{"id":3738,"date":"2021-09-29T21:41:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T21:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2023-01-22T22:19:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T22:19:11","slug":"film-affliction-1997","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=3738","title":{"rendered":"FiLM REViEW: Affliction, 1997"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Egads! So bleak and dark, it could\u2019ve been made in the \u201870s. Teresa wasn\u2019t keen. In fact we bailed, first time round. So this was my second go. Affliction<\/em> is a slow burner. And, like the snowbound New Hampshire hamlet it\u2019s set in, it\u2019s cold and bleak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always loved Nick Nolte, from everything like his most mainstream stuff, 48 Hours<\/em> or Prince of Tides<\/em>, to his role as Neal Cassady, in Heartbeat<\/em>, or artist Lionel Dobie, in Martin Scorsese\u2019s segment of New York Stories<\/em>, Life Lessons<\/em>. And the rest of the cast includes heavyweights like Willem Defoe, James Coburn and Sissy Spacek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wade is not in a good place, in any sense.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nolte plays jaded policeman Wade Whitehouse, who\u2019s worsening toothache turns out to be the least of his troubles. When a visiting businessman is shot in a hunting accident, Wade\u2019s paranoid reaction, compounded by his abusive upbringing, at the hands of his alcoholic father (Coburn), begins an unravelling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a dark and sad story, and relentlessly negative, which is hard going. But as a character study, it is powerful and engaging. The plot arc is kind of predictable, but strong nevertheless. Nolte and Coburn are both truly horrible, frankly. But we still feel for them, especially Nolte, as he descends ever deeper into his own lowering circles of hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
It\u2019s kind of like pulling teeth\u2026 literally.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nolte has had some odd roles, from sending his own machismo up, as Four Leaf Tayback in Tropic Thunder<\/em>, or Harry LeSabre in the bonkers adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut\u2019s Breakfast of Champions<\/em>, also starring Bruce Willis. In this movie he\u2019s stuck in the cul-de-sac of what might now be called toxic masculinity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardly uplifting, but I still thought this was a really strong film. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Egads! So bleak and dark, it could\u2019ve been made in the \u201870s. Teresa wasn\u2019t keen. In fact we bailed, first time round. So this was my second go. Affliction is a slow burner. And, like the snowbound New Hampshire hamlet it\u2019s set in, it\u2019s cold and bleak. I\u2019ve always loved Nick Nolte, from everything like … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “FiLM REViEW: Affliction, 1997”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[15,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paGwUa-Yi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3738"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8166,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3738\/revisions\/8166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}