The Box (2009)
December 19, 2016 12:19 AM - Subscribe
A small wooden box arrives on the doorstep of a married couple, who know that opening it will grant them a million dollars and kill someone they don't know.
Positive review
Yet this describes only the first half of The Box. For what has attracted Kelly to Matheson’s story is not just its concrete centre, but also its shadowy contours, and the second, entirely original half of the film investigates further, without resolving, the enigmatic character of Steward and the question of whether redemption is possible in a closed moral system from which there would appear to be no exit.posted by naju at 12:29 AM on December 19, 2016
It is here that the film shifts from creepily ominous to all-out crazy, as a range of conflicting matrices – scientific, philosophical, theological, metaphysical – are all suggested to account for the problem of evil....
Kelly’s film plays itself out as a paranoid conspiracy thriller, but when action and consequence, chance and causality, religion and secularism, selfishness and altruism, the domestic and the cosmic all begin colliding head-on, it becomes clear that there is far more in this box than just a collection of genre-based sensations. Whether it is a profound probe into the human condition, or just preposterous piffle, will perhaps depend in part on what you are prepared to put into it yourself, but there are certainly more than enough high concepts here to keep the viewer stimulated, confronted and perplexed far beyond the closing credits – and like all Kelly’s films, The Box will benefit from multiple viewings.
And something a little different: The Box: Esoteric Analysis – Shadow Government Revealed
posted by naju at 1:02 AM on December 19, 2016
posted by naju at 1:02 AM on December 19, 2016
Odd, interesting philosophical analysis: RETURN THE GIFT: RICHARD KELLY'S THE BOX
posted by naju at 1:21 AM on December 19, 2016
posted by naju at 1:21 AM on December 19, 2016
Two initial random thoughts...
Could "the box" be a stand-in for Apple products and globalization consequences? I was looking into it, but the public awareness of Foxconn suicides seemed to happen around 2010.
There's a LOT of Phantasm in this movie.
posted by naju at 1:27 AM on December 19, 2016
Could "the box" be a stand-in for Apple products and globalization consequences? I was looking into it, but the public awareness of Foxconn suicides seemed to happen around 2010.
There's a LOT of Phantasm in this movie.
posted by naju at 1:27 AM on December 19, 2016
[SPOILERS]
I've not seen this, but I'm familiar with Matheson's "Button, Button", which was adapted into an 80's Twilight Zone. Matheson wasn't happy with the adaptation's ending (Random death, money, button-pusher is now in the random death pool) and preferred his original (Spouse dies, money, button-pusher never really 'knew' their spouse), but it seems to me that the adaptation's ending is far more 'right', while the original is almost jokey.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:01 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
I've not seen this, but I'm familiar with Matheson's "Button, Button", which was adapted into an 80's Twilight Zone. Matheson wasn't happy with the adaptation's ending (Random death, money, button-pusher is now in the random death pool) and preferred his original (Spouse dies, money, button-pusher never really 'knew' their spouse), but it seems to me that the adaptation's ending is far more 'right', while the original is almost jokey.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 2:01 PM on December 19, 2016 [2 favorites]
I haven't seen the movie, but I'm sad that the soundtrack doesn't have "The Box" by Orbital, which the brothers Hartnoll said was "by common consent, the best video we've ever done." [For an extended audio experience, here's the full version of the song/single on YouTube.]
OK, off to see this movie.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:26 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
OK, off to see this movie.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:26 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
I've not seen this, but I'm familiar with Matheson's "Button, Button", which was adapted into an 80's Twilight Zone. Matheson wasn't happy with the adaptation's ending (Random death, money, button-pusher is now in the random death pool) and preferred his original (Spouse dies, money, button-pusher never really 'knew' their spouse), but it seems to me that the adaptation's ending is far more 'right', while the original is almost jokey.
Yep, this is what I've read. Pretty fascinating. I also far prefer the Twilight Zone ending. It's wonderfully elegant, unsettling, and internally consistent in the way so many Twilight Zone twists are. Whereas Matheson's original just seems a bit heavy-handed and kludgy.
(Vague spoilers for the movie) The Box touches upon Matheson's ending before slyly discarding it, and touches upon the Twilight Zone ending fairly early on, but then goes further and complicates it in a dozen ways. You can almost pinpoint the exact moment (roughly half-way through?) where Richard Kelly says, "OK, now the rest of this is my movie and I'm GOING for it." Curious what people think of the ending. I'm really not a fan of that final dilemma and twist (as I hinted at above, I think it's shockingly problematic and I don't know how it was greenlit), but everything up to that point is fantastic, with many layers of meaning and allusion.
posted by naju at 4:01 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yep, this is what I've read. Pretty fascinating. I also far prefer the Twilight Zone ending. It's wonderfully elegant, unsettling, and internally consistent in the way so many Twilight Zone twists are. Whereas Matheson's original just seems a bit heavy-handed and kludgy.
(Vague spoilers for the movie) The Box touches upon Matheson's ending before slyly discarding it, and touches upon the Twilight Zone ending fairly early on, but then goes further and complicates it in a dozen ways. You can almost pinpoint the exact moment (roughly half-way through?) where Richard Kelly says, "OK, now the rest of this is my movie and I'm GOING for it." Curious what people think of the ending. I'm really not a fan of that final dilemma and twist (as I hinted at above, I think it's shockingly problematic and I don't know how it was greenlit), but everything up to that point is fantastic, with many layers of meaning and allusion.
posted by naju at 4:01 PM on December 19, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you'd like to experience the "precursors" to this story, here's "Button, Button" (9 page PDF), which was first published in Playboy in 1970 (ISFDb), and then re-published a number of times, including as the title story in a compilation of short stories that was re-titled in 2009 as The Box: Uncanny Stories.
Here's "Button, Button," the Twilight Zoneepisode in two parts on YouTube, and covered on Wikipedia. That article notes that there was also a CBS Radio Mystery Theater episode titled "The Chinaman Button," which is also available online, because we're living in the future of increased (illicit) access.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:08 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
Here's "Button, Button," the Twilight Zoneepisode in two parts on YouTube, and covered on Wikipedia. That article notes that there was also a CBS Radio Mystery Theater episode titled "The Chinaman Button," which is also available online, because we're living in the future of increased (illicit) access.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:08 PM on December 19, 2016 [3 favorites]
I hope everyone enjoyed the Christmas theme of the movie btw
posted by naju at 11:21 AM on December 20, 2016
posted by naju at 11:21 AM on December 20, 2016
Just watched it, thanks to this FanFare post, and I was remarkably moved. Must be the holidays. Up there with Birth as movies that elicit a deep emotional response in me, and involve gorgeously art direction, an excellent score, profound ethical dilemnas, problematic depictions of motherhood, and don't really hold up. I hope this one will hold up when I force people to watch it on Christmas.
posted by kittensofthenight at 1:57 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by kittensofthenight at 1:57 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Honestly I haven't had this much of an emotional response to a movie in a long time. I mean, I'll cry in almost any movie I see, but after they press the button I felt a deep sickness and anxiety in the pit of my stomach. I know its not perfect. I would have cut all the CGI shots, which dramatically pulled me out of the movie. But I didn't expect to put on a late night Metafilter rec of what looked like a b-movie and lay awake afterwords.
I think I know what you mean Naju, the implication that the murder at the end is problematic. Implying that a "good wife" would sacrifice herself for her child's vision/hearing is fucked up, as is the treatment of disability. I mean their son would be able to live a full and rewarding life. WHY KILL YOURSELF. Is that what you meant? I think its established that her character views her own disability as shameful and there is more too unpack there but agree that that ending is problematic. I had read your comment and was looking for what you meant, when I watch this with parents and partner at Xmas I'll report back on responses to the ending. (Don't worry, we're a work on xmas, get take out, sci-fi and mixed drinks kind of family, it will be a big hit.)
posted by kittensofthenight at 2:12 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think I know what you mean Naju, the implication that the murder at the end is problematic. Implying that a "good wife" would sacrifice herself for her child's vision/hearing is fucked up, as is the treatment of disability. I mean their son would be able to live a full and rewarding life. WHY KILL YOURSELF. Is that what you meant? I think its established that her character views her own disability as shameful and there is more too unpack there but agree that that ending is problematic. I had read your comment and was looking for what you meant, when I watch this with parents and partner at Xmas I'll report back on responses to the ending. (Don't worry, we're a work on xmas, get take out, sci-fi and mixed drinks kind of family, it will be a big hit.)
posted by kittensofthenight at 2:12 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think I know what you mean Naju, the implication that the murder at the end is problematic. Implying that a "good wife" would sacrifice herself for her child's vision/hearing is fucked up, as is the treatment of disability. I mean their son would be able to live a full and rewarding life. WHY KILL YOURSELF.
Not to speak for Naju, but I assumed that he was also talking about the implication made in the cutaway to the other couple, as well as Marsden's conversation with the man who'd shot his wife: The button-pusher is always the wife. I get that it's probably an Adam & Eve allusion, but that still gets us into a whole misogynistic kettle of fish about the supposed corruptibility of women over men, etc.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:32 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not to speak for Naju, but I assumed that he was also talking about the implication made in the cutaway to the other couple, as well as Marsden's conversation with the man who'd shot his wife: The button-pusher is always the wife. I get that it's probably an Adam & Eve allusion, but that still gets us into a whole misogynistic kettle of fish about the supposed corruptibility of women over men, etc.
posted by Strange Interlude at 6:32 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yep, this is what I've read. Pretty fascinating. I also far prefer the Twilight Zone ending. It's wonderfully elegant, unsettling, and internally consistent in the way so many Twilight Zone twists are. Whereas Matheson's original just seems a bit heavy-handed and kludgy.
Well in fairness the TZ ending is no less on-the-nose heavy-handed, it's just differently so. Personally I like the way it's heavy-handed, in so far as it strikes me as very TZ to have that little morality lesson delivered once it's too late for the protagonist to do anything about it. You eventually shrug off the repercussions to others, in no small part because you look and convince yourself there's no way pushing the button can actually harm others (it's just an empty box! I took it apart and looked inside!) but oops, now it turns out that you're part of that system and maybe someone else's rationalization will bite you in the ass. It's a great if thin metaphor for participation in a society that harms people, though perhaps it never addresses the fact that you were in that death pool before you had an opportunity at the button, weren't you?
I'm amazed they found a way to stretch this concept out into a full 110 minutes.
posted by phearlez at 9:55 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well in fairness the TZ ending is no less on-the-nose heavy-handed, it's just differently so. Personally I like the way it's heavy-handed, in so far as it strikes me as very TZ to have that little morality lesson delivered once it's too late for the protagonist to do anything about it. You eventually shrug off the repercussions to others, in no small part because you look and convince yourself there's no way pushing the button can actually harm others (it's just an empty box! I took it apart and looked inside!) but oops, now it turns out that you're part of that system and maybe someone else's rationalization will bite you in the ass. It's a great if thin metaphor for participation in a society that harms people, though perhaps it never addresses the fact that you were in that death pool before you had an opportunity at the button, weren't you?
I'm amazed they found a way to stretch this concept out into a full 110 minutes.
posted by phearlez at 9:55 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
BTW, speaking of Button, Button - looking for a way to watch it, it looks like a full box set of the 80s TZ series is due for release in the new year. Maybe we'll need to do a rewatch series...
posted by phearlez at 10:02 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by phearlez at 10:02 AM on December 21, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yep, that box set was actually already out - maybe Amazon is just awaiting more copies to be delivered? I bought it partially for this episode, and a few others, that I remembered from my childhood.
posted by destructive cactus at 11:33 AM on December 21, 2016
posted by destructive cactus at 11:33 AM on December 21, 2016
I think I know what you mean Naju, the implication that the murder at the end is problematic. Implying that a "good wife" would sacrifice herself for her child's vision/hearing is fucked up, as is the treatment of disability. I mean their son would be able to live a full and rewarding life. WHY KILL YOURSELF. Is that what you meant? I think its established that her character views her own disability as shameful and there is more too unpack there but agree that that ending is problematic.
Yep, that's exactly it. At the risk of taking it maybe too seriously: They're given a sort of Sophie's choice situation where 1) they get the million dollars (basically a macguffin everyone forgot about at this point, which is kind of neat btw!), their kid becomes deaf and blind, and no one dies; or 2) the husband has to shoot and kill the wife, and their son's senses are fully functional, and the million gets put in an interest-bearing account for their son when he reaches 18. They opt for #2 because the wife knows firsthand how difficult it is to live with a disability and how much others judge you for it, has intense shame and self-consciousness over it, etc., but also because both the husband and the wife could not bear to live with the guilt that they caused this for the son with their own short-sighted, self-interested actions. I get that these people are not making the best decisions, and there's something to be said about depicting a parent's sense of guilt over their disabled child, but still, holy hell was I susprised at a takeaway that amounted to "death is preferable to living with a disability" when disability activism is so often about how people shouldn't see disabilities as unfortunate, an impairment, or hell on earth, but rather fully viable ways of living that shouldn't be erased, pitied, etc.
I mean I would've expected a semi-sober conversation like "well, this is really a tragic dilemma with no good outcome, but first, let's establish that killing you is out of the question. I love you and refuse to do it. Second, as hard as this is to take, people do live with deafness and blindness and have full, happy lives. He's still our son and this will get better. Most importantly, we'd all still be alive and a family that can love and take care of one another. And you and I can work to understand/publicize this insane thing that's happening to us and others. Also, that million dollars can be used for the best education and integration into society for our son. Most people don't have that kind of money, at least it's a small consolation."
posted by naju at 11:54 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yep, that's exactly it. At the risk of taking it maybe too seriously: They're given a sort of Sophie's choice situation where 1) they get the million dollars (basically a macguffin everyone forgot about at this point, which is kind of neat btw!), their kid becomes deaf and blind, and no one dies; or 2) the husband has to shoot and kill the wife, and their son's senses are fully functional, and the million gets put in an interest-bearing account for their son when he reaches 18. They opt for #2 because the wife knows firsthand how difficult it is to live with a disability and how much others judge you for it, has intense shame and self-consciousness over it, etc., but also because both the husband and the wife could not bear to live with the guilt that they caused this for the son with their own short-sighted, self-interested actions. I get that these people are not making the best decisions, and there's something to be said about depicting a parent's sense of guilt over their disabled child, but still, holy hell was I susprised at a takeaway that amounted to "death is preferable to living with a disability" when disability activism is so often about how people shouldn't see disabilities as unfortunate, an impairment, or hell on earth, but rather fully viable ways of living that shouldn't be erased, pitied, etc.
I mean I would've expected a semi-sober conversation like "well, this is really a tragic dilemma with no good outcome, but first, let's establish that killing you is out of the question. I love you and refuse to do it. Second, as hard as this is to take, people do live with deafness and blindness and have full, happy lives. He's still our son and this will get better. Most importantly, we'd all still be alive and a family that can love and take care of one another. And you and I can work to understand/publicize this insane thing that's happening to us and others. Also, that million dollars can be used for the best education and integration into society for our son. Most people don't have that kind of money, at least it's a small consolation."
posted by naju at 11:54 AM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Not to speak for Naju, but I assumed that he was also talking about the implication made in the cutaway to the other couple, as well as Marsden's conversation with the man who'd shot his wife: The button-pusher is always the wife. I get that it's probably an Adam & Eve allusion, but that still gets us into a whole misogynistic kettle of fish about the supposed corruptibility of women over men, etc.
Ha! I just smirked at that line. I couldn't tell whether it was a tension-relieving knowingly crass joke ("amirite, fellas?") or trying to make a point about women/wives that leads nowhere good I can see, or winking irony from Kelly who is always laughing with/at his audience on some level in his movies. It didn't rise to the level of "um, holy shit? really" that the ending did for me though.
posted by naju at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2016
Ha! I just smirked at that line. I couldn't tell whether it was a tension-relieving knowingly crass joke ("amirite, fellas?") or trying to make a point about women/wives that leads nowhere good I can see, or winking irony from Kelly who is always laughing with/at his audience on some level in his movies. It didn't rise to the level of "um, holy shit? really" that the ending did for me though.
posted by naju at 12:01 PM on December 21, 2016
Hmmm, a theory about that ending dilemma Steward poses - he mentioned earlier that the experiment would be over if they had just not pushed the button. By the same token, would the experiment have been over if they didn't opt for choice 2 to kill Cameron Diaz's character? If you think about it, opting for #1 would result in no deaths, and thus the causal chain of the box experiment would be severed, right? Because the entire thing depends on people who have unknowingly consented to being bait for future button pushers and who by their own actions make the choice to deliver the death to themselves. So it's entirely possible that them choosing #1 would break the experiment, and would have led to Steward standing up, saying "Congratulations. You passed. Your son is locked in the bathroom upstairs, and all his senses are restored to normal. Good day."
posted by naju at 12:05 PM on December 21, 2016
posted by naju at 12:05 PM on December 21, 2016
Here's a thought: Since Marsden and Diaz are basically playing Kelly's parents (his dad was a NASA engineer, his mom was a schoolteacher), then that makes Walter into Kelly's personal avatar in the film. This casts their decision to sacrifice everything in an even more disturbing light, since it's literally the writer/director of the film forcing representations of his parents to destroy themselves in order to save him.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:25 PM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:25 PM on December 21, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yep, that box set was actually already out - maybe Amazon is just awaiting more copies to be delivered? I bought it partially for this episode, and a few others, that I remembered from my childhood.
Not that Amazon always gets the details right, but the total run time for the impending issue is about 145 minutes longer.
DVD Release Date: February 7, 2017
Run Time: 2270 minutes
DVD Release Date: August 26, 2014
Run Time: 2125 minutes
They also have different ASIN numbers. So my guess is Paramount has marginally tweaked the set for this run, though it could be just a second run that they have decided to give a new ID number to for some reason. Or they might have just removed region encoding.
posted by phearlez at 1:01 PM on December 22, 2016
Not that Amazon always gets the details right, but the total run time for the impending issue is about 145 minutes longer.
DVD Release Date: February 7, 2017
Run Time: 2270 minutes
DVD Release Date: August 26, 2014
Run Time: 2125 minutes
They also have different ASIN numbers. So my guess is Paramount has marginally tweaked the set for this run, though it could be just a second run that they have decided to give a new ID number to for some reason. Or they might have just removed region encoding.
posted by phearlez at 1:01 PM on December 22, 2016
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posted by naju at 12:24 AM on December 19, 2016