The Brutalist2024

“The Soviets have helped us relocate to a nearby shelter for displaced persons near Vas. They encourage us to ‘enjoy our freedoms,’ but I am reminded of Goethe; ‘None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe themselves free!’ I make no mistake, we are not yet free.” The Brutalist stands as a thorough condemnation of America and Harrison Lee Van Buren as a personification of it. This film is precisely crafted and as beautifully constructed as the works built by László within it. Every moment from the overture to the final credits is made perfectly, never compromising its vision.  “They are not so beautiful.” I feel like many people are having a similar awakening to what László and his wife Erzsébet go through. When you are young and new, America seems like “the land of opportunity,” but as you get older and as the times get stranger and harder to ignore, you see all the corruption and how widespread it is. How the powers that be are determined to place their fingers around every aspect of your life and brutally strangle all and every aspect of joy from it, “And all that was once green and good in this world will be gone.”  “The people here, they do not want us here. Audrey, Attila’s Catholic wife DOES NOT WANT US HERE. We are nothing. Worse than nothing.” I struggle to analyze art. Much of the time I simply look at the pretty pictures in slack-jawed awe and wish that I could create something with a fraction of the beauty as what I consistently behold and adore. But even in this film, its message is clear, and overall it is not a pleasant one. It leaves me wondering “what can I do?” I would almost consider this movie the antithesis of something like “Schindler’s List,” a story of how much good one righteous man in power can do, but in the end, its message is the same— “no matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.”