Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Deadwood 3.1 & 3.2

Every day takes figuring out all over again how to fuckin' live.
I just started watching Deadwood Season 3 on the DVD and this quote from Calamity Jane seems to be at the heart of Milch's view of the human condition. It's a wisdom that comes from those familiar with sociopaths, drug addicts, religious fanatics, philosophers, and poets. Folks without structure, logic, or discipline to give their lives shape and meaning. In these early episodes, existence itself is exhausting and burdensome.

On the flip side you have Hearst whose notion of remodeling the Grand Hotel is to knock holes in the wall. He has limitless wealth and power, as well as a talent for "the color", but he is a barbarian. Worse even than Swearengen. Everything he does is brutal and violent. Rape the land and murder the people, all in the name of gold. The de-constructed hotel is the symbol for how he thinks about the world.

As for our dear friend, Albert Swearengen, he's still putting his rob or be robbed philosophy to surprisingly good use. Al serves the collective more and more through subterfuge (tropes and gambits) than through the brute force of earlier days. And is still trying to teach the so-called good guy Bullock how not to be undone by his own sense of separateness, petty personal concerns, and his uncontrollable temper. "We are all of the body," as the seizure afflicted preacher said in Season 1.

By the end of episode two, Al has paid a penalty for playing Hearst's little game. We'll see what happens next.