One way or another every year is “a most violent year” for someone. Even now, 2015 is becoming “a most violent year” for any number of folks. On the other hand, when your life is unfolding in the general vicinity of the criminal element, there may be so many violent years that pinning one down might well be impossible.
On the other hand, this film focuses less on the violence itself and more on the manner in which folks who live in a world where violence can erupt at any time go about the business of living their lives never really quite knowing what is around the next corner. Some, of course, will actually find this sort of thing exciting; while others, well, they won’t.
Then there are those folks who try to forge a path between the straight and narrow and the abyss. But there will always be only so much they have control over it – so the tug of war can become particularly fierce. To be or not to be corrupt. That is the question.
And then the part that revolves around “the law”. Only that tends to be equally problematic.
Bottom line: What’s legal and what’s not? What’s moral and what’s not? Or, more to the point, how do the two intersect out in the real world? The usual in other words. The ethics of ambiguity. Someone wrote a book about that as I recall.
And it is always – always – about the fucking money. And don’t trust nobody.
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Most_Violent_Year
trailer: youtu.be/o87gG7ZlEAg
A MOST VIOLENT YEAR [2014]
Written and directed by J.C. Chandor
[b]Anna: Don’t do anything stupid.
Abel: We don’t have any more money so what more could I possibly do?
…
Joseph: I want you to know this up front. I am a very fair man but I believe in honoring contracts. You will fulfill your end of this contract and the property is yours. If you can’t we will keep your money and will sell it to your competitor who has been chasing us almost as badly as you have. I like you, but know that the only reason I am choosing you is because of the favorable terms of this contract. So this is business… and when you sign this…
Abel: I understand.
Joseph: Well then, let’s see this money, and then I will sign these papers.[/b]
This is the part that is all above aboard. Well, if you’re a capitalist. Mazel tov.
Anna: Do you want me to speak to my brother about this?
Abel: No…don’t talk to him or your father.
Anna: This can’t continue.
Abel: It won’t.
Anna: It will if we don’t do something.
Abel: I’m meeting with the D.A. in the morning.
Anna: Oh, fuck the D.A. He’s more interested in coming after us than helping us. It’s not fair to your drivers. You’re at war here.
Abel: No we are not.
Anna: Really… because they are.
Abel: Well, Im not.
The plot in a nutshell:
[b]Abel: My people are at risk just driving around in this city, just trying to do their jobs. And I… I have done everything you have asked of me. It’s been two years since you first started investigating my company and I have spent thousands of dollars hiring lawyers for this and that to provide you with every piece of information your office has requested. And I expect that you have been asking the same from my competitors. So with all this information that you have gained…We are just asking if you have any idea who has been doing this to us?
DA: I don’t. I understand your frustration. And although everyone else seems to have given up and left this city for dead, I haven’t. And as you know we have been investigating industry-wide corruption in your business that seems to have been going on for years. fact is that the only person who could do anything with 8000 gallons of heating oil in a matter of minutes after stealing a truck is someone from within that industry. And almost certainly someone with local storage capacity. So you’re right. That means you all are stealing from each other. Which is, as far as I can tell, just a refreshing new take on what you’ve been doing to your customers and fellow taxpayers for the last fifteen years.
…
Abel: What is that?
Anna: A gun… It’s a gun Abel.
Abel: Where did you get it?
Anna: Your youngest daughter found it in the bushes outside our front door. She was playing with it. It’s loaded… with the safety off. Those weren’t kids looking to rip off our TV Abel, that was a fucking goon with a loaded gun looking in our windows! What the hell is going on here?
Abel: I’ll take care of this.
Anna: What does that mean you will take care of it. This isn’t a brick through our car window or some other cute little warning that I’ve put up with in the past. This is your daughter playing with a loaded gun!
Abel: I know what it is! Let me deal with this.
Anna: You better. Because you won’t like what’s going to happen once I start getting involved.
…
Andrew [to Abel]: It’s not good… It’s bad. It’s a fourteen count indictment. Most of it is crap. But the first three counts are where we start to have real issues. They know what’s going on in this industry. They say we are rigging scales and under-reporting income. We don’t know what they have or how they got it. But no matter how they got it, it’s a problem.
…
Andrew [to Anna and Abel]: And there is one other thing. The bank…We need to sit down with them immediately. I set a dinner. We need you both there to lay everything out and be totally upfront. This shouldn’t be a problem. Lord knows they’ve given money to bigger crooks than us.
…
Andrew: Do you want to go for a walk? Come on.
Abel: Are you really serious …this is what it’s come to, we have to walk around outside like we’re fucking gangsters?
Andrew: I am, and it is.
…
Abel [to Ian from the bank]: When it feels scary to jump, that is exactly when you jump, otherwise you end up staying in the same place your whole life, and that I can’t do.
…
Abel: What’s with the gun?
Anna: I told you. I wasn’t gonna continue to stand around and let these people come and get me and my children. Unlike you, who seems to be completely comfortable just standing around like some fucking pussy, I decided to do something about it.
…
Abel: You must be a bigger fucking idiot than I even thought. You are trying to protect your children? Protect them? Do you have any idea what happens if you get caught using this gun? You dress yourself up in these fancy clothes, and look at you here in your mansion. I’ve given you everything you could possibly want but you still can’t stop thinking like the Brooklyn corner-store gangster’s daughter that you are.
Anna: You’ve given me? You? Are you delusional? Do you even understand how ridiculous that makes you sound?
…
Anna: This is one probably you’re gonna regret.
DA: Excuse me?
Anna: My husband’s an honorable man. We are not who you think we are.
DA: I think I knew your father.
Anna: Good for you. My husband is not my father. Not even close. So if I were you, I would start treating us with a little more respect or I guarantee he will make it his mission in life to ruin you.
[the DA turns his head and grins sarcastically]
Anna: This was very disrespectful. And you’re not going to find a fucking thing.
…
Julian: I feel…vulnerable.
Abel: Good…because you are vulnerable. We all are.
…
Abel: I spent my whole life trying not to become a gangster…
Anna: I know.
Abel: And now on the biggest deal in my career they’re gonna own me.
…
Abel: What is this?
Anna: It’s a bank account.
Abel: Whose?
Anna: Ours.
Abel: How much is in it?
Anna: A lot.
Abel: What does that mean?
Anna: It means you could replace Peter’s money and get him out of the deal.
Abel: Where did it come from?
Anna: Abel…
Abel: Where did it come from? Anna…
…
Abel: Is it clean?
Anna: What does that mean?
Abel: It means if you walked into the office of the people who have been trying to put us in jail right now and slapped a check from that account down on their desk would it push me further into hell or help to get me out?
Anna: It’s as clean as every other dollar we’ve ever made.
Abel: Well that’s a fucking bullshit answer!
…
Abel: I’ll get it done. And it won’t be as a cheat.
Anna: Oh you are too much. You’ve been walking around your whole life like this all happened because of your hard work, good luck, and charm. Mr. Fucking American Dream. Well this is America but it’s not a dream, and that wasn’t good luck helping you out all those years…IT WAS ME! Doing the things you didn’t want to know about…
Abel: You stole from me!
Anna: Oh…You have always been very good about not letting your ego get in the way of business. Don’t start now just because it’s me.
…
Abel [to Julian]: You’re looking backwards. Look forwards. It’s the only thing you can control.
…
Abel: You should know that I have always taken the path that is most right. The result is never in question for me. Just what path do you take to get there, and there is always one that is most right. And that is what this is.
DA: I hope so. [/b]