Brimstone and Treacle (1982)
June 25, 2024 5:39 PM - Subscribe
Despair hangs heavy over the house of the Bates family. Young Pattie (Suzanna Hamilton) twitches and groans her days away in bed, the victim of a terrible auto accident years ago, while her poor old mum Norma (Joan Plowright) struggles to attend to the afflicted girl's needs and the sour patriarch of the house (Denholm Elliot) prowls the halls muttering about God ("He's a vicious old bugger!"). One day things are shaken up by the arrival of Martin, (Sting) a charming young rogue of mysterious and possibly mystical origins...
This is a black little gem of a movie, featuring a performance from Sting that will mess you up with its twisted, sexy horribleness. We see Gordon Sumner here at the apex of his sinister powers, and if you only know him as the boring jazz-rock guy of the last 35 years or so, you're in for one hell of a shock. The soundtrack is a great little time capsule too, featuring songs by the Police, the Go-Go's, Squeeze and more. (If you've never seen the music video for Sting's Spread a Little Happiness, it's sure a thing to see.)
The film is based on an English television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, known for The Singing Detective and Pennies From Heaven. Apparently he wrote it during a nervous breakdown, which might explain some of the scary energy crackling through the thing. The film has haunted me since I first saw it on VHS many years ago, and I would really, really like somebody else's take on the ending.
The chortling, avuncular fellow who seems to fill Martin with such dread... who is he? All that talk about the one-eyed bishop and "through a glass darkly" seems like its got to be an allusion to something, but I've never come close to figuring it out. Martin could be a young priest who got in some sort of trouble, and the bishop is a literal bishop. Or perhaps Martin was a low-level mob hood who put out the boss' eye, and after two years on the run he's finally been caught. Martin might be a fallen angel or even Satan himself, and the man he meets is a jolly, condescending emissary of God who's been sent to round him up. Or could Martin be just a low-level demon who escaped from hell, and the older man is the devil? All we know for sure is that Martin is in big trouble.
I'm having trouble figuring out this film's streaming status, but it's currently available for free on Youtube. (Seriously, all kinds of content warnings for this one. We see a severely disabled young woman being sexually abused, and it's at least as upsetting as it sounds.)
This is a black little gem of a movie, featuring a performance from Sting that will mess you up with its twisted, sexy horribleness. We see Gordon Sumner here at the apex of his sinister powers, and if you only know him as the boring jazz-rock guy of the last 35 years or so, you're in for one hell of a shock. The soundtrack is a great little time capsule too, featuring songs by the Police, the Go-Go's, Squeeze and more. (If you've never seen the music video for Sting's Spread a Little Happiness, it's sure a thing to see.)
The film is based on an English television miniseries written by Dennis Potter, known for The Singing Detective and Pennies From Heaven. Apparently he wrote it during a nervous breakdown, which might explain some of the scary energy crackling through the thing. The film has haunted me since I first saw it on VHS many years ago, and I would really, really like somebody else's take on the ending.
The chortling, avuncular fellow who seems to fill Martin with such dread... who is he? All that talk about the one-eyed bishop and "through a glass darkly" seems like its got to be an allusion to something, but I've never come close to figuring it out. Martin could be a young priest who got in some sort of trouble, and the bishop is a literal bishop. Or perhaps Martin was a low-level mob hood who put out the boss' eye, and after two years on the run he's finally been caught. Martin might be a fallen angel or even Satan himself, and the man he meets is a jolly, condescending emissary of God who's been sent to round him up. Or could Martin be just a low-level demon who escaped from hell, and the older man is the devil? All we know for sure is that Martin is in big trouble.
I'm having trouble figuring out this film's streaming status, but it's currently available for free on Youtube. (Seriously, all kinds of content warnings for this one. We see a severely disabled young woman being sexually abused, and it's at least as upsetting as it sounds.)
The "one-eyed bishop" slang did occur to me and I imagine Potter was having some fun with that, but from the man's other remarks ("Through a glass darkly, eh?") it sounds like he was referring to someone who was actually missing an eye and that Martin was involved somehow.
I get the feeling that the older man is someone Martin knows, but that he may not be wearing the same face Martin is used to seeing. Martin starts off very friendy, just pretending he knows the guy, and then once the man starts talking Martin shrinks back as if he's suddenly realizing who he's actually talking to. (Either that, or the man's sudden appearance was so unexpected that Martin simply failed to recognize him at first.) The man talks about them encountering each other two years ago but in some very different place, he seems to emphasize that. It plays like he's speaking in code to Martin, like every line has another meaning. As they're walking away together Martin just submits, he doesn't try to run, and the older man says something like, "Come, come, old man, we'll have none of that," suggesting to me that Martin may be weeping or is at least visibly distraught. Whatever is going on, the man is not taking Martin to see an actual bishop!
And this isn't even taking into account the film's beginning where Martin is seen exiting a church, surrounded by a bunch of altar boys as they run out into the street. He looks around, seeming kind of bored, then he picks a carrot up off the pavement and starts to munch it like that's no big deal. Seriously, what the hell is Martin's deal?
The script for the original teleplay is on the Internet Archive but it has a different ending and the story takes different turns, so I'm not sure if it offers any real clues to what's going on here. It does describe Martin as a young man who is "a demon, or believes himself to be," suggesting that Potter didn't even want the people making the thing to know exactly what Martin was.
I've always wished I could get a closer look at those illustrations in the book at the end. They appear to depict hideous, Fantasia-esque monsters floating through a fairy tale London, but I've never seen a decent print of the film so the illustrations have always just been spooky smudges. And the closing credits for the film just list the older man as "man," so no help there.
Can you tell I've been stewing over this film since 1990-something? I love it so much, I made it my first (and possibly only) Fanfare post!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:14 PM on June 25 [2 favorites]
I get the feeling that the older man is someone Martin knows, but that he may not be wearing the same face Martin is used to seeing. Martin starts off very friendy, just pretending he knows the guy, and then once the man starts talking Martin shrinks back as if he's suddenly realizing who he's actually talking to. (Either that, or the man's sudden appearance was so unexpected that Martin simply failed to recognize him at first.) The man talks about them encountering each other two years ago but in some very different place, he seems to emphasize that. It plays like he's speaking in code to Martin, like every line has another meaning. As they're walking away together Martin just submits, he doesn't try to run, and the older man says something like, "Come, come, old man, we'll have none of that," suggesting to me that Martin may be weeping or is at least visibly distraught. Whatever is going on, the man is not taking Martin to see an actual bishop!
And this isn't even taking into account the film's beginning where Martin is seen exiting a church, surrounded by a bunch of altar boys as they run out into the street. He looks around, seeming kind of bored, then he picks a carrot up off the pavement and starts to munch it like that's no big deal. Seriously, what the hell is Martin's deal?
The script for the original teleplay is on the Internet Archive but it has a different ending and the story takes different turns, so I'm not sure if it offers any real clues to what's going on here. It does describe Martin as a young man who is "a demon, or believes himself to be," suggesting that Potter didn't even want the people making the thing to know exactly what Martin was.
I've always wished I could get a closer look at those illustrations in the book at the end. They appear to depict hideous, Fantasia-esque monsters floating through a fairy tale London, but I've never seen a decent print of the film so the illustrations have always just been spooky smudges. And the closing credits for the film just list the older man as "man," so no help there.
Can you tell I've been stewing over this film since 1990-something? I love it so much, I made it my first (and possibly only) Fanfare post!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:14 PM on June 25 [2 favorites]
We see Gordon Sumner here at the apex of his sinister powers, and if you only know him as the boring jazz-rock guy of the last 35 years or so, you're in for one hell of a shock.This description of Sting is still one of my all-time favorite disses..:
Sting was free to become what he is today: one-third spirit in the material world, two-thirds scented candle.But as Ursula Hitler points out.. he wasn't always like that. Or at least if he was, we didn't know it at the time.
posted by Nerd of the North at 9:17 PM on June 25 [1 favorite]
I get the feeling that the older man is someone Martin knows, but that he may not be wearing the same face Martin is used to seeing. Martin starts off very friendy, just pretending he knows the guy, and then once the man starts talking Martin shrinks back as if he's suddenly realizing who he's actually talking to. (Either that, or the man's sudden appearance was so unexpected that Martin simply failed to recognize him at first.) The man talks about them encountering each other two years ago but in some very different place, he seems to emphasize that. It plays like he's speaking in code to Martin, like every line has another meaning. As they're walking away together Martin just submits, he doesn't try to run, and the older man says something like, "Come, come, old man, we'll have none of that," suggesting to me that Martin may be weeping or is at least visibly distraught.
But that's how Martin pulled the con over on Mr. Bates - he put on a big act like he knew Mr. Bates, and was counting on Bates' own sense of politeness to just go along with it. If you think about it, most of us quietly panic when someone we don't recognize comes up to us and treats us like an old friend, and we have no idea who they are but most of us just play along. And now that he's got Mr. Bates off-center from the whole "Omigod I've met this guy but I can't remember where what if he finds out I forgot who he is oh no" that's when Martin further pushes him off-center by implying some kind of tragedy happened to him, and now Mr. Bates feels obligated to console him in some way ("Oh shit, he had something bad happen, I surely would be nice to him if I really did know him like he says I do, I'd better help").
So the man is doing exactly the same con to Martin. And with Martin he's got even more reason to panic - "Oh crap he's pulling my act on me - but hang on, what if I really DO know him?....Okay, but what if I don't?....Okay, lemme try pulling the crocodile tears, maybe that will help sort out this weird situation....okay, hang on, who's conning who here?"
I think the "two years ago" bit was just this other guy's angle in the con - when your mark doesn't seem to recognize you, you throw out a random number that was long enough ago that maybe they be all "oh, of course" while they're thinking "shit, what was I doing back then, maybe I do know this guy after all?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:26 AM on June 26
But that's how Martin pulled the con over on Mr. Bates - he put on a big act like he knew Mr. Bates, and was counting on Bates' own sense of politeness to just go along with it. If you think about it, most of us quietly panic when someone we don't recognize comes up to us and treats us like an old friend, and we have no idea who they are but most of us just play along. And now that he's got Mr. Bates off-center from the whole "Omigod I've met this guy but I can't remember where what if he finds out I forgot who he is oh no" that's when Martin further pushes him off-center by implying some kind of tragedy happened to him, and now Mr. Bates feels obligated to console him in some way ("Oh shit, he had something bad happen, I surely would be nice to him if I really did know him like he says I do, I'd better help").
So the man is doing exactly the same con to Martin. And with Martin he's got even more reason to panic - "Oh crap he's pulling my act on me - but hang on, what if I really DO know him?....Okay, but what if I don't?....Okay, lemme try pulling the crocodile tears, maybe that will help sort out this weird situation....okay, hang on, who's conning who here?"
I think the "two years ago" bit was just this other guy's angle in the con - when your mark doesn't seem to recognize you, you throw out a random number that was long enough ago that maybe they be all "oh, of course" while they're thinking "shit, what was I doing back then, maybe I do know this guy after all?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:26 AM on June 26
I believe that Alan Moore based his character John Constantine not just on Sting, but specifically on Sting's portrayal of Martin.
posted by Gelatin at 6:12 AM on June 26
posted by Gelatin at 6:12 AM on June 26
It's pretty obvious in Constantine's first few appearances, where he's definitely Sting in a trenchcoat. And it's a shame that Sting didn't get to play the character; between this, Lynch's Dune, and Quadrophenia, he made a decent gambit at crossing over into movies.
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:58 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:58 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
EmpressCallipygos beat me to it. I Burn For You is a fantastic song, and one of the most memorable things about this movie.
posted by wittgenstein at 9:40 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
posted by wittgenstein at 9:40 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
Oh, hee -
If you've never seen the music video for Sting's Spread a Little Happiness, it's sure a thing to see.
Years ago I saw some kind of Behind-the-Music style documentary/interview thing about Sting, and they ended by running the video - and at the very end, the camera cut to a clip of Sting watching that video on a TV, and then turning to give the camera a mock-horrified "what the fuck did I just see?" expression. (I think he was just starting to come out of his Lute Phase and was more willing to poke fun at himself.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:02 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
If you've never seen the music video for Sting's Spread a Little Happiness, it's sure a thing to see.
Years ago I saw some kind of Behind-the-Music style documentary/interview thing about Sting, and they ended by running the video - and at the very end, the camera cut to a clip of Sting watching that video on a TV, and then turning to give the camera a mock-horrified "what the fuck did I just see?" expression. (I think he was just starting to come out of his Lute Phase and was more willing to poke fun at himself.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:02 AM on June 26 [1 favorite]
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As for the man he meets at the end - I thought that was just the guy trying to pull the same kind of con on Martin that Martin had pulled on the Bates family, and he didn't know how to extricate himself now that the shoe's on the other foot.
...I encountered this through the soundtrack first, well before ever seeing the movie; I Burn For You is one HELL of a song (and I have some very, very pleasant associations with the re-do Sting did solo).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:06 PM on June 25 [4 favorites]