At the end of the experimental decade, the director Richard Linklater I went back to a story that had been swirling around in my head since the 90s. Written by Skip Hollandsworth. Texas MonthlyThe 1998 article “Midnight in an East Texas Garden“The Mortician” follows the story of a funeral director known in the town of Carthage as the kindest, gentlest man in the city, and the widely hated 85-year-old widow of a billionaire whom he shot to death and stuffed in a freezer. Linklater had only made one crime film before taking on the story. Newton BoysBut the Greek chorus of town gossip in Hollandsworth’s article reverberated across the pages as if it were being spoken in line at Whataburger.
Linklater’s film, Berniewas finally released in 2011, becoming one of the few crime films in the director’s diverse filmography, marking Linklater’s return to the genre after more than a decade. Hitmananother based on a different comedy. Texas Monthly The article is by, you guessed it, Skip Hollandsworth. The films have a lot in common, both in tone and theme: they both deal with issues of compartmentalization, blurred identity, and how well people really know each other. But Hitman There is no gossip Bernie‘s vast worldview makes the case incredibly complex.
Bernie He lives or dies not because of Jack Black’s (still a career-best) performance as the assistant mortician, but because of what the townsfolk think of him. Linklater makes the metaphor clear in the opening credits, as Bernie carefully constructs a corpse with the utmost patience and care. “You can’t make grief into a tragic comedy,” Bernie tells the class as he glues his mouth shut. As the camera cuts, Black throws down his rubber gloves to reveal a group of onlookers looking to become egg-rollers. What will they think of the Gomez Addams-esque man onstage?
As Bernie, Black is everything to everyone: He helps the locals with their taxes, directs the school play, and sings “Amazing Grace” better than anyone else at a funeral when there’s no one to give a eulogy. Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine) is his polar opposite, the perfect noir victim: a wealthy widow murdered by her faithful, mustachioed valet. plan mad men Two years laterBut whatever intentions Bernie had towards Marjorie, they are obscured depending on the perspective.
Linklater loves perspective and expresses it richly. BernieIt offers perspective through reenactments of the crime and interviews with Carthage District Attorney Danny Buck (Matthew McConaughey) and the people of Carthage. Some are played by actors, others by real residents.The townspeople praise Bernie for his kindness and his dedication to helping the bereaved families, but Linklater includes a scene early in the film in which Bernie sells a customer a high-end coffin, complete with warranty, as if to return the coffin. This is a key moment that casts some doubt on his motives, and reminds us of Danny Buck’s status as an outsider, unlike the rest of Carthage.
Bernie is not a movie about solving a crime. We know Bernie did it. He confessed. It’s about how the nicest guy in town could do this, and why some people refused to believe it, and still refuse to believe it. Townsfolk have their reasons, ranging from simplistic (he was too “effeminate”) to apologetic (“It’s not as bad as people say. He only shot her four times, not five”). The town’s pastors encouraged their followers to pray for Bernie, who scattered the victim’s money around town and covered up the murder for nine months. But that, too, was complicated. Bernie was making car payments for his neighbors, but was badly behind on his own. “He was a shopaholic,” one townsfolk diagnosed.
To reflect these points of view, Linklater adopts a mockumentary style. This is Spinal TapMixing fact and fiction, Linklater tries to obscure the truth of the situation. By casting real townsfolk and local actors, Linklater imbues these interviews with a genuine charisma that is different from Hollywood polite actors. That’s why McConaughey’s sudden appearance is so shocking. After these real people, it’s not everyday townsfolk but costumed actors who come out. Kudos to the casting department, because Danny Buck ended up becoming the black sheep of Carthage.
These “interviews” keep the comedy from descending completely into tragedy. Sonny Carl Davis’ description of the map of Texas, for example, foreshadows their perspective: rustic, funny, deep within the Pine Curtain. The way he snaps, “Of course, you forgot the Panhandle. Most people do,” is a great piece of regional commentary that tells you a lot about the man. Lines from the townsfolk like, “If her nose was a little higher, she’d drown in a rainstorm” show off their humor and values. As we’ll see, these values are unshakeable.
Throughout the film, Danny Buck serves as the voice of reason, reminding the hungry patrons of Danny’s BBQ & Catfish (“You kill it, I’ll cook it”) that there is no ambiguity: Bernie killed this woman. The audience knows it, because Linklater shows it.
Midway through the film, the bright East Texas sun FargoBernie casually, almost unconsciously, Fire 4 bullets into Marjorie’s backEditor Sandra Adair inserts a close-up of Marjorie annoyingly chewing her food — one of Bernie’s biggest pet peeves — as Bernie fires, reminding us again that this wasn’t entirely unintentional.
For the townsfolk who think Barney killed her, the explanation is simple: he lost his temper. HitmanBernie could be a murderer, just like Gary Johnson from The Pointer Sisters suddenly transformed into an actor. But locking an old lady in a freezer for nine months, buried under chicken and ground beef, is not what the mildest man in town should be. Still, Bernie benefited from the respect the townspeople had for Marjorie; with her gone, he could give back to the community with his time (and her money).
The townsfolk are the most important factor in the case, since they needed to leave Carthage to get a conviction. “I’d never heard of the state seeking a change of venue because the defendant was too popular to get a conviction,” says Barney’s lawyer Scrappy Holmes (Brady Coleman). “When I heard the judge had caved in to Danny Buck’s outlandish request and actually agreed to postpone the trial, my first thought was, ‘Oh no, Barney’s cow has fallen in the ditch.'” Finally freed from the curse Barney placed on Carthage, Buck succeeds.
Bernie’s and Marjorie’s perspectives are the only ones we don’t hear, so we’re free to form our own thoughts about him. A consummate showman with an urge to always make people smile, Black steps back a bit and becomes a cipher for the townspeople’s opinions, playing both sides. Was he a calculating villain or had he temporarily lost his mind? More importantly, if murder can’t change our view of a person, what can? These questions are what drive Black to choose to portray him as a character. Bernie It’s so unique. Linklater makes the viewer hold conflicting opinions of him, as if sadness becomes tragic comedy. Could the nicest person you know be capable of murder? Yes. Just don’t ask anyone in Carthage.