MONSTER’S BALL by Marc Forster
October 14th, 2004 by Andre Soares
Monster’s Ball (2001)
Director: Marc Forster. Screenplay: Milo Addica and Will Rokos. Cast: Billy Bob Thornton, Halle Berry, Heath Ledger, Peter Boyle
LOVE AND DEATH IN THE DEEP SOUTH
In Monster’s Ball, first-time screenwriters Milo Addica and Will Rokos join forces with third-time feature-film director Marc Forster to create a motion picture of powerful moments. Those range from the film’s dream-like introduction to an uncomfortable and surprisingly explicit seduction scene. Other memorable sequences include the suicide of a young man in front of his stunned father, a very graphic electric chair execution, and the sight of a bereaved widow watching her son die in a hospital room. Alas, those powerful moments fail to add up to a powerful whole.
If only Addica and Rokos had done a better job at patching up the many holes in their screenplay. For instance, we’re never told why Billy Bob Thornton’s prison guard Hank feels such animosity toward his son (effectively played by Heath Ledger). We’re also left in the dark as to the crime committed by death row inmate Lawrence Musgrove (Combs), who’s portrayed as a taciturn man with a talent for drawing. Would some of us have been as horrified by his graphic electric chair execution had we learned that, say, before developing his artistic skills Musgrove had been a cold-blooded axe murderer? The filmmakers opted not to take any chances. Finally, the relationship between Hank and Halle Berry’s Leticia Musgrove is ultimately unsatisfying. The secret that Hank keeps from her — he was in charge of the executions on death row — is something that Leticia either should have known (she visited Lawrence more than once) or, in the small Georgia town where they live, would have found out rather sooner than later. The fact that she doesn’t until the very end feels like a script contrivance.
In other respects, Monster’s Ball is also a cinematic case of hit and miss. German-born director Marc Forster manages to create a realistic Southern setting, and his minimalist touch greatly enhances the mood of the film (with the aid of cinematographer Roberto Schaefer’s soft colors and Asche & Spencer’s haunting music). Forster, however, is less sure in his handling of the two leads. Billy Bob Thornton tries hard to make Hank sympathetic, but not once do we forget that we are watching an actor playing a role. The wheels keep on turning as Thornton goes through the motions of his character, but we remain unmoved. Halle Berry has some excellent, highly charged moments — as when she witnesses her son’s death — but her drunk scene is a mess and her more subdued moments seem lifeless instead of introspective. In truth, nothing she does on camera matches the emotional power of her acceptance speech at the 2002 Academy Awards ceremony.
Now, many will remember Monster’s Ball not for the storyline, the death by electrocution, or the performances, but for the sex scenes. A highly artificial intercourse sequence involving Heath Ledger’s Sonny and a prostitute is a mere warm-up to the Berry-Thornton free-for-all that takes place halfway during the movie. Berry, in particular, must be commended for her bravery. Her desperate "Make me feel good" bit must have been extremely difficult to do on camera and it is indeed unforgettable, if not quite for the right reasons. What should have been pathetic and tragic — Leticia needs physical and emotional consolation because she has just lost both her husband and her son — comes across as borderline comical. (See Maggie Smith in California Suite for on-screen sexual desperation that is haunting, not bizarre.) As for the actual sex acts, they’re neither erotic nor dramatic, but they sure are long and quite explicit for a (partly) American-made film. Yet, there is something dead wrong when you’re watching two performers going for it with all their might, and you start thinking, "When the hell will the cunnilingus end so the story can continue?"
In the early 1990s, widower Hank Grotowski (Thornton) is a tough prison guard living in the outskirts of a small Georgia town with his son, Sonny (Ledger), and his ailing, racist and ultra cranky father, Buck (Boyle), who has succeeded in passing on his prejudices to Hank. For that reason, Hank and Sonny don’t get along, as Hank perceives his son’s more mild-mannered behavior as a form of weakness. During a particularly nasty argument, Sonny kills himself in front of his father. (Both Sonny’s mother and grandmother had also committed suicide.) After that tragedy, Hank leaves his job as a prison guard and opens a gas station.
In another story thread, Lawrence Musgrove (Combs) is finally executed after waiting 11 years in Death Row for some unspecified crime. Musgrove’s widow, Leticia (Berry), is left with a job as a waitress at a cheap diner and a 13-year-old, food-addicted son to care for. When the boy gets run over by a car, Leticia is helped by Hank, who happened to be driving by. Slowly, the two disparate characters develop an unlikely but passionate bond.
Neither one knows at first that they share something other than that they have both lost their spouses and their children: Hank was one of the guards who set up the electric chair for Lawrence Musgrove.
Halle Berry became the first (at least part) African-American actress to win a Best Actress Oscar.
Angela Bassett purportedly turned down the part of Leticia Musgrove because she felt it portrayed a black woman in a stereotypical manner. The film’s producers, however, have denied that they ever offered Bassett the role. Vanessa L. Williams reportedly refused the part because it required full frontal nudity.
In order to avoid a NC-17 rating (no one under 17 allowed), the film was released on American screens in an edited R-rated version (minors allowed when accompanied by an adult). In order to get that rating, the somewhat explicit sex scene was considerably toned down. For the video / DVD version, the sex scene was restored to its original length.
The title Monster’s Ball refers to the macabre partying held the night before the execution of a death row prisoner.
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2 Responses to “MONSTER’S BALL by Marc Forster”
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The uncut sex scene shows that the two were not acting but having actual sex. It is therefor sad that the first oscar given to a black woman was given for Halle Berry being willing - the only willing woman in Hollywood- to actually have sex on film. She lost her husband over it but more than that - she did more to set back black actresses than slavery did for her race.
I watched the unrated version of “Monster’s Ball,” and there’s no explicit — as in, “actual” — sex in the film.
From what I read on the movie, there was NO actual sex. And even if there had been actual sex, I’d say that Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton should be commended for their courage.
Sex is a good and healthy and pleasurable part of a life. It should be portrayed on screen as such.