I liked Captain Stanley. Too bad he dropped his guard with that evil Danny Huston around! The beginning is one of the best shootouts around.
shareI liked Captain Stanley too. I wonder if it was the wonderful presence of Ray Winstone that made the character all the more likable. It was probably a combination of the writing, his terrific face and acting.
THAAC http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=55736983707&ref=ts
He's got a very distinctive voice too.
shareAt first I though Captain Stanley was a monster. Presenting us with such an egregious violation of his position in the proposition etc. But I have watched it several times now and it really is clear that only Charlie and himself are the ones with a moral center. Like in the beginning when he hits Mikey. At first he thinks he is just whacking another murdering bastard that is crying now that he is caught. But after striking Mikey he very quickly realizes Mikey is more than a little simple minded. He immediately changes then. And while he is hard, as he states, he has a hard job to do.
And throughout the movie, others are motivated by base cruelty. His men are really no better than the criminals they are after. His wife and the grand poohbah-landed Brit are so motivated by blind, unreasoning revenge that they do not care they are torturing an innocent. And do so with no grasp of the consequences. He has to deal with all that as well as the criminals.
Winstone gave a finely nuanced performance of a very well written role.
Was a nice twist, I was expecting to see another 1800s evil British bastard role from Winstone. Nice to see it deviate from expectation.
share[deleted]
Both Capt. Stanley and Charlie are very well written characters. Neither is all hero or all villain - instead we get nuanced moral ambiguity and shades of grey.
Charlie runs with a gang of criminals, but still has enough decency and honor to draw the line and kill his own brother when it's crossed. Similarly, Captain Stanley seems brutal and corrupt at first, but he's also a man of his word who takes his responsibilities seriously, as opposed to just being a power-hungry brute.
The two men are very similar, circumstances just put them on opposite sides of the law.
Incidentally, do you think that Capt. Stanley survived the gunshot wound to his shoulder at the end?
Very true, and very well put. But I would point our that Charlie did not decide to fully commit to putting a stop to his brother's atrocities until they ultimately caused Mikey's death. So it he had to suffer the consequences personally before he actually cut off his brother's violence.
I like to think that Capt. Stanley lived, and that Charlie and the Stanleys both left and started their new lives elsewhere, most likely far apart from each other. Although in a way it feels like Charlie sat there by his brother's side forever.
I also found it interesting that Charlie realized that Captain Stanley was a man of his word and wasn't responsible for Mikey's whipping and death, even though he never witnessed Stanley trying to stop the beating. Had Charlie thought that Stanley was to blame, he would obviously have reneged on his promise, and would probably have aided his brother rather than killing him.
shareI'm not sure I agree with that. Charlie was considering killing Arthur when be caught up to him, but then decided against it and informed him of the situation with Mikey. I feel like once Mikey died that was it for him. There was no reason to protect his older brother anymore, and he in fact felt compelled to put a stop to him since his actions and lifestyle were the real reason for Mikey's death. He defended Captain Stanley, but I don't think it mattered that it was Captain Stanley and Mrs. Stanley vs any other people. Charlie, in my mind, simply committed one last act of violence in order put a stop to a the years of violence to come of he had allowed Arthur to continue as he had done earlier. He knew at that point that leaving his brother's gang and no longer participating in the terrible things he was doing was not enough, as he'd made that mistake before the events of the film and it still had terrible consequences.
share[deleted]