The Counselor (2013)

I know I’m in the minority here, but I don’t think that Ridley Scott is all that great. Of course he’s produced amazing masterpieces in his time on this planet (Alien & Blade Runner) but a good majority of his output has been beautiful emptiness. Though Tony is the Scott most associated with empty visuals, Ridley beats him by a mile. At least Tony’s visuals are fun. Ridley is too self-serious to be fun. Now having said this, I’m going to attempt to defend one of Ridley’s most derided films…

I get why The Counselor did so poorly at the box office. It’s talky, it’s abstract and it’s brutal. There is little for a pop audience to like here. But what I don’t really get is: Why it was so derided by critics? Currently this film sits at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. While I will agree that it is far from a masterpiece, it is even further from a bad movie. A bad movie doesn’t give a damn. A bad movie isn’t trying. A bad movie bores you to tears. You can say a lot about this film but it is absolutely not boring. And even more so, it is extremely personal.

Just as the mournfully beautiful Blade Runner was the first film made after the death of his brother Frank, this fatalist fable was the first film made after the suicide of his brother Tony. Tragedy looms over every frame of this film. Even before we meet Fassbinder and Cruz happy in their bed, there is already something afoot with that motorbike speeding down the highway. Something is already in motion and it cannot be stopped. Paradise will be lost. The onslaught of blood and bodies that follows is inevitable Even the title itself an unintentional homage to self-destruction as, “Counselor” was the last word typed by Hunter S. Thompson before his own suicide.

Sure there are parts that drag, sure the tone is all over the place, sure this film does not take place anywhere close to reality. But I will take that over the empty, impersonal razzle-dazzle of Prometheus any day of the week.