SEXY BEAST: A Cancerous Allegory
FILM4Jonathan Glazer's filmography is a rich thematic and multifaceted telling of the human body. Under The Skin broods on identity and on the sexualised hypnotic nature of the female form. This leading and often elusive skill in Scarlett Johansson's fabulous and career-turning performance as an extra-terrestrial being echoes a substantial and intrusive ideal on what the body holds in its projection and what it can conjure up in others. An undeniably relevant theme in today's current social culture. His sophomore effort, Birth, equally holds significant weight on this topic and the physical and psychological nature of the body and mind. It is presented in themes of reincarnation and the fragility and emotional devastation of what such a presence takes in our lives for it to disappear suddenly and explores what it is to feel that monstrous gap.
Nevertheless, his directorial debut, the often overlooked Sexy Beast, projects arguably the most sweeping and most poignant substance on the body in a cancerous allegory of its narrative. The film follows ex-safe breaker and now expat Gal, played by the underrated Ray Winstone, who in the midst of idyllic Spanish sunshine bliss is awoken to devastating and life-changing news that the ruthless Don Logan, played by the outstanding Ben Kingsley, is expecting to pay him a visit. Now, on the surface, Glazer's film already plays like a fabulous art house and subverts the expectation of the cops-and-robbers genre, but look closer and Glazer's subtext for the human body is surging. Deeper in the underbelly, Glazer's debut is a poignant and compelling story on the diagnosis, surviving, and ultimately remission of Cancer.
The audience is first introduced to Gal sunbathing underneath the scorching sky, his skin browns like leather, undoubtedly a conscious image of skin cancer and the perils of such constant need to tan. Leading quite staunchly to the arrival of humongous boulder that inexplicitly rolls down the hill behind Gal's villa to miss him by a hair and crash into his pool. In this visual metaphor, Glazer implements his cancer allegory as the boulder acts as a tumour; it grows and grows in its momentum down the banking to crash in meteoric scale into Gal’s life.
To closely inspect the boulder, Gal jumps into the pool, ultimately met with the arrival of his wife Deedee, played by the terrific Amanda Redman, playing the arrival of the boulder as a nonchalant happening, nothing of interest and a testament to the classical issues present in toxic masculinity. The ideal to not express or acknowledge a problem to secure and uphold the sanctity of masculinity is a running thread throughout this feature.
Gal, and even more importantly Winstone, is the epitome of British masculinity. He is a "hard as nails" and cult figure in terms of cockney swag – be it his performance in Alan Clarke's Scum or his gangster era of Martin Scorsese's The Departed and Malcolm Venville's 44" Chest. Nevertheless, as produced in Sexy Beast, Winstone has an undeniably effective range with a tender and emotionally open depth as in David M. Evans Our Boy, Fred Schepisi's Last Orders, and the tremendous career-defining performance in Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth. There is a seismic power and adept range of producing such rich adaptions on screen from Winstone. In particular, his utter perfection of the tender soft spouting self-acceptance of his characters pain – portrayed in a light manner of absorbing emotional weight. It is tender but damning in its oxymoronic existence into his fury of pain and anger presented in Clarke’s Scum, or Oldman’s Nil by Mouth. Features that unravel in self immolation on the emotional spectrum. It is not just loud and brash that Winstone can easily project but the wisdom of tender whisper.
His continuous crafting of Gal in Glazer's film further cements this motif in the perils and earth-shattering restaurant sequence in which Gal is told by the late Cavan Kendall's Aitch of the impending arrival of Don Logan. This scene acts as a diagnosis of Gal's cancer: Don Logan is undoubtedly the cancerous cell that acts as the caner throughout the film. However, Gal's reaction and those around him in their equal devastation is a testament and cinematic descriptor to the harrowing conversation that has to be said with such a diagnosis. Winstone's depth and range are shown with a marvellous internalised manifestation of instant grief and anger to the news.
The arrival and acceptance of such a news are tried to be managed. Nevertheless, it has engulfed Gal's life – from his wife to his friends. Constantly thrown under the rug, and Gal consistently trying to underwhelm and arguably internalise and process such news to not only his circle but himself. A reflection of dealing with internalised grief and the gripping reality of morality. With the impending announcement that Don (Cancer) is arriving, the emotional devastation is just the beginning with his diagnosis.
No coincidence signals Logan's arrival in the rock being removed from Gal's pool. The tumour has been taken out, but the cancerous cell still looms in the distance. In Don's arrival and his stay at Gal's villa, life is chaotic and frightening. Don's surge of emotional and intense bust-ups are elements of dealing and living with grief. The constant reprimanding and viciousness upon Gal and his circle are the cancerous hands tightening around his neck, suffocating and killing him slowly but surely. Moments of Don urinating on the carpet for no reason, or waking Gal and Deedee up with little explanation in emotional tantrums and bust-ups can be allocated to the unpredictable and terrifying nature of cancer spreading, encompassing, and taking over its host, as well as the impact of Cancer on the body.
However, Gal throughout chooses not to want to deal with the situation at hand regarding Don. He will not combat it with the seriousness that the situation in question is demanding. This is Glazer's interpretation of Gal's grief, his period of internalising the fear of his diagnosis, and in response, is unable to process the emotional torment that is swallowing him whole. Don's stay at Gal's villa and cancer dominating Gal’s crescendos in a fiery and explosive fashion in Don's demise by the hands of Gal's wife Deedee, after she shoots him. With the stress and dominating force in Don removed, and with Deedee helping Gal eradicate this force and its suffocation of Gal, he begins to see his life and the diagnosis.
Glazer then sharply cuts to Gal in London for the job Don originally came to Spain to ask him for his help with. Gal is a new man. He is more confident and still evasive for the contextual purposes of his and his wife's actions. Still, he stands firm, has his swagger and his voice back. His arrival in London, alone bare in mind, is Glazer's attempt to showcase Gal arriving for chemotherapy and hospitalisation. He arrives in London to do a job: that is, to get through and complete his chemo for full remission. He is hoping all goes well and there are no hiccups, just like the safecracking job. Both go hand in hand in their progression. If the job is a success, Gal goes back to Deedee and goes into complete remission. If he fails, he goes to prison – stays in London – and will succumb to his diagnosis, waiting for the inevitable end.
Gal and company do indeed succeed, but all is not rosy. Ted, played by the terrific Ian McShane, calls Gal's bluff on Don on a few occasions, but after the job's success, he drives Gal to a house just outside the airport where he is dropping him off for his travel to Spain. Ted showcases his ruthlessness by killing the third party organiser of the job, and in his car once again shows to Gal he knows what has happened without needing to know specifics. This is Glazer's more existential and mythical approach of using Ted as Gal's conscience. He speaks and shows Gal what he needs to hear from within himself – giving him an ultimatum and foreboding warning to go back to Spain and never come back. In essence, to go back to Deedee and live a better life, now free of his cancer diagnosis and that being back in London (the hospital) will be his doom.
Cue Gal back in Spain, floating in his pool soaking up the sun. Placed in the same position as he was at the beginning of the film. He looks over and becomes intoxicated with Deedee's presence. He understands he is home and that these are the moments he does not want to miss. In the film's final few minutes, it is revealed that Don's body is buried underneath the pool. Gal's cancer remains dormant. It lays in his home, in his lifeblood, and his body. It has regressed but lays permanently in the background, ready to be found again, ready to grow and take over Gal again – but only time will tell.
