The Deathless Death of the Human Experience

In “A Score to Settle”, an action thriller film directed by Shawn Ku, the main character Frank, portrayed by Nicholas Cage, is an ex-con previously affiliated with a local crime cartel, who seeks retribution on his bosses after 19 years of wrongful imprisonment. When he realized he had been duped into taking the fall for his boss’ crime he became quite indignant and resentful, especially since he left his infant motherless son in the care of fellow ‘mob-members’. Overtime, he was agonized by the prevalent thought of vengeance causing him to not sleep and eventually he became a chronic insomniac with dementia. Luckily this caused him to receive parole, upon his release, he was faced with the classic choice of “to burn (burn everything down and start over again) or not to burn (suck it up and deal with our lives as they are)” (James Lengstorf). He can either start a new life alongside his son whose life was potentially destroyed due to the domino effects of parental actions or seek revenge against those who double-crossed him for time lost; He chose both. The writer explores the characters thoughts and actions from a unique perspective by using the effects of insomnia as a form of drug (a mind altering substance that deters the user from reality). As a result, the people, events and overall experience of the character is comprised; some things in the screenplay are a figment. This essay serves to determine two elements of film used in A Score to Settle, and explain their influence on the development of the plot, as well as explore how trauma and the constraints of time and space factor into the psychological well being of an individual, and by extension society.

Elements of Film are used to impact the interpretation of a story and its characters, the two selected to be discussed in regards to A Score To Settle are flashback which refers to images depicting previous events in the characters` lives and dialogue which conveys the film’s plot as well as character traits. Both of these elements vastly aid in developing the predominant idea of the tragic insomniac hero in the film. The themes highlighted I the film are struggle with self, power and corruption, courage and heroism, love, good overcoming evil (in this case “evil” is both the mob members as well as the world) and disillusionment with life; all of which the aforementioned elements of film bring to life. “The experiencing of dissociative states seems to be the most common manifestation of PTSD related to criminal behavior. In this scenario, the subject. . . re-experiences elements of the trauma in dreams, uncontrollable and emotionally distressing intrusive images, episodes of reliving the traumatic event, and in behavioral re-enactments of the traumatic situation”. The flashback technique was used multiple times in the film, in the dizzy spells/episodes of the character, he experiences traumatic moments from his past which fuels his insomniac tendencies; the more he thinks of the disturbing event the less desire he has to sleep and more he covets revenge thus advancing the plot.1Through dialogue the writer hints at certain ideas that wouldn’t otherwise be comprehensible to the audience, such as the moral standing of Frank, his intentions, the response of various characters to his reappearance and behavior. His somewhat normal actions would sometimes be perceived by others as strange or at times scary leading the audience to delve into the possibilities of what they could be so freaked out about. The dialogue slowly divulges to the audience the reason for Frank’s quite confusing vengeance ploy. Why does he still he want vengeance?, he has received a pay-off for going to prison for the boss; he now can formulate a longstanding relationship with his son, who he has missed integral bonding moments with, he seemingly has all he could possibly ask for, so what’s his ‘beef’, this is the question the audience desires an answer to and flashback and dialogue are the major elements of the film that are employed with answering such questions.

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Psychological Effects. As the film progresses the investigation into what exactly occurred and what Frank plans to do about it becomes more intelligible we understand that he has “a dying man of dubious mental clarity”. Frank is a severe insomniac with dementia predicted to die if he doesn’t get some sleep, not only that but he’s a vindictive individual with ptsd whose spent years in a correctional facility; bad combination. Frank’s mental condition based on circumstances resembled that of a war survivor, insomnia alone is quite metamorphosing to a person’s life and mind. The effects of insomnia are: increased risk of medical conditions such as stroke and seizures, increased risk for mental health disorders, increased risk for accidents and shortened life expectancy”, thus leaving the audience to infer that Frank based on his characteristics was an unstable individual capable of harming himself and others; a theory later deemed to be true. Being incarcerated heightened these effects on him, furthermore he experienced trauma which we see make him an irritable, hot tempered, anxiety ridden person. It is easy to assume that Frank is merely a troubled person and always has been, however he was exposed to things that would drive any sane person mad. In the words of Atticus Finch “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view...until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” “Before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself”. He couldn’t live with himself because of the mistakes he had made in the past, he couldn’t move on, he couldn’t think about anything else, he couldn’t sleep, every-single-day the mere inkling of joy brought him back to his traumatic past, he may have been swindled once in reality, but in his mind, it was a daily robbery, they had taken 19 years of his life, his son’s life, his sleep, his sanity and eventually his life. Frank could not escape his past because he couldn’t escape himself and until death that was his struggle.

A story cannot be written without a plot otherwise it would just be a person rambling about random junk without structure or format, similarly you cannot live life without purpose. Frank had lost his purpose and became a hollow man trying to be filled with something; anything, he tried buying every material possession he ever wanted or could ever want yet he wasn’t satisfied or relieved of his burdens. By day he puts on a façade for his son being happy and supportive and by night he’s plotting his revenge. Realizing that neither of his options burn or not to burn gave him true peace he inevitably develops the desire to be fixed and the best place to be fixed is where you were made (the same people that made him-they gave him a livelihood and a sense of belonging, broke him-dismantled his life); generally when an appliance or device is destroyed the warranty is used to have it replaced or repaired. This man was damaged, he was just a dim light waiting to go out but he intended to use that little ounce of light he had left in him to shine light on the truth which in his case meant going on a killing spree.3 It is evident that the mental state of person and this container we are in called the mind can easily become a prison that one can only hope to escape from; as humans we either end our pain or spread it. Frank was in both a mental and physical prison, the effects of that are incomprehensible, he was in a state of complete self destruct mode and everyone around him was bound to feel that explosion. “Hurt people hurt people”.

Based on the research and inferential aspects of this film it can be concluded that as human beings we are impacted not only by our own morals, values, principles and doubts but we are influenced by the world around us and all the problems, challenges, highs, lows and people that come with it. Our decisions impact everyone. Like Frank each person has their trauma, their prison, what broke them ,what made them and what they think will fix them, whether that is the thought that a career, possessions or a significant other will make them content. Whether person or possession everyone has something they believe will give them that ultimate satisfaction that all humans desire; it’s in our nature after all. Even so, it is imperative that we recall that our actions influence everyone around us directly and indirectly and we must be conscious and cautious of that. The elements of the film and film techniques aided in the portrayal of these notions and aided the audience in following the story, understanding the character, his emotions and actions and also giving the audience a glimpse of their own flaws. A personal philosophy of mine is “amor fati” established by Friedrich Nietzsche which basically means the love of ones fate; in life I believe we get what’s coming to us, our death is a result of the story we’ve written, it us who writes our own story and it is us who will have to put the full stop on that last sentence, be careful of what you write and how you write it and who you allow to read it; the integrity of our characters’ are easily compromised.