Buckner 1 Graham Buckner Caruso English 1101 10-25-2011 Revolver: A Story About the Ego The primary purpose

of Guy Ritchie's Revolver is different than what its genre would be classified. Its genre is an action/adventure film, and it fulfills its genre quite well. However the purpose of the movie is to do much more than to simply entertain. The film digs deeper than many people are willing to dig in a motion picture and scrutinizes a very specific and important fact. The exciting action/mystery film Revolver by Guy Ritchie is a movie about how the ego (part of the subconcious brain) is in fact a con man inside every one of us. The ego tells us what we should say, when we should say it, how to act, and what to do to gain the approval of others. This quote from the movie exemplifies the qualities of the ego. As Jake Green steps into a road, he has an epiphany, and as he states this monolouge about the ego he is hit by a car and flys through the winshield. There is something about yourself that you don't know. Something that you will deny even exists until it's too late to do anything about it. It's the only reason you get up in the morning, the only reason you suffer the shitty boss, the blood, the sweat and the tears. This is because you want people to know how good, attractive, generous, funny, wild and clever you really are. 'Fear or revere me, but please think I'm special.' We share an addiction. We're approval junkies. We're all in it for the slap on the back and the gold watch. The 'hip, hip, hoo-fucking-rah.' Look at the clever boy with the badge, polishing his trophy. Shine on, you crazy diamond. Cos we're just monkeys wrapped in suits, begging for the approval of others. (Jake Green, Revolver). After the monolouge time rewinds and he answers his phone before stepping into the street, never getting hit by the car. Revolver is about a man named Jake Green who is just getting out of a seven year prison

Buckner 2 sentence that he served in a supermax facility (this means he was basically in solitary confinment). He had a cell between two other inmates, one was a master conman and the other was a chess master. They would communicate by writing passages and codes in books back and forth between cells. Jake would receive the books as well, and he got to know the two men quite well, however he never meets them. The two men are looking for the secret to a perfect con that can be used to win anything in life. They plan to break out and promise to take Jake with them, but the next day, they have disappeared without a trace. They cleaned Jake out, took all his money, everything he had. However Jake still had the recipe for the perfect con and he uses it to win millions off of a racketeering casino owner, Mr. Macha- the man responsible for Jake's incarceration. Macha sends hitmen to take out Jake but a mysterious man saves him several times and seems to know things that he couldn't have known about Jake and the future. The man takes Jake to his partner, a black man named Avi, played by Andre 3000. He tells Jake that he will die of a rare internal disease if Jake doesn't do exactly what the two men say. He has to give them all of his money, which they loan out (they are loansharks), and he must work for them, for free. He checks with the hospital and realizes that what the men say is true, but he doesn't understand how complying with them will save him. Reluctantly he agrees to work with the men. Throughout the film the trio steals cocaine and money and more from Macha. The cocaine they stole was loaned to Macha by a mysterious man known as Sam Gold. This is where things get important. You never see Sam Gold, he never meets with anyone face-to-face. Sam Gold is the king of this world of crime and racketeering and he plays no games. As Macha freaks out about the possible reciprocations of losing Sam Gold's powder his men go to the competition to try and get more cocaine. They reluctantly agree on a deal, twice the regular price because they are rival gangs. Avi, his partner, and Jake steal the money and the cocaine from the next deal and leaves Macha and the rival gangsters thinking that they were set up by each other. They eventually find out that Jake Green was again responsible for Macha's loss, but at this point Macha has eliminated their competitors.

Buckner 3 He again sends Sorter, his top hit man, after Green. In one powerful scene, Sorter turns on Macha's men while they are brutaly torturing a man and preparing to set him afire in front of his little girl. This quote is a great example of how Sorter masters his ego by turning on Macha's men when he knows he is doing something wrong. He shoots the closest of the men, then knowing that a gunfight was soon coming, leans down to the frightened little girl and says with a stutter Li-lis-listen. I want you to go get back into the cuppord and put your fingers in your ears and this will all be over before you know it. This is just a little game that the adults play. (Sorter, Revolver). The scene where the true intentions of the movie are displayed begins with Avi, his partner, and Green shooting golf balls off the top of a skyscraper. Throughout the film Jake Green narrates his thoughts, or what he believes to be his thoughts, without speaking. Avi says something puzzling to Jake and you hear the farmiliar voice of the narrator saying quit playing games with my head but it is interrupted by Avi saying out loud is it me thats playing games with you Jake? He continues to say several quotes that highlight the importance of how the ego is not really who we are, or who we want to be, but a trickster that tells us how to act so that we may have the approval of others. The greatest con he [the ego] ever pulled, was making you believe that he is you. He continues to elaborate on Sam Gold's identity: Do you know who Sam Gold is Jake? He's all up here (points to his head). Sam Gold is the ego of Jake Green. Avi and Jake then play a game of chess inside Macha's casino. Avi asks Jake to explain why throughout the movie Jake is able to beat him repeatedly in chess. He tells them about the perfect con and how it works. The art says Green is for me to feed pieces to you, and then make you think that you took those pieces, because you're smarter, and I'm dumber. Avi makes a few moves where his pieces are repeatedly taken by Green, then somehow puts him in checkmate, revealing then that he was the chessmaster beside his cell and the other man was the master conman. The entire charade of chess games was to show Green that Avi had indeed been feeding pieces to him, because you're smarter, and

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I'm dumber. Avi tells Green that he has an appointment and that he shouldn't be late. Green had an appointment with Macha, as Sam Gold. More importantly, he had a personal appointment with Sam Gold, to free himself of his ego. This is hard for Jake, for he is having trouble separating himself from his ego, he thought throughout his life that they were one, and now he must recognize what his ego wants him to do, and do the opposite. In a brilliantly done scene where you see Jake arguing with his ego, he wakes Macha up, gun in hand (the ego was responsible for the gun). He apologizes to Macha for outwitting him, he gets on his knees by Macha's feet and says I realize now that you are a man to be feared and respected. He gets on the elevator to leave and Macha stops it, furious that Jake would appear in his bedroom with a loaded gun. Green has an immense fear of elevators, but was it him, or his ego that didn't like being trapped? They go back and forth, his ego absolutely furious in the way that Jake is acting. His ego yells things like You wanna get ridda me do ya?! DO YA!? He shoots himself. But the ego was playing more games. He wasn't gone yet. With authority Jake tells his ego You're not the boss of me. I control you. I control you. His ego disappears. The elevator continues to move, then opens and Macha has a gun up to Green. He is histerical. He wants to see the fear in Jake's face, but Jake is calm. Jake is free of his ego, he is free and serene, he is at peace with himself. Macha breaks down sobbing and snarling as he is not feared by Jake. In the credits they have several psychologists talk about how indeed the ego is a trickster and a conman to ourselves. Macha plays the victim of the ego. He never realizes that his ego is not himself, and he lets his ego become the best of him. Jake walks right past him, a new man. This is the true purpose of this movie. To make people understand the importance of freeing themselves of their egos- or in the least, realize and understand that the ego is not our true identity. That voice in our heads that says I should buy these clothes simply because they are expensive. My friends will be impressed by how expensive my clothes are, they will love my hair, they will laugh if I tell this joke. That is our ego, not who we really are. This movie fulfills that purpose better than any psychology class ever will.