Scent of a woman
Some things are so good that they can’t be defined, because defining them would just be an insult as the word that defines them limits them to itself, and negates it from being anything else.
“If you name me, you negate me. By giving me a name, a label, you negate all the other things I could possibly be.” — Søren Kierkegaard
I just saw something that can’t be defined. Have you seen the movie Scent of a woman? Have you felt the movie or have you just seen it? Or you didn’t have the pleasure yet?
Al Pacino, in yet another marvelous role of a blind old lonely guy retired army officer. A rebellious guy who got blinded during a grenade accident, despised by his family and so lonely that.. well let’s just go through it.
Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a blind retired army officers whose only two loves of life are women and a far distant ferrari. Colonel is displayed as a really hard, yet internally soft lonely guy who just craves a touch of loved one. He goes on a trip with his young friend Charlie around the New York City. He has been saving all his retirement check over the years to get a room at a really nice 5-star hotel, eat food at a 25$ Ham-Burger restaurant(umm, classy!!), goes to the oak room for having a great time, has sex with a woman(of course), and eventually has the plan of blowing his brains out the next morning. The plan is to have all sorts of pleasures of life one last time before he ends the struggle himself of life he has been facing in his lonely dark room.
The next morning, while assembling his guns with his blind eyes and dangling hands, fortunately, Charlie stops him and reminds the Colonel of his one last wish that is still unfulfilled, yes, The Ferrari Ride!
It's amazing how Colonel persuades the Ferrari salesmen to give his million-dollar Ferrari for a test drive to a blind man and a 17-year-old, still on a test driver’s license.
“I bet this boy of mine can drive the Ferrari so smooth that you can boil an egg on the engine…. I will peel the egg for you once we get back!”
The part that really stuck to me was this one.
The colonel has the gun in hand, loaded and Charlie is trying to stop him and then Colonel says this.
“I am bad Charlie, I am bad. NO! I am rotten…”
I am rotten…
I couldn't negate those words. The writers must have been fucking geniuses to write such amazing touching sentences and in the right context. The old lonely guy who has no reason or motivation to live calls himself rotten.
Charlie on the other hand just doesn’t want this old asshole to die like that. This old guy bought a ticket for him all the way from New Hampshire to New York, made him feel the comfort of a 5-star hotel, took him to amazing places and 25$ hamburger restaurants :), and yes, even tried to set him up with a girl whose face looks something similar to the girl I like :p.
What happened to Colonel Frank then? I am not gonna ruin that part for you of course. You have to find that out yourself if you don’t know already.
The best part is that the movie portrays the struggles of a person in real life in a very exaggerated manner. Just like I said, it can’t be defined in words, you gotta go and watch it for yourself.
Rajat Upadhyay
Tareeef karu kya uskii, jisnnee tumhe banayaa!!
