Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
This film is an adaptation of John Berendts best selling novel and is directed by Clint Eastwood. The story is based on a series of true events involving an antique dealer named Jim Williams, played by Kevin Spacey. John Kelso, played by John Cusack, is a small time journalist sent down to Savannah to cover one of William's elaborate Christmas parties for Town and Country magazine. Already we are beginning to see some similarities between Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and my first text, The Keepers of Truth written by Michael Collins. Kelso like Bill, the main character from my first text is a journalist and is relatively unknown. Both characters seem to spend their time writing up pointless articles, which have no real significance to getting them anywhere where they want to be with their writing career. However in both texts a murder is the story that they have been looking for. In Bill's case it was Ronny Lawton killing his old man and in the case of Kelso it was Jim Williams shooting his young male hustler lover. Both characters see these events as the break they have been waiting for and as something that could give their career the boost that it needs. Kelso plans to write a book about the whole incident and decid
A common theme shared by the two texts is death. In The Keepers of Truth Bills dad shoots himself after life in this dying town becomes too hard for him to cope with. In Midnight at Jim's elegant Christmas party we learn that two of the women attending alone had their husbands shoot themselves. Although this is not one of the main concerns of this text it still implies that there must be a major force causing these men to do such a thing. Whether it is post-industrial decline of a small town like in The Keepers of Truth is not really made clear to the viewer. However this is probably likely as the women talked about it like a common occurrence. Unlike The Keepers of Truth not as much emphasis is placed on the general social commentary of the time rather of the events surrounding Billy Hansen's murder. It is hard to say things about how Eastwood crafted this film because it based on true events i.e. the viewer doesn't know if some scenes contain Eastwood's personal interpretation or not. One poignant use of symbolism that Eastwood employed in Midnight involved a painting that Williams gave to Kelso nearing the end of the film. Williams was an antiques dealer and when showing Kelso around his house before the Christmas part he shows him a painting that Kelso recognises. Having some family background in art Kelso examines it and remarks that a section of it has been painted over and asks Williams if he has had it x-rayed. Williams replies, Bill's dream is to write social commentary pieces relating to the decline of post-industrial America especially in his hometown. The Keepers of Truth begins with one of these philosophical rambles with Bill describing the state of the town. Another connection between the two texts can be made because of the fact that both Bill and Kelso are relatively unsuccessful writers. Bill wants to get out of this wasteland to write his social commentaries whilst the actual whole text by Collins is a social commentary of a town and its community. In the case of Midnight a similar connection can be made although it occurred in real life. Kelso had previously written a book, which was not exactly successful and Berendt, author of the novel Midnight, is represented by Kelso in the film text.
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2775
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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