Hollywood takes on a dark subject matter…
Private investigator Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) is hired to find out if a snuff film is authentic or not. This is the start of a long dark road.
A snuff film is defined as; “A motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation.” The term “snuff film” was first used by Ed Sanders, who wrote that the Manson family was involved with making such a film to record their murders. Fictionalized snuff or pseudo-snuff began gaining notoriety with the 1976 flick Snuff. Since then this sub-genre has grown slow and steadily in volume with the Guinea Pig films and Cannibal Holocaust being the most infamous ones. More recently A Serbian Film (2010) has dealt with the subject matter Both Guinea Pig: Flower of Flesh and Blood and Cannibal Holocaust have had to prove that they were indeed pseudo-snuff and not the real deal. There are several examples of real people committing torture and murder while filming the act. German cannibal Armin Meiwes filmed the killing of his willing victim, but since this was never done with an intention of distributing for money such videos aren’t generally considered snuff films.
8MM is a bold movie in the light of being a big-budgeted Hollywood flick dealing with humanity at its most depraved. The script was apparently a lot darker, but writer Andrew Kevin Walker and director Joel Schumacher disagreed and Walker has subsequently disowned the film. I can’t help but wonder what the uglier version would have looked like.
Cage works well as the private investigator. His descent into the abyss is easily one of the movies’ highlights. While initially looking at the case with a certain detached attitude it gradually gets under his skin. My favorite scene is when Welles decides he wants to give the men responsible a dose of vigilante justice and takes on Eddie Poole (James Gandolfini). Gandolfini makes little out of his role for the most part, but excels in their little showdown not showing an inch of remorse while uttering;
“Go ahead. Pull the fucking trigger. Well go ahead. What're you waiting for? Go ahead, do it! You faggot! What do you want me to do, start crying like a little baby? "Oh, I'm so sorry I killed the little girl." Well, fuck you, and fuck her! Go ahead! Put me outta my fucking misery! Pull the fucking trigger! Pull the fucking trigger! Do it! Do it!” Cage communicates a whole range of emotions while Poole rambles on. He wants him to suffer, but is afraid to go to that dark place. As Nietzsche has put it; “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.” To push him over he calls the victims’ mother and asks for a boost; “I want to hurt them. I want to punish them for what they did. Please give me your permission to punish them!” This could easily have come off as dumb or corny, but the scene is plays out as an emotional rollercoaster. Give in to temptation. What do you do when you encounter humans devoid of empathy? Do you want him to punish them? Another stand-out in the movie is Joaquin Phoenix as the porn shop clerk Max California that Welles hires to guide him in the underground video market. Otherwise Peter Stormare is a perfect fit as the extreme film director Dino Velvet. According to Max he’s “the Jim Jarmusch of S & M”, which is a small but welcome joke in this otherwise doom laden universe.
One thing I wondered about when Welles and California are scouring the underground market looking for snuff is how is the extreme film market today? Specifically is there still and to what extent a market for extreme movies dealing in physical copies? Internet has made everything more available so has it affected this market? We can watch videos of people being tortured and executed on the internet at any time. All the death and suffering is there for those seeking it, but is it enough? The answer always seems to be no.
One of the driving questions for Welles is the why. Why would anyone want to have someone make something like this? One answers his question with the chilling words; “Because he could.” That is a part of what makes 8MM so interesting. You wonder what the motivation is just like Welles. Tom’s surprised face as he finally unmasks Machine and realizes it is actually a human being behind it is a small revelation. In the end we can never get a satisfactory answer yet we strive for an understanding. It is all the more chilling when Machine doesn’t give a good reason either. In fact he makes a point that his life hasn’t been a troublesome one. There is no history of sexual abuse or other elements to shed light on it. Life isn’t black and white. Life isn’t a Disney film.
*End spoilers*
8MM works well on several levels. It works as a thriller, but more interestingly to me, it's a movie about movies and not just any kind. It puts a seedy light on the more abysmal genres of movies little or completely unknown to most people. While doing so it confronts you with your own views on violence without feeling condescending. It's an element through the movie lingering in the back of your head. I have followed that line of thoughts many times before. Why do I watch movies that feature such cruel and heinous acts? Why do you? Why not?
Joel Schumacher has crafted a solid thriller with 8MM. It gives viewers unfamiliar with snuff film and extreme cinema a safe and sanitized look into the darker side of movies, while posing intelligent questions. Dark mainstream entertainment can indeed be good.
8/10
“Go ahead. Pull the fucking trigger. Well go ahead. What're you waiting for? Go ahead, do it! You faggot! What do you want me to do, start crying like a little baby? "Oh, I'm so sorry I killed the little girl." Well, fuck you, and fuck her! Go ahead! Put me outta my fucking misery! Pull the fucking trigger! Pull the fucking trigger! Do it! Do it!” Cage communicates a whole range of emotions while Poole rambles on. He wants him to suffer, but is afraid to go to that dark place. As Nietzsche has put it; “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster.” To push him over he calls the victims’ mother and asks for a boost; “I want to hurt them. I want to punish them for what they did. Please give me your permission to punish them!” This could easily have come off as dumb or corny, but the scene is plays out as an emotional rollercoaster. Give in to temptation. What do you do when you encounter humans devoid of empathy? Do you want him to punish them? Another stand-out in the movie is Joaquin Phoenix as the porn shop clerk Max California that Welles hires to guide him in the underground video market. Otherwise Peter Stormare is a perfect fit as the extreme film director Dino Velvet. According to Max he’s “the Jim Jarmusch of S & M”, which is a small but welcome joke in this otherwise doom laden universe.
One thing I wondered about when Welles and California are scouring the underground market looking for snuff is how is the extreme film market today? Specifically is there still and to what extent a market for extreme movies dealing in physical copies? Internet has made everything more available so has it affected this market? We can watch videos of people being tortured and executed on the internet at any time. All the death and suffering is there for those seeking it, but is it enough? The answer always seems to be no.
One of the driving questions for Welles is the why. Why would anyone want to have someone make something like this? One answers his question with the chilling words; “Because he could.” That is a part of what makes 8MM so interesting. You wonder what the motivation is just like Welles. Tom’s surprised face as he finally unmasks Machine and realizes it is actually a human being behind it is a small revelation. In the end we can never get a satisfactory answer yet we strive for an understanding. It is all the more chilling when Machine doesn’t give a good reason either. In fact he makes a point that his life hasn’t been a troublesome one. There is no history of sexual abuse or other elements to shed light on it. Life isn’t black and white. Life isn’t a Disney film.
*End spoilers*
8MM works well on several levels. It works as a thriller, but more interestingly to me, it's a movie about movies and not just any kind. It puts a seedy light on the more abysmal genres of movies little or completely unknown to most people. While doing so it confronts you with your own views on violence without feeling condescending. It's an element through the movie lingering in the back of your head. I have followed that line of thoughts many times before. Why do I watch movies that feature such cruel and heinous acts? Why do you? Why not?
Joel Schumacher has crafted a solid thriller with 8MM. It gives viewers unfamiliar with snuff film and extreme cinema a safe and sanitized look into the darker side of movies, while posing intelligent questions. Dark mainstream entertainment can indeed be good.
8/10
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