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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
i.. disagree with your last shot evaluation. i definitely said “what was that about” but did not feel tricked or conned or cheated nor think now in retrospect that i was.
we’ve taken enough shrooms to get a whole vietnam platoon high. we’ve been already in psychedelic space for more than half the movie. we’ve talked about performance and the demon that has left them. we’ve swapped hair, roles, clothes, genders, everything. the whole foundation of the gangster genre has been shattered. i mean the narrative style of the beginning should suffice to show that, but it goes way beyond into a whole questioning of “reality”.
the gunshot? turner (turner! not a random name) offers himself rather than... the shot is... what the fuck is it? the head, opening like a tunnel? the randy newman lyrics? sure, shootin my supply through my demon’s eye could just be read in the ejaculate sense or maybe something else? i don’t think it’s a simple swap, i think it’s meant to be a lot more ambiguous and have you wonder. has the demon moved on/swapped heads? is chas going to his greatest performance having taken on turner’s demon? is chas doing a turner performance after turner did a chas performance?
also “persona” came way first, with psychoanalysis i stead of shrooms. it’s not a completely new thing it’s just more colorful. per so na per for mance
also this reminds me of the cortázar story, la noche boca arriba. lml @ translation... i can’t find it. roughly “the night lying prone” or something, great little short story. if “blow up” came from him i wonder if this text had some sort of influence here. i’d suspect it had, said or unsaid.
anyway it’s not that, was my point, it’s not a “trick”, it’s a larger mindfuck overall, which is why it’s fucking great. it’s really not reducible to explanations... but if it is i wouldn’t wanna.
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I think it was always meant to be a riddle but Cammell had constant interference from Warners while editing it and I think the final version we've all seen (and which I think is the only version we'll ever see) was full of holes.
Some rumours circulating about the actual shoot:
Mick and Anita were really at it in the sex scenes.
Keef apparently heard about this and had a one-night-stand with Marianne Faithful to get revenge.
Kenneth Anger was a constant presence on the set and was supposedly Jagger's inspiration for Turner.
William Burroughs was meant to play the judge
James Fox was in the midst of becoming a born again Christian and had a nervous breakdown straight after the film was finished.