Perhaps if you have seen director Craig Brewer's 2005 film "Hustle & Flow", which also uses Memphis music as the soul of the film, you will understand the weirdness and depth of "Black Snake Moan" (the title of the film). It is also based on a blues song of the same name in the 1920s). Like "River and Row", Craig Brewer once again uses a very special perspective to describe the lives of a group of marginalized people. "Busty River" not only vividly describes a pimp's "American Dream", but also made a rap rhythm "Pimp Song" popular on the Oscar stage, and finally won the "Best Original Song". In "The Moan of the Black Snake", it is replaced by the classic, slow-rocking blues, an old singer Lazarus who has retired from the stage for many years, was abandoned by his wife, and believes in Christ.
Lazarus, played by Samuel L. Jackson, no longer has a hint of domineering. His gray beard covers his vicissitudes of life, and there is only a hint of air in his eyes. After his wife left him, his attitude towards life was almost cold, and he was confined to a farm on the outskirts of the city. Until one day, he found a dying, almost naked young woman beaten on the path in front of his house.
Lazarus may be too closed, and it is not known that the woman he rescued, Rae, is actually a famous nympho here. Her desire for sex seems to be an almost perverted madness, so much so that as soon as her boyfriend leaves the house, she can't wait to come to the town's bar and arouse her desire with alcoholic intoxication. And Lazarus also gradually discovered that there are not only blue and red scars on Rae's face, but also the uncontrollable compulsion and childhood pain. Having just been ruthlessly crushed by life, he longs to use his faith in God to redeem Rae from the sea of misery. So, in order not to bear to see Rae's perversions turn into madness again and again, he took out a steel cable and tied her to the house like a watchdog outside the house...
Of course, this isn't a horribly sadistic film. Sex also doesn't exist between two people in a room alone: Rae's madness makes her crave any man, and Lazarus, who has been raped by his wife, needs restraint. Maybe the extreme way of chaining is difficult for many people to accept, but it is strange - and what makes the film so full of tension - the atmosphere of two people who also need to be rescued souls together makes this scene so shocking and profound . Rae's desire needs to be "materialized" by the iron chain at this time, as if he is forced to be in a cage due to drug addiction, and he cannot escape. At the same time, redeeming others also enables Lazarus to redeem himself. He began to accept life, and finally picked up the guitar that had been dusty for many years, and sang the soothing "Black Snake Moan", arousing the resonance of one old and one young, two lonely hearts.
If that icy chain is the struggle necessary to get through hell, blues music here is the pain reliever to soothe the struggle. All desire and depression, all violence and coercion, all dark history and lonely depression, all melted into water when the acoustic guitar was played. In other words, the music in this film is the audible "Bible", filling the silence and loss, and saving two marginalized people.
Moaning of the Black Snake is intense, soothing, mysterious, and unique. With a chain and a guitar to redeem the soul, I have never seen a movie of this type. Christina Ricci sensually and indulges Rae on the outside and inside. Samuel L. Jackson once said it was his best movie performance to date. Maybe, except Pulp Fiction, yes. I can't seem to see his familiar appearance, just waiting for him to pick up the guitar. When the powerful music played, I seemed to be melted too.
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