A less hormonal and more cerebral post
May. 1st, 2012 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniI'm almost done with my season 1 rewatch and I'm thinking of the ideas of good vs evil, or heroes vs villains in Deadwood.
First off, I have to say that I don't like the notions of Good and Evil. I much prefer the concepts of strength/integrity vs weaknesses/flaws. Basically all humans are flawed and have weaknesses, some much more than others.
It's all about contrasts and degrees, and there's always the possibility of something worse coming in.
First there was the hero, or so it seemed (I still think that the camp is the hero not Bullock, although he is definitely a man of integrity, less flawed than others), and then Seth and Sol arrived in Deadwood, and it looked like we had a villain, Al Swearengen.
But some day, Cy Tolliver showed up, and Al didn't seem so bad, compared to him...until in season 2, we were introduced to Francis Wolcott who easily out-villained Cy. Wolcott was a monster and suddenly Tolliver was just a very flawed human being.
Eventually, Wolcott got heartbroken and dispatched himself and Hearst turned out to be the true villain of the play. The ultimate big bad, to use a Buffy speak.
But what does really make of Al a "better person" than Cy in season 1? Both are criminals, both have blood on their hands, both abuse the people working for them. The difference doesn't lie in Al's love for Trixie, because I firmly believe that Cy does love Joanie too.
For sure, Cy abandoned Andy Cramed whom he was supposed to like, threatened Joanie, and he tortured the little thieves, Flora and Miles, finally killed Miles and had Joanie kill Flora.
But we saw Al be vicious towards Trixie, we saw him kill people, we saw him ask Dan to kill Driscoll, and Brom Garett...and, even tough Sofia survived, his asking Dan to kill an innocent little girl was morally worse than anything Cy has done.
Yet Cy came across as a more villainous than Al in season 1. I think it's because Tolliver ruled by his passions and, therefore seems more unpredictable and scarier. And because he's ruled by his passions he doesn't see as further as Al does, and tends to consider his own sake first and foremost, not understanding that it depends on the community's sake. "The plague" was an evidence.
Also, Al is curious about the mortals around him, and once they are familiar enough, he cares to the point of putting his own interests at risk which is something that Cy wouldn't do, except maybe for Joanie.
A few little details made the difference. When the smallpox was spreading Al tood the frightened whore whose mother had died from the same disease that she could stick to handjobs for a while. It was the first clue that empathy wasn't totally lost on him.
And there's the reverend's illness of course; the unbearable helplessness that seems to be thrown under Al's nose. And there's Jewel whom he mocks (his telling Miles that they have a special sweeping way in the Gem and that the boy should "follow her lead" cracks me up!) and verbally abuses, but at the same time he seems to enjoy her "gimp humour" and is interested in her whereabouts.
Jewel embodies vulnerability in a world of brutes. She's poor, she's a woman, she has disability. As she walks in the thoroughfare, she's laughed at and mimicked (just like one of the whores impersonated Reverend Smith in an earlier episode), and when she falls down in the mud nobody helps her.
"Jewel's Boot is Made For Walking" is one of my favourite episodes. It's filled with brilliant little moments, little gems that enhnace what the characters are through their relationships. There's Al indulging Tom's plea; there's Merrick having fun with his new photographic asparatus; there's Ellsworth falling under Alma's spell; Al and Seth talking about the law...and I adore the Jewel/Cochrane first scene,
Jewel: I—I was just lookin’ at the picture, and draggin’ my leg really makes Al crazy.
Doc: Fuck Al. Everybody’s got limits. You draggin’ you leg is yours.
Jewel: I’m sorry.
Doc: What do you apologize for? Don’t – Don’t apologize to me. Lemme—let me hold onto this for a while.
Jewel: Thank You.
Reverend Smith whose condition has worsened, has poignant scenes, first when talking to Andy and strating a prayer:
Rev: Oh…Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved…and the rest, I forget.
His "...and the rest, I forget" might be one of the most poignant moments in season 1.Yet that prayer will pay off, when it comes to Al character who is still in God mode in season 1 but who will learn to be a man and look for those things in season 2.
There's Dan already jealous of Silas, and E.B watching and worrying because he " put him in a room above the privy"!
And the Sol/Trixie "first time" scene of course:
Trixie: Anyways, would you want a free fuck?
Sol: Why would you say that?
Trixie: To know the answer.
Sol: Why would you say it that way?
Trixie: For chrissakes, Mr. Star, my cherry is obstructing my work. Sir…would you take it from me, free?
John Hawkes kills it in the whole scene, and the way he looks at her while they are fucking, no wonder that her world is upside down afterwards. "Well you’re a goddamn Jew fool.", she says, and yet they kiss.
Later we have that wonderful exchange between Sol and Seth:
Seth: That man’s not here to help his daughter. He’s lookin’ to root at her claim. You went to see that whore again?
Sol: I guess she had to account for her bein’ outside and Swearengen sent for me to pay him his fee. I guess she’d told him where she’d been.
Seth: It might have been me he found out from, Sol. ‘Cause I’m sometimes that stupid.
Sol: You think it could have been you?
Seth: I’m sure it was, speakin’ without thinkin’, justifying being in this place.
Sol: Bein’ you’d been ousted from your own.
Seth: I was hot seein’ that tinhorn Stapleton gettin’ installed as sheriff, and I used poor fuckin’ judgment.
Sol: Sorry Mrs. Garrett’s Pa turns out a shitheel.
Seth: Cold enough world without gettin’ gone against by your own.
The scene points out how close they are, that they can really talk to each other, that they care about each other's feelings. I love that Seth admitted to be guilty and how Sol responded to Seth's confession, with compassion of his own.
What Al told Sol was very significant: "Don’t you think I don’t understand. I mean, what can anyone of us ever really fuckin’ hope for, huh? Except for a moment here and there with a person who doesn’t want to rob, steal or murder us? At night, it may happen. Sun-up, one person against the fuckin’ wall, the other may hop on the fuckin’ bed trusting each other enough to tell half the fucking truth. Everybody needs that. Becomes precious to ‘em. They don’t want to see it fucked with."
Of course Al was talking, out of jealousy, about his previous intimate moments with Trixie and all the pillow talks that Sol was ruining, but it also echoed Dan's jealousy to have his own moments of confidence with Al being stolen away by a rival, Silas, and, finally, it foreshadowed the Sol/Seth conversation, because what the two friends are to each other is precisely what Al described in his speech.
It also foreshadowed what Cy Tolliver won't have, since Eddie came back, precisely to rob him, for "the Joanie Stubbs construction fund".
In other words, Al is no saint, he's even rather self-centred in this episode, but he is aware of things and people around him, even of things that may be out of reach, things that only other people can enjoy ("Now, I see what the fuck’s in front of me, and I don’t pretend it’s somethin’ else."), while Cy is kinda blind, because all he seems to see is his immediate interest, and he is only aware of his own needs. He wants Joanie to have her place so she'll be grateful and happy because he needs a happy Joanie to make him happy in return and because he thinks he'll be loved by her that way. Basically he doesn't understand what Joanie really needs and wants. And his pointing her in the direction of Cochrane's alley seems to indicate that he might hope to benefit from her brothel, if only by expanding his influence in town through her. So he is not really helping her but looking to "root at her claim".
Yes, I can't help thinking that there's a parallel to make between Cy and Alma's father in the episode.
Cy is flawed and limited. Al is flawed but less limited.
"Jewel's Boot is Made For Walking" is the first time we see Al being so upset, by the Reverend's condition, and by the Trixie/Sol affair...the armors breaks, and it leads us to the first blow-job soliloquy that reveals his background and his mommy issues.
And his last "anyways" was simply perfect.
First off, I have to say that I don't like the notions of Good and Evil. I much prefer the concepts of strength/integrity vs weaknesses/flaws. Basically all humans are flawed and have weaknesses, some much more than others.
It's all about contrasts and degrees, and there's always the possibility of something worse coming in.
First there was the hero, or so it seemed (I still think that the camp is the hero not Bullock, although he is definitely a man of integrity, less flawed than others), and then Seth and Sol arrived in Deadwood, and it looked like we had a villain, Al Swearengen.
But some day, Cy Tolliver showed up, and Al didn't seem so bad, compared to him...until in season 2, we were introduced to Francis Wolcott who easily out-villained Cy. Wolcott was a monster and suddenly Tolliver was just a very flawed human being.
Eventually, Wolcott got heartbroken and dispatched himself and Hearst turned out to be the true villain of the play. The ultimate big bad, to use a Buffy speak.
But what does really make of Al a "better person" than Cy in season 1? Both are criminals, both have blood on their hands, both abuse the people working for them. The difference doesn't lie in Al's love for Trixie, because I firmly believe that Cy does love Joanie too.
For sure, Cy abandoned Andy Cramed whom he was supposed to like, threatened Joanie, and he tortured the little thieves, Flora and Miles, finally killed Miles and had Joanie kill Flora.
But we saw Al be vicious towards Trixie, we saw him kill people, we saw him ask Dan to kill Driscoll, and Brom Garett...and, even tough Sofia survived, his asking Dan to kill an innocent little girl was morally worse than anything Cy has done.
Yet Cy came across as a more villainous than Al in season 1. I think it's because Tolliver ruled by his passions and, therefore seems more unpredictable and scarier. And because he's ruled by his passions he doesn't see as further as Al does, and tends to consider his own sake first and foremost, not understanding that it depends on the community's sake. "The plague" was an evidence.
Also, Al is curious about the mortals around him, and once they are familiar enough, he cares to the point of putting his own interests at risk which is something that Cy wouldn't do, except maybe for Joanie.
A few little details made the difference. When the smallpox was spreading Al tood the frightened whore whose mother had died from the same disease that she could stick to handjobs for a while. It was the first clue that empathy wasn't totally lost on him.
And there's the reverend's illness of course; the unbearable helplessness that seems to be thrown under Al's nose. And there's Jewel whom he mocks (his telling Miles that they have a special sweeping way in the Gem and that the boy should "follow her lead" cracks me up!) and verbally abuses, but at the same time he seems to enjoy her "gimp humour" and is interested in her whereabouts.
Jewel embodies vulnerability in a world of brutes. She's poor, she's a woman, she has disability. As she walks in the thoroughfare, she's laughed at and mimicked (just like one of the whores impersonated Reverend Smith in an earlier episode), and when she falls down in the mud nobody helps her.
"Jewel's Boot is Made For Walking" is one of my favourite episodes. It's filled with brilliant little moments, little gems that enhnace what the characters are through their relationships. There's Al indulging Tom's plea; there's Merrick having fun with his new photographic asparatus; there's Ellsworth falling under Alma's spell; Al and Seth talking about the law...and I adore the Jewel/Cochrane first scene,
Jewel: I—I was just lookin’ at the picture, and draggin’ my leg really makes Al crazy.
Doc: Fuck Al. Everybody’s got limits. You draggin’ you leg is yours.
Jewel: I’m sorry.
Doc: What do you apologize for? Don’t – Don’t apologize to me. Lemme—let me hold onto this for a while.
Jewel: Thank You.
Reverend Smith whose condition has worsened, has poignant scenes, first when talking to Andy and strating a prayer:
Rev: Oh…Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted, to understand than to be understood, to love than to be loved…and the rest, I forget.
His "...and the rest, I forget" might be one of the most poignant moments in season 1.Yet that prayer will pay off, when it comes to Al character who is still in God mode in season 1 but who will learn to be a man and look for those things in season 2.
There's Dan already jealous of Silas, and E.B watching and worrying because he " put him in a room above the privy"!
And the Sol/Trixie "first time" scene of course:
Trixie: Anyways, would you want a free fuck?
Sol: Why would you say that?
Trixie: To know the answer.
Sol: Why would you say it that way?
Trixie: For chrissakes, Mr. Star, my cherry is obstructing my work. Sir…would you take it from me, free?
John Hawkes kills it in the whole scene, and the way he looks at her while they are fucking, no wonder that her world is upside down afterwards. "Well you’re a goddamn Jew fool.", she says, and yet they kiss.
Later we have that wonderful exchange between Sol and Seth:
Seth: That man’s not here to help his daughter. He’s lookin’ to root at her claim. You went to see that whore again?
Sol: I guess she had to account for her bein’ outside and Swearengen sent for me to pay him his fee. I guess she’d told him where she’d been.
Seth: It might have been me he found out from, Sol. ‘Cause I’m sometimes that stupid.
Sol: You think it could have been you?
Seth: I’m sure it was, speakin’ without thinkin’, justifying being in this place.
Sol: Bein’ you’d been ousted from your own.
Seth: I was hot seein’ that tinhorn Stapleton gettin’ installed as sheriff, and I used poor fuckin’ judgment.
Sol: Sorry Mrs. Garrett’s Pa turns out a shitheel.
Seth: Cold enough world without gettin’ gone against by your own.
The scene points out how close they are, that they can really talk to each other, that they care about each other's feelings. I love that Seth admitted to be guilty and how Sol responded to Seth's confession, with compassion of his own.
What Al told Sol was very significant: "Don’t you think I don’t understand. I mean, what can anyone of us ever really fuckin’ hope for, huh? Except for a moment here and there with a person who doesn’t want to rob, steal or murder us? At night, it may happen. Sun-up, one person against the fuckin’ wall, the other may hop on the fuckin’ bed trusting each other enough to tell half the fucking truth. Everybody needs that. Becomes precious to ‘em. They don’t want to see it fucked with."
Of course Al was talking, out of jealousy, about his previous intimate moments with Trixie and all the pillow talks that Sol was ruining, but it also echoed Dan's jealousy to have his own moments of confidence with Al being stolen away by a rival, Silas, and, finally, it foreshadowed the Sol/Seth conversation, because what the two friends are to each other is precisely what Al described in his speech.
It also foreshadowed what Cy Tolliver won't have, since Eddie came back, precisely to rob him, for "the Joanie Stubbs construction fund".
In other words, Al is no saint, he's even rather self-centred in this episode, but he is aware of things and people around him, even of things that may be out of reach, things that only other people can enjoy ("Now, I see what the fuck’s in front of me, and I don’t pretend it’s somethin’ else."), while Cy is kinda blind, because all he seems to see is his immediate interest, and he is only aware of his own needs. He wants Joanie to have her place so she'll be grateful and happy because he needs a happy Joanie to make him happy in return and because he thinks he'll be loved by her that way. Basically he doesn't understand what Joanie really needs and wants. And his pointing her in the direction of Cochrane's alley seems to indicate that he might hope to benefit from her brothel, if only by expanding his influence in town through her. So he is not really helping her but looking to "root at her claim".
Yes, I can't help thinking that there's a parallel to make between Cy and Alma's father in the episode.
Cy is flawed and limited. Al is flawed but less limited.
"Jewel's Boot is Made For Walking" is the first time we see Al being so upset, by the Reverend's condition, and by the Trixie/Sol affair...the armors breaks, and it leads us to the first blow-job soliloquy that reveals his background and his mommy issues.
And his last "anyways" was simply perfect.