So I watched The Equalizer with Denzel Washington in it last night and I was struck by this particular scene: (Warning, bad language) The way the screen writer's managed to convey violence without actually showing the violent action, made me think...how many times have I over-thought or over embellished a scene trying to be clever? When it is really the clever writer who can paint a picture using the fewest strokes.
So he brought the bloody hammer all the way back to the store, then only wiped it off right before putting it back on the shelf? But yeah, some things are best left to the audience's imagination. It's useful here because the archetype of Avenger Normie is so well established that watching him bludgeon a small time (and entirely incompetent) armed robber might not be so satisfying. At the same time, it's so scared to let the viewer be disappointed in the hero for letting Bad Man get away that it needs to highlight the child coming into the store, which IMO weakens an otherwise pretty good scene.
I bet he wiped the blood at the scene and was wiping the fingerprints off as he returned it to the shelf. Of course, he works there so his fingerprints would be explainable. And then there's the ring that would have been reported missing and then back on her finger. And the guy being found dead immediately after robbing a hardware store full of blunt murder weapons with Denzel leaving in the middle of the day. But, hey, drama!
I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, because the fingerprint thing makes sense, but no (see shot in the spoiler). Unless there was some prior tomato sauce or red paint on the rag coincidentally, or he cleans up with a miniature Japanese flag, dude was less than subtle with his subtlety. Spoiler: THE BEANS
Yep, good movie. I really liked how inventive the hardware store showdown was. I'm just nitpicking; lots of great movies have their own fridge logic.
I just appreciated the way the screenwriters pulled off having him take a hammer off the rack, then wiping it off and putting it back on the rack. In just a few motions, you know what went down without them directly showing the violence. It was reminiscent of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell when the antagonist and protagonist finally have a show down, the antagonist says one will be fed to the dogs, the other will sleep in the bed. The story ends by simply saying the protagonist slept comfortably that night.
It's very often that the worst bits of violence are in the viewers own imagination. That's an important tool to use. Reminds me of the scissors suicide in The Dead Zone. You only get to see the character moving his own head towards the fixed in placed scissors, mouth gaping. But lord, the imagined brutality of trying to get a scissors slowly through your own skull sticks with me. Just ick. Good work writers and director.
