Our film discussion group watched The Royal Tenenbaums, our third Wes Anderson film. We had a good size group, which was fun. We discussed some of the themes that are common to Anderson's films:
- odd friendships
- reconciliation
- a drive to accomplish something
One of the odd friendships in this film was between Royal Tenenbaum, played by Gene Hackman, and Pagoda, played by Kumar Pallana. Just as a side note, Pallana got his start in Wes Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket, and has since been in all of them except for The Life Aquatic. The story goes that he used to own a coffee shop where Anderson and Owen Wilson hung out.
Anyway, in the film we find out that Royal met Pagoda at a Bazaar in Calcutta. Pagoda stabbed him, but then decided to rescue him. They apparently had been together ever since. At one point in the movie, when everything has basically gone wrong, Pagoda stabs him again. "That’s the last time I get knifed by you! You hear me?" are Royal's words as Pagoda helps him up and into a waiting cab. What is it that draws these two together? Why are mismatched friednships such as this so intriguing?
I really appreciated an observation that Travis, a guy in our group, made about the end of the film. Royal finally passes away and his epitaph reads as follows:
Died tragically rescuing his family from the wreckage of a destroyed sinking battleship.
My first reaction to that was laughter at such an outrageously untrue statement. If you think about it, however, that is essentially what Royal accomplished. His family was on a destroyed sinking battleship of sorts. None of them had seen each other for years and all of their lives (with the exception, maybe, of Etheline) were in a shambles. Though Royal's motives were certainly not pure to begin with he was able to change all that.
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