Sunday, September 05, 2004
--- I ---
Six years have passed.
I have broken the silence with "Anaconda: The Hunt for Blood Orchid": my first movie since "A Bug's Life" in 1998.
Coincidentally these two movies were watched at the same exact cinema (Golden Village, Plaza Singapura), though in different halls.
--- II ---
Although "Anaconda: The Hunt for Blood Orchid" may be some action film where the protagonists try to stay alive despite the presence of a threatening creature staking their lives, there is something that has left an impression on me.
The movie is a good case study of how selfishness, materialism and greed can destroy a lot of things. Gordon wants to make money out of the discovery of the blood orchid, whose qualities may create a drug that is the equivalent of the "fountain of youth" as quoted from the movie, and can possibly create millionaires out of them. Jack shares a similar dream. Unlike Jack, however, Gordon wants to end the expedition after two lives are lost to the anacondas. His only thought is their safety, that they may make it out of the forests of Borneo alive. The others share his sentiments. But the bastard scientist Jack refuses. His one and only thought is to get the orchids before they return.
He pays the captain of the ship, Bill Johnson, more money in order to make him take a shorter but riskier route to get to their destination in the quickest time possible. The result: the rudder gets jammed, the propeller dies, the boat misses its turn and heads over a waterfall, where it sinks. Now, Bill Johnson is also to blame for accepting the money, even as he calculates the risks. Greed has led them into the deep shit they have come to experience for the better part of the movie, and creates the tragedy whereby a large portion of the expedition members die.
He refuses to give up the expedition even when every remaining and surviving member of the team vote to return to the town. He hides the mobile phone belonging to the friend of Johnson - also another boat captain who was killed by an anaconda while steering his boat - so that nobody will call the authorities to come and rescue them. When Gordon discovers the phone, Jack sets a poisonous spider whose venom causes the victim to become paralysed upon his friend and colleague so that he cannot make the call for help. Gordon dies because of his failure to move when the anaconda comes to prey on him.
Jack steals their makeshift raft - their one and only mode of transport left - in the midst of the chaos, when the others return to the hut to try and save Gordon. He wants the raft to himself so that he can row to the site of the orchids. Along the way, the son of a bitch reports his situation, but manipulates his information, stating that he is the only one surviving, probably in the hope that the authorities wouldn't rescue his team mates. It will save his skin, as his team mates will tell on him when they return to civilisation.
He forces his assistant, Sammi, to walk across the treacherous bridge: a fallen tree trunk covered with slippery fungus in the rain, in order to get the orchids for him. The orchids are located on the opposite side of a depression, in which a great number of anacondas are mating. He uses a pistol to force his assistant to his bidding, without caring for her safety. When Sammi tries to crawl along the trunk after she slips, the fucker yells at her to cross the bridge in an upright position.
After collecting the flowers and placing them inside the bag Jack has given her, Sammi crosses the bridge once more. This time, the bridge splits and she nearly collapses into the pit of snakes below. The only thing Jack does is to shout at her to throw him the bag, all the while POINTING HIS STUPID PISTOL AT HER. Honestly he doesn't give the shit about her life.
A die-hard all the way to the end, he refuses to be separated from his bag of orchids even as it falls off the cliff onto a ledge below, close to the snakes. He climbs down the cliff to retrieve his bag even while the others are busily trying to save Sammi, only to be bitten by the same poisonous spider which had bitten Gordon - a taste of his own cooking. Paralysed, he fails while reaching out for Bill's hand of assistance - his arm has stiffened, so he has to force his body upwards to come within reach of Bill's hand, but he looses his balance and falls into the pit of snakes to his death.
Serves him right.
¶ 9/05/2004 09:55:00 pm Six years have passed.
I have broken the silence with "Anaconda: The Hunt for Blood Orchid": my first movie since "A Bug's Life" in 1998.
Coincidentally these two movies were watched at the same exact cinema (Golden Village, Plaza Singapura), though in different halls.
--- II ---
Although "Anaconda: The Hunt for Blood Orchid" may be some action film where the protagonists try to stay alive despite the presence of a threatening creature staking their lives, there is something that has left an impression on me.
The movie is a good case study of how selfishness, materialism and greed can destroy a lot of things. Gordon wants to make money out of the discovery of the blood orchid, whose qualities may create a drug that is the equivalent of the "fountain of youth" as quoted from the movie, and can possibly create millionaires out of them. Jack shares a similar dream. Unlike Jack, however, Gordon wants to end the expedition after two lives are lost to the anacondas. His only thought is their safety, that they may make it out of the forests of Borneo alive. The others share his sentiments. But the bastard scientist Jack refuses. His one and only thought is to get the orchids before they return.
He pays the captain of the ship, Bill Johnson, more money in order to make him take a shorter but riskier route to get to their destination in the quickest time possible. The result: the rudder gets jammed, the propeller dies, the boat misses its turn and heads over a waterfall, where it sinks. Now, Bill Johnson is also to blame for accepting the money, even as he calculates the risks. Greed has led them into the deep shit they have come to experience for the better part of the movie, and creates the tragedy whereby a large portion of the expedition members die.
He refuses to give up the expedition even when every remaining and surviving member of the team vote to return to the town. He hides the mobile phone belonging to the friend of Johnson - also another boat captain who was killed by an anaconda while steering his boat - so that nobody will call the authorities to come and rescue them. When Gordon discovers the phone, Jack sets a poisonous spider whose venom causes the victim to become paralysed upon his friend and colleague so that he cannot make the call for help. Gordon dies because of his failure to move when the anaconda comes to prey on him.
Jack steals their makeshift raft - their one and only mode of transport left - in the midst of the chaos, when the others return to the hut to try and save Gordon. He wants the raft to himself so that he can row to the site of the orchids. Along the way, the son of a bitch reports his situation, but manipulates his information, stating that he is the only one surviving, probably in the hope that the authorities wouldn't rescue his team mates. It will save his skin, as his team mates will tell on him when they return to civilisation.
He forces his assistant, Sammi, to walk across the treacherous bridge: a fallen tree trunk covered with slippery fungus in the rain, in order to get the orchids for him. The orchids are located on the opposite side of a depression, in which a great number of anacondas are mating. He uses a pistol to force his assistant to his bidding, without caring for her safety. When Sammi tries to crawl along the trunk after she slips, the fucker yells at her to cross the bridge in an upright position.
After collecting the flowers and placing them inside the bag Jack has given her, Sammi crosses the bridge once more. This time, the bridge splits and she nearly collapses into the pit of snakes below. The only thing Jack does is to shout at her to throw him the bag, all the while POINTING HIS STUPID PISTOL AT HER. Honestly he doesn't give the shit about her life.
A die-hard all the way to the end, he refuses to be separated from his bag of orchids even as it falls off the cliff onto a ledge below, close to the snakes. He climbs down the cliff to retrieve his bag even while the others are busily trying to save Sammi, only to be bitten by the same poisonous spider which had bitten Gordon - a taste of his own cooking. Paralysed, he fails while reaching out for Bill's hand of assistance - his arm has stiffened, so he has to force his body upwards to come within reach of Bill's hand, but he looses his balance and falls into the pit of snakes to his death.
Serves him right.
