HOW THE VIRTUES RESONATED WITH ME PERSONALLY (SPOILERS)
Jun 12, 2019 10:41:23 GMT
Post by judecalverttoulmin on Jun 12, 2019 10:41:23 GMT
(SPOILERS FOR THE VIRTUES)
I’m reluctant to write about what I can’t do myself (make and direct movies) so this isn’t a review (really is anyone qualified to critique another’s work but another artist in the same genre?) but I just wanted to share a few things that Shane Meadows’ and Jack Thorne’s The Virtues has brought up for me personally.
I’ve never before seen such a raw and astute portrayal of what actually happens when an alcoholic indulges in a pub sesh. That first episode totally floored me. I don’t believe people become alcoholics or other drug addicts for no reason, I think drugs are often used as an anaesthetic to escape from and to dull the pain of former abuse.
When I read Shane’s accounts in the press recently of finally coming to terms what had happened to him as a child, it resonated very strongly with me. I’m sixty this year, and it wasn’t until well into my fifties that I realised I had been raped twice by two separate men in my twenties. On the second occasion I was raped by my best friend’s boyfriend. He told her I’d seduced him (bit hard when you’re unconscious) and she never spoke to me again. Confused about the loss of her friendship, I was aware that something really bad had happened, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
Also, it wasn’t until well into my fifties that I realised just how badly I had been neglected as a child and teenager, being starved of food as an adolescent to the point that I was viciously and repeatedly ridiculed by a gang of boys in my class for looking like a skeleton.
The devastating impact of this former abuse didn’t really surface until after my children grew up and left home, when I started drinking so recklessly that at times I was putting my life in danger. After finally coming to terms with the fact that shit happens and I needed to deal with it and stay alive for my loved ones, I cut alcohol out of my life and went for CBT counselling.
I can’t praise Shane enough for addressing the subject of alcohol dependence so thoroughly in this series. Researching alcohol dependence just before I stopped, it shocked me just how accepted alcohol is in our society, and how it’s not really considered a drug. The only problem with stopping drinking is other people - it makes others feel very insecure when you tell them you don’t drink – ‘Are you saying I’m an alcoholic then?’ ‘No, I just prefer not to drink, it’s a poison.’ ‘Getting a bit preachy, aren’t you?’ Same with becoming a vegan, ‘So are you saying I’m a murderer then?’ ‘No, I just don’t want to eat animal corpses.’ ‘Bit preachy, love.’
The scene in the Irish pub in ep 3 is also very familiar, having drinks pressed on you by others. It gets to the point where you feel you have to make excuses for not drinking so you don’t hurt people’s feelings. After three years I’m no longer tempted to say ‘I’m on antibiotics’ or ‘I’m driving’. I just say ‘It gives you cancer’ and if they don’t like it they can fuck off. Yeah, I’ve lost quite a few former ‘mates’ since I stopped drinking. I’m no fun anymore (oddly enough, I’m having more fun.)
The dialogue in the living room scene in ep 3 is spot on. Absolutely inspired, just beautiful writing. Anyone who writes comedy knows how difficult it is, but how wonderful it is when the lines just write themselves onto the page like that. As a writer myself, I could picture Shane and Jack sitting there pissing themselves writing Anna’s lines (‘Very Liz Taylor of you' lol) That feeling, writing lines like that, it’s as good as it will ever get as a writer. The gongs (not that I’ve had any, but I’ve been told) and praise are incomparable to the euphoria of writing comedy which works, and ‘Youth club quality tits’ is as seminal as ‘Scrubbers!’ in Withnail and I.
Thank you to everyone who worked on The Virtues. Brilliant writing, performances, directing, editing, production design, costume, just everything is perfect (is that a Gavin Clark track in ep 3?)
It’s a masterful triumph so far and will continue to be in the final ep I’m sure.
EDIT: Now seen the last ep and it was mindblowing. The peadophile. The lip-licking. The head-kissing. Oh my god. Just brilliant. The most creepy and accurate portrayal of a paedophile I've ever seen and the best revenge scene ever.
tl:dr Been there with the repressed memory/addiction cycle. Depicted brilliantly by Shane et al, as always.
How do you feel about alcohol? Or repressed memories? Or The Virtues (if you've seen it?)
I’m reluctant to write about what I can’t do myself (make and direct movies) so this isn’t a review (really is anyone qualified to critique another’s work but another artist in the same genre?) but I just wanted to share a few things that Shane Meadows’ and Jack Thorne’s The Virtues has brought up for me personally.
I’ve never before seen such a raw and astute portrayal of what actually happens when an alcoholic indulges in a pub sesh. That first episode totally floored me. I don’t believe people become alcoholics or other drug addicts for no reason, I think drugs are often used as an anaesthetic to escape from and to dull the pain of former abuse.
When I read Shane’s accounts in the press recently of finally coming to terms what had happened to him as a child, it resonated very strongly with me. I’m sixty this year, and it wasn’t until well into my fifties that I realised I had been raped twice by two separate men in my twenties. On the second occasion I was raped by my best friend’s boyfriend. He told her I’d seduced him (bit hard when you’re unconscious) and she never spoke to me again. Confused about the loss of her friendship, I was aware that something really bad had happened, but I wasn’t sure what it was.
Also, it wasn’t until well into my fifties that I realised just how badly I had been neglected as a child and teenager, being starved of food as an adolescent to the point that I was viciously and repeatedly ridiculed by a gang of boys in my class for looking like a skeleton.
The devastating impact of this former abuse didn’t really surface until after my children grew up and left home, when I started drinking so recklessly that at times I was putting my life in danger. After finally coming to terms with the fact that shit happens and I needed to deal with it and stay alive for my loved ones, I cut alcohol out of my life and went for CBT counselling.
I can’t praise Shane enough for addressing the subject of alcohol dependence so thoroughly in this series. Researching alcohol dependence just before I stopped, it shocked me just how accepted alcohol is in our society, and how it’s not really considered a drug. The only problem with stopping drinking is other people - it makes others feel very insecure when you tell them you don’t drink – ‘Are you saying I’m an alcoholic then?’ ‘No, I just prefer not to drink, it’s a poison.’ ‘Getting a bit preachy, aren’t you?’ Same with becoming a vegan, ‘So are you saying I’m a murderer then?’ ‘No, I just don’t want to eat animal corpses.’ ‘Bit preachy, love.’
The scene in the Irish pub in ep 3 is also very familiar, having drinks pressed on you by others. It gets to the point where you feel you have to make excuses for not drinking so you don’t hurt people’s feelings. After three years I’m no longer tempted to say ‘I’m on antibiotics’ or ‘I’m driving’. I just say ‘It gives you cancer’ and if they don’t like it they can fuck off. Yeah, I’ve lost quite a few former ‘mates’ since I stopped drinking. I’m no fun anymore (oddly enough, I’m having more fun.)
The dialogue in the living room scene in ep 3 is spot on. Absolutely inspired, just beautiful writing. Anyone who writes comedy knows how difficult it is, but how wonderful it is when the lines just write themselves onto the page like that. As a writer myself, I could picture Shane and Jack sitting there pissing themselves writing Anna’s lines (‘Very Liz Taylor of you' lol) That feeling, writing lines like that, it’s as good as it will ever get as a writer. The gongs (not that I’ve had any, but I’ve been told) and praise are incomparable to the euphoria of writing comedy which works, and ‘Youth club quality tits’ is as seminal as ‘Scrubbers!’ in Withnail and I.
Thank you to everyone who worked on The Virtues. Brilliant writing, performances, directing, editing, production design, costume, just everything is perfect (is that a Gavin Clark track in ep 3?)
It’s a masterful triumph so far and will continue to be in the final ep I’m sure.
EDIT: Now seen the last ep and it was mindblowing. The peadophile. The lip-licking. The head-kissing. Oh my god. Just brilliant. The most creepy and accurate portrayal of a paedophile I've ever seen and the best revenge scene ever.
tl:dr Been there with the repressed memory/addiction cycle. Depicted brilliantly by Shane et al, as always.
How do you feel about alcohol? Or repressed memories? Or The Virtues (if you've seen it?)
