2011_5_12 The End of the Wallander Saga
In THE TROUBLED MAN Kurt Wallander, Henning Mankell’s chief detective and ace investigator, is up against a clever Navy man, a retired commander of submarines that prowled the depths of the Baltic Sea. Interwoven with this spy story and contest between wits and wills, is a lot of personal stuff dealing with Wallander: his relationship with his daughter, Linda, and Klara her baby, his first grandchild; his long-lost girl friend from Latvia who is dying of cancer; his contact with old friends and associates who help him with his case; and his neurotic preoccupation with growing old and worrying glimpses of frightening mental deterioration. He’s only 60 but he talks like he is older than that, plus the thought of death unhinges him often. He’s concerned about mental lapses, short blackouts, and persistent problems with his memory. The anxiety that these concerns bring on keeps him, when he is away from work, in a state of debilitating gloom. Living alone is no help, so he gets a dog for company. These are all traits that have been present all along with the man, but things seem more acute and moving toward a crescendo of some kind. Only when he is involved with a case do his faculties brighten and come into play and he becomes proactive, energized, moving forward and less subject to the Blues.
Wallander’s introduction to the Commander is at his 75th birthday party at his home. The two men, neither feeling very social, retreat to his study, at which time the Commander, whose name is Hanak von Enke, relates unsolicited a story about a trapped foreign submarine back in 1980, while the Cold War was still with us, that has bugged him over the years, disturbed him because he has never gotten an explanation from higher ups what happened and why it happened. Wallander doesn’t understand why his telling him about this incident but he listen and tries to remember all the details. The Commander had the sub in a position where it could not get away without detection; it was in Swedish waters and he was about to force it to surface so they find out who dares snoop in Swedish waters. But suddenly he receives word from Command Center to back off. He questions the order but they tell him to just do it and of course he obeys the command and sub gets away. Wallander notices that he seems rather nervous while he relates these events, as if he was in danger for some reason. He also catches a glimpse of a man outside under a streetlight. Could it be the house was under surveillance? The next day Hanak von Enke disappears while he is taking his morning walk. Foul play is suspected, but no body has shown up. A few weeks later his wife, Louise, also disappears and her disappearance is equally perplexing. However, a short time later her body is found in some bushes and some classified material is found in her purse in a secret compartment. The verdict is she committed suicide because sleeping pills are found at the scene. The scene doesn’t smell right to Wallander but those papers in her purse force him to consider the idea that she could have been the Russian spy. Her suspects murder but he has to wait to find out how it was accomplished.
The story of the mysterious sub back in 1980 is more a diversionary tactic than anything else to throw Wallander off the scent. Von Enke knew damn well whose sub that was and it wasn’t the Soviets. As for Wallander, as he gets sucked into the case and the more he finds out the more things are not what they seem, but he can’t quite put his finger on what is going on. But when one of the Commander’s best friends mentions a tiny island off the coast of Ystad and that anyone could disappear there and never be found. The remark was innocent but Wallander decides to check it out and sure enough the Commander is living in a cottage on the island. Another long conversation ensues. When Wallander mentions the documents found in his wife’s purse Hanak launches into a long explanation about he has suspected her for a long time. He goes into detail about his suspicions. Wallander is close to being persuaded. Hanak advises him to se a CIA Agent in Berlin named George Talboth.
Talboth, a slick 72-year-old ex-operative, backs Hanak’s story about suspecting Louise as the Russian spy. He said for years they had tried to find a female but never turned one up. But on the way back to Sweden the detective had one of his flashes, where he sees the true nature of the case. He understand he has been barking up the wrong tree, so he goes back to the island, only this time he takes Hanak’s best friend with him, a man named Sten Norlander, who he stations outside the cottage. So Kurt confronts him with his new theory. He tells the Commander the submarine wasn’t Russian; it was American and he has been a spy for them for many years because he probably felt Sweden would need the protection of the most powerful nation on earth in case of a Soviet incursion. As for Louise’s death it was murder. An ex-member of Stasi in East Germany had told him they developed a kind of poison that could be put in sleeping pills and could not be detected. It was used when they eliminated someone and they wanted it to look like suicide. He probably instructed the CIA to take care of his wife. As we all know spying is a ruthless business. Hanak went to the fridge to get a beer but when he turned around he had a gun. Before Wallander could respond he puts it in his mouth and fires. But the bullet only goes through his mouth and cheek. At this point Sten has entered the cottage. Kurt tells him to keep pressure on the wound and he’ll get help, but he hears two gunshots before he reaches his boat. He runs back and finds Sten, who had heard everything, had shot his best friend in the forehead and turned the gun on himself. End of story.
When the bodies were found there was nothing there to indicate Wallander’s presence in the room. After all he was there while he was actually on vacation. No one would expect him to be there. He spent the next 8 months putting together his final thoughts on the case. It ended up being 212 pages and he mailed it to the detective in charge of the case, who had become a friend. He didn’t sign it but he’d know who wrote it. Otherwise he saw Linda a lot and delighted in his new granddaughter. He was also aware that he was slipping toward darkness; all the symptoms were growing more intense and more frequent. Eventually Alzheimer has its way with him. He lived on to 70 but he was no longer the Kurt Wallander we had all come to know and appreciate.
I suppose Alzheimer fits with his depressive personality, but even so I wish he could have gone out in a gunfight or by a heart attack while playing with Klara out in the garden, like Brando in “The Godfather.” On the other hand I knew what was coming, as there are plenty of indications how he was going to turn out. He will be missed.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Saturday, May 7, 2011
You Can Go home Again
2011_5_05 You Can Go Home Again
Peter Weir made one of my favorite thrillers, “Witness.” He has a reputation of being one of the best directors to come from Australia. But he hasn’t made a movie in seven years. His ‘comeback’ choice for a movie was a script based on a fantastic true story, a prison break followed by a long trek home. However, this was no garden-variety escape from prison; this prison was a Gulag, one of 450 concentration camps that Joe Stalin had built in Soviet Siberia, and the long trek home was a 4000 mile walk through formidable and punishing environments. A small band of multinational prisoners manage to escape in the middle of winter and begin a walk in a southerly direction and with no compass to guide them. The title of the movie says it all, “The Way Back.” The subtitle could be “Absolute Determination.”
The journey began in 1941. After fleeing the guards and dogs they first had to walk through the frozen forests of Siberia; then negotiate Mongolia and the Gobi Desert; and then, last but not least, they had to cross Tibet and the Himalayas, finally ending up in Darjeeling in Northern India.
The natural leader of the group was a young Polish officer named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) who was in the Gulag because his wife was tortured and forced to say he was a spy. He knew how to survive in the wilds and his will to survive was an example to the others, who were more inclined to give in to starvation and exhaustion. There was an older American in the group they called “Mister” (Ed Harris) and a Russian criminal, Valka (Colin Farrell), the only man in the band who possessed a knife, a weapon and tool that would come in handy during their journey. Another Russian was an artist who recorded their journey with drawings all along the way south. A Russian teenager who started with the group was lost in a blinding snowstorm and froze to death. A young Polish girl, Irena (Saoirse Ronan), was picked up along the way. Mister thinks they should leave her, for she would be a liability to the group, but he ends up having very fatherly feelings toward her. She made it as far as halfway across the Gobi Desert where her frailness was no longer equal to the task and she dies. Valka had left the band early on, once they are out of Siberia. He wanted to return to Mother Russia and had decided to take his chances there. He was quite a character as well as being ruthless inside the Gulag. His body is covered with tattoos, including a large picture of Stalin on his chest. He nearly kills one of his fellow travelers who spoke ill of the dictator. Valka said Stalin robs the rich and gives to the poor, which was a rather naive view of the Soviet tyrant. Farrell plays him with steely-eyed intensity and with a touch of madness.
Naturally, food and water were always in short supply. The band ate bugs, sucked on tree bark, enjoyed snake meat, and once even feasted on a deer. Their clothes were in tatters by the end of their ‘long march.’ Their shoes were pitiful, the cause of bloody toes, which was a constant problem for everyone.
One thing my wife appreciated in the story was the least hint of lust after Irena joined the band. She was treated as one of the group, period. But they are all saddened by her death. Sex was the last thing on the men’s minds; it was a luxury no one could afford.
My wife saw the movie with me right after she had watched “Survivor” on CBS TV. As a result the movie grabbed her emotionally right away. She was attentive all the way and in tears a couple of times. I could not resist teasing her a bit about survival as a parlor game played by scantily clad young women and young six pack males on a tropical Island while all of them struggle for the big bucks at the end of the rainbow, as opposed the reality of survival as the real thing, an honest-to-god life or death struggle, as “The Way Back” exemplified and illustrated.
Peter Weir made one of my favorite thrillers, “Witness.” He has a reputation of being one of the best directors to come from Australia. But he hasn’t made a movie in seven years. His ‘comeback’ choice for a movie was a script based on a fantastic true story, a prison break followed by a long trek home. However, this was no garden-variety escape from prison; this prison was a Gulag, one of 450 concentration camps that Joe Stalin had built in Soviet Siberia, and the long trek home was a 4000 mile walk through formidable and punishing environments. A small band of multinational prisoners manage to escape in the middle of winter and begin a walk in a southerly direction and with no compass to guide them. The title of the movie says it all, “The Way Back.” The subtitle could be “Absolute Determination.”
The journey began in 1941. After fleeing the guards and dogs they first had to walk through the frozen forests of Siberia; then negotiate Mongolia and the Gobi Desert; and then, last but not least, they had to cross Tibet and the Himalayas, finally ending up in Darjeeling in Northern India.
The natural leader of the group was a young Polish officer named Janusz (Jim Sturgess) who was in the Gulag because his wife was tortured and forced to say he was a spy. He knew how to survive in the wilds and his will to survive was an example to the others, who were more inclined to give in to starvation and exhaustion. There was an older American in the group they called “Mister” (Ed Harris) and a Russian criminal, Valka (Colin Farrell), the only man in the band who possessed a knife, a weapon and tool that would come in handy during their journey. Another Russian was an artist who recorded their journey with drawings all along the way south. A Russian teenager who started with the group was lost in a blinding snowstorm and froze to death. A young Polish girl, Irena (Saoirse Ronan), was picked up along the way. Mister thinks they should leave her, for she would be a liability to the group, but he ends up having very fatherly feelings toward her. She made it as far as halfway across the Gobi Desert where her frailness was no longer equal to the task and she dies. Valka had left the band early on, once they are out of Siberia. He wanted to return to Mother Russia and had decided to take his chances there. He was quite a character as well as being ruthless inside the Gulag. His body is covered with tattoos, including a large picture of Stalin on his chest. He nearly kills one of his fellow travelers who spoke ill of the dictator. Valka said Stalin robs the rich and gives to the poor, which was a rather naive view of the Soviet tyrant. Farrell plays him with steely-eyed intensity and with a touch of madness.
Naturally, food and water were always in short supply. The band ate bugs, sucked on tree bark, enjoyed snake meat, and once even feasted on a deer. Their clothes were in tatters by the end of their ‘long march.’ Their shoes were pitiful, the cause of bloody toes, which was a constant problem for everyone.
One thing my wife appreciated in the story was the least hint of lust after Irena joined the band. She was treated as one of the group, period. But they are all saddened by her death. Sex was the last thing on the men’s minds; it was a luxury no one could afford.
My wife saw the movie with me right after she had watched “Survivor” on CBS TV. As a result the movie grabbed her emotionally right away. She was attentive all the way and in tears a couple of times. I could not resist teasing her a bit about survival as a parlor game played by scantily clad young women and young six pack males on a tropical Island while all of them struggle for the big bucks at the end of the rainbow, as opposed the reality of survival as the real thing, an honest-to-god life or death struggle, as “The Way Back” exemplified and illustrated.
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