A short film was brought to my attention – “A Strange Thing About the Johnsons” and, oh, man, is it ever strange (http://vimeo.com/32483624)! I do have to issue a warning: You might find this disturbing in its implications and could probably upset the most sturdiest of sensibilities so now that I’ve told you this, use your own best judgement about following the link, okay?
I’m currently watching it on my iPod because I hate streaming and buffering with a passion and, yep, what I’ve seen so far is quite disturbing as well as, um, a bit different that what I know about this stuff. Without giving a lot of it away – if you’ve decided to follow the link – someone said it was “disturbingly brilliant” and as I watch this, I kinda have to agree with that assessment; it’s that accident you can’t help but look at.
The strangeness isn’t as much about what’s going on but how it’s being dealt with and, this, too, is disturbing. On the whole, it offends the sensibilities; it makes you not want to acknowledge that, yeah, this happens and the results, as depicted in this short film, are shocking. I’ve seen the words “sick” and “disgusting” and, yep, I can see how one would react to this; hell, it even made me go, “Whoa…” and I don’t get shocked very easily about too many things.
The part I’m watching now did, in fact, shock me – again and if you choose to watch this, you will see what I’m talking about, oh, 20:53 into this short film. I’m really trying hard not to give away the farm on this one but after I got over my moment of shock, yeah, this reaction could really happen and I can understand why it could happen.
I have to say again that the subject of this film is something we’d rather not admit exists. Even as I’m writing this, my mind is automatically filling in the blanks about how such a thing could happen in the first place… and it disturbingly makes sense if you can step back and look at the logic of the situation for a moment. Doesn’t mean the whole thing is acceptable or that it isn’t deplorable but, well, it could easily happen like this for real.
Alix made the original post about this (http://abrowngirl.com/2011/11/short-film-strange-johnsons/) and, in her comments, she said that while this is sick and disgusting in her opinion, the film has a purpose, that is, to bring this into the light so that we can engage in intelligent discourse about it instead of, as I put it, not hiding our heads in the sand about it. In our never-ending war against the subject of this short film, yeah, Alix is right: We must know the enemy if we ever hope to defeat it and, sometimes, we are the enemy and, if you really - and I mean this with the most seriousness I can bring to bear – look at the root cause, we set the stage to create this particular monster.
This film will slap you dead in the face and make you rethink the whole predator and prey thing. At the point where the film stopped on my iPod – and for reasons I can’t figure out yet – something was said about the other person being responsible for what’s going on… and, as films go, it made me go, “Huh?” and got me wondering if I missed something and, indeed, when you watch this, you kinda get the sense that you literally came into the middle of something. You see what’s going on but your mind – or at least mine – starts wondering about the “real” beginning of this.
As film making goes, well, it leaves a great deal of room for thought – and it will make you think as you try to make sense out of what you’re watching. The making of it is, indeed, brilliant; it’s message is disturbing. It makes you wonder what the greater offense is and I will tell you in advance that there are two offenses portrayed, in my opinion and, again, you will see both of them in action and you will know it when you see it… if you see it.
I’m not going all out about this one, not because I’m that disturbed but because seeing it for yourself is way better than any words I can use to describe it so if you go there, I’m not trying to spoil this for you. Look at it – and then come to your own conclusions. And if you wanna talk about it, well, you know where and how to find me…
P.S.: I didn’t write this to hijack Alix’s original post; I wrote about it here to “bridge the gap” so that people who aren’t following her can know about the film – and so I could lead you to her site as well. Alix gets all the credit for the original idea!
The buffering thing and stuff made it very difficult to view but I got the overall idea of it. Skipped around like it was. I am not happy. Not even a little bit …I’m not sure I want to talk about it either other than to say that, I’m not happy. IN a little while or if I can see it without the buffering and the skipping, while I got the gist of it? I am not happy.I heard a car crash in the end and then someone got killed … the movie and the sound weren’t following one another but… I am not happy on so many levels. Initially I was like … what? Then I started catching on and then I was like … What!? The links entirely messed up. However … I am not happy. Nope. Not even a little bit.
Posted by mysterycoach | 27 November 2011, 19:31Yeah, Mystery, the web link was buffering like crazy for me – but I installed the site’s iPod app and it did work better for me. And you and I will leave it at that, okay?
Posted by kdaddy23 | 27 November 2011, 21:49I didn’t find the buffer thing but I know that by the time I was able to watch it through from the beginning I would have been pretty angry on so many levels. I wasn’t sure who I wanted to slap first based on what I could see and what on earth does a person do in this type of situation?
I saw the one part where she peered through the hole in the gate at the boys wedding and in shock and people were there I was like … Oh. My. God. I can’t even imagine what went through her system in that moment. And what, I think bothers me the most is that this stuff goes on. Truly makes me sad on so many levels.
Posted by mysterycoach | 29 November 2011, 17:27So I just watched this…wow is all I can say. Disturbing indeed.
The scene that stuck out to me the most was when the wife saw the son and father having sex…and just walked away. I was hoping sooo bad that she would walk in and confront them but the better half of me knew she wouldn’t. Unfortunately turning a blind eye to sexual abuse of any kind is common. I’ve yet to see the perpetrator be a child (or grown-ass man in this case), and it’s an interesting perspective. Now that I’m thinking about it, there were hints here and there that you can see started the abuse. For example, did the husband and wife have an active sex life? What happened after the father had that masturbation talk with his son? When he was masturbating, he had a pic of his father…was he attracted to the same sex and repressed his sexuality to be “normal” or did he have such a deep love for his father that was manifested sexually? The father made himself to be the victim, but as a parent and adult you have an authority over your children…why didn’t he choose to exercise that? Makes me think that he may have had some issues in his past as well. And why was his wife so damn complacent?!?! I wanna know why she kept silent for over a decade and allowed this to happen…to me, everyone in this film is a victim and a perpetrator for living a lie for the sake of “family” and allowing such heinous things to happen under their roof.
Honestly, I’m ambivalent about having children, and this is one of the reasons why. You really don’t know what people are capable of…even when they are family.
Posted by bellacoils | 27 November 2011, 20:12Welcome Bella! Yep, that one scene said more than anything else in that film did. That it was the opposite of what we’re used to hearing about, well, that was quite a twist and, uh-huh, when you stop and think about it, you start to put together the pieces the film’s creator “conveniently” left out; too easy to spell it out completely for the viewer and it doesn’t make you stop and think so much.
I thought the film was damned ballsy…
Posted by kdaddy23 | 27 November 2011, 22:15I watched the film and it is very disturbing, but it makes a point wherein the abused becomes the abuser. I agree with you–the film is ballsy.
Posted by Lafemmeroar | 29 November 2011, 13:38I didn’t “assume” or get the sense that the son had been abused; the boy’s reaction when his father, ah, interrupted him says to me this wasn’t the case; otherwise, his father would have walked in and handled the business with and for his son – but I could see how the father could have set himself up to be the object of his son’s love and lust. Maybe he (the father) wasn’t aware of it but, in that moment of truth – the trip home from the prom we didn’t learn about until near the end – he – the father – had a decision to make… and while we know he made the wrong one, he probably didn’t think so at the time he made it and regretted his decision after the fact. Could he have let that first incident slide – then come down like a mountain on the boy? Sure – but that’s not what he did; he allowed himself to become trapped in this and, by evidenced by the look on his face when the mother saw them, he knew he was trapped even as he was desperately trying to find a way out. Then the worst outcomes imaginable happened; two deaths, a woman’s life ruined, a family destroyed.
Posted by kdaddy23 | 29 November 2011, 14:17