A darkly romantic story of murder and redemption, set against an eerily familiar American landscape.A darkly romantic story of murder and redemption, set against an eerily familiar American landscape.A darkly romantic story of murder and redemption, set against an eerily familiar American landscape.
- Awards
- 3 nominations
- Coach
- (as Marshall Teague)
- Teacher
- (as Anthony C. Chow)
- Moznick
- (as Blake C. Shields)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLoosely based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
- Quotes
Vincent: I used to think if I killed somebody I would want to go to the cemetery and apologize. That's not really what guilt is though. Guilt's a feeling you have towards people who are living. It's like everyday you're out there shaking hands, talking. But you, the guilty person, you know that it's all unreal. It's like guilt is this secret inside of you that destroys the fabric of everything, and then everything's unreal. You can't even have a life. But it's not necessary for it to destroy you. You just have to face it.
Obviously Roseanne isn't really an equivalent of Raskolnikov; if you can say she exists in a Godless fashion it's just in the generally unacknowledged manner of modern life and not because of a conscious intellectual challenge, and her murder is fuelled by personal, even justifiable animus; this situation is taken from the sort of occasional psychotic excesses of suburban life we hear about on the news now and then, or see for ourselves. Fair enough; Dostoyevksy and other 19th century writers liked basing their stories upon real crimes and incidents that would be both authentic starting points and also accorded to themes that the writers were interested in.
So although the movie more or less skips around updating Raskolnikov as a character, it does lead into the novel's development. Vincent takes the place of Raskolnikov's prostitute lover as the informing presence of redemption. Although introduced tattooing the apparently nihilistic emblem `Por Nada' on his arm, Vincent actually has a weird form of Christianity that balances his overt perversity (he likes following and photographing Roseanne at all hours), and becomes, as he predicted, a figure to lean on for Roseanne; she is despite herself steadily drawn towards his lurking, warped philosophical self. As Barkin has been arrested and put on trial for Ironside's murder, Roseanne is faced with either confessing or letting her mother go to prison or possibly be executed. Anyone who knows how the book goes knows where it is going (for those who don't, don't read on), as Vincent, who has photographed Roseanne committing the murder, refuses to hand her in, instead subtly encouraging her to confess. She eventually does so, suffering a period of imprisonment where she takes over the narration, glad she isn't noticed anymore. Vincent is the only person who comes to visit her and eventually when she is released, and they ride off together on his motorcycle, evoking for me Allen Ginsberg's `Angleheaded Hipsters'.
The problem the film encounters is in updating Dostoyevksy's moral dilemmas. The story makes the incidents too personal; it's very much easier for Roseanne's gnawing guilt to be inspired by her mother's imprisonment as opposed to the poor unfortunate Raskolnikov's killing is blamed on, just as her murder is less problematic. Also, Vincent's Christianity isn't as strongly affiliated with a love of humanity as Dostoyevsky's, although it is implied that Vincent's way can accept people no matter how damaged because they are all born of the same imperfection. These things said, the film is always edgy, tough, and entertaining, particularly stylish in the pep rally filmed to resemble a form of black mass.
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Crime & Punishment in Suburbia
- Filming locations
- California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, California, USA(Prison exteriors)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $26,394
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,893
- Sep 17, 2000
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1