The Sunset Limited

We open upon the subways. The lighting is dim, the color is vivid and crisp. Then, screaming by, runs the Sunset Limited (a train). Now we're in a dingy apartment and the expressionistic face of a balding, placid Samuel L. Jackson is before us. Fetishistic cuts to ornaments of furniture across the room inhabit the opening of The Sunset Limited. It is the second great film directed by Tommy Lee Jones. Jones and Jackson act in the film as 'Black' and 'White'. It is based on the play by Cormac McCarthy, and he has not only adapted the film for the silver screen, but has also worked with the actors: conveying his vision. The film was made in Santa Fe, but you wouldn't know it from the lurid indoors. Here, with The Sunset Limited we have a sort of modern My Dinner with Andre. That film was trenchantly concerned with the human condition and how that can be conveyed through conversation. So is this film. But the The Sunset Limited has a triumvirate of greats working on it. It reminded me of The Big Sleep in the way that it was fortunate enough to have multiple greats working on it. McCarthy is one of the best living writers, and that's a small party. The film is fetishistic in its camerawork, unsettling at times, truthful enough to be disconcerting, and provocative. McCarthy has written dialogue so beautiful and melancholy, and it is so well conveyed by actors Jones and Jackson that an excellent film has been constructed. To describe any bit of the film's dialogue would be silly, for I could in no way, shape, or form describe what was put so perfectly. It's a masterpiece, and the first great film of 2011.
The Sunset Limited: ★★★★