Monster's Ball

Yesterday in class I screened the 2001 film, Monster's Ball, (directed by Marc Forster).

I had seen this film before and had been deeply moved by it. In particular I was struck by how intensely it portrays the impact of working within the prison industry on career corrections officers. The brutality they absorb; the sad authority; the ugliness of their daily lives spent with prisoners deprived of human dignity. Monster's Ball tells the story of three generations of COs, with Peter Boyle playing the retired, horribly racist, and chronically ill oldest; Billy Bob Thorton as his son, and Heath Ledger as the youngest. The racism, violence and hatred that permeates the relationships between these three men is almost impossible to bear.

In fact, as much as I love this movie, as a whole it is almost impossible to bear. The first 45 minutes or so hardly leave you room to breathe, one intense scene after another. The story, in broad strokes, is about a relationship that develops between a woman (Halle Berry) whose husband is executed, and the CO that was in charge of the execution (Billy Bob). Both people have suffered terrible losses; both are full of rage; both actors play these hardened, emotionally shut down characters with an underlying sense of vulnerability that is just heartbreaking.

The scenes that involved Halle berry's son, Tyrell, were so excruciating I can't bear to describe them.

This film combines two of my favorite movie motifs, contributing to how much I like it: 1) unlikeable, difficult people/complex characters, being portrayed in ways that show their humanity; and 2) unlikely people coming together and forming a special, perhaps fragile bond.