In Celebration of First Features: #5 - The Wachowski Brothers' "Bound"

I was planning on writing something profound about "Bound", about how this was the film that laid the groundwork for "The Matrix", about how this is where the Wachowski Bros found their voice, about how this is a signature low budget genre film made with an indie aesthetic, but really... it's not that kind of film.

Profound, I mean.

Andy and Larry (now Lana) Wachowski were screenwriters with a background in comic book fiction. They had recently had one of their feature scripts, "Assassins," produced as a Hollywood movie directed by Richard Donner, and their words were butchered on the screen. So part of their motivation to get "Bound" made with funding from Dino De Laurentiis was to protect their writing. Who better to realize their vision than themselves, right?

The other factor in becoming multi-hyphantes was their larger goal to get "The Matrix" into production. Everybody was passing on their sprawling action sci-fi script - their track record was thread-bare and they needed the credibility of a feature under their belt to even get in the door. So there was a lot at stake in this directing debut for the untried brothers.


But the Wachowski's were no fools - they went into their first directing gig with a very specific philosophy :: "We're of the opinion that film is still first and foremost a graphic medium and should be about images more than it should be about talking heads. Talking heads are nice and all, don't get me wrong, but novels do talking heads a lot better than movies do. And I think that movies should take advantage of the fact that they are about images and pictures. I don't think people take advantage of that enough."(1)


"Bound" is a hardboiled mobster heist genre flick - leaning heavily on "Double Indemnity"-esque dialog, mood and theme, while bringing a very measured visual technique that echoes the Hitchcock style found in "Dial M for Murder" and "Psycho," to mention the two more obvious influences. From the outset, the Wachowskis wanted to position this as a niche film, making the protagonists a lesbian affair that leads to the stealing of dirty mob money through a high-stakes and convoluted scheme.

The lesbian sex scene, that the brothers wouldn't consider removing, created to problems casting their leads - name actors turning down the roles at the mere mention of a scene involving girl-on-girl sex. But, determined not to compromise, they ended up with Jennifer Tilly as Violet and Gina Gershon as Corky.

Yikes.



Gershon more than earned her keep, however, by suggesting they cast Joe Pantoliano as Caeser, the mid-level mob captain in a juvenile power struggle with the boss's sociopathic son. And it's Joe who brings this film alive, with a sizzling performance that elevates every scene he's in. His delivery of the off-screen murder of the embezzler is almost worth the price of admission alone - selling a key scene through exposition alone is no mean feat. Caeser's downward spiral into paranoid despair and ultimate spiteful vengeance is just dazzling, and the strongest card this movie plays.



But Tilly in particular has problems selling this torturous hard-boiled verbiage, and the film hangs on her and Gershon's ropey performances. It's difficult, if not impossible, to feel sympathy for Tilly, though Gershon gets by with her rockabilly swagger and fuck-you attitude. Nuanced, however, this is not. The Wachowski's cope with this by turning up the volume on their use of camera - high angles, deep focus and small but dynamic action sequences keep the screen vigorous and busy, while the editing, crisp and deliberate, folds the narrative in on itself and always keeps the tension where it needs to be.



In the end, this is a finely crafted film that is let down by weak central performances. The script, however, is an excellent example of a tight genre flick, aimed at a specific target audience, that was made on a small budget with a quick turnaround (the Wachoskis are quoted as saying the schedule was initially 38 days, the implication being there were reshoots not figured into that schedule). And in terms of their goals, the Wachowski's were 100% effective. They got their greenlight for "The Matrix", and now they have the pull to get their scripts made on their own terms (scripts not directed by them are directed by their close associate James McTeigue).

So there's a lesson in there somewhere. Being focused on your goals, and managing your expectations based on that, can deliver results.