girlofprey (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
girlofprey) wrote2005-10-14 04:06 pm
girlofprey) wrote2005-10-14 04:06 pm
Entry tags:
Night Watch rewatch
I went to see Night Watch again with a whole different flatmate last night. And I can honestly say that a) it's probably better the second time around, and b) I can honestly think of no better way to spend two hours. I could easily do it over and over and over again....forever.
And it's left some things clearer, some things still very much intriguing, some things just still plain confusing, and some things making my heart bounce, leap, and constrict all at once. And since the extent of my flatmates' desired discussion of it seems to be 'yeah, it was good' - I ramble about it here, in lieu of fic - or perhaps in preparation for it.
Since I wasn't expecting everything to go to Hell in a handbasket re: Svetlana, and for the Final Battle to actually sort of start, I enjoyed and appreciated the subtleties of the scene in her apartment a lot more - her being all doctor-y to Anton, and him having to act normal but thinking about the fact that he might have to kill her, that she might have to die, despite being innocent (or so we think). And she's a really, really good character, more so the second time around - hopefully we'll see more of her, having come more fully into her powers, in the next films.
But yes. A lot of things were much clearer the second time round, like precisely why Anton went at Yegor with a knife - I'm guessing that that whole thing with the battle was his vision of the Final Battle, which obviously fucked up his fighting with Zavulon, and left him really disoriented afterwards, so that he went after Yegor by accident, with the situation much manipulated and exploited by Zavulon. In fact, the whole vision thing was sort of convenient for Zavulon if so - maybe he somehow had something to with it. Or maybe that's just how Anton gets in the Gloom, and that's why he seems to not like going into it.
But I'm really wondering how much Zavulon has had to do with the whole thing with Anton and Yegor, in an effort to get the Great Other (he's not like other Others ;)) turn Dark. At every stage of their relationship you either seem to see Zavulon manipulating things, or a Dark Other breaking the rules: the witch lied to Anton about the child not being his - assumedly he wouldn't have agreed to the 'abortion' otherwise - and the 'hairstylist' got an inexperienced vampire to use the Call to lure a child, unlicensed, ensuring that Anton and Yegor would meet up again. And Zavulon just so happened to be in the road to delay the truck, a little bit, so the only person rescuing Yegor would be Anton, and they wouldn't be able to take the boy and protect him, forcing Anton to go looking for him. How long precisely has the boy been 'destined to be Great'? How much of Anton's life has been manipulated for the cause?
But frankly the whole attitude of the Dark Others is a bit strange with regard to Yegor if we assume this is true. Maybe Zavulon only told the witch to attempt to kill the child - but that's fairly risky if he wanted the boy alive and fighting on his side. Maybe he told her, but either way, she was still really going for it. An act, maybe - but still a risky one. Twice Dark Others refer to Yegor as 'the brat', even Alice (?) who in the end at least is in on the whole Great Other plot - hardly showing respect for the most powerful Other ever, who may ensure their victory and survival in the final battle. Maybe it's just my being used to a different kind of story-telling, and maybe it's just me wanting the whole film - the whole trilogy - to be All About Anton - but the focus really does seem to be more on him than on Yegor, throughout the plot.
My Anton/Zavulon bunnies are slightly less rabid, having rewatched it, and seeing that yes, Zavulon at least is not All About Anton. But still - that roof scene. SO floors me. Just - 'hush, hush, easy now'. 'Yes you did' - not 'yes, HE did', yes you did, to Anton. And the fact that he's looking at Anton throughout the recital of his crime, not Yegor (and Anton just sort of goes numb and deflates and my heart falls out of my chest) - and the way Anton looks at him, and says 'I found you' - ::flails. Dies:: And maybe he just wanted to really break Anton down to get him 'out of the way', so they could have the boy, but the attention was still an intense and beautiful thing. And again raises the question of how much Zavulon's been focusing on Anton over the past few years, and if he's still got some manipulation/plans in store. And he gave him a necklace! Which I'm guessing might play a part in the movies to come.
My flatmate seems to think that the next film will probably focus more on Yegor than on Anton - which was my immediate thought the first time I saw it. But I really hope it doesn't, or at least doesn't push Anton aside in favour of him. I'm somewhat more secure about this in seeing that the actor is coming back in the next two films. I'm probably being a big fangirl, and probably they'd do something wicked with Yegor if so, and it'd probably have more epic/tragic weight if all of Anton's life and struggle culminated in completely screwing up his son/the Light side/the world. But the fact is, much as I love Yegor - Anton. Crazy, fucked-up, Light officer with a dark past, seer in the grip of a prophecy, blood-drinker who hunts vampires, capable of killing, owl-teasing, Dark Other-befriending, sexy, fucked-up Anton. I love the movie, I love the world and I love the special effects, but Anton's what I'm coming back again and again to see. And if the whole story's about the choice between light and dark, then frankly Yegor made his choice pretty damn quickly - whereas Anton's still a little bit ambivalent 12 years later. And I'm still not convinced we're getting the whole story about the prophecy and the Great Other anyway. But - I'll just have to wait and see.
Certain things still confuse me - like how Anton managed to hang around while a witch was attacked, arrested and they filled out a report for her, 'untrained' in the Gloom, while Yegor only had ten seconds before the Gloom killed him, and Anton and Olga too! But there's a lot of stuff that's confusing in a good way too. Like the whole concept of being Light and Dark - 'deciding' which one you are. What does that mean? Is it a choice you make - or a thing you learn about yourself? According to the director, he sees the Dark and Light not so much as good and evil, but as two contrasting philosophies - freedom and independence vs. responsibilty and control - so could Anton ever have been a Dark Other (though undoubtedly a sexy sexy one), if he's capable of feeling such guilt over what he did, if he can't just let it go? Could he change sides in the future? Would Yegor have turned to the Dark anyway eventually, once he saw some of the hypocrisies of the Night Watch, which even Anton was struggling with? Zavulon implies that once you've chosen your side, you can't ever change it or take it back - or is he just telling Anton he can't change what Yegor chose, while Yegor might, eventually, be able to. It's left up in the air, but in a good way - a way that gets me thinking about it and makes me want to see the next ones and find out more.
And the whole vampire thing - okay, I spent a good half of the movie the first time thinking Anton was a vampire, just maybe turned against his will and trying to do right. He drinks the blood, you can definitely see Teeth on the Metro, he covers himself up in daylight as much as Kostya, he's picky about human vs pig, and he does the whole red eye thing and knows 'the Hunger'. Wtf? I'm thinking maybe blood drinking is so much a vampire thing as just another aspect of being an Other - humans obviously can't be Others just by drinking blood, but if any Other drinks blood, it brings out certain powers in them. But I don't know for sure - another thing I want to find out in the next film ;)
And then there's the immortality thing - it appears that all Others are immortal, not just vampires. Gesser obviously is, and the guy who said he stepped on a landmine in '1941'. What's that about? Could we see Anton fighting with/alongside a grown-up Yegor? Or will Yegor remain immortal forever at that age, because that's the age he 'became' an Other? Or is it just another thing that the director didn't quite explain, and will be completely rewritten in future films. Who knows? But I'm interested to find out.
Wow. Long ramble. But all I seem to be doing lately, even when I'm meant to be working (like now!), is thinking about this film and trying to make sense of some of these things, or get them straight at least. Film's got into my head, yo. And it's easily one of the best films I've ever seen in my life. Definitely one of the best in a fannish sense. And there were so many things I loved as well - Olga, and her ability to make a carpet-coat look sexy. Zavulon, with his hat and his cigars and his dog, and spine-sword, omg! Gesser and his random mystical battle-surgery (for which he needs to take off his belt!). Svetlana. The vampire-girl - 'I want to be human again!'. Anton Anton Anton. Anton.
I want to write fic about Anton, but it's so difficult because post-film all I can see for him that's even vaguely in character is a complete breakdown and drinking himself into oblivion, possibly with Kostya holding his head in his lap and being completely beautifully unable to do anything. Considering that Anton found out he had a son, found out his son was the one he tried to kill as a foetus, almost accidentally killed his son again, watched as his son found out from someone else that he almost killed him as a foetus, and then learned that his one hideous mistake in the past now means his son hates him, has turned Dark, and will never see him again, and that all this means he has doomed the entire side of Light and all the poor defenceless humans, all in a few hours - I don't seem him mocking any owls (so beautifully!) again in the near future :( But he's a resilient lad. He'll probably bounce back and save the day in the end. I'm just not sure I can write it. And not just for the purposes of getting him sleep with other guys. But hmm - working on it.
In conclusion - everyone should go see Night Watch. Both Anton and the film are beautiful, you will not be disappointed. 3 stars from SFX magazine my eye. Also, it would be really nice if one shop anywhere in Nottingham, or one site anywhere on the internet, had merchandise/news/any sort of mention at all of the film or the sequels or anything at all so that I don't have to wonder if I just imagined it. This post took me an hour and a half. That is all.
And it's left some things clearer, some things still very much intriguing, some things just still plain confusing, and some things making my heart bounce, leap, and constrict all at once. And since the extent of my flatmates' desired discussion of it seems to be 'yeah, it was good' - I ramble about it here, in lieu of fic - or perhaps in preparation for it.
Since I wasn't expecting everything to go to Hell in a handbasket re: Svetlana, and for the Final Battle to actually sort of start, I enjoyed and appreciated the subtleties of the scene in her apartment a lot more - her being all doctor-y to Anton, and him having to act normal but thinking about the fact that he might have to kill her, that she might have to die, despite being innocent (or so we think). And she's a really, really good character, more so the second time around - hopefully we'll see more of her, having come more fully into her powers, in the next films.
But yes. A lot of things were much clearer the second time round, like precisely why Anton went at Yegor with a knife - I'm guessing that that whole thing with the battle was his vision of the Final Battle, which obviously fucked up his fighting with Zavulon, and left him really disoriented afterwards, so that he went after Yegor by accident, with the situation much manipulated and exploited by Zavulon. In fact, the whole vision thing was sort of convenient for Zavulon if so - maybe he somehow had something to with it. Or maybe that's just how Anton gets in the Gloom, and that's why he seems to not like going into it.
But I'm really wondering how much Zavulon has had to do with the whole thing with Anton and Yegor, in an effort to get the Great Other (he's not like other Others ;)) turn Dark. At every stage of their relationship you either seem to see Zavulon manipulating things, or a Dark Other breaking the rules: the witch lied to Anton about the child not being his - assumedly he wouldn't have agreed to the 'abortion' otherwise - and the 'hairstylist' got an inexperienced vampire to use the Call to lure a child, unlicensed, ensuring that Anton and Yegor would meet up again. And Zavulon just so happened to be in the road to delay the truck, a little bit, so the only person rescuing Yegor would be Anton, and they wouldn't be able to take the boy and protect him, forcing Anton to go looking for him. How long precisely has the boy been 'destined to be Great'? How much of Anton's life has been manipulated for the cause?
But frankly the whole attitude of the Dark Others is a bit strange with regard to Yegor if we assume this is true. Maybe Zavulon only told the witch to attempt to kill the child - but that's fairly risky if he wanted the boy alive and fighting on his side. Maybe he told her, but either way, she was still really going for it. An act, maybe - but still a risky one. Twice Dark Others refer to Yegor as 'the brat', even Alice (?) who in the end at least is in on the whole Great Other plot - hardly showing respect for the most powerful Other ever, who may ensure their victory and survival in the final battle. Maybe it's just my being used to a different kind of story-telling, and maybe it's just me wanting the whole film - the whole trilogy - to be All About Anton - but the focus really does seem to be more on him than on Yegor, throughout the plot.
My Anton/Zavulon bunnies are slightly less rabid, having rewatched it, and seeing that yes, Zavulon at least is not All About Anton. But still - that roof scene. SO floors me. Just - 'hush, hush, easy now'. 'Yes you did' - not 'yes, HE did', yes you did, to Anton. And the fact that he's looking at Anton throughout the recital of his crime, not Yegor (and Anton just sort of goes numb and deflates and my heart falls out of my chest) - and the way Anton looks at him, and says 'I found you' - ::flails. Dies:: And maybe he just wanted to really break Anton down to get him 'out of the way', so they could have the boy, but the attention was still an intense and beautiful thing. And again raises the question of how much Zavulon's been focusing on Anton over the past few years, and if he's still got some manipulation/plans in store. And he gave him a necklace! Which I'm guessing might play a part in the movies to come.
My flatmate seems to think that the next film will probably focus more on Yegor than on Anton - which was my immediate thought the first time I saw it. But I really hope it doesn't, or at least doesn't push Anton aside in favour of him. I'm somewhat more secure about this in seeing that the actor is coming back in the next two films. I'm probably being a big fangirl, and probably they'd do something wicked with Yegor if so, and it'd probably have more epic/tragic weight if all of Anton's life and struggle culminated in completely screwing up his son/the Light side/the world. But the fact is, much as I love Yegor - Anton. Crazy, fucked-up, Light officer with a dark past, seer in the grip of a prophecy, blood-drinker who hunts vampires, capable of killing, owl-teasing, Dark Other-befriending, sexy, fucked-up Anton. I love the movie, I love the world and I love the special effects, but Anton's what I'm coming back again and again to see. And if the whole story's about the choice between light and dark, then frankly Yegor made his choice pretty damn quickly - whereas Anton's still a little bit ambivalent 12 years later. And I'm still not convinced we're getting the whole story about the prophecy and the Great Other anyway. But - I'll just have to wait and see.
Certain things still confuse me - like how Anton managed to hang around while a witch was attacked, arrested and they filled out a report for her, 'untrained' in the Gloom, while Yegor only had ten seconds before the Gloom killed him, and Anton and Olga too! But there's a lot of stuff that's confusing in a good way too. Like the whole concept of being Light and Dark - 'deciding' which one you are. What does that mean? Is it a choice you make - or a thing you learn about yourself? According to the director, he sees the Dark and Light not so much as good and evil, but as two contrasting philosophies - freedom and independence vs. responsibilty and control - so could Anton ever have been a Dark Other (though undoubtedly a sexy sexy one), if he's capable of feeling such guilt over what he did, if he can't just let it go? Could he change sides in the future? Would Yegor have turned to the Dark anyway eventually, once he saw some of the hypocrisies of the Night Watch, which even Anton was struggling with? Zavulon implies that once you've chosen your side, you can't ever change it or take it back - or is he just telling Anton he can't change what Yegor chose, while Yegor might, eventually, be able to. It's left up in the air, but in a good way - a way that gets me thinking about it and makes me want to see the next ones and find out more.
And the whole vampire thing - okay, I spent a good half of the movie the first time thinking Anton was a vampire, just maybe turned against his will and trying to do right. He drinks the blood, you can definitely see Teeth on the Metro, he covers himself up in daylight as much as Kostya, he's picky about human vs pig, and he does the whole red eye thing and knows 'the Hunger'. Wtf? I'm thinking maybe blood drinking is so much a vampire thing as just another aspect of being an Other - humans obviously can't be Others just by drinking blood, but if any Other drinks blood, it brings out certain powers in them. But I don't know for sure - another thing I want to find out in the next film ;)
And then there's the immortality thing - it appears that all Others are immortal, not just vampires. Gesser obviously is, and the guy who said he stepped on a landmine in '1941'. What's that about? Could we see Anton fighting with/alongside a grown-up Yegor? Or will Yegor remain immortal forever at that age, because that's the age he 'became' an Other? Or is it just another thing that the director didn't quite explain, and will be completely rewritten in future films. Who knows? But I'm interested to find out.
Wow. Long ramble. But all I seem to be doing lately, even when I'm meant to be working (like now!), is thinking about this film and trying to make sense of some of these things, or get them straight at least. Film's got into my head, yo. And it's easily one of the best films I've ever seen in my life. Definitely one of the best in a fannish sense. And there were so many things I loved as well - Olga, and her ability to make a carpet-coat look sexy. Zavulon, with his hat and his cigars and his dog, and spine-sword, omg! Gesser and his random mystical battle-surgery (for which he needs to take off his belt!). Svetlana. The vampire-girl - 'I want to be human again!'. Anton Anton Anton. Anton.
I want to write fic about Anton, but it's so difficult because post-film all I can see for him that's even vaguely in character is a complete breakdown and drinking himself into oblivion, possibly with Kostya holding his head in his lap and being completely beautifully unable to do anything. Considering that Anton found out he had a son, found out his son was the one he tried to kill as a foetus, almost accidentally killed his son again, watched as his son found out from someone else that he almost killed him as a foetus, and then learned that his one hideous mistake in the past now means his son hates him, has turned Dark, and will never see him again, and that all this means he has doomed the entire side of Light and all the poor defenceless humans, all in a few hours - I don't seem him mocking any owls (so beautifully!) again in the near future :( But he's a resilient lad. He'll probably bounce back and save the day in the end. I'm just not sure I can write it. And not just for the purposes of getting him sleep with other guys. But hmm - working on it.
In conclusion - everyone should go see Night Watch. Both Anton and the film are beautiful, you will not be disappointed. 3 stars from SFX magazine my eye. Also, it would be really nice if one shop anywhere in Nottingham, or one site anywhere on the internet, had merchandise/news/any sort of mention at all of the film or the sequels or anything at all so that I don't have to wonder if I just imagined it. This post took me an hour and a half. That is all.