In 1995, on a Bloomberg television chat-show set, sat across from an unusually nervous Charlie Rose, was the filmmaking pioneer Sidney Lumet. Sporting a tweed suit jacket and tie, bespectacled in 70s aviators, the Dog Day Afternoon director was the mirror image of a man with all the answers, a professor with a doctorate in film. Rose, a man who had interviewed Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, was both visibly and audibly reverential in the presence of this movie academic. Perhaps more comparable to a stuttering pupil, Rose seemed uncharacteristically unsure of the nature of his questions, in contrast to the man sitting opposite him at the oak-table Rose bought himself, who had complete assurance in his answers and riposte.
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Lumet’s interview was as expertly informative, fascinating, and distinctive as his iconic filmography. Lumet didn’t always know what and who he was, and spoke honestly, openly, and refreshingly about his failures, mishaps, and regrets. Yet, when that sense of identity was located, the comprehension of his own, vast capabilities as a filmmaker was truly reflected in his screenplays. Films that had an unmistakable identity, that truly treasured the art of storytelling, and ultimately provided some of the best cinematic experiences the world has seen. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is his parting gift of the highest order, a masterpiece of storytelling, and like his interview, a seminar on what makes a captivating movie.
What Tangled Webs We Weave
ThinkFilm
“What tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive,” is one of the key lines in Sir Walter Scott’s 1808 poem, Marmion. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a nonlinear tale of manic entanglement, of a family torn apart by lies and deceit, wires so knotted, so convoluted even cub scouts would tire picking them.
Two brothers, Andy (a perfect Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Hank (the equally perfect Ethan Hawke) both serial financial mishandlers, who through various misdealings find themselves backpedaling into the abyss when their ill-thought plan to carry out a heist on their elderly parents’ jewelry store goes catastrophically wrong. Beset by relationship troubles, debt, and addiction, the pair resort to drastic measures to rectify their economic mismanagement and ease the woes that burden their personal lives. Through revelation after revelation, we are presented with an on-screen portrait of that Spider-Man meme, albeit a decade or so early.
Where’s the Good Guy?
It comes back to that old adage of the chicken and the egg, and what came first. In Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, we are caught in this continual, perpetual cycle of blame. On the face of it, it is all Andy’s fault, his proposal, his plan, his instruction. He’s the big brother. He’s the boss. Yet, Hank was the one who put the entire operation into motion, oversaw the failure, and made the fatal error of recruiting Bobby, a seasoned criminal. And then, there is their bereft father, Charles (Albert Finney) a man who garners the most sympathy, although certainly isn’t free of guilt, apologizing to his eldest son for his emotional neglect of him as a child, and essentially admitting his fathering has been below par.
In this chilling crime drama, there is a plain lack of a “good guy.” Andy, a heroin addict, is skimming profits from his employer, abusing his power as a payroll executive to fund his drug habit. A calculated individual, who boasts that he’s “pulling down six figures” to his gradually more concerned partner, even though he’s desperately scrambling to stay afloat. He’s callous and cold.
Hank is measly, pathetic, who even as an adult has had the excuse of “being the youngest” for getting a more leisurely ride than his brother. He is constantly scrounging for cash, with an alcohol problem, and three months behind his estranged daughter’s maintenance payments, as well as having an affair with his brother’s wife to boot. He’s one big mess. In three words: low-life-loser. Remarkably, despite their circumstances, they are not even pitiable characters.
Character Depth and Development
While the cast is relatively few, Lumet does a truly exceptional job in developing each character. He achieves this through a multiplicity of perspectives, where he delves deep into the character’s psyche, their present, and past. To truly develop an apprehension for the background, motives, and character of the film’s primary antagonists in such a limited amount of time is a hallmark of a director who understands the ingredients required to make hit after hit.
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead utilizes substantially flawed, unlikeable characters, but the film’s power still manages to conjure up feelings of empathy, and understanding from its audience — the reasons Andy and Hank have been driven to commit such a heinous, unthinkable crime against their own flesh and blood is still met with a certain degree of reproachful comprehension. Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead is a movie that is anxiety-provoking and palpably stressful to watch (and not just because of its brilliant editing technique utilizing shattered glass); it makes you feel and think, it takes you out of yourself and into the lives of the two brothers.
Through Lumet’s own admission in that 1995 interview with Charlie Rose, if a movie doesn’t make $100 million, it will be viewed as a flop; ironically Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead only just scraped a quarter of that, proving that financial success has little equivalence with genius. Lumet wasn’t just an avant-garde filmmaker, but a sensational storyteller, and his final movie before his death demonstrated that brilliantly.
