Voir (2021) s01e02 Episode Script

[film projector whirs]
[whistling music plays]
[Tony] Twelve years ago,
I saw a film from South Korea
called Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.
And it completely changed
how I watch movies.
There's a scene where the main character
captures a serial killer.
She finds the relatives
of all of his victims,
and one by one,
they exact their revenge on him.
Even though
all the violence happens off-screen
[man screams]
I felt like I saw everything.
I remember even looking away.
And I thought, "Why?"
"What was it about this revenge movie
that affected me where others haven't?"
Ah!
[Tony] I like revenge stories.
It seems like a lot of people do.
- But why do we like them?
- [car horn honking]
What attracts us?
The common definition
of an act of revenge has two parts.
First, we have a grievance,
and second, a retaliation.
However, I would argue
that there's a third element.
Revenge isn't
an instantaneous tit for tat.
The hero has to stew for a little bit
and then make a choice.
Built into the idea of revenge
is the possibility
that this person could walk away.
But they choose not to
because of one ideal.
[woman 1] There is a thing called justice.
- Justice.
- Justice.
- Justice.
- Justice.
- [man] Justice.
- Well, you're not talking about justice.
- You're talking about revenge.
- Sometimes they're the same.
[woman 2] They're never the same.
[Tony] Revenge stories
are always about justice.
But what kind?
Most of us live our lives
within the parameters of modern society.
If you have a serious grievance,
you're supposed to take it to the police
A couple days ago, my wife
and daughter were attacked.
[Tony] to the courts, to the newspapers.
These institutions
are there to civilize us
and to keep violence in check.
Revenge stories, on the other hand,
are about wild justice.
About what would happen if we let loose
and took matters into our own hands.
Thanks.
[screams]
[woman] I think justice,
action, and violence,
it's all sort of hemmed in together
of what we're trying to say about it.
In real life, violence happens
for no reason to good people.
[gunshot]
And it's never resolved in any way.
I think that sense of injustice,
that lack of satisfaction
is something that people feel upset about.
Man gets shot that's got a gun,
there's room for a reasonable doubt.
Man gets shot that hasn't got a gun,
what would you call it?
It ain't fair!
When you're making fiction,
and you're creating every piece of it,
why not try to balance it out
a little bit?
[Tony] Revenge itself is hard to control.
But revenge movies are ritualized,
like a sporting event.
A movie sets up parameters
that tell the audience,
"These are the edges of the ring."
[grunting]
We understand that
the movie will only go so far,
and that allows us to enjoy the spectacle.
[woman] In some ways,
vengeance narratives,
they're an interesting justification
for depicting graphic violence.
There's the underlying sense that
the justice system isn't going to work,
so sometimes
human vengeance has to step in
to take on what
the justice system failed to do.
[Tony] But revenge movies
also walk a fine line.
Because even though the movie might show
how the system isn't doing its job
It's a fucked-up system
you're sworn to protect.
Never said it was perfect.
So there's nothing you can do?
Nothing that's legal.
[Tony]we, as a society, need
those institutions in order to function.
So the revenge movie has to restore
the rules of society
it just blatantly ignored.
And the hero can't just get away
with flaunting the law.
There has to be some price.
Every revenge movie lies
on this sliding scale
[grunts]
between the emotional desire
to punish wrongdoers
[screams]
[gasps]
and the ethical implications
of doing that yourself.
And the thing
that draws me back to this genre,
why I like these stories,
is the basic question.
If I were in this situation,
what would I do?
[muffled shouting]
Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya.
You killed my father.
Prepare to die.
[Tony] The ritual of the revenge story
begins with the grievance.
What is the crime?
It has to be bad.
Horrible, humiliating, traumatizing
enough that the audience
will believe the hero spends
the rest of the movie trying to get even.
Audiences are much more willing to accept
violence in a movie when it's justified.
Audiences actually accept that violence
on a different level
You killed my father.
Big mistake.
[screams]
[Lisa]than they do violence
that is seen as sadistic, perverse
for the sake of suffering,
rather than an act of justice.
[Tony] At the same time, filmmakers
have to be tactful that they don't show
something too awful.
- [gasps]
- [engine revs]
And so what they often do
is leave the crime just off-screen
and instead focus our attention
on the hero's reaction.
[grunts]
[Lisa] One thing that it does
is it builds up the initial victims
as being more worthy.
Their deaths are so significant
that we don't get to witness their deaths,
because, in a way, to show us the violence
would cheapen the experience.
[Jennifer] The violence in your mind
is far more powerful
than violence that's actually on-screen.
You can imagine it.
It's all how you perceive
that information.
And actually, I think it's
somehow it's sometimes more disturbing
when your mind fills in the blanks.
[Tony] The revenge story
is all about getting the most sympathy
using the smallest amount of exposition.
And because of that,
filmmakers choose easy victims.
A wife, a child, a pet.
- [whines]
- These characters are thinly sketched.
Enough to gain sympathy
but not enough that they become
three-dimensional
and potentially unlikable.
And when these characters die,
they're often replaced by a token,
a banal item that reminds
the hero of who they once were.
It's visual shorthand
and extremely effective.
In Lady Vengeance,
the grievance is powerful and simple.
The victims are innocent children.
We never see their deaths.
Instead, we watch each parent watch
a tape of their own child being killed.
By the end of this sequence,
I knew what I wanted to happen.
But then the movie did something unusual.
The hero didn't take revenge.
She let these parents choose what to do.
[woman in Korean]
[Tony] And in doing so,
she let me choose as well.
[woman continues in Korean]
[dramatic music plays]
[Tony] One of the things that interests me
in revenge stories is the choice.
I've decided what to do with my life.
[Tony] How does someone decide
to pursue this path?
And how does it change them
once they remove themselves from society?
Never took the time to think about
where I was headed.
And now I'm losing it.
That I lose that, that's
- That's
- That's that's everything.
[Tony] We expect the hero to think about
their actions but not for too long.
I hate being called a beaver, don't you?
You gonna apologize or what?
Fuck you!
[Tony] We already know
what they're going to do.
[screams]
So what surprised me about Lady Vengeance
was that a group of ordinary people
had to figure it out.
And they didn't see eye to eye.
They argued and fought and compromised.
But eventually, everyone agreed.
This man had to die.
And they were going to do it themselves.
[gun clicks]
Before a life is taken,
there's another important decision
for the filmmakers to make.
The audience agrees
that the hero deserves their revenge.
But how much?
What is the appropriate amount?
What is the virtue
of a proportional response?
Why is it good?
They hit an airplane,
so we hit a transmitter, right?
That's a proportional response.
[Tony] One of the important parts
of the ritual of revenge
is that the hero has clear judgment.
They are supposed to hurt
only those who get in the way.
They are not supposed
to target people needlessly.
[gasps]
This is often combined with the fact
that the hero is some kind
of highly trained killing machine,
able to work
with efficiency and brutality.
All of this gives us permission
to enjoy what follows.
Not only is the revenge justified,
it's professional and proportional.
[Lisa] A violent scene
is kind of like a scene in a film musical.
It's about movement of bodies.
It's about spectacle.
It's about the attraction of spectacle
and to get your heart racing
in an interesting way
as you're focusing as a viewer
on what's going on.
And no one's really thinking
about the violence, at some level,
of watching these kinds of things.
[shrieks]
[Tony] But what happens
if a movie breaks these unwritten rules?
What happens when the retaliation
starts to make us uncomfortable,
even if it's justified?
[muffled screams]
[tires squealing]
There's one scene from Goodfellas
that always gets me.
Henry Hill gets a call
from his girlfriend, Karen.
She tells him her neighbor
sexually assaulted her.
He started to touch me.
He started to grab me.
I told him to stop. He didn't stop.
I hit him back.
[Tony] Henry spots the guy
across the street
and then decides to retaliate.
This is shot in one unbroken take
so that we can see everything
that happens and everyone's reaction.
Do you think this is
a proportional response?
What do you want, fucko?
You want something? Huh?
- [grunts]
- Hey!
- Shit!
- What are you doing?
[grunting]
I swear on my fucking mother,
if you touch her again, you're dead!
Fuck! [groans]
Don't shoot!
[Tony] This scene
always makes me uncomfortable,
because it doesn't cut away
from Henry's actions.
It forces me to watch.
But when Goodfellas was aired
on network television, that changed.
You want something? Huh?
[grunting]
I swear on my mother,
if you touch her again, you're dead!
Fuck! [groans]
[Tony] About six seconds was removed.
This new version changes
the original intention of the scene.
Now, a prolonged pistol-whipping
is just a couple of hits.
Ironically, toning down
the amount of violence
makes Henry seem reasonable
and proportional.
It makes this act of revenge
more of a fantasy.
He did what he needed to do.
And now he moves on with his life.
[dramatic music plays]
But that's a lie.
People know what's real,
and you live a life
understanding what real violence is
so that you escape
into the sort of the fantasy
of what violence could be
if it was done in the right way,
if it was applied for the right reasons,
if it was used in a way
that enhanced a sense
of right rather than wrong.
[Tony] One of last parts
of the revenge story
is that there is always a cost.
No hero who goes on a quest like this
comes out clean.
[dog barking]
The avenger, whose journey
has been marked by loneliness,
often ends up cast out of society.
After all, you and I cannot drop out
of our lives,
do what we want, and then expect
things to go back to normal.
Even in our fantasies,
there must be some payment.
The revenge story is one of the few genres
where the hero dying at the end
is acceptable.
We, the audience, get to have
our cake and eat it too.
We get to enjoy the bloody catharsis,
and we get to see balance being restored.
I think, in some ways,
entertainment is that.
Entertainment is about feeling excitement
about things and situations
that you can experience
[woman screams]
without dealing with the dangers
and repercussions of doing the real thing.
You know, I'd be interested to hear
why Lady Vengeance
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
disturbed you so much.
Was it because of the vengeance
or because it made you question
the validity of the vengeance?
[Tony] I think this film disturbed me
because it held up a mirror.
The movie very carefully sets up
these violent situations
and then leaves them just off-screen.
I never saw these kids die,
so I imagine something horrible.
And I never saw
the villain being tortured,
so I imagine something even worse.
These parents are ordinary people like me.
They are clumsy and scared.
I thought I was disturbed by the violence.
But I was really disturbed
by the choices they made
and by how easily I went along.
The movie didn't let me sit
and passively observe.
I was in this just as much as them.
And I didn't like what I saw about myself.
Every revenge movie lies
on a sliding scale,
between the emotional desire
to seek justice
I want you to suffer.
[Tony]and the ethical implications
of doing that yourself.
But the thing that haunted me
about this one movie,
why I have a hard time watching it again,
is the lingering question,
if I were in this situation,
what would I do?
And could I live with the consequences?
[eerie music plays]