Philosopher Hannah Arendt once had the famous theory that evil was simply banal. Essentially, what she meant was:
“Evil is never ‘radical,’ that it is only extreme, and that it possesses neither depth nor any demonic dimension. It can overgrow and lay waste the whole world precisely because it spreads like a fungus on the surface. It is ‘thought-defying,’ as I said, because thought tries to reach some depth, to go to the roots, and the moment it concerns itself with evil, it is frustrated because there is nothing. That is its ‘banality.’ Only the good has depth that can be radical.”
Regarding how soldiers get to a point where they can carry out such shocking displays of brutality: “The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanize them.”
These are controversial theories, indeed, and it’s tough to apply this idea to everything, but as is veteran director Brad Silberling‘s An Ordinary Man‘s story, which attempts to humanize a fugitive Yugoslavian war criminal (played typically well by Sir Ben Kingsley). One eventually forgets Kingsley‘s character’s backstory, and becomes transfixed on the odd, juxtaposition of genres that unfolds like molasses to an exciting, sudden ending that will leave viewers thinking about An Ordinary Man long after viewing.
Kingsley In the Role
In a sense, the film walks the line between the portrayal of a radical man and Arendt’s definition of a banal evil, as Kingsley’s general is a cold, calculated predator who is prone to temper tantrums, sexual inappropriateness, and breaking the law. It plays to the “Sadistic War Criminal” archetype, often seen in the portrayal of Nazis on film. Although, Kingsley plays him a bit like Marcus Lycus from Stephen Sondheim‘s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
He was “indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity…in connection with the massacre of thousands of fighting age men and boys in the closing days of the war under his command.” He is “widely reviled by the international community, though still considered a hero by some of his own countrymen.” The audience isn’t made to sympathize with Kingsley; Silberling doesn’t ask the viewer to pick a side between rooting for The General or their own conscience. Kingsley, who is usually quite adept at accents, teeters a bit between British, Scottish, and Czech-ish sounding accents. However, the living legend’s commitment and execution in every other facet is fantastic.
The Central Relationship
He hires a maid, Tanja, played phenomenally by Hera Hilmar. An Ordinary Man is a two-person show, with Kingsley and Hilmar going back and forth until a captivating climax, with some twists on the way. The two leads constantly outdo each other, creating a taut thriller despite the film’s pace; It’s a slowly-paced film, so the 92-minute runtime feels an appropriate length. The relationship between Tanja and The General at the heart of the film is fascinating.
One can’t decide if Tanja sees the good in The General, or if she has Stockholm Syndrome. Is The General who he seems? He is a fugitive for committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, but watched by a government organization whose best interest was to protect him at all costs. Then, the twist. Yes, the twist that slowly unfolds. Then the twist that burns like a accidental arm’s touch on a stove while cooking. An Ordinary Man has an action plot without much action at all. It is mostly comprised of drama and a considerably dialogue-driven film, and it engages thoroughly.
Technically Laudable
Silbering does a fine job building tension, letting the silence linger as long as feels right. Furthermore, An Ordinary Man is gorgeously shot by Silbering, who captures Belgrade, Serbia’s beauty, breathtakingly. Despite Kingsley‘s solid performance, The General isn’t as interesting enough of a central character to engage a wide enough audience. Tanja is the far more intriguing, layered character in the aptly-named An Ordinary Man. Her motives remain ambiguous, adding to the mystery.
Silbering‘s story admirably doesn’t stop to explain what is going on; it glides onwards like a well-oiled machine. If anything, Silbering almost withholds seemingly too much information, but, really, that’s what a decent slow-burner does. His story, the dual character study between Tanja and The General, rides the fence between buddy dramedy and star-crossed lover romance storyline, the latter of which Silbering only flirts with.
Christophe Beck (Frozen, Ant-Man) and Gonzales (Elle, Get Him to the Greek) compose an excellent score. It truly boosts the suspense of the film as opposed to hindering it, as many scores can. Cinematographer Magdalena Górka has some gorgeously-lit shots throughout An Ordinary Man.
An Ordinary Man: Worth The Snail Pacing
It’s a little problematic that Silbering focuses on a war criminal’s path to redemption and chooses to manipulated the audience into empathizing with him instead of a victim’s path to redemption, admittedly. Nonetheless, it is an engaging story, and, a lot of these people were not super villains. Not to excuse anything that Kingsley‘s character did during the war, but human beings are capable of terrible acts of violence under certain circumstances. As Arendt said:
“The holes of oblivion do not exist. Nothing human is that perfect, and there are simply too many people in the world to make oblivion possible. One man will always be left alive to tell the story.”
Despite An Ordinary Man‘s ultra slow pace, it contains a superb score, Silberings’s minimalistic story and grand direction, and Kingsley and Hilmar’s respective tour-de-forces, outdoing each other in every scene, and a guitar-string tight tension, sharpening in tuning slowly towards a gripping climax.
Did you find Kingsley’s performance nuanced or over-the-top? What was your favorite or least favorite part of An Ordinary Man?
An Ordinary Man is released theatrically and on VOD on April 13, 2018 in the U.S. For more information on its release, click here.
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