What’s interesting here is how an academic researching sociopathic killers is suddenly eyeball to eyeball with one. As Early points out: “How you gonna write a book about something you know nothing about?”
There are some folks you find both repugnant and fascinating at the same time. You are appalled by what they do but you envy their capacity and their willingness to just take what they want.
This is actually less about class than culture. You grow up in a certain community and chances are the way you look at life gets carved in stone. Here that place just happens to one where reason doesn’t work the way Brian and Carrie would like it to.
And that’s before we get to, “most of them suffer from a severe chemical brain imbalance.”
But everytime Early is on the screen you forget about that stuff. You just keep wondering what the hell he is going to do next. BOOM!
In this case you really do have to keep reminding yourself from time to time, “it’s just a movie”.
But we all know the Earlys are out there. Born and bred in the U.S. of A. Still, what would make this even scarier is an Early a little less obviously psychotic.
IMDb
“Early in the movie, when Carrie and Brian first see Early Grayce and Adele Corners, Carrie is heard complaining to Brian, “They look like a couple Okies.” Brad Pitt was born in Oklahoma and grew up in Springfield, Missouri, which is located in an area of America referred to by its mountain range, the Ozarks. Rural, unsophisticated people from the Ozarks are often referred to as ‘Okies’ rather than ‘hillbillies’”.
KALIFORNIA
Directed by Dominic Sena
[b]Brian [narrating]: I remember once going on a school trip to the top of the Empire State Building. When I looked down at the crowds of people on the street they looked like ants. I pulled out a penny and some of us started talking about what would happen if I dropped it from up there and it landed on someone’s head. Of course I never crossed that line and actually dropped the penny. I don’t think Early Grayce even knew there was a line to cross.
…
Brian: I’m talking about the mind and culpability of a serial killer. Someone who has no ability to distinguish between right and wrong is like a child in the eyes of the law. He should be treated like a child. He should not be imprisoned, let alone executed.
Eric: Oh, here we go again. Let’s just lay it all at the altar of misfiring synapses, amok biochemicals and horrendous childhoods.
Brian: Look, it’s a fact, most of these people suffer from a severe chemical brain imbalance. The answer is research and treatment under hospital supervised conditions. Not the electric chair.
Brian’s friend: Yeah, that’s great Brian. Unless it’s your mother’s head they find in the freezer.
Brian: Yeah, but executing the killer would not bring my mother back now would it?
Carrie: Thank God.
…
Brian [narrating]: I’d always wanted to be a writer, but there’s a big difference between writing a magazine article and writing a book. I know: I wrote a magazine article. Everything I ever wanted to know about serial killers fit nicely on those four pages. The article got me a book deal with a little cash up front, but between the rent and the convertible the advance was gone. I owed a book and I was stuck. What little I knew about seial killers I learned in a university library. The only thing I knew for certain was that people didn’t kill each other in libraries.
…
Brian [narrating]: What the hell did I know about California? For some people it was still a place of hopes and dreams, a chance to start over. The idea was if you could get there everything would be okay, and if it wasn’t okay there, well, it probably wasn’t going to be okay anywhere.
…
Parole Officer: You know, you’re supposed to notify me Early, when you lose your job. I stopped by the mirror factory today… you left quite a mess back there.
Early Grayce: Yeah… well, that wasn’t my fault. Besides, it’s dangerous, and they treat me like shit.
Parole Officer: [with sarcasm] Aw… nobody ever has treated you right, have they Early? Your Daddy was picking on you when he threw you out of the house for stealing the tires off his truck. The police were way out of line when they kept you from beating that bartender half to death. You know Early I bet the Lord’s gonna be picking on you come Judgment Day.
…
Carrie: Oh Brian, you’ve got to be kidding me. Look at them. They look like Okies!
Adele: Oh Jesus, Early, they look kinda weird.
…
Brian [narrating]: Carrie was right. If you looked in the dictionary under poor white trash a picture of Early and Adele would have been there. But I knew if I was gonna be a good writer I’d have to ignore the cliches and look at life through my own eyes.
…
[Discussing Early’s job at the mirror factory]
Adele: Know what, Brian? One night when we was stayin’ up late we was talkin’ ‘bout how much bad luck he must have comin’ from all those mirrors he broke, and I swear we came to 449 years it would take for him to work it all off, and he’d have to - after he died - he’s gonna have to keep comin’ back to earth over and over and over again.
Carrie: Karma.
Adele: What?
Carrie: Karma. You know, when you do something bad to someone and fate pays you back by something bad happening to you.
Adele: [blowing a bubble] Is that French?
…
Brian [narrating]: Early seemed harmless. Primitive, but harmless. Of course the fact of the matter was he had killed his landlord less than an hour before we met him. He was even wearing the guy’s ring. Who knows what he did with the finger?
…
Brian [narrating]: From the moment I began working on the book, I kept asking one question over and over: What’s the difference between a killer and anyone of us? What was it they had or didn’t have that separated them from us?
…
Brian: You know, I didn’t know this about you, I didn’t know you were so prejudiced.
Carrie: Oh please, because I object when someone takes of their shoe and scratches their foot while I’m eating in a restaurant you call me prejudiced?
…
Adele: You know, I used to smoke before I met Early. But he broke me of that.
Carrie: Broke you?
Adele: Oh. Yeah. Cos Early don’t think women should smoke or drink or cuss. So you know what I do? I spell all my cuss words.
…
Carrie: He hits you?
Adele: Oh, only when I deserve it.
…
Adele: My God, Carrie. If Early ever saw me in a picture like that I’d be black-and-blue for a week.
Carrie: You shouldn’t let him do that to you.
Adele: You think Early’s mean to me? Well, he’s not. He may punish me once in a while, but he’s not mean. Um, when I was 13 there was these three boys and they raped me in the back of this truck. They hurt me sob bad that I was in the hospital for, like, four months. And I feel safe with Early cos most of the time he treats me really nice. I know that he’d never. He would never let anything like that ever happen to me again.
…
Brian [narrating]: Early lived in the moment. He did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. It was that simple. I don’t know if I was more fascinated or frightened by him.
…
Brian: How many people have you killed, Early?
Early: Well, now, how many people have you seen me kill, Bri?
Brian: None.
Early: That’s how many I killed.
Brian: If you say so.
Early: Damn right I do. Shut up! Eat your food. You ain’t never killed no one, have you, Bri?
Brian: No.
Early: No. Ain’t seen nobody killed either, have you?
Brian: No, I haven’t.
Early: No. Tell me something, big time. How you gonna write a book about something you know nothing about?
…
Early: Some day me and Adele be walking down the road and we’ll see your book and we’ll buy it and put it on our coffee table.
…
Brian: You didn’t have to kill the gas station attendent. You wanted to. Why? Help me out, Early, you’re right. I don’t know shit about killing. Why? Did it make you feel good? Powerful? Superior? Who are you angry with, your mother? Your father?
Early: You wanna know about my daddy? I’ll tell you about my daddy…
…
[Early walks over to Brian who is standing over the wounded cop]
Early: Tell me that don’t hurt. Here.
[Hands Brian a gun while pointing another one at his head]
Brian: What?
Early: Gotta put that crippled dog out of his misery. You wanna know about it, you gotta do it, son. Shoot him. Come on, lay it on in there. Come on, mean boy. Come on, mean boy. Do it! Shoot him! Shoot the dog! Time to live, boy. Shoot him. It’s him or you. Come on. Go!
[Brian drops the gun]
Early: You faggot.
Brian: Look at his face! It’s not your father. Look at him!
Early: I know that, you idiot. That’s police in a world of hurting. This here’s a mercy killing.
[He kills the cop]
Carrie: Oh God!
Early: Let’s hit the road
…
Early: You haven’t even said thank you.
Adele: Thank you.
Early: Thank you for what, Adele?
Adele: I don’t know, Early.
Early: Well, Adele, it’s for saving your fucking life back there! Goddamn! You were this close, momma, from spending the night in the county morgue.
Carrie: He wasn’t going to shoot her, you murdering son of a bitch!
Brian: Stop it, Carrie.
Carrie: What are you fucking insane?
Brian: Shut up!
Carrie: He’s a monster!
Brian: Shut up, Carrie!
…
Early: Look, momma, there’s a pretty house. Maybe they got some beer.
…
Adele: Guess what, Early? Mrs. Mustgrave has this guest house in the back… and it’s real, real beautiful, and it’s empty hon. She said that if you and me wanted to…
Mrs. Musgrave: Hank! Hank!
Early: [putting a golf club over shoulder] Well, you’re a widow now, Peaches.
…
Early: Looks like I need me a new momma.
…
Brian [narrating]: I’ll never know why Early Grayce became a killer. I don’t know why any of them did. When I looked into his eyes I felt nothing, nothing. That day I learned that any one of us is capable of taking another human life. But I also learned there is a difference between us and them: it’s feeling remorse. Dealing with guilt. Confronting a conscience. Early never did.
…
[last lines]
Adele [on one of Brian’s tapes]: Hi… Guess who this is… It’s me, Adele. Um, I know I’m probably not supposed to be talkin’ on the tape recorder, but um, I just wanted to say thank you for taking me and Early with you on your trip, cuz me and Early is havin’ a really good time. And um, I just hope when we get to California, that you guys don’t forget all about us. Cuz friends are important, and well, you’re the only friends we got. Bye. [/b]