BLOOD MONEY
US, 2017, 100 minutes, Colour.
Ellar Coltrane, Willa Fitzgerald, Jacob Artist, John Cusack, Ned Bellamy.
Directed by Lucky McKee.
Blood Money is a contemporary moral/immoral story about the finding of treasure, bags of cash, and greed. It may remind audiences of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which seems to be the intention.
The focus is on three young adults, friends from the past, going on a wilderness excursion. The initial sequence is a happy, tracking, on the river. During the camping, some tensions arise, especially in the relationships. Ellar Coltrane (the young star of Boyhood) is in an ordinary job, satisfied with his life, still in love with school sweetheart, Lynn (Willa Fitzgerald). She is in a relationship with Jeff (Jacob Artist from Glee) who come from a rich family.
The film opens with Lynn and a threat and goes into flashback, especially the helicopter, the dropping of the money, Miller (John Cusack) parachuting out and then searching for the money, eventually pursuing the threesome.
Lynn’s character turns more obnoxious as the film goes on, greedy for the money, unscrupulous with Jeff, Victor not wanting to be part of the theft but wanting to help Lynn. Ultimately, a pessimistic ending.
More or less a routine action adventure.
- The title? The origins of the money? Miller and his taking the money, dropping it, the search for it? The three finding it, the different reactions, the consequences, violence and death? Greed?
- The settings, the wilderness, forests, rivers and rapids? The musical score? The tunnel, the silos?
- The introduction to the three characters, exhilaration, friendship from the past, Victor, his love for Lynn? Friendship with Jeff? Through the forest, on the river, the rapids, camping, happy moments, clashing, Jeff and Lynn?
- The finding of the money, the consequences? Lynn wanting it for herself? Victor and his not wanting the money? Jeff and his rich family background, supporting Lynn and her scholarship? The clash between them?
- The helicopter, the dropping of the money, the crash? Miller parachuting? The encounter with the three? The touch of menace? Victor encountering, the conversation, cigarettes? The nature of the money? Miller and his advice and talk for Victor, especially about relationships?
- Victor, returning to his friends, canoeing, Jeff and the knot, losing the bag with $2 million? Lynn and are becoming more obsessive, aggressive? Jeff’s rash directions, passing the crowd on the beach? Stranded?
- The confrontation with Miller, guns, the escape? Going to the tunnel? The dark, the length, the branches blocking the exit? Miller, his search, the other end?
- The confrontation in the tunnel, (and the prologue of the film)? The focus on Lynn, her defiance, antipathy towards Miller? Jeff, in the tunnel, Victor, being shot? Lynn and the shooting of Miller? Getting out of the tunnel – to where?
