"Mr. Brooks -- and two reflections on the philosophy of art" L. K. Helm: "This voice is personified as Marshall, the suave and sophisticated William Hurt whose urgings seem intellectual rather than psychotic. Brooks and Mrshall converse throughout the movie. ... William Hurt is superb as Costner's voice." You think? I found him _perverted_. For some reason, all the roles I've seen with Hurt are of the "perverted" type. Last one, playing the father of "Going Wild". Manuel Puig, the openly homosexual Argentine writer (of "Kiss of the Spider Woman") would refer to "Hurt" as "La Hurt" -- and wasn't he happy as a queen when it got the Oscar? (In said film, Hurt plays the Argentine homosexual, and the novel is better than the film, in that at least it mentions _real_ places -- workingclass neighbourhoods too -- in Buenos Aires). "I felt a bit guilty for liking Mr. Brooks." Right. I think it should be _illegal_ that criminal types can become 'heroes' (or anti-heroes, even) of pieces of fiction. A bit like "In Cold Blood" (in "Capote"). Criminals cannot have a _voice_. "He doesn't do anything sexual or perverted to his victims although his victims are shown as doing sexual things to each other and Mr. Brooks as being a major coitus interruptus." Exactly. To make it more explicitly, he is a _voyeur_ which sounds like a pretty _perversion_ to me, and as a voyeur he can only _jerk_ while watching others doing it. "now he has slipped and is in the house of a couple he spotted at a dance studio." I noticed some racial profiling here -- the male is supposed to be _attractive_ but totally 'emasculated' -- after all, he is a Latino dancer. What is it with the American culture that a Latino is usually seen sexy _only_ as a dancer -- cf. Mario Lopez. Surely there are sexy South American 'beauty' philosophers. "Brooks kills the couple" --- I think there is a symbology there in that it's during orgasm which the French call "la petite morte" "Brooks is having his own problems with a serial-killer wanabe." I want this wanabe to pathetic and again, another criminal who shouldn't be given a _voice_ or an image even! " Marshall wants him to let Jane go to jail" I think you forget to say that Jane has been RAPED -- another sexual perversion. So it's one perversion reciprocated by a crime in this case -- a vengeance quite uncalled for. "The detective hunting him is Tracy Atwood played by Demi Moore. She is not the clumsy French superintendant played by Francois Perier who follows ineptly in the pattern of Porfiry Petrovich who pursued Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment." Exactly. She is a good Southerner instead. I loved her, and think she steals the film. I have only seen a COUPLE (literally two) of her films ("Bobby Kennedy" the other) and she has impressed me so good. I like her in interviews, too, and admire her for various reasons (Although she hasn't written a treatise in philosophy. You see how open-minded philosophers can be). "She is every whit as good as they are." And she is very white, too. I love the contrast of her excellent skin with that wonderful dark black hair she displays. Must be one of the few Beverly Hillers who will _not_ go "blonde". "He isn't violent in any of his relationships. On one occasion he starts to speak harshly to his daughter but quickly apologizes. " Well, depends on how you use 'relationships'. Broadly, his victims _are_ related to him, and he has killed them. : Alcoholics Anonymous' alcoholics and drug addicts are well known in our society. We don't condemn such people. We sympathize with them and wish them well. We hope they will overcome their addictions. And in this movie, that is what we are encouraged to do - or are we?" --- Well, it didn't work with me. Problem with scripts is that they _are_ unrealistic. Unlike people one may know who are into AA, or drugs. It would be perverted to try to empathise too much with a character. They don't deserve that! (This is a serious aesthetic concern. We shouldn't feel pity with "Anna Karennina" this philosopher says -- in Arquette, "Aesthetics in the analytic philosophical tradition"). By displaying catharsis with a form of art, one is redirecting good energy into a bad field -- as one could be doing something with _real_ people instead.). "He is a clever intelligent fellow who presents CSI experts with nothing to work with." Well, Costner -- a favourite of mine -- is perfectly cast here. Most of the Hollywood types _are_ so perverted that they would be unrealistic playing the part. "Furthermore the only people we see him kill have flaws. Maybe they don't deserve killing, but we don't like them, and maybe that is a criteria Mr. Brooks uses - to kill people most of us wouldn't like." ---- Well, the Latino dancer I don't think had a flaw other than a cheap taste for some cheap muscular dancing. But I get your point. "Could that happen in this case, the case of a serial killer who is presented as an attractive figure we can sympathize with?". Well, this relates to the two points I was making: (1) half-jokingly. Good characters should be _good_ in more than one way. (2) Katharsis as the aim of art is a misconceived philosophy of art. Your point about 'sympathise' may do with a pre-Platonic philosophy of art based on "Mimesis" (Auerbach), but I wouldn't like to buy it either. Surely the effect of a work of art on the addressee is a matter of dispute, but since 'ascribing' intentions is a defeasible business, and it's only the intention that makes the act criminal, I would consider these points when arguing the case you are presenting. " The movie ends with his saying the prayer they taught him at Alcoholics Anonymous including praying for the strength to accept the things he cannot change." --- Yes, which relates to Aristotle's _akrasia_ (or, as Geary prefers, _incontinentia_ -- "hey, aren't you being anal-retentive"). I would think that his _race_ (Caucasian) is something he cannot change (but cfr. Michael Jackson). So I would be careful with "cannot change". Surely a sexual perversion seems like the animal some behaviourist psychologists _think_ you *can* change. I don't mind about the perversion per se but when it borders crime (as in the worst passages of Sade or Masoch) one _has_ to draw the line, and a prayer will do, but in the gallows. Thanks for sharing your comments with the list. Very interesting. Cheers, JL Buenos Aires, Argentina. **************************************Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest products. (http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop00030000000001)