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DILLON ON FILM
The Pledge: 25 Years On
Jack Nicholson’s obsessed ex-detective ranks as one of his best performances in Sean Penn’s riveting thriller
Warning: Contains spoilers
When I first saw The Pledge (2001) in the cinema, I was blown away. Yet, as I walked out afterwards, one individual behind me muttered to his companion: “Well, that was a waste of time. You didn’t even find out who the killer was.” I had to physically restrain myself from turning to this complete stranger and expressing incredulity at his remark. Talk about missing the entire point of the film. This wasn’t an Agatha Christie-style whodunnit. The identity of the killer in Sean Penn’s superb adaptation of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s novella is absolutely and emphatically irrelevant.
Personality, temperament, and other factors come into play when determining whether one appreciates a film such as The Pledge. Perhaps it doesn’t have broad appeal in the traditional sense. Still, I’d expect any reasonably intelligent person to grasp what the film is trying to do. The lack of a reveal for the killer isn’t an obfuscation designed to enrage those who can’t abide ambiguity. As an aside, ambiguity can work well in certain stories, but that’s a different discussion (click here for more of my thoughts on that…
