limited) This film based on the play by Cormac McCarthy, and is about life's value and if ending it, is a valid choice given the options life offers. Though the entire film is contained within the four walls of Black's apartment, the story line is unfettered to fly in every direction,
hindered only by the imagination of the viewer.
At first thought... "Impossible, an hour and a half of dialogue, entertaining?" But as I warmed up to the riveting questions of mortality and logic posed by White and Black,
the whole subject became clear... people really only listen when they can hear...
as one ponders the inevitable, things don't seem so "Black and White!"
In conclusion one falls in love with the characters, and can understand their motives and what brought each of them to this collision of fate... White needed a Black in his life with as much 'conviction' (no pun intended), to match White's suicidal resolution; and God needed Black to reach one in such darkness as White, with his desperate devotion to depression with his 'logic' offering a mathematical reason for his destruction. For indeed what is the purpose of such 'intelligence' if it drives one to suicide?
Is this the fate of all those of intellect, or just terminally proud?
I loved this film, compelling and riveting... to the very last drop!
I was thinking of all the arguments I would have levied to comfort and challenge the suicidal "White" ...yet in despair, we cannot give life to another. But the good news is we can give love! Love is the friendship and understanding that everyone needs. Even if it is taken advantage of to lure another into their own experience of hope or despair (called the "trick bag" in the film). "Black" conveyed just that... a noble interest and commitment, even to a stranger, that "miraculously" fell into his arms (literally) ...to trust that this was the intention of the Almighty from the start. Like 'Black' states when questioned about why 'Black' is even thinking there is any hope in saving 'White'...
"IF God could reach me, he could reach anyone!"
"Their characters are never named, and appear in the credits only as Black and White. Jones plays a professor of philosophy who has just tried to throw himself in front of a train. (The play is named after a cross-country passenger route.) Jackson, clearly more blue-collar — his work shirt sports a Lennox logo — managed to stop him,
and has brought him home to his New York apartment."
http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/02/11/...'Tis Nobler to Dive in Front of a Train? Discuss
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/arts/t...A must see? A must experience!